Kunming College of Eastern Language and Culture

[cliveloughlin]

Hi there

I am thinking about going to Kunming College of Eastern Language and Culture to study for about a year from September 2007.

I'm just wondering if anyone has heard of it, its quality etc. I haven't seen any other posts about this school (it's not a university).

All comments welcome!!

Thanks

Clive

[roddy]

There are a few posts on it if you search for the name, but nothing recent.

[Xiao Kui]

I'm currently attending this school. I really like it. They let you sit in on 3 classes for free to check them out. They have pretty flexible times as far as the classes. Right now there are over 200 foreign students. Most of the other people I talk to like it as well.

I think the quality of instruction I'm getting is much better than I got studying at Yunnan Normal in 2000 or in Kunming University of Science and Technology in 2004. I'm taking an advanced class and the teacher's great - I've also sat in on a beginner's class and it was good too. When I studied in the public universities I had 3 teachers that left mid semester, so we had to change teachers, which really upset the flow of the class - none of these teachers were as knowledgeable or could teach as well as the KCELC teachers.

The only gripe I've had with them so far is the waiban forgot to communicate some key things to me, such as that I had to have a medical exam (If your student visa is for 6 months or more you definitely need a 310 yuan medical exam.) and that I was entitled to my student card (you can use this to get steep discounts on travel tickets and entry into parks and tourist attractions) Apart from this I think it's a good school and I'm continuing my studies there.

[cliveloughlin]

Xiao Hui

Fan chang gan xie...

Hao xiao xi

Cj

[mr.stinky]

do a search on 'ELCEC'

[themaninchina]

I should have our review of the school posted to my website in a day or so. http://www.themaninchina.com but the short answer is we were very happy with the school, the staff and the teachers. The price of instruction was very reasonable. The teachers were excellent. The atmosphere at the school was like being welcomed into a family. My girlfriend and I set up private lessons through the school for our Spring vacation, a total of twenty days, four hours a day. We're in our third year in China, this contract teaching at Southern Yangtze University in Wuxi, but our students are English majors who all speak excellent English and want to practice speaking English. It's easy to get along with minimal, or no, Chinese. Learning to speak Chinese takes constant and conscious effort. Our month of classes in Kunming has really jump started our learning and we had a great time there. I highly recommend the school.

[Maxwell Plank]

Hi, I'm looking into KCELC and a few other private language institutes in Kunming. There's already a lot written on this board about Keats and one or two other institutes. But I'd be very interested to hear about other people's experiences at this KCELC, particularly teaching quality, and also, if anyone did a homestay, what that experience was like, and anything else relevant.

Thanks for the info!

[steveg]

Hey Maxwell, I'm also interested in hearing more about this college. I've only heard a few reports and so far they have been positive. I'll be attending in Feb if I ultimately choose KCELC. Cheers

[Maxwell Plank]

I understand that KCELC has several hundred students, while Keats only has 2 or 3 dozen. This creates a mystery surrounding the discrepancy in the number of posts on this board over the years critiquing each school, with Keats getting many more responses than KCELC.

[roddy]

Keats actually asks students to come along here and post. We have no problem with this, and it explains why a smaller school like Keats gets more coverage.

[steveg]

I was also under the impression that most the students at KCELC wouldn't speak English or have it as a second language (Thais, Vietnamese etc.)

[pandaxiongmao]

I went to KCELC a few years ago. At the time, I'd say most of the higher level students were Korean or Vietnamese, while there were a number of westerners in the beginner classes. At the intermediate level and beyond, not many westerners. Not many Thais at any level. It might have changed since then.

Teaching quality depends on whose classes you have, as seems to be the case anywhere. I found the administrators to be very responsive to my needs, much more so than the Uni courses I've taken in China.

[terryswift]

i think kcelc has had several hundred students. but, at one time i think they have in the 100 to 150 range. i went there about three years ago, so my info is dated. but i occassionally keep in touch with a couple of teachers there. when i was there, there were some vietnamese students especially in the higher levels, but most of the students were westerners. the teachers i think were as good as anywhere; some of the teachers could speak english very well, and some of them also taught in the unis in km. i would recommend this school, especially for the price - and the class-size. as i said, my info is quite dated, but 'mr.stinky' is or was a student there, and i have seen many posts by him, so if he is still around his ideas would probably be more useful. i know they also (within the last month) moved to a different location. there is also another option in kunming called yunnan overseas chinese education center (yocec). the tuition is very cheap, but nearly all the students are from other asian countries (mostly thai and vietnamese). the classes there were about the same as other places content-wise, but they didnt control the class-size , and some were very large. they have a dorm, but the major downside of that was that they had a very early curfew so maybe you would prefer to find your own housing.

