The Harbin Mandarin School, Harbin

[roddy]

Eh? Since when has Will-Excel taught Chinese? KDavid, explain yourself . . .

[kdavid]

Eh? Since when has Will-Excel taught Chinese? KDavid, explain yourself . . .

Our TESOL course offers 20 (group) hours as part of the course, and an add-on of an additional 20 hours (private), but we stop there.

[bickcam]

Took 2 weeks of classes May 2012 and found the school to be excellent. They were very accommodating and tailored classes to my needs e.g conversational Mandarin and were able to meet my timetable.

[Kaixinguo Billy]

@bickham, Thank you for this feedback. I'm looking forward!

[llamaesque]

I thought some people considering study in Harbin might appreciate my personal experience with this school, so here we go. I studied with Mandarin Workshop in Harbin for four months starting in Jan this year, ending in late May. Overall the experience was excellent and I would recommend the school without hesitation.

The factor that sets this school aside from others is the 4 hours of private classes per weekday. This was perfect for me to tailor my study to suit my learning speed and attend to my problem areas. While the school is more expensive than others I found in Harbin, it is worth it alone for the personal attention and private accommodation.

One-on-one learning can be draining, so make sure you get enough rest for class each day. Fortunately, I had a superb teacher who was very easy to get along with. He was a pleasure to spend time with each day, as well as being very knowledgeable about Chinese history and culture, about Harbin itself, and of course an expert in both Chinese and English languages. Full marks for the teachers (mine at least).

The school provided decent accommodation about 5-10 mins walk from the classroom. The apartments are basic, but mine came with a western style toilet, hot water, internet, and (most importantly in winter) heating. You really don't need anything more and it suited me fine for the four months, and of course you don't come to Harbin looking for luxury.

You can also pay for breakfast and lunch cooked by the school's amazing ayi. I would recommend this - it beats anything you'll find at a restaurant. On this point, one of the great things about this school was the willingness of the staff to go above and beyond their normal duties to help you out. When I first arrived, the staff took time out of their weekend to show me around. When I needed to buy anything, the staff were more than happy out of work hours to take me to a shop that had the best prices. This type of commitment to their students really makes the difference when you're away from home, in the middle of a Harbin winter!

If you are a beginner to Mandarin as I was, you will see quick improvement with the one-on-one classes as long as you put in some good hours after class. After four months at Mandarin Workshop, I was able to hold basic conversations with the locals on a fair range of topics. Don't expect miracles though - Mandarin is a tough language, and Harbin natives will not slow down for you.

As for Harbin itself, it is a reasonably interesting place, highlights were the Ice & Snow Festival and the Daowai (old town) districts, but don't come expecting a Shanghai or Beijing. If you like going out at night, there are about four bars worth going to which you will get sick of pretty quickly. They are packed with Russians, Harbin Chinese, and a few expat language teachers, and things can get pretty rough at times, but at least the prices are good…

One last thing, I know everyone says it, but the winters are BRUTAL. I can't stress that enough. Bring proper arctic jackets, not just winter coats, and do not forget thermals, gloves, scarves etc. You will not forget to wear gloves after your first excruciating glove-free trip to the shops.

For a beginner to the language, I could not see myself making more progress in any other school anywhere else in China. For that reason alone, I wholeheartedly recommend Mandarin Workshop. While it is reasonably expensive, when you factor in the one-one-one tuition, quality of the teaching and private accommodation I think it more than makes up for it.

[Kaixinguo Billy]

hello Illamesque, thank you very much for your report. Very helpfull and inspiring. I'm looking forward to study with one to one. I'll start in one week. Could you pls. name the pubs you can recommend or even a coffee house. I love to sit in a coffee house and read (not chinese yet...) Hope you had a good return to your home country and that you keep in touch with Mandarin. cheers, kaixinguo.

[black dragon]

I just finished 10 weeks of 4 hours per day lessons with 1-1 Mandarin workshop in Haerbin, and like other people who have left comments on this site, I'd be happy to recommend them to anyone. It isn't cheap, but if you're really looking for progress, the 4 hours 1-1 class is how you achieve it - you can then spend the rest of the day revising, preparing, exploring etc. The facilities are excellent, my teacher was prepared, knowledgable and passionate, and the prepared lunches were fantastic. I had a great time and will likely be back if looking to brush up on my language over a shorter period of time.

