Intensive Chinese Program - Startup China

"I came to Beijing not knowing a word of Chinese and feeling very overwhelmed by the language barrier.

My plan was to do the 1 month Intensive Chinese Program before moving to a different city. I wanted to learn as much spoken Chinese as possible in order to communicate with people in my everyday life, focusing on topics such as ordering at restaurants, taking taxis, etc.

Those 4 weeks flew by and I completed the “Survival Chinese” course and covered even more topics! I have taken other foreign language courses before which were often very dense and had a rather boring structure. Startup China’s partner school, That’s Mandarin, mixes things up by giving students different teachers and various class structures. Instead of working through each exercise from a workbook like in many classroom settings, I often found myself having casual conversations with my teachers, slowing down when I didn't understand and learning new words and sentence structures along the way. This type of class was my favorite because it was all personalized to what I wanted to learn on a specific day. It made learning seem less like a forced effort.

I enjoyed every moment of my stay in Beijing, from my classes to living in the apartment that Startup China arranged for me. This living situation helped me meet other people my age who were also interning and studying Chinese."

I left Beijing feeling very prepared to start my next adventure in China and with a whole new group of friends. I thank Startup China and That’s Mandarin for the great experience!

I have been taking the Intensive Chinese Program at Startup China through their partner school That’s Mandarin. At That’s Mandarin you get great teachers, a highly effective teaching method and lessons personalized to your particular needs – all in a comfortable learning environment.

I’ve been taking classes for 1 months now. I go Mondays to Fridays for 4 hours. It’s been a great experience. I highly recommend for the following reasons -

* Great teachers – professional, energetic, inspiring, dedicated, and fun
* Unique, highly effective teaching method – during class, I watch shows in Chinese and re-tell them, read and translate articles, meanwhile the teacher types new words that I come across that day; outside class, I review the list of new words, write the story I’ve learned that day, and listen to an mp3 of my teacher reading the new words and using them in sentences
* Personalized lessons – no books; learning based on shows and articles carefully selected to suit my interest and needs
* Good learning environment – free coffee in the morning, clean nice classrooms in good locations

The language courses paired with the excellent cultural and social events, as well as the accommodation options in the heart of Beijing make this a great program option for anybody who is seriously interested in learning or improving their Chinese.