Ron at his Host Family's Son's Wedding Dinner
DiQiuCun (Global Village) Language School in Beijing
Students in China - Ron in Beijing
This spring I completed my third month-long trip to China to study Mandarin. It has become a yearly habit, as I can afford the time and it’s a perfect complement to Chinese classes at the Northwest China Council. In spite of being immersed in a foreign language for a month plus, I enjoy it tremendously and return home with renewed confidence in my speaking and listening abilities.
I chose April for its brief interlude of mild weather in Beijing as the city transitions from cold winter to warm summer weather. The plan mostly worked. The previous time I studied there, in late February though March, the temperature hovered at freezing most of the time. My room wasn’t much warmer. This time was much better.
One of my goals for this trip was to minimize cost so that I could afford to make language study trips more often. My plan was to avoid schools that cater to westerners, since these tend to charge western rates. I also decided to find a place to stay myself rather than go through the school. This was easy, since I had established a number of contacts during my first trip to Beijing. I ended up living with a host family, which included a room, breakfast, dinner, and a very talkative non-English-speaking family. The total cost for 5 weeks in Beijing, including airfare, room, board, and tuition, was around US $1600. This was compared to more than double that for my first stay.
I ended up studying at the Diqiucun Language School (地球村培训学校) in Beijing’s Haidian District, which caters almost entirely to Korean students. Last year while traveling through Beijing, my teacher, Willow, scoped out language schools for her students, including Diquicun. She found several good schools, but especially liked Diqiucun for its combination of price, quality, and location. She also was familiar their textbooks.