Shanghai Jiaotong University

It was a while back when I was in Shanghai studying Chinese at Jiaotong University for the summer. My program provider was Go Abroad China who were quite accommodating because I would only be in Shanghai for two months and they literally handled everything for me: the most important which was organising my study visa, my flat in Shanghai, which I shared with 2 other flatmates and showing me which bus to take to school. Thankfully I didn't live too far away from campus and didn't even need to change bus lines or any of that. Otherwise it would have been quite a hassle to learn the different buses.

Now about my Chinese classes: I barely spoke Chinese when I first arrived in Shanghai, and my class, imagine 20 young people coming from different countries learning Mandarin from Monday to Friday - for me it was full time school in the summer! Life in Shanghai was amazing and crazy! I had so much fun living there, getting close to my flatmates and other classmates. A couple of times I also hit it up with the rest of the people in the Go Abroad China group.

I came to China as a total beginner in Chinese language, by the time I left after 2 months I could manage approximately 200 characters!