Explore the real China with a Fun Gap Year - Intern, Learn Chinese or Volunteer in China

I'm from the USA and I'm currently here in Shanghai for 3 months for a internship as well as individual Chinese lessons. I came here through GoAbroadChina and they were really helpful with the whole process they helped me find a company that was because I'm not super fluent in Mandarin so they helped me find a company that was based internationally and had a firm here, so they were really accommodating for that and it's also helping me a lot with my Chinese being able to kind of communicate a little bit in English too. They also help me find my individual lessons which was really helpful, the teacher is super nice. She caters towards your needs so some of my goals include being able to speak daily with my family members as well as with like locals so that's been really helpful and then they've also been really helpful just with getting me settle in - so picking me up from the airport, making sure that I knew my way around, and just having someone there constantly if you need help. Just to message or if you have any simple questions is so much better than just throwing yourself out there and not knowing anything so that was really helpful.

Hi this is Fadu and I took part in the go abroad china program. Seeing China through the lens of Western Media makes you blind. China has a beautiful and warm culture with awesome people and above all, one of the safest countries of our time. For several reasons, my trip to China was a dream come true. I have learned Mandarin before but has never made it to China. I speak reasonably good mandarin with a horrible accent- this also inspired my ambition to improve. Made many friends which made the experience more amazing.

I am Brent Smith. My son, Kyle，joined GAC summer high school language program in 2023. Like many other parents of a high school student, I was worried that first about our son being in Beijing. After my son finished the program, I am very happy to say that GAC has very safe and well-organized arrangement, all of the teachers both the university and through the one on one tutoring curriculum that set up from GAC were excellent. The host family was nice and took care of Kyle a lot. We are happy to recommend GoAbroadChina language programs for high school students in China.

I’d say my gap year was definitely a great experience. With the assistance of Go Abroad China, I started interning in the CRI (China Radio International) from last April. The company I worked for was great, the work I did was fun, and all of my co-workers were friendly. I worked closely with the manager and a number of other colleagues doing mostly interviewing, events and social media-type work. One particular event that I was involved in required me to host a mini-show where I have to get everyone to dance, sing and be merry in a rural community just an hour away from Beijing where tourism is growing. I also worked to build the company's social media presence across a variety of social media platforms. Most of my work was in English but my knowledge of Chinese helped me to do more - like hosting the show for example. My Chinese was not perfect as I never lived in China but it definitely improved through daily use. There were a couple of other interns from other countries I made friends with. I would say stress a lot of the following for strengthening your intern application:
- international experience and mindset, and being open-minded in general
- willingness to learn
- ability to think quickly and react positively to situations (a lot of stuff I had to do was learned on the spot)
- being able to work individually and in the team