# Learning Chinese in Beijing



## FlyingBirds (Mar 2, 2014)

I will move to China later this year for work but do not want to end up being one of those expats who live in Asia for years without learning the local language. As Mandarin is quite difficult and I will have a quite busy job later I want to first spend two months studying Mandarin intensively in Beijing. 
Can anyone recommend a good school/university? I am looking for quick language progress and do not mind studying hard for it as I will only have those two months to learn full time.


----------



## Sizzling (Aug 29, 2013)

If you want to intensively learn Mandarin and get ahead as fast as possible, I would say you should stay away from Shanghai and Beijing and live in a smaller city where there are not as many expats. Preferably this should be in an area where they speak good Mandarin and not some weird accent. I studied with LTL Mandarin School in Beijing, but I think for you a program from them in Chengde would be more suitable as in Beijing there are still quite a lot of foreigners whom you can speak English with. Make sure you live in a Chinese homestay family was the best part of my course at that school, you see a lot of Chinese culture you usually would never have any access to and it is great for practicing Mandarin.


----------



## SebastianBeijing (Sep 24, 2013)

I agree with Sizzling, studying Chinese outside of the major cities is definitely more efficient. The studying environment is so much better. However, I found living in a second or third tier city in China to be pretty tough. If you have not been to China I would recommend taking it slow, places like Taiyuan or Zhengzhou can be overwhelming.

I studied Chinese at a university in Shanghai and was surrounded by English speaking foreigners however I didn't hang out with them much and looked for Chinese friends or people from other Asian countries such as Korea and Japan and I very quickly improved my Chinese.

I have heard good things about Hutong School Beijing, you can look it up online if you like. Good luck!


----------



## philippz (Jul 7, 2014)

I've been to Chengdu University learning Mandarin, however I think getting in touch with locals and actually talk to them brings you much further than any language program can do. Of course, if you don't speak any Chinese you definitely need a teacher to learn the basics first.


----------



## Dragonchan (Aug 3, 2014)

Beijing University (and I'm sure other institutions in the city) will run short courses of about a month or so. It's also very easy to find a private tutor who will charge a relatively low fee. Shop around for the best deals and don't forget to haggle!


----------

