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feedback about language classes in KM

Cracco (4 posts) • 0

Hi,

I am a 35 y.o. and I would like to spend 1 semester seriously studying Chinese in Kunming, I have been living in China before and my Chinese is basic and rusty.

My target is to reach HSK 4.

I have been reading all the forum, there are a lot of questions about University and schools, but very few feedback. I would love to hear from current and past international students about their experience, such as quality of teaching, classes, dorms, facilities and overall experience.

I am open to all suggestions and tips, I am not sure yet if I will go to University or to private schools. I greatly appreciate all your comments.

Thank you

kurtosis (86 posts) • 0

I guess it really depends what you're looking for. Personally, I had very good experiences with Robert's school . My teacher was funny (though very cynic) and had a talent of making up examples that could be easily remembered.
However, for my taste, the classes were progressing too slowly, there were too few new words introduced per day so you really didn't have to do much reviewing outside of class.

To keep things challenging, I took additional 3 lessons of one-on-one class per day which could be a bit pricy depending on the duration of your studies.

Around 10 years ago, I studied Chinese at a University in Chengdu which where classes were much more boring as they were following the book more closely, but they had a quicker progress. However, more than half of the class got lost and stopped showing up for the most part of the term.
As classes emphasized too little on oral abilities, I had to talk to people I met outside which, as I was totally new to the Chinese language, was often rather awkward.

I'd say in the end, make sure to find a school that matches your learning style best and fix imperfections yourself...

vicar (817 posts) • +3

Whether you chooses uni or private, new words and reviewing can be done as self study outside of class. There are loads of apps, websites and books. Combine this with a language partner/s and general day to day usage with locals.

GoK Moderator (5096 posts) • 0

Flashcard type learning is great for preparing for tests, but research suggests that spaced repetition is not so good for long term memory. You need to supplement apps like Memrise (excellent btw) with real world practice.
I would be interested to know if anyone has identified card sets in Memrise that are good for functional /day to day Chinese, e.g. doing things in the real world, and not just shadowing course books.

Cracco (4 posts) • 0

Guys, thank you for your tips. I have been doing lots of self study lately with Chinese pod, YouTube video, apps and books, I can highly recommend you an app called Chinese In Flow, really simple to use and better than Memrise IMHO.

I wanna keep this routine and add a course in one of the school in KM. I've checked with Keats and prices seems too high to me, can you recommend any school that has a specific intensive class for preparation to HSK exams?

Thank you again.

_shara_ (98 posts) • 0

I would suggest you sign up with the group class in a school such as Keats or another good school to get the visa and have some structure, but also do private lessons with a tutor who is not associated with a school for a couple of hours each day as well.

The schools are pretty expensive if you do one-on-one for an entire semester but if you look around a bit you could find a good private tutor cheaper since then they charge you directly rather than going through the school.

Cracco (4 posts) • 0

Guys do you know if is it still possible to enter China with a tourist visa and then change it to student visa through universities or language schools?

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