An Amazing Summer with CET Bejing

I spent the summer of 2023 with CET in Beijing, the first CET group back in mainland China after the pandemic. While I was initially nervous about going to China, it was clear that CET was fully prepared for the challenges we might run into, and had planned an amazing two months for us. Besides the intensive language courses, the two months included a five-day trip to Chengdu, optional weekend cultural activities, a forum with Renmin University, weekly extracurricular classes, and more. CET also helped us set up phones and bank accounts in China, one of the aspects I was most worried about before going.
CET's Chinese course was a challenge, but a challenge with clear rewards, which I would emphasize to students interested in language study but worried about whether it’s worth it to go abroad. Over the course of two months, I progressed from only being able to read short, artificial dialogues in a textbook, to being able to read Chinese short stories. Before I came to China, I couldn’t have an everyday conversation in Chinese; now, I have multiple friends from Beijing I keep in touch with only in Chinese, and I gave speeches in Chinese at the forum and at our graduation ceremony. In our first martial arts class, I could hardly understand what the teacher was saying; by our last one, I could be coached through a martial arts routine only in Chinese. While the day-to-day workload could sometimes feel overwhelming, we truly made progress every single day. Additionally, our wonderful teachers took us on excursions to practice Chinese in Beijing, such as a Chinese bookstore, a hutong museum, and a restaurant selling traditional Beijing foods. Every Friday, after our exams we had "Chinese Table" with them, eating authentic food at a local restaurant.
I also enjoyed that CET Beijing had a satisfying balance of pre-scheduled activities and free time. The scheduled activities were so unique--we ate takeout hot pot on a livestream for the restaurant Haidilao while in Sichuan, for example. This free time allowed us to become more confident and independent in experiencing Beijing ourselves, learning to take the subway, visit museums, even plan independent travel for the weekend. It also gave me more confidence in the possibility of returning to travel in China myself in the future. One small caveat, I do wish the CET program organizers had planned a trip for us to the Forbidden City and/or the National Museum, the two most famous tourist sites in Beijing, but which were difficult to get tickets for.
Finally, CET paired us with language partners, graduate students at the university, which might have been my favorite part of the program, something I wish I had taken advantage of earlier on. Only in the last few weeks of the program did I truly appreciate this special opportunity to make friends with people from completely different backgrounds than us, and I’m so glad I had that realization and then spent more time having meaningful exchange with Chinese students.
I would add: while CET sets up the opportunities and schedule to have a great summer abroad, it’s ultimately up to the individual student to take advantage of these opportunities, to keep an open mindset, and to fully immerse themselves in the experience in order to have the best possible experience. I’m so grateful that was my experience, and I would recommend any student interested in China or Chinese to consider this program.