Summer language study - Any advice?

This might not be a popular recommendation but If i were coming to China for the first time to learn Chinese I would come to any City, go to the language department of a university and either post an advert on the wall or answer the ads already on the wall for teachers. Then get a cheap teacher to teach you one on one every day for a few hours. I could help you out in Shanghai no problem. message me if you want.

There are several places where you can study Chinese over the summer in Qingdao. Although many people despise the Shandong accent, most people in the city speak Mandarin. I have participated two years in a program sponsored by OSU/University of Mississippi, and they were both very beneficial. Be prepared to do a lot of writing if you consider the program. From my experience, try to study in a city where there are fewer foreigners who speak your native language (Beijing, Shanghai, etc.). Think about a place like Harbin, Tianjin, or Qingdao. Programs are often what you make of them, but a full immersion experience can really enrich your experience. P.S.- You can also get fresh seafood and Qingdao Beer wherever you go.

I would naturally suggest the same school as lavandez, just because Chengdu is such a great place with great food. However, if you want to practice and be surrounded by a Chinese that is more standard, then the Beijing area is much more recommendable. One of my early frustrations to learn Mandarin in Chengdu is, that nobody speaks it. What you hear in the streets, restaurants, markets is plain and pure and wonderful Sichuan hua. Even if they speak fairly reasonable Mandarin, they will still have trouble getting tones and the sh and s, and zh and z, and ch an c sounds right. This is very confusing for beginners and lower intermediates

Also, the food in Chengu is wonderfully hot and spicy! So probably it should not be your first choice

You should not rule out programs in Taiwan. I recently visited Taipei and I was amazed at how clear their Mandarin was. Even listening to the radio I could pick out words because it seems to be spoken more slowly and distinctly. I always have a difficult time in mainland China understanding what is said because of their pronunciation and Wildyaks is correct about sh/s, zh/z, and ch/c. And Beijing "r" may be standard, but very difficult to understand. Good luck with your search. I will also be curious about the answers to this post.

How about Tianjin? I guess the language there should be closer to standard Mandarin, and probably not as touristy as Beijing or Shanghai (don't really know, never been there). The iMandarinPod.com website which is geared at intermediate level (probably closer to this Upper Intermediate) indicates that the College of Chinese Culture & Literature of Nankai University is their Strategy Business Partner. Might be a good connection.

I don't know much about Tianjin except for a tasteless joke they kept telling in Beijing in 2001. It roughly went as follows: Why did Osama Bin Laden did not bomb any Chinese cities? Well, he considered doing so. He first looked at pictures of Beijing. "No way - too many beautiful mosques there." Second he turned to Shanghai: "Out of question - the perfect place for money-laundering." Finally he examined pictures of Tianjin: "Strange. I cannot remember. But we must have already been there quite a few times".

Study at Southwest University for Nationalities in Chengdu. While there you'll be able to do all you want and more. There are plenty of good teachers in the city and the program there through USAC has a 5 week option. You'll keep cost low and then you can get a few hours of private teaching on the side. If you are at intermediate level in all dimensions then you should be fine to start at a low intermediate level. Probably Intermediate 1.

Both of my sons studied Chinese abroad: My older son took chittywangwang...'s advice and became a teacher. My younger son studied in Xian. I think my younger son learned more Chinese, but had to pay tuition. My older son learned less, but got paid for it. Also, he had a period of time where he had to settle in... a valuable cultural experience, but not necessarily conducive to learning Chinese.

Huan9: I sympathize with your dilemma. I've also been on the hunt for schools in Beijing for language study this summer, although my study term will be shorter (2 weeks). I've spent a lot of time on a separate forum board (www.chinese-forums.com) where this topic has nearly been exhausted, with reviews (positive and negative) for nearly all the schools/universities in Beijing and elsewhere. Just know that some of the "reviews" are shills or incognito advertisements for a particular school.

Ignoring Henning's joke about my "home" in China, and going with what Goulniky said, Tianjin is an ideal place for studying Chinese were there is no hard accent, just a hop-skip-and-jump from Beijing (yet I believe has more of a Chinese style to it, in sense of not being fake to the world), and has language schools. I actually recommend two schools, one is where you can get one-on-one classes or in small groups, bu with other westerners, New Century Language and Culture Center (http://www.newcenturychinese.com/) another is where I studied last year, studying with Korean and Japanese which I find greatly improves your Chinese due to being able to talk to them with the same sub-set of Chinese and not being tempted to just switch to English. It is called HSK朋友学院 （HSK Friend Institute, they help prepare people for HSK, but that is not all they do... I took their Idiom/Habitual Sayings class and Newspaper reading... I am good friends with the teachers now, very cheap, and good at teaching the material) Thats my 2 fen. And watch out for bin Ladin.

Err, a note on the HSK朋友学院 school, is that I saw a westerner start from almost ground 0 studying there, and work up pretty quickly in the year she was there, i.e. they have classes for every level and the language environment is really good. Their classes are 4 weeks each, yet usually there is a part 1 (4 weeks) and part 2 (4 weeks) to finish the book. For example, the Idiom class's textbook has 20 lesson, 10 lessons in 4 weeks ( 1/2 lesson a day, 1.5 hours a day). Unfortunately I don't know of a website for it, but even if there was, it would probably all be in Korean, as that is the nationality of the people who start and run the school. I will be in Tianjin this summer, so if you going to go there, drop me a message and I can help you out. Can put you in touch with one of the teachers there that speaks English, etc.

Thanks, everyone. I knew y’all would give me lots of good information. Rich: I got to New Century Language and Culture’s website but I wasn’t able to get any information from it. Do you have an email address for New Century or for HSK 朋友学院 so I can get details about their program? Lavandez: USAC seems to be for people who want credit because they are enrolled in a degree program. I’m not in an academic program. I only want to learn the language. Are the classes through USAC the same as what I would study if I went directly to SWUN and signed up without a university affiliation in my home country? I looked at Southwest Universities for Nationalities and only found a long description of the university and job announcement for foreign language teachers. Is there a contact for someone there? I wrote to the email at the bottom of their web page but it is out of date and bounced back. At Southwest University for Nationalities would the foreigners and the minorities of China study Mandarin together in the same classes? If so, you wouldn’t be tempted to slip into English as much and you could learn more about minority cultures. Actually I lived in Chengdu for two years as an English teacher but didn’t have much time to study Chinese. This time I want to go to China to study. I remember a wonderful visit to the home of an ethnically Tibetan student in Western Sichuan mountains. Mandomikey, thanks for recommending Chinese-forus.com. Lots of info there. Someone in that forum recommended Xiamen University but from their website it looks like they only have summer classes for beginners, not intermediates. Does anyone know about Learn Chinese in Hangzhou? It was on the AmeriSpan website but I can’t tell what the name of the school in Hz is. There isn’t much description of the classes or academic program but I did find info on prices, accommodations, etc. I’m also interested in Academy of Chinese Language Study, Shanghai campus. Anyone been there? Do any of you have experience studying in Taiwan? I’m a little hesitant to delve into trad characters, and the only phonetic system I know is pinyin, but I won’t rule Taiwan out. 谢谢你们的帮助。I'm looking forward to more responses.

I onced spent 2 weeks Taibei with daily individiual courses at the TLI (Taiwan Language Institute) - they have other locations, I think other in cities, and have training material in simplified+pinyin or traditional+bopomofo, cover all levels, and also have group classes. Look them up, I think they even did set up business on the mainland.

Good one, Henning!