Keats Chinese

Keats Chinese School

Why choose Keats Chinese School?

Headquartered in Kunming, Keats School is considered a premier institution for immersive Mandarin Chinese learning. Founded in 2004, Keats specializes in intensive one-on-one and small-group classes with a curriculum tailored to each student's individual goals and pace. This personalized approach is the school's hallmark, ensuring rapid progress in speaking, listening, reading, and writing. Beyond the classroom, Keats provides a full cultural immersion experience. Students can live and study within the same building, simplifying daily life and maximizing practice time.
With 18 locations across China, Keats is considered the largest and best Mandarin Chinese school in China.

Keats provides full services to the students, including on-campus accommodation and homestay. Keats' free services include airport pick-up, meals, laundry, excursions, 24/7 support, etc.

Founded
2004

Frequently asked questions

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Reviews

Dominique
5/5
Yes, I recommend this program

1 Week Immersion at Keats in Chengdu (5/5)

I really enjoyed this experience. If you're like me and you are thinking of visiting China and want a little support and structure, I would recommend Keats to anyone!

The staff is phenomenal. The site coordinator is extremely patient and attentive and makes sure that everyone is super comfortable. All of the teachers are extremely friendly. I personally got to tackle some weak areas and improve my speaking skills so much in such a short time.

Chengdu is an incredible city and the location of the accommodation is super convenient and accessible to public transportation. You also get to meet the other student's there in the program at the same time as you so you have a built in cohort.

My only regret is that I couldn't have stayed longer!

Marco
5/5
Yes, I recommend this program

Learning experience

I spent a period studying Chinese at Keats School in Kunming, and I am writing this review to share my direct experience regarding the teaching methodology and the overall quality of the instruction provided.
When I decided to enroll in a Chinese language course in China, my main personal concern was not only the natural challenge of learning Mandarin, but also my limited proficiency in the English language. Since English is commonly used as a bridge language between foreign adult students and Chinese teachers, I had some reasonable doubts before starting my studies. I was worried that the communication gap would create misunderstandings, slow down my learning progress, or make the daily lessons stressful and inefficient.
However, my experience at Keats School proved that a well-trained and observant teacher can successfully navigate these language barriers. From the very first lessons, my teacher demonstrated a high level of professional adaptability and pedagogical competence. Instead of relying heavily on English explanations that I would have struggled to follow, she immediately adjusted her teaching approach to fit my specific profile and background.
She developed practical strategies to explain grammar structures, new vocabulary, and tones directly in Mandarin. For example, she made extensive use of clear visual aids, real-life contextual examples, body language, and systematic repetition. When a concept was not immediately clear, she did not simply repeat the sentence in English or offer a quick translation. Instead, she found alternative ways to convey the meaning using simple, accessible Chinese, rephrasing her sentences or using illustrations until I grasped the concept fully. This direct methodology not only solved the issue of my weak English skills, but it actually accelerated my comprehension of Mandarin by encouraging me to think directly in Chinese rather than translating back and forth through a third language.
Furthermore, the structure of the individual lessons was always well-paced and organized. My teacher was exceptionally attentive to my learning speed and constantly monitored my reactions to ensure that I was truly understanding the material, rather than just moving forward passively. She maintained a realistic and constructive rhythm, ensuring that each linguistic concept was consolidated before introducing new vocabulary or complex sentence patterns. Her patience and analytical approach allowed me to remain focused and calm, without the pressure of needing to master English first in order to learn Chinese effectively.
Regarding the general organization of Keats School, the conditions were completely suited for intensive study. The administrative team handled all practical procedures efficiently, and the study environment remained quiet, respectful, and well-maintained throughout my stay. The location of the school in Kunming also provided a practical setting for daily life, allowing me to test and apply what I learned in class during simple everyday interactions outside the school.
In conclusion, the most valuable aspect of my time at Keats School was the ability of my teacher to address my specific linguistic profile. She turned what could have been a major obstacle—my lack of English—into an opportunity for a more direct, pragmatic, and immersive learning experience. I consider this course highly constructive and would recommend the school to adult learners who require a flexible, highly tailored, and professional teaching approach.

Pros
  • Professionalism
  • Flexibility
  • Empathy
Joep
5/5
Yes, I recommend this program

Keats BeiJing

Joyfully, recently, I went to Keats School for the 8th time , started my study with Keats in 2015 in KunMing, decided this year to study with Keats in BeiJing for a couple of weeks.
It was a great and wonderfull experience to be back at school and back in BeiJing.
Back home I miss it all, but cherish gratefull memories. For sure I will return and continue to study with Keats.

The location of the school and hotel are fantastic. Very central in BeiJing, friendly environment with all you need for a pleasant stay. Good, diverse , restaurants are all nearby. Lovely park, great transport options, metro and biking makes your life easy in this area, a real neighbourhood in the big city.

The teachers are real experts, using their 20 year plus experience, to help me with the right method to make real progress on listening and talking skills. They are there to help you in a tailormade program based on your goals. I always do one-on-one course. Spending less than 5 weeks , I would recommend everyone to do the one-on-one at Keats.

The living in Beijing is great, I spent 3 weeks and felt very much at home in the end. Lots of history highlights , sites, palaces, temples. But also hip and trendy places to go to. I experienced listening to and talking with BeiJing people is more easy while there is less dialect. Autumn was a good time to be there, nice climate. The city is clean, safe, large, green and impressive.

I highly recommend beginners and advanced students from abroad to sudy with Keats in BeiJing.

What was your funniest moment?
Always, when I do understand people talk about me, thinking I cannot undrtstand, I give quick, funny reply in Chinese.
Eamon
5/5
Yes, I recommend this program

Kunming Keats

I was here for two weeks and arrived having never studied Chinese before. The classes were very well structured and I learned so much during this short, intensive period. My two teacher, Kong Lao Shi and Wang Lao Shi were both excellent teachers, with slightly different teaching styles that encouraged me to learn and practice in different ways. The one-on-one classes were both fun and informative.

Overall, the learning environment was so fun and enriching. People of all ages from all over coming together to learn Chinese in their own ways for their own reasons. I made many friends here.

Kunming is a beautiful city with good food. The streets are quite and operate at a very human-scale… this city contains all one could ask to find or explore!

JOSEP
5/5
Yes, I recommend this program

I'm very satisfied about this experience

The schooling and living at Keats School has been a lot of positive, great and really profitable. I've reviewed my previous language chinese knowlodges,m speceally my teachers help me to correct my mistakes. Allway they give answer to my suggestions and propositions. I'm very glad for them. Thanks.
The school atmosphere is incredible, good teachers, good assistants, good students. Beeing from others nacionalities is not a problem to communicate and enjoy together.
Evening activities allow us know more chinese culture aspectes and they are amazing.
Finally, I would give thanks everybody for this experience.

Programs

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Alumni Interviews

These are in-depth Q&A sessions with verified alumni.

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.