Studying at Global Village? Other private schools?

[bdffrnt66]

Hi!

Starting early May, I´m taking a "sabbatical" year off and going to Beijing to pick up an old love: studying Mandarin. I´m considering going to Global Village because of its flexible schedule and because I´m not quite sure how rusty my Chinese is after not using it for 10 years! My question is: do they provide the necessary paperwork to apply for a Student Visa? Do you need to register with them for a certain amount of time for that? Or do I just go on a turist visa and apply for a student visa when I´m there? Also, does anybody of you have their phone number?? Any other comments about Global Village would be welcome. Or on any other private school where you can start class anytime during the year, and where it´s easy to upgrade (or downgrade! ) if necessary.

Xiexie!

[Long Pan]

• You should get some answers here
  
• You can register with whatever visa as they do not even ask you to show your passport
  
• Registration is usually done every 2 weeks which is just great in term of flexibility. They have a quiet efficient software to manage all that and which enable this flexibility with only a few girls at the registration desks
  
• Telephone (but you better speak Chinese or Korean): 6256 1947 or 6253 7736 or 6253 7737 - from outside China dial +86 10 and the numbers above
  
• As for the Student Visa, I do not know but I think this question has been asked in the forum before - you can do a quick search
  

[bdffrnt66]

Many thanks for your reply, Long Pan! It´s been very helpful! I´ll give them a call tomorrow to check regarding the visa issue. I´ll post the results in this thread, maybe it can be useful to others. Thanks!

[bdffrnt66]

After 3 earlier attempts, I finally have been able to speak to Ms Liu, the person at Global Village responsible for visas (tel 0086 10 62537736). She said that she will be able to help me extend my F-visa once I´m in China, but they will NOT issue an invitation letter, which according to the Chinese Embassy I need in order to apply for an F-visa to enter China in the first place.

As my phone calls were always in the middle of the night (I´m calling from Spain) and so my brain not working properly (does it ever? ), AND my Chinese is very rusty, I will be asking a Chinese friend of mine to call them again to reconfirm.

If it´s true, however, I only see two possibilities for me:

1) either I try to get an invitation letter from a Chinese company to so-called visit them, and get an F-visa this way;

2) or I fly to Hong Kong first and get an F-visa there, which I heard is very easy.

Unless someone else has another idea...

The contact that I had with Global Village until now, has been very good though: they are friendly, patient and speak very clear Mandarin, Just difficult to get hold of Ms Liu (seems to have a very irregular schedule, maybe from running to the visa office all the time:) )

[FyKnight]

Hi be different,

possibility 3)

Travel over there on an L visa and get it changed to an F visa when you get there. Check out this post. Not sure if it will be so easy with Global Village as with BLCU but I'm sure it's do-able.

[bdffrnt66]

Thanks for your help, FyKnight! I´ve sent dachelun a pm to check the details, because I´ve heard the visa regulations depend on your nationality (I´m an EU national). It also seems to me that for people going to one of the universities like BLCU or BNU, it´s a lot easier because the university will provide all necessary paperwork for you to apply for an X or F visa before you fly to China. But I´m determined to go to Global Village, because of their flexible schedule. Also, on www.thatsbj.com, there´s quite a few posts of people who say it´s NOT possible to change an L visa into an F. So before I fly out, I want to, better said NEED TO, get to the bottom of this! Will keep you posted!

PS. Are you already in China? What is your visa experience?

[FyKnight]

I'm flying into China next week to attend the 12-week BLCU program. I have an L-visa which I intend to change into an F-visa once I get there. When I rang BLCU on Monday to see what the status of my application was - i.e. whether or not they'd sent me out the paperwork yet - they told me to just get an L-visa and convert it once I got there.

As you might guess from my location I'm an Australian. However I think dachelun is from Poland... they've been in the EU for a few years haven't they?

