ZAOGAO! Past Review

Academic rigor, intensity, resources, etc.

The language course was the primary hangup. Material was delivered far too fast -- I do not believe you can reasonably cram 3 semesters of something like Mandarin into a single semester. This author actually had to drop down to two courses because it was just too intense. This author was caught totally off-guard -- he was not informed as to the exact intensity and was given a misleading impression by his main University's staff. The classes were THREE hours long, not two, and there were four a week with an often-intense homework and memorization drill due the _very next day_. This, along with difficulties with the social/group aspect, helped created an _extremely_ stressful course environment to even the point of multiple breakdowns in the classroom. The only thing stopping me from giving this a 1-star rating is that I _did_ nonetheless manage to learn a fair bit of Mandarin, but apparently not as much as a full-size normally-paced 1-year course would have taught (the equiv of the 2 compressed semesters I did take).

On-site administration of your program

It's hard to rate this one. I want to give them a decent rating because they were nice people, but I have to lop off a lot of points because I was seriously mislead on the proper visa registration procedures which resulted in an effective illegal stay in the host country that, were it not for their good negotiating chops (which adds back in a fair number of points), I could have had to lose another $1000 in fines, had to spend 14 days in prison, gotten essentially Fs on the course transcript, and been blackballed from China for 10 years. Fortunately, as I said, they managed to negotiate with the government to cut a deal that that wouldn't happen but the administrators should not ever be as irresponsible with the information as they did. My visa said it needed a residence permit and I asked them about this at least twice, the second time being when others were going out for their permit and they said I didn't need it as long as I was just staying for the 1 semester, which I was. It wasn't until I tried to extend the stay with a _different_ program (as part of a mutiny against this stressful program) that this was discovered and had it not been so discovered, catastrophe would have resulted upon attempting to leave the country at the airport.

How satisfied were you with your living arrangements?

The dorms had no soundproofing, and the light switches fell apart, and the drain in the shower clogged at one point, resulting in an awful overflow of water that had to be mopped up. The fallen-apart light switches meant having to shower in limited light conditions (having to keep a door open to shower to let light in from outside) and this may have contributed to the overflow. The lack of soundproofing meant noise and party noise from the insane "WOOHOO" USAC Group was getting through all the time.

Real Chinese food is so good -- much better than what you get in the USA as "Chinese" food. I liked most of the dishes except for those involving "eggplant", for which I deduct 1/2 a star. I found that I absolutely HATE eggplant. You would think that someone from the US would not like the "offal" dishes -- stuff like kidney, brain, etc. organ meats. I loved that stuff! I even got to Eat Bugs -- something I had only dreamt of doing before. But I HATED Eggplant!!! BLEGGHCYACH! I don't even want to THINK about that VILE stuff!!!! Foul! The texture and GLEEUBERPLELEEYLYY!!! Ugghvaggh!!!!!

How integrated did you feel with the local culture?

Can't say I felt very integrated at all. This is indeed one of my biggest complaints. Part of the problem was it seemed that there was too damn much focus on going out with the group and being with the group. Part of it was self-imposed in that I felt too embarrassed to want to try out the language with the locals much (thinking I'd get called stupid or something for not doing it well), and so I do not give this the lowest possible rating (adding back half a star), but a big part of it was the USAC program did not do enough, in my estimation, to make one feel really integrated. I do not think the overly-standardized rote-memorization-homework format of the course helped with using the language either, nor did the storybook way of teaching therein. Everyone stuck around with the group, which not only did I not integrate into well (and that's a whole story in itself) but that automatically means no integration to the culture because you are all with people from "your" culture, not the other one. On the other hand I _did_ managed to get to know a few Chinese people so I also add another half-star back in.

How well were health issues addressed during the program?

Health care was pretty good. The doctors in China were able to get all the needed medications, and I did not have any really serious health issues except one allergy problem. Medical care in China is far cheaper than it is in the US and indeed was a real eye-opener as to just HOW overpriced our health care here is. I always thought it was overpriced, but there's nothing like this to show you just HOW much (e.g. a 2 month supply of a medication I got in the US cost $600 though fortunately billed to insurance, but in China, $30 equivalent. Sheesh.).

Safety from crime was excellent. Police were everywhere, guns are banned in China, and I did not find anything seriously wrong. Despite warnings about pick pockets, I never encountered any trouble from them. On the other hand, safety from other things was more lackluster, especially driving and roads. Driving in this place, and China in general, is *WILD AND CRAZY*. There are no easy breaks in traffic and crossing would often consist of playing dodgeball with the cars. The separation between road and sidewalk was also muddled, with vehicles and people often using both in precarious mixtures. A number of times I heard a "BEEP BEEP BEEP Coming Through!" behind and it was a freaking CAR -- as in a full-size CAR -- on the SIDEWALK. And there were even more frequently, rickshaws -- one of which I got bumped by (but not seriously injured) while shopping for something, which DIDN'T make any alert it was coming through. You've got to either have reflexes of a hawk or develop them. I know it definitely did improve mine. Yes, China made this person physically tougher a little.

HELL NO! While there were positive things I got from this experience, the overall thing was just so horrifying stressful, day in and day out, so stressful I believe it was compromising my health (I was getting sick rather frequently and lost a lot of hair). I definitely believe the particulars of this program -- who you were with (wild, crazy American College Kids which I did NOT fit in well with -- I really fit better with the foreign people at the college in other programs and enjoyed their company FAR more), the intensity of the language program (caught WAY off guard), the lack of cultural integration, and the problems with administration (the visa issue) -- made it this way and are a HUGE block to recommending this program. Even with the positives I have to give the overall experience only ONE star out of ten because it was so awful a time for this person.

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

$100 per week was what I did though I was using a lot of restaurant food. I heard that if you used street food you could get it for much less. I am rating based on actual lived expenses, not on what is possible, since it seems that is what the question is asking for.

0 = No encouragement, 5 = frequent encouragement to use the language

There was very little genuine encouragement to use the language. It was taught mainly in a super-fast super-intense (TOO intense) class-homework format with homeworks do the next day and lots of rote memorization drills. The whole course was based and graded on that. Plus, what they taught wasn't exactly all useful in general conversation or in the order in which you would use things in a conversation or getting to know someone, and was taught in a rather dubious story-book format. They should have instead taught some phrases then told you to go out and use them, and you would be graded on how well you could use them (not just write characters -- that's a whole 'nother thing and would require a more extensive space to really critique) in a sampler convo in the class. There wasn't really even much encouragement to _converse in class_! I'd say this language program was, to use one idiom that _did_ stick in my head, 糟糕 -- bad as spoiled cake. Despite that I managed to make it pretty well with a good memory, but someone with less-good memory? 糟糕! With this lack of encouragement, why even BOTHER with a study abroad program? Why spend the money (and I say this program was OVERpriced given what I found as a competitor while I was there!) on this expensive program and the effort to haul ass all the way to China when you could just take a course or courses, and one at a much more leisurely pace than this, at home? The whole point of going to the country is to immerse in the people to learn the language that way, no?

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