Thanks,

Matt

[Kaixinguo Billy]

Hello future Mandarin One-to-One Workshop-Students

As my soul and body are still in transit between Harbin and Switzerland, my still in Harbin remaining «parts» will be happy to hear, that I had a fantastic time there. (Maybe they think I'm coming back. They are right; but first they have to come back to Switzerland;-)

I can recommend this school to everybody, who is prepared to really encounter a teacher-scholar-relationship and who is prepared to surrender to everything which goes with learning Putonghua. In this context I enjoyed my 4 lessons a day (two in the morning, two in the afternoon, with a lovely luncheon-brake (the food is very tasty). My teacher, challenges included, went with my speed of learning, what I really appreciated. Her english also helped me. The setup of the school supported me in my progress and I am very thankful to everybody, who played a role in it. I felt very welcomed. Wishing you all a good decision and I'm happy to answer more questions about the school or Harbin.

cheers

[abcdefg]

It's a long time since I studied there (2008), and I'm glad to see the quality is still high. If I had the supernatural ability to be two or three places at once, one of them would be Harbin.

[roddy]

If you were able to write up a bit more detail on the classes - what textbooks were used, what methods were used, etc, that would certainly be useful. Basically anyone considering going there will be hungry for any information at all.

[sdd]

I studied at 1to1 mandarin school last summer. I was very happy with the teacher, the lessons and the results after 3 weeks. Also the appartment is very convenient. Close to shops, restaurants and supermarket, and a short walk to the school. Since I am back I have skype lessons with my teacher, and I am going back to Harbin in spring, bringing my whole familiy with me. Looking forward to get to a higher level of Mandarin Chinese speaking.

[David Morgan]

I have just completed 3 weeks tuition at the 1to1 Mandarin Workshop School in Harbin and had an excellent experience and would fully recommend anybody trying to learn to speak Mandarin to strongly consider using thier wonderful services. The school has been established for some time; I first noticed their website 4 years ago while electing to use the well trodden pathway of schooling in Beijing. Feeling more confident I decided to branch out to Harbin and was extremely glad I did.

There are many advantages to studying at the 1to1Mandarin Workshop in Harbin.

1. The school itself is excellent. While being a small school it focuses on tailoring the structure of the lesson to meet the students needs. Monday to Friday there are 4 hours of contact time with times being flexible. My class times were 08:00 until 12:00 giving me the afternoons off to explore the area and the city. Other students had classes from 10:00 to 15:00 (with 1 hour lunch break) or from 13:00 to 17:00. All of my teachers obviously had considerable teaching experience. The senior teacher Mr Ma Chao is passionate, patient and energetic and perfectly suited to teaching foreign students. He also has excellent English. For my 4 hours of class they were broken into 2 sessions. The first 2 hours were with Mr Ma Chao where we revised homework, learnt grammar and new words. The second two hours I had a different teacher Miss Fan who went through exercises and revision with me. All on a one to one teaching environment. The environment was relaxed at all times with students strongly encouraged to ask questions and actively participate.

2. The school environment and support is excellent. From the time of my first email to the school I have found excellent service from all the school staff that goes far beyond any school I have attend previously in China. When arranging by schooling from Australia all my emails were responded to clearly, concisely and within 24 hours. When I arrived in Harbin and 11:30pm on a cold Friday night, I was met at the airport by a smiling Mr Ma Chao. He also gave me an orientation of the local area on my first morning in Harbin. Mr Ma Chao is not only a great teacher but has excellent people skills and frequently assists the students with external issues, accompanies them or greatly assists them in achieving extracurricular activities external from the school. The school is also very blessed to have Mrs Yang. She is the school oracle and organises the day to day running of the school and accommodation and is absolutely wonderful. She has all the students welfare at heart and is affectionately referred to as "ayi" or auntie. She is also a great cook and prepares a delicious Chinese lunch if the students wish to eat at the school for around USD$5 (I fully recommend this). I really can't stress enough how supportive Mr Ma Chao and Mrs Yang are in ensuring the students welfare is well looked after and how this goes long way to enhancing the experience.