[Ouyangrui]

Well something has definitely changed since 2007. I was promised I could take the classes I wanted at the west campus in July, but come August they wouldn't let me attend the classes I wanted. They forced me to pay tuition saying the police would send me home otherwise. Never arranged classes. Have so far refused to refund my tuition in August, October, and December. I finally changed schools in October after not having a single class. The reason for not refunding my tuition? I have no idea, they have only stated that the director responsible has been fired for it. Is that even legal?

[jackiechanbabe]

Hi. I was checking out KCELC and it seems very affordable. Seems like for 6 weeks of instruction it would only be $400. Can anyone tell me about:

1. Class size for beginners class

2. Where would I live?! Do they offer housing? Or would I have to find some on my own? (I'm only there for 2 months, mind you)

3. Are there cultural activities?

4. How is the location?

5. Can you add private tutoring on to the 18 hours?

Thanks!

[abcdefg]

Hi. I was checking out KCELC and it seems very affordable. Seems like for 6 weeks of instruction it would only be $400. Can anyone tell me about:

I presently study there and am well pleased. The Spring semester ends on Friday 9 July. Classes don't start again until the last part of September, so I don't think it would suit your need for a summer school. Beginner classes have 10 or 12 students on average.

They don't offer housing. The location of their main campus is central and convenient. Cultural activities are close to nil. You can certainly add private tutoring.

[putonghua73]

abcdefg,

Could I ask you to provide more information on your experience at KCELC and contrast with Keats please? (or other Universities / language schools in Kunming). I realise that one may be comparing apples with oranges, but it would be interesting to hear from students comparing and contrasting different language schools in terms of classroom based learning i.e. quality of teachers, class size, pace, teaching materials, other students etc, and contrasting against 1-2-1 tuition.

One of the principal reasons I choose to study in Kunming, was aside from my preferences in choice of living environment, it was primarily because of Keats. Whilst I cannot go back to classroom based learning (nothing wrong, as I had excellent experience at International House, and particularly SOAS - including meeting fellow language studiers), I'm still interested in looking and evaluating the range of [Chinese] learning options for the next time I study in China (if I do have to return to London at end of September).

Cheers!

P.s. I did laugh at the irony of an institute called 'Kunming College of Eastern Language and Culture' offering cultural activities "close to nil" ;)

[onlyone]

Two Chinese schools in Kunming nowadays offer 20 weeks for just 2700 with good qualifications and respected teachers .I wonder why the other schools don't reduce the fees yet.

[putonghua73]

You need to compare apples with apples. Keats (not sure about the other language school) have not yet started their new venture, and there are a couple of differing points:

1. Only 20 week term from August to December

2. 2 hours each class

Cheers!

[GladOn]

onlyone, this is clearly underpricing. Kunming is cheaper than the rest of China, but like all over the country, prices are raising (house, apartment, goods, services, and so on ...)

logically, it should rise like the rest of goods and services. or at least stay stable. But from about 4000 it dropped to 2700. If you consider all the expenses (rent but not only), teachers expenses (even paid miserably), you can understand that those offering 2700 for 20 weeks, are loosing money or at best they earn nothing.

And unless they want to disappear, they will rise their price again after a relative short period of time.

And [very] probably they will rise over the average of what the "normal" prices were before, because of all the money they lost or did not earn when dropping the prices.

Finally, the students pay the bill, when prices are drastically rising again. These are already well known schemes.

I hope it helped you to understand why other wiser institution are not following these 2 schools.

ps: as for good qualification and "respected", i don't really have clues, just heard about 20 rmb an hour with crazy heavy schedule over the weeks. bad working conditions.

But if you think deeper, you understand why you can not give good working conditions when you are using these kind of methods of underpricing. Money is missing.

And bad working conditions higher the potential of bad teaching and service quality (teachers, peoples are heavily tired).

Finally, subscribing to these kind of under-priced programs, will encourage worse teaching and service quality.

I would stay away from these two institutions. They are not helping Chinese learners at all.