Awesome program but not for the weak of heart

If you are thinking about this program then you need to ask yourself do you REALLY want to learn Chinese language? Do you REALLY want to learn Martial arts? Do you want to learn about yourself? If your answer to any of the above questions ranged from no to maybe I would seriously reconsider Academic Explorers. Otherwise, you may have found the single best program in the world for your interests.

During my six months on the program I was constantly tired and hungry, frustrated and anxious. Both the Chinese teachers and the Martial Arts teachers push you to your limit physically and mentally. From morning to bedtime I knew exactly what my schedule looked like and it was grueling. That being said, during my time there I went from absolutely zero background in martial arts or Chinese to (and I do not use this world lightly) having mastered a sword form complete with aerial kicks, stunts and a mid-air split and my Chinese went from non-existent to comfortably survival/moderately conversational.

This is not your after-high-school-time-to-relax-gap-year-program. This is a mind-opening and potential releasing experience. This is not something you do for fun, this is something you do to dramatically improve who you are as a person.

On the Chinese instruction, IT IS PHENOMENAL! Enough said.

On the Martial Arts, think less martial more arts. The physical discomfort of learning a martial art will dwarf any amount of pain that someone else can inflict on you. Good martial arts isn't about dominating you opponent, it is about learning to dominate yourself and by doing so no enemy will ever be able to defeat you. If there is one thing that I will take with me from my time there it is not my physical fitness (which has probably all but faded by this point) but rather the knowledge that the only thing standing in my way is myself. The opportunities are all their it is just our own biases and flaws that keep us from seizing them.

Academic Explorers fundamentally changed how I see the world in the best way possible.