3. The school is centrally located. Harbin is divided into several distinct districts that have their own business / shopping districts. The 1to1 Mandarin Workshop School is in the most central district of Daoli with a number of local restaurants, cafes and shops within walking distance. The main shopping street in Harbin Zhongyangda Jie is 10 minutes away by bus or 35 minutes walk. Despite not having a underground subway system yet (construction is underway) with a little courage the bus system is very cheap (<USD$0.20 per ride) and quite convenient and providing a few simple rules are followed taxis are cheap and more honest that most Western countries.

4. Acceptable accommodation. The apartments arranged by the 1to1 Mandarin Workshop School are the largest and most comfortable of all the Chinese apartments I have stayed in while schooling in China. I have previously schooled in Beijing and Shanghai. While modest by Western standards they all have a comfortable bed, fridge, washing machine microwave, internet connection and TV. Be mindful that using the internet to connect to non-Chinese websites can be extremely "hit and miss" and notoriously unreliable anywhere in China.

5. Mandarin is the local dialect. Unlike many of the other parts of China, Mandarin is the local dialect of Harbin making it easier to practice what you have learnt "on the streets".

6. Harbin has a number of local tourist attractions. I braved the icy winter of Harbin in January where day time maximum temperatures where anywhere from a balmy -12 C to an almost intolerable -25 C. However the Ice and Snow Worlds are true "bucket list" activities and worth the effort. In addition the Siberian Tiger Park is a unique experience. There are a number of other things to see, do and eat in Harbin. In three weeks I wasn't able to do everything. I would certainly recommend the blind massage to anyone going to Harbin.

7. Harbin has the right balance of Western influence and Chinese atmosphere. Harbin is safe city and I frequently walked the streets at night without fear or incident. While there are a number of Western food chains such as KFC, Pizza Hut MacDonald's and Starbucks, they have not permeated to every corner of Harbin as they have in all the major cities of China. In addition the environment / sky isn't nearly polluted and streets nearly as crowded as in cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. Also Harbin has the unique Russian influence in its history that leads to its distinct architecture and appeal. The cost of living in Harbin is also less than that of all the other big "1st Tier Cities".

In summation of would strongly encourage either first timers to China or returning students to consider learning at the 1to1 Mandarin Workshop in Harbin. I already have plans to return later this year and know that a number of other students likewise return back to this school. The classes and student support is the best I have experienced in three trips to China to study Mandarin.

David Morgan

Perth, Western Australia

[giusi]

I have recently finished a 7 weeks period of tuition with 1to1 Mandarin Workshop in Harbin.

As many other people I am really happy with the experience. I found the teachers to be very knowledgeable and approachable. Because it is private tuition, lessons can be tailored in many ways. For example as my Chinese is a bit of a patchwork (my reading is quite good, listening just about ok, speaking very very basic and writing even worse) we started off with some basic textbook. However after two weeks I was starting to feel that it wasn't quite right for me; luckily one of the teachers picked up on it straightway and suggested that we forgot the textbook (i don't like them, i find most of the so old fashioned) and instead concentrate on speaking and listening. It was my choice that writing was not a priority. So, with my lovely teacher, I had 'free style' chinese classes where I was obliged to chat about any topic I wanted and we made flashcards as we went along. Over the weeks she would make sure to do revision sessions and I would write sentences at home to reinforce learning.

It was much more tiring than the traditional style but much more fun and relevant to what I was interested in. But it does take a lot out of you...never a moment to switch off.

Accommodation was basic but I was fine with that...I was a bit unlucky with the Internet ( I had to change room a few times) but I think most students were ok with it.

Again...I can say that all people involved in the school were so helpful...I am quite independent but I knew I could rely on them if I had issues of any sorts...something not to be disregarded when in China...

