Why did you choose this program?
This trip consists of multiple appealing aspects for me: learning the language, the culture and finding my biological parents.
Since I only wanted to learn the basics of Chinese language first and love to meet new people, I choose the group class. It was convenient for me that I could start any week and decide for myself how long I wanted to stay. Because the minimum is only 1 week, it gave me enough flexibility to fit it in my schedule. In addition, I was able to book for one week first and then extend later for another week.
What did your program provider (or university) assist you with, and what did you have to organize on your own?
The program provider assisted with many things if you needed.
We could fill in a form if we needed help with SIM cards, Alipay/Wechat (mobile payment options), cash exchange etc. Since I was in China for a few days already, I didn’t need help with those things. One of the only things we needed to organize ourselves was refilling our water bottle on the 8th floor, buying extra toilet paper and buying laundry detergent.
What is one piece of advice you'd give to someone going on your program?
Prepare yourself a little bit with some vocabulary. It’s not necessary, but the tempo of the classes is high and it makes it easer to follow the classes. Next time I would bring more warm clothes. Kunming is known as the city of eternal spring but unfortunately, especially the first week, was not that warm.
What does an average day/week look like as a participant of this program?
When you arrive, you get a schedule on paper with the times of your class (morning or afternoon), times of the meals (3 per day), free time and type of activity per day. On the weekend you don’t have class and meals. The activities are optional but are really fun to meet other people and speak Chinese with fellow students as well!
Going into your experience abroad, what was your biggest fear, and how did you overcome it? How did your views on the issue change?
That I wouldn’t actually learn the language. It’s so different than my mother tongue (Dutch), and I was already using Duolingo daily for a year. Still I didn’t really know how to communicate with people. Just by stepping out of your comfort zone and actually talking to locals gave me a lot of confidence to speak.
Any other words for people curious about this program?
Let them know you can decide for yourself if you wanna interact with other students.
Everyone has meals at the same time on long tables together but for the rest, you can just decide to study in your private room. Something I would have done differently is book the program immediately for 2 weeks because then I would have gotten the discount for 2 weeks instead of 1 week.