Going to China to learn Chinese

My experience learning Chinese? Well I got my foundation from a couple of Mandarin classes per week at university, but as part of my course I found myself needing to go to China to really focus on the language.

I ended up enrolling at the Beijing Language and Culture University, which I later learned that it is one of the best at teaching Chinese language in China. I applied through Go Abroad China; during the planning stages with them, I was drawn to the fact that they would arrange for me to get picked up from the airport, my accommodation would be prepared by them and the whole application process into BLCU was easier with someone there helping me.

I was nervous about studying away from my usual environment, BLCU had its fun times and its tough moments. The class sizes were relatively small, my classmates all foreigners there to study Chinese. I was definitely in one of the beginner classes, but I learned that they arrange different classes depending on your Chinese level. First thing that definitely stood out to me was going to class every day for around 4 -6 hours to learn Chinese, I mean back home it would be half of that per week! Now I’m not a great student but I have always managed to do what is required. At BLCU, my workload definitely increased from what I was used to, but textbooks is nothing to worry about as they will be given to you at school. I will admit that after a while I got my rhythm and started enjoying my classes. I absolutely had fun with my classmates especially with the speaking lessons, as for writing characters, it was tricky to begin with but as my teacher had shared with us, there are all sorts of tricks to use to remember them!

The environment at BLCU: I thoroughly enjoyed it. The campus is not overly large but you get to meet so many people from different countries, (occasionally a few in the same situation as I, having gone through Go Abroad China) prepare to learn about countries you have never even heard of! But seriously, I noticed a big improvement in my spoken Chinese level after a few weeks, probably from all those practice conversations we did in class almost everyday. In that sense I am really happy, my teacher was always really nice to us and made class enjoyable. If I had another chance to return to China I would definitely be back.