Intense Program, But You Can Expect Your Chinese To Be Baller Afterall Past Review
By Benjamin B (International Relations & Global Studies, The University of Texas at Austin) for
CET Beijing
Super obviously worthwhile, my Chinese improved fast and consistently. Gave me a huge confidence boost speaking Chinese.
Personal Information
| How much international exposure did you have prior to this program? | 6 months+ |
Review Your Program
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* Overall educational experience
Academic rigor, intensity, resources, etc. |
As I said above, the workload is really heavy. To be fair, you probably have less total work at your home university and at this CET program, but the intensity level comes from exclusively studying Chinese. As for the grading system, I'd say it's pretty standard, nothing too crazy. Probably the most important thing to note for the teaching method is that you shouldn't expect to be taking notes during class. All of the teachers are hard core about active interaction, and actively stop students from taking notes during class, basically the opposite of my Chinese class at UT. |
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* Host Country Program Administration
On-site administration of your program |
I think it's pretty simple: your Chinese will improve super fast, but if your not careful, you'll burn out on it. I think my speaking ability roughly tripled, which is pretty hard to argue with. |
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* Housing:
How satisfied were you with your living arrangements? |
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| * Food: |
Cheap, and usually tasty, but super oily and generally unhealthy. |
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* Social & Cultural Integration:
How integrated did you feel with the local culture? |
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* Health Care:
How well were health issues addressed during the program? |
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| * Safety: |
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| If you could do it all over again would you choose the same program? |
Yes
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Finances
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* Money: How easily were you able to live on a student's budget?
(1 = not very easy/$200+ on food & personal expenses/week, 2.5 = $100/week, 5 = very easily/minimal cost) |
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| Do you have any general money-saving tips for future study abroad participants? | Don't think anything should necessarily be eliminated, but I'm also pretty sure the profit margin of this program is huge. I can't call it expensive though because it's more or less the same cost as a semester at UT, and I earned 17 credit hours. |
Language
| * Did your program have a foreign language component? | Yes |
| How would you rate your language skills at the beginning of the program? | Beginner |
| What was the highest level language course you had completed prior to departure? | 3rd semester. |
| If applicable, to what degree did your living situation aid your language acquisition? |
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| Language acquisition improvement? |
This question is a little awkward for my particular program, the "intensive language program". The exclusive focus of this program is to speak Chinese and, not only is speaking Chinese obviously encouraged, there's a language pledge and speaking English is strictly forbidden. Everyone only speaks Chinese with everyone. |
Other Program Information
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* Where did you live?
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* Who did you live with?
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* Who did you take classes with?
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A Look Back
| * What do you know now that you wish you knew before going on this program? | Just really be prepared for a grind. Also, for nightlife, be prepared to spend more money per drink than here (unless you can manage a taste for Baijiu). |
