Chinese immersion

I was looking for a program that could help me to quickly improve my almost non existant spoken Chinese skills and based on a friend's recommendation chose LTL.

Course:
I studied 1-on-1 classes and I found the course was outstandingly well taught. My teacher was well prepared, professional, and very experienced with hopelessly tonedeaf students like me. I found the quality of classes at LTL significantly better than what I had experienced previously at the Confucius Instiute at my university

Homestay:
Living with a Chinese family was what helped me to finally overcome my "fear or speaking Chinese". They were very patient, but insisted on me using my - very limited at the beginning - Mandarin skills to get through daily life, which was a challenge at the beginning, but in the end this was what built up my confidence and got me to start speaking Mandarin in day to day situations. The food was great and the apartment very nice. I had a private, spacious bedroom, with my own en-suite bathroom. It took me about 30 minutes to get to the school by subway.

Community:
Studying at 1-on-1 program I was a bit concerned that I would struggle to make friends at the school. This however turned out not to be a problem at all. All students eat lunch together on the balcony and there are a lot of school activities, dinners, trips etc. and it is very easy to make friends.