Program Reviews

It was my first trip to China and I wanted to improve my Chinese skills. I booked this 2 weeks class and it was a great choice. Not only the city itself is beautiful, but the school is amazing. My only regret is that I haven’t booked a longer class. I took mandarin classes in the morning and Taichi classes in the afternoon, I had a language partner to practice with everyday. I improved my Chinese and discovered the culture too. I met tons of new people from everywhere. All the staff members I met were helpful and I felt home everyday. Thanks for these beautiful two weeks!

My 3 kids joined the summer camp for 2 weeks. Through this camp they learned not only Chinese but also learned a life skill. Such as communication skill,self management skill and being considerate for others. They shared a room and spend 24 hours together with friends.
They could mix with friends from different countries and different ages.
Omeida provided Chinese lessons in the morning and exciting activities afternoon like cave exploring,kayaking and cooking classes etc.
What I appreciated a lot was they kept phones away most of the time. So that kids could connect well with each others,became very close friends such a short period.
Thank you to all the dedicated and friendly teachers and very helpful staffs! Thank youuuu

Hello everyone! One week now that I came back home! The trip to China was wonderful!
I study Chinese at the Official Language School in Valencia (Spain) and wanted to visit China for my first time. My colleagues will travel to Omeida next September, I couldn't do it in September, so I decided to go by myself now in July. Great idea!

Omeida English and Chinese schools are very well organised. Besides the classes, having a language partner (50/50 English/ Chinese) was great! Mine even took me to make some tourism around and helped me shopping too! Volunteering to speak English with Chinese people studying English was fun too!! (Doing that Omeida provides hosting!)

My main purpose was to learn practical chinese and improve general fluency. I only stayed two weeks, but I could see how it improved. Not only because of the classes, but also thanks to the language partner and speaking at local shops and restaurants!
Yangshuo, with its spectacular lanscape, is the perfect small-medium size location for that! Omeida also favor meeting people from all the world, with the nice common lounge and their cultural activities. Omeida staff are all very nice people, always trying to help you.

Overall a fantastic trip! 👍

Went to Omeida with the purpose of learning practical chinese to travel within China and improve general fluency. Over 3 weeks learnt lots of new vocabulary, made some great friends and saw some of the most beautiful views in YangShuo, well worth the time spent!

During the afternoons and nights you can choose to spend time with fellow chinese students or venture out to the English school where you will meet chinese native students learning English. It’s a really immersive experience where you will meet a diverse range of individuals.

This program was amazing! On the learning side, I made huge progress in Mandarin over my 2 month stay. My teacher was excellent, the staff was great and very supportive, and my fellow classmates were so much fun to be with! Omeida has a great formula here: with the two schools (Chinese learning and English learning) right next to each other, it creates an incredible atmosphere of interaction and as a result we make great strides in learning not only the language, but also the culture! Part of the program includes paring students up as "language partners". This enabled us to continue learning outside the classroom (while hiking in the evening, having dinner together, hanging out in the evening listening to live music, etc!) and also created lifelong friendships! The volunteering opportunity at Omeida was perfect, allowing me to help the Chinese students improve their English conversational speaking and listening abilities in a relaxed and fun manner. And I also learned a lot in the process! Yangshuo is a great place and perfect setting to enjoy and learn Mandarin 24/7. Perhaps one of the best indicators of how great Omeida is: the number of people who keep returning year after year! That speaks for itself! And after my first time at Omeida this past Spring, I fully intend to be yet another of those returning students and volunteer next year, and the years after! Thank you Omeida for this wonderful opportunity!!

I volunteered for 9 months at the marketing department helping with social media channels and communication tasks while taking mandarin classes. The team is helpful, welcoming and open to listen to new ideas. I had a flexible schedule and the job was clear and easy to do.

The accommodation provided was clean and convenient, with a private bathroom and common laundry area. As a shared room with a Chinese student, I had many opportunities to interact and learn about language and culture. The school organizes weekly cultural and outdoor activities that make this a real immersive and fun experience. They also have a comfy student lounge where you can meet people, play mahjong, or just chill with a coffee.

The location is great, in a small town among beautiful fairy-tale-like mountains. It's easy to rent an electric scooter or bicycle and explore the river and countryside nearby. It is also very safe at all times.

I couldn't ask anything better !!
Yangshou is simply amaizing, beautiful landscape, many things to do and people there are so friendly.
But is Omeida the main point of the experience:
They support you for any kind of things, the lessons time is such a fun and fast learning.. as main things they help you to integrate with the Chinese culture an local people, you can make many friends to hang out with, there are culture class, different escursions, and lot more..
What else.. Just make your reservation ;)

School and teachers were excellent. I came to Yangshuo thinking I would spend most of my time exploring and learn Chinese on the side, but the classes were so good I instead spent most of my time studying and had almost no time to explore! Jingjing and Vivian were kind, patient, explained very clearly and tailored the classes to my needs. While I didn't take classes with them, all the other teachers were also warm and friendly when we interacted around school. The people really made my experience there special - should also mention student cafe lady aunty Jing, lunch room lady Lin Na, and other teachers/staff at Omeida Wency, Anya, Rachel and Lucy.

I spent 4 weeks in Yangshou at the Omeida Academy learning Chinese.
What works well. The good.
-The Academy is set up with an English school and a Chinese school. The programs are designed to provide interactions with the students from the other school. The school set up a language partner for me (and anyone who requests it) so 1 hour a day I met with a student from the English Academy we timed 30 minutes where no English was spoken, then 30 minutes where no Chinese was spoken. This provided good practice for my Chinese.
-Many activities planned by the school. Each week there is a Saturday activity when I was there they were 1) a visit to a tea plantation 2) climbing the TV tower mountain in Yangshou (fabulous views from here) 3) river tracing. Each week there was a Wednesday cultural session (1 hour).
There is a weekly English corner activity for the English Academy. Two times there were dinners/barbeques for all the students. You could choose to attend or not attend any or all of these events.
-I lived in the school dormitory and could have chosen to have a roommate (Chinese national) from the English school. That would have provided further practice for my Chinese skills.
- There is a study room/lounge/coffee shop that provides a very active place for interaction.
-The school is close to many small restaurants/street vendors. When I was eating at them often times students from the Chinese academy would see me and join me for the meal. More oppurtunities to practice Chinese. Plus the communication with the local vendors is in Chinese.
-The school is well set up to provide many opportunities to speak Chinese.
-The teachers provided lessons that were generally fun and learning experiences.

The bad:
-There is a lot of turnover of students. Students come for times varying from 1 week to many months. They also have varying abilities in Chinese. This means there not a real opportunity for the teacher to direct the instruction in the long term at you. The class are relatively small typically 3 or 4 students. The last week one class has 2 students in it. In that class the teacher was able to focus the lessons for the 2 students she had.
The school does the best it can with the situation it is in.

Take home. I would recommend coming to Omeida if this was your first exposure to China, if you want to brush up your Chinese (1-3 weeks), or if you are starting at a no Chinese level. The school is set up for you to learn a lot in the time you are here.

For me, I have lived in China for 10 years and for the classroom experience think I would have been better served by one-on-one sessions.

People from all over the world, and of all ages were here. They got along quite well and had a good time together. I give the overall experience a 5/5.

I spent 6 weeks at Omeida in late 2023 as part of a longer trip though Asia. I was starting from zero and was interested in learning some basic mandarin, learning more about China, exploring a beautiful place and meeting some new friends. During my six weeks with Omeida I achieved every one of my aims!

The school is really well organised, really cares about your overall experience and creates regular opportunities for you to explore nearby places and learn more about China as a whole. Good times