Yes BLCU do give you the appropriate paperwork but I applied a little late and they didn't want to risk it not arriving in time.. even 'tho if they'd sent it that day I'd have been fine - the Sydney consulate has an awesome same-day visa service. Perhaps they hadn't got the form through the bureaucracy yet.

Anyway, I'll be sure to let you know how the conversion process goes. Note that in general it seems to be nigh impossible to get to the bottom of things or get definitive answers in China

[bdffrnt66]

Thanks for the feedback, FyKight! Would be great to hear how your visa conversion works out once you´re there. I still have not heard/read posts, of anyone in exactly the same situation as I am, though: EU national going to China with the sole purpose of studying at a private school such as Global Village, not a university (I think that´s the big difference). Would be good to know how they did it. If you bump in one of them whilst you´re there, let me know!!!

[Long Pan]

I am studing in Diqiucun, with a tourist VISA (3 months); it seems that it is possible to extend it for 6 more months - see this thread, last post; the agency is in Wudaokou. I haven't done it yet but this is what I plan to do.

[bdffrnt66]

Hi Long Pan, thanks for your continuous help! I have a few more questions: is there any particular reason why you will not be using Ms Liu of Global Village to help you extend your visa ? How is your experience with their visa service? Also, I´m a bit surprised about your 3 month tourist visa. From what I can gather from this forum and other sources, the 3 month visa just means you have to use it within 3 months (you have to enter China within 3 months of obtaining the visa) but you can only actually stay for ONE month, and only extendable for 1 more month. Is that true or am I completely wrong?? Also, any feedback about Global Village would be greatly appreciated!

P.S. Are you an EU citizen?

P.S I will be calling the visa agency in Wudaokou

[Long Pan]

I am French and got my tourist VISA in Paris. I had 3 months to enter China, and once in, 3 months to stay. Chinese VISA are a bit confusing because they seem to be different from one country to another - but this type of 3 months tourist visa is always what I got in Paris.

I still have 2 months on this VISA so I haven't started yet to worry about it. I know that it is easy to get a 1 month extension, and that at least if I cannot get 6 months more here through an agency, I can always go to HK where everybody seems to agree that you can get a 6 months visa easily. A friend of mine (French also) is in the process to extend her tourist VISA through an agency in Beijing - I will ask her how it is going. As for Global Village, it tends to be a bit the mess here in 办公室 so I tend to avoid the place and only go to the courses.

[bdffrnt66]

Thanks again for your answer, Long Pan. That´s cleared up a lot of doubts I had. Still would be good to hear the experience of your friend. Obviously using an agency in Beijing or (if need be) in Hong Kong, seems to be the easiest thing to do in order to extend your visa, but I would like to avoid that if possible. I lived in Taiwan for 7 years, during which I had to go to the police station every 3 months and leave the country every 6 months (flying out to HK). After a while, it really gets to be a drag. I´d rather avoid that kind of situations while studying in China. I guess I would really like to figure out the easiest/cheapest way to stay in China for the longest time possible. Anyways, thanks again for your help!

[bianfuxia]

My post provides some recent information for you to consider about alternative private schools in Beijing. There are tonnes of them, of course. In the last week I went to trial classes at 4 of them and have signed up for a month at Frontiers. Read on to find out why. It's all anecdotal of course but you might find it helpful.

I'm an "upper elementary" student. I did a half-assed semester at the BLCU which in retrospect provided a much better basis than I thought it would. But I'm hardly the world's most diligent student so that's where I am.

The biggest conclusion I made is that the best thing to do is TRY before you BUY - for me, almost everything depends on the individual teacher. His/her teaching method and ability to explain things clearly is critical. I chose Frontiers on this basis even though it wasn't the cheapest. Second most important factor for me is the level of the other students. Ideally I want to be in the upper 50%, so the class pace is fast enough, not too fast, but I don't feel dragged down by the slower classmates (or that I am holding everyone else up). Third would be the text book they use. Only fourth, for me, comes price (assuming the options are all within what I can afford - I ruled out a few on the basis of price alone).