On a different note...and this has nothing to do with the quality of the school... I had no choice about what time of the year to come to Harbin...but... and it is not about the cold ( i was fine with it)... i think it can be a rather lonely experience to come in the winter...this is a small school and most people I met were here to study hard...(totally fine with me)...but if you are looking to a school as such with socializing and stuff maybe you should look elsewhere (Mandarin Workshop felt more like a private tuition service rather than a school)... but I did hear that the place gets lively during spring/summer... to me, it felt like a full on retreat of some sort...it served its purposes though as I felt like my Chinese improved quite a bit in a short period of time

Giusi

[eliaso]

I spent six weeks studying at 1to1 Mandarin Workshop and can recommed them. I won't go into too much details as pretty much everything already said on this thread holds true. Classes and my teachers were fine. Accomodation was fine and as described here earlier - private studio flat in a good location close to the school with washing machine, fridge, tv with cable, basic kitchen utensils, working Internet with cable/wifi etc.

I'm pretty much a total beginner so we started with textbook stuff (Hanyu Jiaocheng), me asking questions and extra vocabulary/sentence structures and started to have simple conversations with the teachers as soon as it was possible. I had lessons with three different teachers, all good and all a bit different. This was good as all of them had a bit different teaching style making me learn different things. I'd think you can use only one teacher if that is what you want to. After finishing first text book we made some flash cards with sentence structures that I could use for various purposes as I pick up more vocabulary - this was done because I asked for it and wanted to study like this. Then we picked up some random words that I used to make up stories, my teacher corrected me, and she would tell me stories using vocabulary and sentence structures that I knew or were learning to develop my understanding of what I'm hearing. They're very flexible with how you want to study. If you'll leave it to them they'll have an opinion of what and how you should be learning and if you have your own opinion of what you want to do then that will be done as well. I didn't really study reading and writing with them because that is something I feel you can do on your own and I guess I'll be doing that a lot later on when I start studying Chinese at uni.

If someone wants to ask something specific I can try to answer.

[gundaniumdi]

Hi All! Like many others on this thread, I also wanted to share my wonderful experiences with 1to1 Mandarin Workshop in Harbin.

I had previously studied Mandarin in college for 6 quarters (or 4 semesters) a while back, and I had never really practiced after I graduated, so I had forgotten so much of what I had learned. I had been thinking about going to China to study Mandarin for a while because I knew that I would learn extremely quickly in China compared to in America. The circumstances were right and I decided to take the plunge and go for it this year. I had heard that Harbin has the best standard Pu3 tong1 hua4 accent, so I definitely wanted to study there. It actually took a bit of researching to find information about 1to1 Mandarin Workshop. This forum thread is actually where I found the most information about the school and helped me make the decision to study here, so thanks to all the previous members who posted!

I studied at 1to1 Mandarin Workshop for 4 weeks, and from day one, they were extremely accommodating. I was actually not traveling alone, as my boyfriend was with me, though he didn't plan on studying Mandarin. Before going to Harbin, I had informed the school's Vice Principal and Teaching Director, Ma Lao Shi, that my boyfriend would be staying with me even though he didn't plan on studying at the school, and that we were willing to pay any extra accommodation fees. But Ma Lao Shi said it was no problem and let my boyfriend stay with me the whole time free of charge! That was very nice of them, and we really appreciated it.

For those of you who have never been to China, I will say that it will be a bit of a culture shock the first time you arrive. Well, even before you arrive, on the airplane, haha. People push, don't wait in line, etc. Ma Lao Shi had given my boyfriend and I clear instructions on how to take a bus from the airport to near the school to meet him. After exiting the airport, I was waiting my turn to purchase bus tickets and was swarmed and cut in line by what seemed like an endless stream of people before I finally stepped up and pushed my way to the ticket window. It was quite an interesting experience to say the least! I didn't like it at first, but in time I got used to this aspect of the culture and it was even a bit fun. I viewed it as a challenge because I am naturally an extremely shy person and I had to force myself to be bold and confident. Good practice!

Ma Lao Shi met us when we got off the bus. He is extremely nice and friendly and made us feel very comfortable and welcome from the start. He showed us to our apartment, where we met the school principal and apartment landlord, Mrs. Yang, whom everyone refers to as Ayi. She is so helpful, smart, and sweet, and believe me, what others have written is true, her cooking is the stuff of dreams! You must eat at the school. Best Chinese food my boyfriend and I have ever had. No joke!

