Mandarin @ SCU: Your Experience

[YNQ]

hi!

Next year I want to live in Chengdu for about 9 months and study Mandarin, probably at Sichuan University.

I have already done some research on their language courses and the costs and I was wondering what your experience was there if you have any?

I am thinking of taking long term group lessons, so 2000 Yuan per 50 hours with max. 3 more others. Is this a reasonable price? (I personally have no idea how much it would cost to go to a private tutor or language school.)

so i’d like to know your experience if you have any with learning Manderin at SCU, if you think the price they ask is worth it and if you know any other, better places to learn Manderin and get HSK certificates.
Thank you for reading! ^_^

[SS]

Not sure if you mean the actual university or the Chinese teacher training school that has been offering free lessons on this site given by their student teachers. You don’t say what your level is now or what level of HSK you are going for, but in general the kind of university that can give you a study visa is the best value. Private teachers can be a waste of time or invaluable. Lots will work for 40 an hour but I paid 100 for a short term tutor and it was very worth it for getting past HSK 6.

As for this place that gives free lessons, I’ve only tried their free option. Each lesson is with a different teacher and not continuous. Time with the Hello HSK app was better spent, to be honest, though it’s always possible you may run into a fantastic teacher you want to keep working with.

[YNQ]

SS wrote:

Not sure if you mean the actual university or the Chinese teacher training school that has been offering free lessons on this site given by their student teachers. You don’t say what your level is now or what level of HSK you are going for, but in general the kind of university that can give you a study visa is the best value. Private teachers can be a waste of time or invaluable. Lots will work for 40 an hour but I paid 100 for a short term tutor and it was very worth it for getting past HSK 6. As for this place that gives free lessons, I’ve only tried their free option. Each lesson is with a different teacher and not continuous. Time with the Hello HSK app was better spent, to be honest, though it’s always possible you may run into a fantastic teacher you want to keep working with.

 

thank you so much for your reply!

I realised I forgot to mention that after I posted it 😅

I’m at a beginner level, I would probably pass HSK level 1 but that’d be it.

I’m there for 9 months so I’d want to go for level 3 at least. I will be almost completely focussed on learning Chinese so I think it should be possible.

May I ask you how you came in contact with your tutor?

Also, knowing of my level now, do you have any specific tips or places you could tell me?

 

Thank you so much once again.

EDIT: i’m pretty sure I saw this course on the university itself too to learn Chinese (so not the free trial thing that’s being promoted on here) but I can’t seem to find it ㅠㅡㅠ

[SS]

My tutor is a friend who works at a training school, I just asked her for a few private lessons. I can pass on her contact (pm if you want) but she doesn’t speak much English, which I think is a plus because she is not going to waste time in class trying to practice English with you.

I don’t have any suggestions besides if you are going to stay that length of time you need to research the cost of visa and cost of study together. Arranging your own visa often means a tourist visa where you have to leave the country every two or three months which can cost a lot of time and money from this far inland. For schools that can give you a student visa, Sichuan University, University of Finance and Economics, and Nationalities University are the most popular in town but there are others.

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