School: Canjie Mandarin School.

Location: Heng'an Building, South of the Zhaolong Hotel, 6591 0933. A long walk from Dong Si Shi Tiao subway.

Advertising offers: Group classes at all levels, all subjects. They have a maximum of 5 per group.

Price: 30 rmb per 50 minutes. Each class is composed of 2 x 50 minutes. There's also an option to take 'super small classes' (2 people) for 840Y per month. Private classes: 70Y per hour.

CLASS: I attended a class which had only one other participant (a second person was absent). The teacher meant well but wasn't very good at explaining things - when the other guy asked her some questions she really struggled to communicate. They use a terrible book there, with a lot of philosophical kind of texts (rather than more "every-day" kind of stuff) . OK for some, but not what I am after just yet.

The level was actually a bit high for me, and I struggled to keep up. They had nothing to offer at that time at my actual level, other than "take a private class".

Admin: Were attentive and responsive.

School: Juncheng School of Linguistics

Location: Two branches. One in Wangjing, the other at the East Road of Beijing Railway Station. The walk from the subway was pretty seedy.

Advertising offers: group classes at all levels, all subjects. They have a maximum of 10 per group.

Price: Regular Chinese courses: 3,150Y Monday-Friday, 3 hours per day per 3 months. There's visa assistance, and will give accommodation assistance. HSK courses 1,200Y per month, Monday to Friday 13:30-15:30. Private classes 80Y per hour (at the school)

There's a one time registration fee of 100Y. To do a one-month upper elementary course there would have been 800Y.

CLASS: I took two classes here, both supposedly upper elementary but one was further along in the text book than the other. The first, lower, class had a fantastic teacher but after 2 hours in the class it was clear that I was a bit more advanced than both the material and the class mates. It's a shame, because the teacher had an excellent, clear way of speaking, she could explain things in Chinese and only resorted to her excellent English when absolutely necessary. The book was much better - stupidly I didn't write down which books were used - but it was one that is commonly seen around and perfectly acceptable as far as these books go (in that they are generally pretty much the same). That class had quite a multicultural mix - Polish, Russian, Turkish, Korean and I would have been classmate number 8 if I'd stayed.

I did the next class up and the teacher was quite good but not as stand-out as the first one. If I could have had the first teacher and the second class, I probably would have stayed there. But the second class was a bit less fun. Also, it was only Korean and Japanese class-mates, which for me is difficult because I find (generally speaking) their Chinese a little more difficult to understand due to pronunciation issues. The teacher spent a lot of the class time correcting them on basic sounds which was going to get pretty annoying pretty quickly.

Ultimately I decided against this school because I couldn't find the right mix of teacher, level and classmates. If I was a little less advanced, I would have taken the lower class in a heartbeat. This school has a nice environment and is well priced.

Admin: Quite helpful and accommodating. They were patient and let me sit in on 2 classes.

School: Frontiers

Location: Dongzhimen and Jianguomen.

Advertising offers: Courses designed for all levels, from beginner to advanced, as well as specialised courses in business Chinese, HSK, current events etc.

Price: 1470Y for 42 hours. (payment done as a package) Private classes are 80Y per hour.

I went to the Jianguomen branch and very quickly found out that they had no classes at all. The branch is new so they have no students yet. They asked their manager if they could set up a beginning/intermediate class and they said: pay for private class then roll them over when some more students enrol'...

At Dongzhimen things were much better. I tried 2 classes, again, and found that the lower level class, which had only 2 other students, was burdened with a teacher of poor quality. An example: we were studying the use of "zheng hao" meaning "precisely or exactly", as in when you give the shop assistant exactly the correct money and they say "zheng hao". The teacher had a lot of difficulty explaining this. She had made some exercises for us to fill out. One said: "A: You're on time today!" "B: Yes, I took the subway...". After some confusion at our proposed answers she told us she'd designed the answer to say "Yes I took the subway and when i arrived I saw a friend and he has a car so he offered me a lift and that's how I got here "zheng hao" at 2pm". (rough translation of course). Rather convoluted, no? I also felt that the other classmates reverted to English too much, probably because they had trouble understanding the teacher in Chinese. There were a lot of discussions along the lines of "what is it, how does this work?" etc.