The apartment itself had everything we needed, though I must say it was a bit different from what I am used to. But it was a good experience for my boyfriend and me--two spoiled Americans ;). It really made us appreciate the little things and not take anything for granted. For example, the hot water is as described, round-the-clock, but it does run out after a certain amount of time and it takes a while to re-boil. This would be no problem for one person, but since my boyfriend and I were sharing the apartment, one of us would always end up with a cold shower, haha. So we learned to adapt and shower at separate times. The internet connection worked just fine for us. It was not as fast as we are used to back home, but this is what it's like in all of China. Actually we were very pleased with our internet connection as a whole. We ran into a few problems here and there, but we found that resetting the modem would usually do the trick. I had no problem Skyping with my family back home, and we used a VPN to visit sites such as Facebook, Hulu, Netflix, etc. The most interesting thing was that we weren't supposed to flush toilet paper down the toilet, as it will clog the pipe. A humbling experience indeed! (Oh and for any ladies reading this who have never been to China, be sure to bring your own toilet paper in your purse wherever you go, as toilet paper is often not supplied in public restrooms.)

After showing us to our apartment, Ma Lao Shi accompanied us to a nearby dumpling restaurant. It was delicious! We also enjoyed drinking the local specialty, blueberry juice. It was very nice of Ma Lao Shi to take time out of his evening to introduce us to the city in this way. We really appreciated it! Just a couple months prior to studying at this school, I was in a situation where I was working abroad, and my employers were horribly disorganized. They didn't tell me anything about the area I would be staying in, what's around, etc. In fact, I was dropped off at my apartment at 1am and they hadn't even set up my internet yet. It took some time for me to find my way around because I didn't speak the language. Coming from that recent, frustrating experience, my experience with 1to1 Mandarin Workshop was the exact opposite--they were extremely helpful in every way, walked us through getting settled in, and made sure we knew where everything was in this foreign city. This included taking us to purchase Chinese SIM cards for our cellphones, showing us around the city, showing us where the pharmacy, supermarket, open market, and night market were, taking us to the post office and helping us mail a package, and even taking us to a local shoe repair shop when one of my boots needed fixing. In addition, Ma Lao Shi even took time out of his weekend to take us to some well-known tourist spots in Harbin. We had a wonderful time. The staff truly go above and beyond at this school, and they really make you feel like you're part of their family.

Now on to the most important part -- the learning! It was definitely intense, and my Mandarin truly improved so much during the 4 weeks that I studied there. I split my time between two teachers, which I liked because, like others have said before, every teacher has their own teaching style. Since I already had a foundation in Mandarin, I specifically requested to only practice speaking and listening because those are my priorities. So everyday we would just talk for 4 hours. It's hard and it's tiring, but seriously, can you think of any better way to learn? It really forces you to take it to the next level. In the beginning, I was stuttering a lot and it was really hard for me to get full sentences out. But by the end, I was more confident and able to get my words out, and my listening comprehension had improved so much. It was funny--on the way to China, I watched a Chinese movie on the airplane. I estimated that I understood about 20% of what they were saying without looking at the subtitles. On our flight out of Harbin, I watched the same Chinese movie and I was delighted to discover that I understood about 70% !! As far as my studying habits went while I was there, the sun rises extremely early in Harbin--when I was there it rose at 4am (this was in the spring)! I was having a hard time with jet lag and also, I guess I am very sensitive to light because sure enough, every morning I would wake up at 4am along with the sunrise. So, I took advantage of this and studied before class, then had class from 8am - 12pm, and would also try to study a bit before going to bed as well.

In addition to learning in school, every time you go out you have an opportunity to learn. You can't beat living in a city where they speak with the standard accent. Later I went on to stay in other Mandarin-speaking cities, but the accents there were not standard and it was a bit hard to understand what people were saying. My boyfriend and I were also fortunate enough to make some really good local friends, who were so friendly and excited to meet foreigners, haha. So speaking with them was also good practice for me outside of school as well.

