GoAbroadChina high school small group Chinese class with homestay

My name is Malin Stifler. I'm from Orlando Florida and I joined Go Abroad China's high school Chinese language immersion program for two weeks.

I do it with my sister and we're in Beijing staying with a host family. Every Monday through Friday from 9:00 to 12:00, we attend language classes and we take two classes. The first one is easier
and then the second one is a bit harder but it's still really fun. I've been learning a lot from both of the classes and my Mandarin is improved a lot. It was really great to be immersed in the culture and in the language to learn so much and overall it was just a really great experience in the classes. We made a lot of new friends and we met so many people from so many different countries. The first class I think it really helped me with some like basic vocabulary and basic grammar and then the second class even though it's a bit harder it helped my comprehension a lot. I learned at a much quicker pace than I would have in the US. It was just a super great opportunity.

The school was only a few subway stops away and there's subway so fast here so it was not a problem taking it at all. The area that the school was very international so it was really cool to see all the different restaurants and see so many foreigners from different places. They're just cool to interact with everybody.

In the afternoons we would come home or we would go sightseeing. We went to the temple of heaven in the Forbidden City and so many other cool places like temples and places. Because Beijing is so big and has so many different places to visit and on the weekends we would hang out with the host family and the I always talk to the little girl and the mom.

We got to visit a lot of like daily Beijing life stuff like the supermarket and like the mall which are both really big and totally different from what we have in America. Being immersed here is just such an amazing experience and if I had the chance I would definitely do it again. I definitely take language classes again so I can meet all of these so cool like people there were so many different places.

Overall is just so cool being in Beijing and I had a really great time being here even though it was only for two weeks. I've learned so much I wish I could stay longer but overall the trip was really great.