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One-to-one classes with VISA

onebir (44 posts) • 0

I'm looking for a school that can provide one-to-one Chinese classes + visa & isn't horribly expensive. So far I've found:
1) Tenwest: www.tenwest.cn/home/class-fees/
14000/semester - too pricey
2) Huayang: learnchineseinyunnan.com/[...]
4800/sem - reasonable but inaccessible location

When I was in KM last year, someone told me about another school with similar prices to Huayang, but a better location. However their website (www.hdhnedu.com/) seems to be down & I don't have a way to contact them.

Does anyone have contact details for "hdhnedu" or know of any other options in the RMB5k/semester range? Ta!

onebir (44 posts) • 0

Keats mandates 4 or 6 hours per day, at 100+RMB/h, so it's more expensive even than Tenwest...

Liumingke1234 (3297 posts) • +1

Yikes! There is a listimg here on the schools. Just do a search.

onebir (44 posts) • 0

I did! Most are closed down or at least have dead links & no obvious google hits.

The two options in the OP are what I was able to find.

GoK Moderator (5096 posts) • 0

Huayang fee is for 60 classes.
Tenwest fee if for 140 hours.
Keats has a minimal requirement of 140 hours, which is probably to fit in with visa requirements.
I am not sure if a 60 class course would be sufficient to get a student visa.

onebir (44 posts) • 0

@tigertiger: they say it's enough for them to provide a student visa. (I think for the hdhnedu school 50 hours was enough.)

Ishmael (462 posts) • 0

I don't know about Huayang or Tenwest or the other one, but consider also that teaching at Keats, in my experience, is good.
Doesn't KCEL do one-on-one classes? They're pretty good too, in my experience, although I only took group classes there.

GoK Moderator (5096 posts) • +1

Actually, from personal experience, small group classes (6-8 students) work very well, and one to one may not provide the best learning experience. There are several reasons I have found this to be so, including the following.
Some role plays are designed as pair or group activities. Pair work can be done with a teacher, but group work activities are often skipped, and this is missed learning.
At times all students will get stuck, and from my own teaching experience, being able to shift the focus to another student in the class maintains the flow and still provides learning for the student who got stuck. In one to one work the getting stuck can lead to loss of face and confidence on the part of the student. The student also learns that if they get stuck the teacher will often fill the gap sooner than needed and this can short-circuit the learning.
Small groups lead to a small amount of competitiveness, and this can be a motivator both in the class and at homework time.

Generally the teaching material covered is a very large part of the learning, and this is covered in the same way for both one to one and groups.
One to one classes may still have pretty strict scheduling that will fit the needs of the school's resource allocation and may not suit your own schedule perfectly, and in the worst cases may be no more convenient than the standard group class timetables.
A note on teachers. As a resource manager, I would allocate my best teachers to my core business, which for most language centers is their group classes.

Of course I recognize that different people have different learning styles, and one to one classes may be best for some individuals. However, group classes are much cheaper and also worth serious consideration. IMHO
One final point, you mention convenient location. I have found this to be very important, in the same way that finding a gym within 10 minutes of home or work is really helpful, so will finding a class nearby.

onebir (44 posts) • 0

@tigertiger: All valid points but I don't fit into group classes well. (Because my skills are v uneven, and I'd like to concentrate on Chinese for particular topics)

So I'm really just trying to establish the options as described in the title.

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