As far as the city goes, it is quite an interesting place! Be careful crossing the street! People don't really pay attention to the crosswalk signals. At first I was terrified, but now I am so brave when it comes to crossing the street! Zhong1 Yang1 Da4 Jie1, or Central Street, was our favorite place to go. There are so many shops and restaurants around there and it's so lively, even on weeknights. We also enjoyed walking along the riverside and visiting the nearby night market and buying delicious food and fresh fruit. There aren't that many foreigners there, aside from some Russian immigrants, so people will stare at you if you look "Western." Enjoy it--it's like being a celebrity, haha! Oh and afternoon tea at the nearby Pizza Hut can't be beat . You get a dessert/drink combo with unlimited refills of the drink from 2pm - 5pm!

I had initially planned on studying in Harbin for one month, and then going on to study in Shanghai for two months because I was interested in exploring the job market out there. I had done some research on schools in Shanghai, such as Mandarin House, Miracle Mandarin, etc., but I hadn't decided where to study before I got there. Some of them offer the opportunity to go to the school in person and check their classes out before you sign up, and that's what I was planning to do originally. But since I had such a great experience with 1to1 Mandarin Workshop in Harbin, and also because honestly, their prices are much more affordable than the schools in Shanghai, I decided to continue my lessons with them using Skype even after I moved. It's such a convenient way to learn, and my Mandarin continues to get better and better. I can now speak in full sentences and carry on a conversation--something I always struggled with before.

While I was in Harbin, the school had two repeat-students. These two students had previously studied at the school and had come back a second time because they liked it so much. Recently, I heard that another student who was there at the same time as me is coming back as well. I also would love to come back one day, this time during the winter so I can see the famous Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival. I think the fact that so many students want to go back and study at the school again just goes to show how great the learning experience and staff members are.

All in all, I had an excellent experience with 1to1 Mandarin Workshop in Harbin and highly recommend this school for anyone interested in studying Mandarin!

[gundaniumdi]

Oh, and I forgot to mention two very important things! These are just examples of how fantastic the staff are. One evening, our entire apartment building had a power outage. We had no idea if this was a common occurrence or not, and how long we should expect this outage to last. It wasn't like back home where we could simply report the outage to the power company. So we texted Ma Lao Shi and asked him if this sort of thing happened often, and it turned out it didn't. He called us immediately and was so kind and helpful. He said he would come and bring us a flashlight, and even offered to bring us some food from a local restaurant since the elevator was not working and it'd be inconvenient to go out and eat. We declined the food offer because we already had food in the fridge, but we still agreed to the flashlight. Within 15 minutes, Ma Lao Shi had climbed the 21 flights of stairs to our apartment (since the elevator wasn't working), just to deliver a flashlight to us. We were blown away by his kindness. Luckily, the power went back on after 5 hours and didn't go out again while we were there.

Also, there were some other small maintanence issues in the apartment. There was a leak in the kitchen once, and the washing machine needed repairing. Also, due to the way the plumbing system is designed in China, sometimes a smell rises up from the pipes. Ayi was so quick to take care of these small issues, and they were fixed in no time. In our apartment back home in the States, the landlord takes ages to get around to fixing our problems, so we were very impressed by the speed with which issues are fixed, and we really appreciated it!

So, what more can I say? The staff members are fantastic and they really treat you like family here at this school.

[Pendragon]

I just came back from 3 weeks intensive study at 1on1 Mandarin Workshop (mid-July to mid-August). As the other people here I can recommend them a lot.

- Study experience:

My level is intermediate or advanced intermediate, though a bit unbalanced: I do lots of reading but don't get around to practising my spoken Chinese much. So my teacher and me together figured out a custom study program. We worked through a grammar book ("Practicing HSK Grammar"), studied some new vocabulary daily (I'm using "HSK 核心词汇天天学 to fill in the blanks of HSK vocab I didn't study yet) and for the rest just talked a lot to practise oral Chinese. When it turned out that my teacher (Wang 老师) has a really good handwriting I also asked her to tutor me on that (my characters look awful, but slightly better now).

Tip: Most students study 4 hours straight, either in the morning or afternoon. Some days we studied two hours in the morning (8-10am) and two hours in the afternoon (1-3pm), I found those days to be my most productive ones. It probably depends on the schedule of the teachers and of the other students whether this is manageable for them, but I'd recommend giving it a try.

