<p>Any parents with children who have children doing study abroad at one of the following schools:</p>
<p>Case Western
Lawrence
St. Olaf</p>
<p>... or experience with Chinese language study abroad?</p>
<p>would love to hear about your experiences</p>
<p>CC has recently added a study abroad forum here: <a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/forumdisplay.php?f=673%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/forumdisplay.php?f=673</a></p>
<p>My daughter studied Chinese language in Taiwan this summer and will be spending the fall semester studying Chinese language in Beijing. Is there anything specific you would like to know about her experience?</p>
<p>My son was going to do the study abroad in London at LU but decided against it last year for this year. Reason: He has spent his entire life abroad and is enjoying being in the states, loves Appleton and wanted the best housing on campus. The housing options are impacted by study abroad.</p>
<p>what college is she attending in the states and what is the school affiliation in Beijing? He had even thought of doing a gap year and going to Beijing to only do language and writing studies.</p>
<p>I studied in Beijing last year, at Bei Da (Peking Uni). I thought the course was ok, but nothing spectacular, to be honest. At the end of the semester many of my classmates transferred to either Bei Shi Da (Beijing Normal University) or Bei Yu (BLCU). If I'd have been scheduled to stay longer, I would have transferred too. </p>
<p>I think a few US unis have switched their affiliation from Bei Da, due to concerns over the quality of the course (this is anecdotal). I've been studying in Taipei this summer, and I have to say, the course is MUCH better. The resources and general teaching standard are far higher than at Bei Da. </p>
<p>I also did a gap year in China - but I taught English mostly, and just studied a bit of Chinese on the side. I have friends who did 1 year courses at various Chinese universities though - Nanjing University was popular, and so was Fudan (in Shanghai). </p>
<p>Your son may need to consider whether he wants to sacrifice standard Mandarin for fluency, to be honest. Often, it's hard to become fluent in the big cities, because there will be other English speakers around and it's a temptation to speak Chinese in class and English all the rest of the time. On the other hand, if you go to a uni in the back end of nowhere and speak nothing but Chinese, chances are that the teachers will speak in a strong accent and may throw in vocab from their local dialect which no one else will understand. It's a difficult choice.</p>
<p>My daughter goes to Swarthmore and will be studying at the ACC program in Beijing, which is affiliated with Hamilton College. It is very highly regarded and the students have to take a pledge to speak only Mandarin. They are not allowed to speak English to their classmates, to Chinese students who want to practice their English, or to anyone else. </p>
<p>This summer, she studied at the ICLP program in Taiwan. This program does not provide housing and students must find their own. She was fortunate to live in an apartment owned by a friend of my Taiwanese-American colleague (the friend who owns the apartment happens to be a professor of early childhood education). The apartment was in a section of Taipei quite a distance from her school and she spent a lot of time with her hostess, other members of the hostess's family, and her hostess's students, speaking Mandarin with them. She even gave a PowerPoint presentation of her photos entitled "My American Life" to the hostess's class (I thought she was very brave to do that!!) Her fluency improved dramatically in the 10 weeks she was in Taiwan, so she will be starting her studies at ACC in Beijing at a much higher language level than if she had not spent the summer in Taipei.</p>