Program Reviews

The Mandarin tutors at CLI are patient, encouraging, and exceptionally skilled educators. They create a welcoming and supportive learning environment that inspires confidence and makes every lesson enjoyable. Through their thoughtful instruction, constructive feedback, and genuine dedication to their students’ success, my Mandarin proficiency has improved significantly in both speaking and comprehension. I am deeply grateful for their generosity in sharing their knowledge, culture, and enthusiasm for the language. Learning with them has been a truly rewarding experience, and I wholeheartedly recommend CLI to anyone seeking high-quality Mandarin instruction.

Do yourself a favor and go to this program. The teachers are fantastic, absolute pros. My language skills went up 2 HSK levels in my time there. The school staff is helpful and accommodating. The location is wonderful: Guilin is a beautiful and charming city with great food options around the school for foodies like myself and great hikes within city limits. If you hike check out Chuanshan, Seven Star Park, and Elephant Trunk Mtn, and if it hasn’t rained lately you can hike unpaved trails next door to the school.

Great one-week experience at CLI. I had studied Mandarin in college, and CLI helped me refresh and improve my business language skills. The teachers tailored my lessons to my individual wants and needs. I had three teachers, and my lessons felt more like having intellectual discussions with friends than academic school setting. The staff was equally as supportive and attentive to my questions. The school has a great community feel, with plenty of social activities happening every day. The school's location is great as well, with a short walk to cafes, restaurants, fitness centers, and a short Didi ride away to downtown or hiking areas. Would recommend!

For me unique was to learn Chinese not only in classroom but to go out on markets, supermarkets & cafes to learn daily vocabulary. Teachers all are very nice and supportive people which was just fun to hang out with. They adapt to your personal requirements and have been very gentle. School is well organized, rooms are very clean and well equipped. School offers a nice lunch option and a lot of additional activities in the afternoon. Overall I am very satisfied with my CLI experience and already think about booking it again.

My six-weeks at CLI surpassed my expectations. The level of instruction is truly top tier; my teachers were incredibly patient, kind, deeply knowledgeable about Chinese language, and most importantly very skilled at teaching it. The one-on-one classes was a jolt of energy to my language study, and propelled me and entire HSK level in a month and a half. The accommodations are spacious, clean, and newly updated. I highly, highly recommend CLI as an amazing learning and life experience for anyone who is trying to learn Mandarin; they have many different teachers and textbook curriculums to choose from so any level can be accommodated, from just starting out to conversational.

After fumbling around with various programs and apps, I went with an actual program with live teachers one on one. It's easily worth it. I learned more in 8 weeks than I have in a year of various other online and app-based learning programs. The teachers are superb, the physical plant/classroom facilities are great, and even the lunch every day was remarkably good. The local neighborhood is awesome; full of restaurants, coffee shops, etc.

I spent three months at CLI in Guilin and had a terrific time. I really liked the teachers, the city, and was perfectly happy with the housing. Guilin now feels like a part of me. I loved the peaceful and tranquil environment and would choose Guilin any day over the bustle and noise of Beijing or Shanghai. My Chinese also tremendously improved. I started out with mid-level HSK 1 and am now at the beginning of HSK 3.

I only have one point of criticism. I felt that the the weekend trips offered by the institute were too catered to Western foreigners who are reluctant to take culinary risks or go off the beaten track. This is less a criticism of CLI, but more a reflection of my personal adventurous inclinations.

I had the privilege and opportunity to study Chinese at CLI in Guilin, China. I just completed a 10 week stay last week. From day 1 CLI took care of all my needs. They not only met them but anticipated them as well. From the exceptional teachers (Annie, Ruza and Jin), the hardworking talented interns (Heney, Mendy, Nora, Esther, Kayla, Amanda, among others) and the wonderful cooks and support staff.

I began each day with eager anticipation looking forward to the adventure of learning not only the Chinese language but the Chinese culture as well. The one on one structure can not be beat in elevating one’s learning capability. The teachers are highly experienced and willingly adjust their teaching styles to best meet the student’s needs. It blows my mind at how good they are at their vocation.

I could go on and on raving about how much I love CLI and all that it embodies. I am so committed to sharing my journey with CLI because I am confident that they have the leadership and ability to help me achieve my goals. Thank you CLI!

After studying Chinese for a number of years at a slow pace (1 hour lesson per week, and not doing much homework!), I was keen to try to boost my Chinese progress through an immersion program. Arriving at CLI, I really appreciated the warm welcome, the positive culture, support from the interns and the great tuition from my three teachers. I also was keen to experience all the extra-curricular activities, and enjoyed all of them. I really enjoyed meeting all the staff and all the students, the students come from a wide range of countries, backgrounds, reasons for study and ages. I found it all very inspiring to continue my studies.

I feel that I made rapid progress over my 4 weeks at CLI, and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. I recommend the course to students considering improving their Mandarin Chinese, and I myself am keen to return at some point in the future.

I'd studied Chinese online for a few years, very slowly, but the four weeks I spent at the CLI in Guilin were an amazing boost to my progress, and a wonderful experience!

Support:
The admin support was top-notch; I had some minor issues in getting my visa and when I arrived, and both the admin staff and the student intern who met me on day one (and, later, helped me navigate the many apps!) were warm, supportive, and incredibly helpful. The airport pick-up and drop-off were highly appreciated and seamless.

Classes:
My three teachers were all encouraging, enthusiatic, and dedicated to my progress. They figured out where my weak points were and worked on a plan to address them with me, while shoring up my strengths. My Chinese improved dramatically over the four weeks I studied with them. After a couple weeks, I was having slow conversations with taxi drivers, long chats with people in shops, and waking up thinking in Chinese! My reading speed also advanced a lot. I did spend a fair amount of time outside of class as well reviewing the vocab and grammer, so I'd say if you're prepared to work hard you can really accelerate your progress in a very short time.

Activities:
I did a lot of activities offered through the school, and really enjoyed the option to try them out. I think especially as someone who was only there for a couple weeks, it's hard work to find and plan your own activities, and I enjoyed the school's. I got to see some beautiful scenery (trips out to Yangshuo were great!), eat a lot of amazing meals, and learn a little bit about a variety of things: music, dance, calligraphy, and more. (Also the school lunches are delicious.) The CLI is in a non-touristy part of Guilin but near loads of shops, markets, restaurants, etc., so it's very easy to get around even while you're still figuring things out. I really liked the neighbourhood vibe.

Overall:
I'm very glad I went, and would go again in a heartbeat. Highly recommend.