- School staff:

One of the best things about this school is the really helpful staff. When you arrive you get a tour through the neighborhood, and afterwards if there's any problem they always come over to help, including during weekends. At some point they spent over two hours to help me order a package from Taobao and receive it for me at the school. I wouldn't have dared to ask them for this if I knew how much time it would cost them, but they were happy to do it for me. Also Ayi's lunch is great, and if you get sick she can even bring you breakfast at your room.

- City life and travel:

I really enjoyed Harbin in the summer. Shanghai was crazy hot, so when I arrived at Harbin I was so happy to have 20-28 degrees (celcius) pretty much every day. Harbin is not the most interesting city I've visited in China, but you can still have a good time there. I liked sitting in the park along the Songhua river, practising Chinese with some older people (they're really eager to chat and their accent is usually understandable). There are some really nice restaurants as well, including Russian cuisine, and you can get nice snacks at the night market not far from the school. I took the weekends off to see the sights around Harbin. The school took us to a zoo a few hours away from Harbin, and near the city center you can visit a Siberian tiger breeding center. I also made a trip to Yichun (about 6 hours from Harbin) to do some hiking in the forest there. The forests of Heilongjiang province are quite spectacular so I can recommend taking some time off to make trips. You probably want to have at least a long weekend (3-4 days) to make a good trip. I canceled two days of class for the trip, which I get back as Skype lessons after being back from China.

Bottom line: you get what you pay for. It's not the cheapest school I've ever been to, but just the service quality of the staff alone already makes it worth it for me.

Hope that helps, if you have specific questions you can let me know.

[马 德伟]

I just got back from Harbin and I just wanted to say that I was very pleased with 1on1 Mandarin Workshop. This was my second time studying in China, the first being 4 weeks in Hebei and this time 12 weeks in Harbin. If you're thinking about studying at 1on1, I highly recommend it.

First, the teaching was great. I had both a female and male teacher each for about half my stay. Their different personalities, accents, and teaching styles definitely contributed to the enormous amount of improvement I made while there. The classes were 4 hours a day, and I looked forward to every minute.

I looked most forward to the feasts that were made for lunch every day by 阿姨 a1yi2. It was great to come out of class with a home-cooked lunch waiting for you, and I stuffed myself like a pig every time.

If that wasn't good enough, their service was second to none. I can't even begin to tell you how helpful they were. One day I felt sick and couldn't go to class, and they brought food and medicine to my apartment. My teacher waited about an hour or so for me to eat and take some medicine, and after I felt good enough to do two hours of class. Even if you don't know a lick of Chinese, they are so helpful that you won't even feel like you left home.

In terms of Chinese history and culture I thought the city itself was moderately interesting, which means it was less "touristy" and more a place to go if you really want to learn Mandarin. There are other intersting things to see though, like the tiger park, which was pretty awesome. There were white tigers, lions, and even a liger- and a few unlucky chickens. The beer festival was also really fun and I met a lot of locals while I was there.

Although there are many things to see in China, I have plenty of years ahead to be a tourist. For now I still want to improve my Mandarin, so I hope I'll be able to make it to Harbin again next summer and study at 1on1- and eat Ayi's cooking

[Zander]

Hey guys, thanks for all the people who have posted reviews here, I doubt I would have even considered this school otherwise! I am thinking of going to this school this Summer, and I was just wondering if any of you who have been there found the experience slightly lonely? Obviously being 1 on 1 has great advantages for teaching, but I would still like to meet some people who I could socialize with (hopefully in Chinese). Did you guys find it was still easy enough to meet people with similar schedules to you despite the lack of a class atmosphere?

 

Thanks,

[abcdefg]

#39 -- I met lots of people in Harbin. Didn't find lonliness to be a problem.

 

It's one of the places in China where locals are spontaneously friendly to outsiders. Seems to be a Dongbei characteristic. It was not uncommon to strike up a chat with strangers in a restaurant or on the street. When eating alone it often happened that I would exchange a few pleasantries with other people at nearby tables and they would invite me over, or I would do the same to them.

 

I thought it was a plus not to have a ready-made circle of English speaking, Chinese-learner classmates with whom to socialize. That pushed me out of the "cocoon." If you are real shy it might not work as well.