So that afternoon I took the more advanced class which was right about the correct level for me. It has 3 other students, one less advanced, one about the same, and one a bit higher. The teacher is excellent, nearly as good as the mythically fantastic one from the other school. He has solid English but is adept at explaining things in Chinese and the class is conducted almost exclusively in that.

It's more expensive here, 1470 for 42 hrs broken down into 9 hrs per week spread over 3 days/wk, but for me it was within budget and therefore the best choice, based on the teacher-students-level equation.

Admin: Very helpful. Even cut me a discount on the basis that I would miss the 2 last classes because I have to leave the country before my month's package ends.

Di Qiu Cun

There's lots of info about DQC but I also tried there.

Basically I found the teachers to be ok, probably average compared to the others I've seen. This time around, my class sizes were good - only about 5. Other times I've tried there, though, I've been crammed in with 20 other students for a kouyu class which isn't ideal. I might have perservered with the smaller class this time around except that Wudaokou is quite a way from where I live. Plus, I don't like the heavy smoke environment that pervades the building! Still, there is no denying that DQC offers a huge range of classes and time slots and the teachers generally seem competent.

[ffswoo]

Thanks for the reviews, bianfuxia. About your advice to try before you buy - do most private schools allow a free trial lesson?

[bdffrnt66]

Hi Bianfuxia, thanks for the info on the other schools. I will be checking them out when I´m there, although my preference still seems to go to Di Qiu Cun (Global Village) because of wide choice/flexibility/price.

For those of you following this thread because of the visa situation when studying at a private school: as mentioned in an earlier post, I had a Chinese friend of mine call Global Village, and it was confirmed that they can not give you an invitation letter to apply for an F-visa abroad, and they can not help you with changing an L-visa into an F-visa. I probably will be taking Long Pan´s advice and just use a visa agency. My Chinese friend found the admin people at Global Village rude, and unwilling to get into details over the phone regarding costs of extending visas etc...Will be continued!

[Jekai]

I've been watching this thread hoping for good news about getting a student visa (I assume you mean student X visa, an F is a business visa) to study at Global Village as I also want to come here for a year, but it looks like no luck.

Do any private schools in Beijing have the ability to grant X visas, or just universities? Also, do agencies have some sort of special pull to get better visas than I can on my own through the embassy? This is all very confusing and was easier last summer when I didn't need more than a tourist visa.

[bdffrnt66]

Hi Jekai! Apparently, an X visa is for students studying for more than 6 months, and an F-visa is either for business OR for short term students (less than 6 months). But Global Village is not allowed to issue the "invitation letter" which is needed to apply for an F or an X visa...I have not yet figured out for sure if there are other private schools that can issue it, but I´m getting the impression it´s only the universities that can. Really seems that, if you want to tudy at a private school, the best is to use the visa agencies, who have the necessary guangxi to pull things through.

[yonitabonita]

Yes most schools allow you to try before you buy. But usually just one class though.

The staff at Diqiucun are notoriously rude. They're paid an absolute pittance and have no incentive to be helpful. I'm referring to the people at the front desk, not the teachers. My teachers are nice and I suppose that's what counts.

As for visas, only universities as far as I know are able to help you with X visas. Private schools can't. Several staff at the BLCU, Diqiucun were consistent on this point.

I went through this process when I dropped out of the BLCU last year. The end result was that I went to HK and switched to a F visa. I went to HK again in February for a 'visa' holiday. Bit of a hassle, but beyond that first extension which must be done overseas (or HK), additional extensions can be done in Beijing.

hope this helps.

y

[Long Pan]

See here for more info on the agency in Wudaokou for L visa extension (up to one year)