CET Beijing - The only way to learn Chinese Past Review

Academic rigor, intensity, resources, etc.

At the beginning, the workload seemed overwhelming! We were learning anywhere between 25-55 characters a night, a review homework of that day's grammar, plus a homework introducing the next day's lesson. After about a month, and especially towards the end, our brains got used to learning characters, and since the homework is the same every night (yes, EVERY NIGHT. it got pretty repetitive and boring after a while), we would only spend about 1-2 hours on homework a night, whereas before the same homework was taking us about 5 hours. The teachers were great, especially since my class only had 7 students in it. The grading system is the same there as here, 90=A, etc.

On-site administration of your program

Strengths: program size was great; i always felt like if i had a problem i would have known who to call and they would be there immediately to help me (never had any problems though) Weaknesses: all of our group trips were pretty boring and super cheesy

How satisfied were you with your living arrangements?

BIE is located in a really inconvenient area of town. Yes, it's close to the subway, yes, there a few cheap Chinese restaurants within walking distance, but by the end of the semester you will hate it. Especially when it's cold outside, you really just don't want to leave. So, because of laziness, we ended up going to the same restaurant basically every night, eating the same thing EVERY morning (which i didn't really mind), and eventually not being able to stand Chinese food anymore. Being home, the only food I crave is healthy food. After living in China I reallly appreciate having access to healthy food everywhere you go. Anyway, it was nice being able to wake up and walk two seconds to my class in the morning. Neighborhood was really safe, police station right down the street. The only things I had to buy were towels and toiletries (ADVICE: BUY ALL YOUR TOILETRIES BEFORE YOU COME, AND I MEAN ALL OF THEM!! You'll regret it if you don't). My roommate was nice, and we had some good conversation, but I wish I had had one of the girls who went out occasionally. My roommate went to sleep every night at about 11 and was ALWAYS in the room. We never became best friends or anything like I think a few of the other students did with their roommates, but I really don't feel like I missed out on anything.

at first the cafeteria seemed cool, serving us chinese food that was pretty tasty. after eating chinese food every day, you will HATE the cafeteria. it is extremely low quality food that every single student complains about once they've been eating there for about a month. definitely not very clean, and not much variety at all (I still don't understand why they couldn't make one single dish that wasn't chinese food). but, because it's free and convenient, we still ate there. The restaurants in the close vicinity are all right, such as Julatang, but I know that at the end a few students got food poisoning from there. It's pretty much inevitable that you will get food poisoning at least once while in China. If you crave Western food (which you will), there are basically no options near the campus besides mcdonalds, kfc, and a cheap italian restaurant (that is really not very good at all) in the ito yokado down the street. Any semi-nice restaurant is in Sanlitun or Wudaokou, the two places in Beijing with the most expats, of course.

How integrated did you feel with the local culture?

I made some great friends from the program, and had a blast! The trips that were organized by our program, overall, sucked.

How well were health issues addressed during the program?

Beijing is extremely safe, no worries there, unless you count getting ripped off. Don't get into non-registered taxis, etc. They'll tell you all about that stuff. I rated health issues so low because everyone gets food poisoning, and diarrhea is a common word in Chinese. For example, when I was talking about a certain restuarant, the lady that is basically the headmaster told me in Chinese that I shouldn't go there because it's oily and I will very easily get diarrhea. Also, you WILL get a cold. Some people are just constantly sick with a runny nose. So take vitamins with you! There are western hospitals that are very accessible, so if you ever had a serious problem, they would take care of you.

(1 = not very easy/$200+ on food & personal expenses/week, 2.5 = $100/week, 5 = very easily/minimal cost)

No one really speaks English in China, at all, especially in the area where our program was located. So yes, you must use your Chinese in everyday interaction, otherwise you won't be able to order food. But, because of the language pledge, we had to speak Chinese with our classmates too. By the end of the program, a lot of students didn't adhere to the pledge, mostly because we all felt like we were going crazy. I didn't really follow the language pledge the whole time, except around my teachers. Plus, everyone speaks english when we went out, otherwise there really is no way to get to know everyone. Although I didn't follow the pledge with my classmates as much as a lot of other people did, I'm still really glad we had a pledge, because it made me speak and hear Chinese much more than I would have. I know that CET is a much better program than many others, solely because of the language pledge. We just learned so fast! It was great!

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