Well, I give the management of the west campus a big thumbs down. I arrived in Kunming in July, and the director(Loris) promised I could take the classes I wanted even if no other students signed up for them. My gut feeling wasn't so great to begin with, at the time because he smoked in the school, and let other people smoke in the school.

I guess next time I'll follow my gut feeling because come August and I went to pick up my schedule, and he wouldn't let me take the classes I wanted. Said that I had to pay for the classes they arranged for me. The same teacher the whole week, and a terrible textbook unless you enjoy learning about "beijing" culture.

I asked for a few weeks to find a different school, but he repeatedly emphasized that the police would take away my student visa. I just recently switched schools and surprise surprise they didn't refund any of my tuition.

Live and learn I guess. On the bright side I quite like the school I switched to, KUST Northern Language Institute

I was planning to go to the west campus too. Two days before term started, I was assured by the central campus staff that it would be open. Accordingly slapped down a big bundle of cash for an apartment close by to it, only to find on the first day of term it was not open (I guess the chain-smoking heavily beijing accented guy I found prowling about on that morning was the aforementioned teacher - he offhandishly told me the campus would not open for another month or two). Went back to the central campus, slightly irate, and took a while to drag the reason out of them (something to do with the west capus management dropping out at the last minute - seems to be run on a franchise system).

Despite this, I am now at the central campus - very happy, but that's mainly down to the teacher I have now settled with (the first teacher I tried out was of the unengaging, parrot-repetition school of thought). The school are very flexible about changing classes - if anyone is thinking of signing up, I'd recommend you don't pay in advance - the school are okay with people trying out the classes for free for the first couple of weeks.

DocStamen, I agree! It's better to try first. But it seems to be a jerk place there. I will reconsider if I try out the lessons there. Thanks for sharing all your experience!

Just to clarify,

I did see this school around town, I believe they are called KFC. Several locations so they must be ligit

Can someone recommend the best Mandarin Language Schools in Kunming, I am not seeking any College credit, I just want to learn mandarin, so it may be cheaper.

Kunming College of Eastern Language and Culture Chinese studying tuition level
Classes Items Studying hours Tuition

Beginners Chinese class

Elementary Chinese class

Intermediate
Chinese class

Advanced Chinese class

Small class
(5-16persons) 20 hours/week 6200 RMB/person/20wk.semester

18 hours/week 5800RMB/person/20wk.semester

14 hours/week 5000 RMB/person/20wk.semester

10 hours/week 4000 RMB/person/20wk.semester
One to One 20 hours/week 20000RMB/person/20wk.semester

10 hours/week 11000RMB/person/20wk.semester

65RMB/person /hour

One to Two 20 hours/week 13000RMB/person/20wk.semester

10 hours/week 6800RMB/person/20wk.semester

35RMB/person/hour

One to Three 20 hours/week 11000RMB/person/20wk.semester

10 hours/week 5800RMB/person/20wk.semester

30 RMB/person/hour

One to Four 20 hours/week 9000RMB/person/20wk.semester

10 hours/week 4800RMB/person/20wk.semester

25 RMB/person/hour

Training in HSK Small class
(5-16persons) 10 hours/week 30 RMB/person/hour

One to One 10 hours/week 65RMB/person/hour

Training in BCT Small class
(5-16persons) 10 hours/week 30 RMB/person/hour

One to One 10 hours/week 65RMB/person/hour

Short-term training in Chinese class（up to three months） Small class
(5-16persons) 18 hours/week 25RMB/person/hour

One to One 10 hours/week 65 RMB/person/hour

Special subject training class Small class
(5-16persons) 16hours/week 600RMB/person/week

One to one 10 hours/week 65RMB/person/hour

more details, please check www.elcec.com

welcome to KCEL,^_^!

When does Spring semester start? When does Fall semester end? Thanks.

thank you for your reply GBTEXDOC

The Fall semester is end on 10th of january,2010.The spring semester is start on 19th of february.2010.19th of february and 21th of february is registration time,from 22th of february,classes begin . According to the request of students, during the holiday, we still open one to one class and the small class which the students want to join.