where to study chinese in china ?

[laurentbousselet]

i am know in china and will stay till the end of december. my plan is to travel but for ;e travelling means exchanging that is to say speaking with the people in their own language. so the first thing i need is to learn chinese. but where and how ? i guess immersion is the best way, so may be i should avoid to go to beiing ( but then where else? what about kunming ? or....) and what about intensive courses. do they really worth it ? isn t it a bit to much to learn in a row ?

i m asking a lot ( and may be confusly ) but i really would like to know if you have had any experience what you would recommand me to do.

thanks a lot.

[blue_fyre]

If you want immersion, shouldn't you want to be in Beijing or any other cities in which you can learn/practice Mandarin Chinese? I take this trip to China is for pleasure and not for academic reasons (learning a new language)? If that is the case I think you would be better off with a tour group, since it will be hard for you to speak with the locals. If you do want to learn chinese, just look around the forum and read the threads. Many of them has in depth info. where it might be of use to you.

[StealthyBurrito]

As bluefyre mentioned, it's perfectly fine to stay in Beijing. Beijing actually has almost no foreigners outside of the typical foreigner districts, i.e. Chaoyang, Wangfujing, Wudaokao. I'm not sure about Shanghai, but in general as long as you are disciplined enough to avoid foreigners, you will have no problem finding locals to chat with everywhere you go.

[laurentbousselet]

thank you guys,

i ve just begun studiyng in global village and so far, it seems to be a good place.

if anybody needs some information, i will be glad to help.

laurent