Program Reviews

I was looking for a program that would allow my son to achieve fast learning in a comfortable environment. This is first time he's been travelling on his own, so comfort was a big factor. I was very pleased with the way the staff answered all of my questions in my emails within a few days at most. I had a lot of questions, and each was answered in a professional, timely way. I think the service is professional, timely and safe. I was really reassured to be able to actually talk to the staff over the phone, since emails only go far in satisfying a customer. I felt more confident about choosing Next step China when I could actually hear the voice of those who would be talking to my son for his 3- month stay.

NSC exceeded my expectations. The fact that they cared very much about their participants assured me that choosing them over their competitors was worth it. I was impressed - I had to leave China earlier than my expected date, so they added an extra tutor to make sure I don't lose my hours. Despite that, they created the program so that I did not get too tired and over-stress myself by the end of the day

I decided to study Mandarin in China so I could improve my speaking--I don’t get to practice speaking too much in class and school, mainly reading and writing. I wanted to come to China and be able to speak with locals. I picked Next Step China based on the cost. I showed my Chinese teacher back home, and she was excited about the product. She was saying, “This is amazing! Hands down, you have to do this, no matter if you get credit for it or not”. Next Step China certainly exceeded my expectations because I got a lot of studying done, but I also got to have a lot of fun, too.

NSC exceeded my expectations. The fact that they cared very much about their participants assured me that choosing them over their competitors was worth it. I was impressed — I had to leave China earlier than my expected date, so they added an extra tutor to make sure I don’t lose my hours. Despite that, they created the program so that I did not get too tired and over-stress myself by the end of the day.

I think that the best way to learn a language is going to a country where it is spoken. In my short stay I improved my listening comprehension and my spoken Chinese. NSC’s tutoring program was an intensive one. It was divided in two parts per day with two different teachers that helped me constantly in my Chinese learning. It felt as a real immersion in the Chinese language, which was EXACTLY what I was looking for. Everything was very good, NSC took care of all my needs and did more than I expected.

I feel like Next Step China makes you really feel you are part of a community as soon as you arrive. They come straight to the airport and then you have the welcome dinner and get to know everyone else at the same time. I really like the community approach of Next Step China because everyone in the program has similar goals as you. I really enjoyed the tutoring program I like having the two different tutors so you have two different teaching styles it also means you are doing two different textbooks so you have the language of both complementing each other as you go along and you recognize structures from both tutors and that is encouraging because you can feel yourself improving. I also feel the tutoring program, because it is one on one, your Chinese improves vastly as opposed to being in a University with so many students where teachers don’t have the time to focus on you because they don’t have the time to sit down with you for that length of time and go through every problem you have.

My wife and I began looking for a summer program for our 16 year old son who already had taken a year of Mandarin in the US, and we selected NSC. Our son wanted an intensive language course, and the university in which he was enrolled seemed to be the best choice. Other leading programs had teachers which they hired and did not teach at a university. NSC provided additional tutorial time at a very reasonable price. So, in addition to learning in a classroom environment, our son was able to travel around the city and speak the language in everyday situations. I strongly recommend NSC.

I had studied Chinese for about 4 years at a Chinese school. Then I stopped because I had too much work to do. At first, I thought it was such a chore because my parents are like “Learn Mandarin, learn Mandarin,” but now I think it’s kind of important because China is becoming really powerful. I chose NextStepChina because they help you with a lot of things like the Visas which were very confusing. Also they gave a lot of guidance with that and the details on housing and tuition was very good. Just the whole package seemed really good compared to other ones I’ve heard of.

NSC definitely exceeded my expectations, I’ve heard a lot of stories from these type of language programs, and mines definitely been the best. Every time I dialed NSC’s staff they would be at my service right away, even for the smallest things.To be honest, you couldn’t ask for anything more. I learned more in my tutoring sessions than I learned in class, the tutors are amazing. Xu Ran was extremely patient. I had a great time going out with them or having lunch with them, they’re very friendly.

I thought the tutoring program was excellent. I thought the materials provided to us were very good. The exercises really had me learning Chinese characters and words. I felt I was learning a good, probably 30 characters a day. That’s recognizing and reading characters. I would say I could write about half as much, but I rapidly became conversational. I actually switched from the program at BLCUinto the tutoring program, because I felt it was much more effective.