CET Academic Programs Reviews

This past summer I spent two months in Siena, Italy and had an unforgettable time. I learned so much about not only the Italian language and culture, but also of actual Italian people themselves. I made it my goal to speak as much Italian as possible so I could interact with the locals and make new friends. Plenty of people speak English in Italy but I think that showing Italians that you can speak their language is a great way to start a friendship. I made many friends and even had the privilege of going and staying at two of their house's after the program was completed. It is not easy of course to get to a level where you feel completely immersed. True immersion and fluency take a long time and many people can get discouraged and revert back to English. I did this many times because it was the easy thing to do, but I found that when I really tried to speak Italian only, it became easier and going back to English became less common. I would encourage everyone studying abroad to speak the language as much as possible and try to meet local people. The friends I made in my program were fantastic, and I also made friends outside of it who were equally fantastic. Siena is a great place to live because, unlike Florence or Rome, it is a smaller, less tourist heavy town, and it feels like a more authentic Italian experience. The program was incredible and I already wish I could go back.

CET Harbin was a life-changing experience. I find Chinese a wonderfully delightful language to speak, and being able to converse with just about anyone on the street using what I learned in class was wonderful and great for building my confidence. Prior to going to the country, I thought there was only one path for me, government service and then becoming an interpreter, but going to China took off the blinders and exposed me to countless opportunities in all aspects of life. Although there were challenges, working nonstop in a foreign language can be tear-inducing at the best of times, I made lifelong friends, gained a healthy dose of perspective and ate chicken feet. Who would have guessed?

One highlight of my trip was this Chun Bing restaurant that my roommate introduced me and my friends to. The food is amazing and really cheap. There would usually be about 5 of us going to the restaurant, so we would be able to order about 4 different dishes. My personal favorite was DiSanXian, which had eggplant, potatoes, and peppers. Others really enjoyed the egg dishes.

Living in Siena, Italy was a life changing experience. The people, the food, the culture it really is hard to describe the extent of the experience in words. the support staff for the program, namely Christina, was always helpful and got us out of quite a few problems that we ran into on our adventures. Hiking Cinque Terre, visiting Paris, London, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Venice, Rome,etc was nothing short of incredible. I would highly suggest this program for anyone looking to learn the language of Italian or anyone who likes the beauty of Tuscany. I can't emphasize how lucky I feel to have gone to Italy and been a part of the program.

Please see my review comments in the "how could this program be improved" box below .... thanks! The system somehow would not allow me to copy and paste some observations about my experience that I recorded earlier.

When I entered the program, I could barely speak Arabic even though I had three years of studying under my belt. Now, I am almost fluent in the language, thanks to CET. The language pledge and the rigorous courses helped me grow my language skills in ways that were more accessible than what I was learning at my home university. I would be lying if I said it wasn't difficult. There was a time midway through the semester when I felt I was failing and wanted to go home, but the CET directors recognized my distress and convinced me that I was doing a good job. Without their encouragement, I would not have worked as hard as I did to master the language. I am about to graduate, and I feel more confident in my language skills than I ever was before CET.

Overall, CET was a very positive experience for me. Although sometimes during the program I would feel a bit overwhelmed by the amount of work, and frustrated by my perceived lack of progress, by the end of the program I was quite glad to have done it, and also feel that it helped my Chinese immensely. Looking back, the only real problem was the food. I quickly got tired of the food in Harbin.

Prague is an absolutely great place to live. As a history buff, I loved exploring different areas of the city and examining the art and architecture. I remember when studying abroad, I made an effort to find two to three new places on my own each week and to fully take in my surroundings. I would find various cemeteries, old churches, cathedrals, gardens, etc., and simply wander and absorb everything I could. I can't recommend studying in Prague more highly - it was an irreplaceable experience.

I lived in a house with 3 other American girls and 4 Japanese girls, each in our own room. We'd cook at home and our house was often a gathering place for the students of the program, Japanese and American. I had about 10 hours of Japanese classes a week with students from CET, and then an additional 2 classes, one in English, one in Japanese, with exchange students from CET and other programs. It was hard to break out of the exchange student bubble and meet other Japanese students.
One of the great advantages of living in Osaka (and Japan in general) is how easy it is to travel, and I spent many of my weekends traveling in Osaka, or Kyoto, or Kobe. While I cooked most of my meals, which meant I didn't necessarily eat a traditional Japanese meal most of the time, there are lots of great restaurants to eat at -- and it's not as expensive as everyone says! Prices are very similar to the US, and there is lots of delicious food to try--okonomiyaki, ramen, soba, udon, takoyaki, taiyaki were some of my favorites. Also, I loved being able to go to a sentou or onsen as often as I liked, almost once a week in my case, and that is one of the things I miss moust about living in Aikawa, my neighborhood in Osaka.

The third week of the program I found myself crying in the resident director's office. I had arrived at the program 2 weeks late, and had to catch up. I came into the program with a bare minimum language ability but with knowledge of Mandarin.

Over the course of 3 and a half months I raised up to an intermediate level. I now work and live in Beijing, China and I would never have been able to do that without fighting through the pain, tears, and suffering of learning a language as hard (for an English only speaking person) as Mandarin Chinese.

I was blessed with people who cared about me, wanted to see me do well, and kept subtly pushing me along the way towards completing the program. The day I graduated from CET has been one of the biggest and brightest moments of my life and I would encourage anyone wanting to learn Mandarin to do the same thing as I did and attend the CET Intensive Language Mandarin program.