Taipei Language Institute - Beijing (Dongcheng) - Query

[Barb in Maryland]

Hello -

I have seen some postings here and there about this school. I am looking for a place to study Mandarin in Beijing this summer. Is there anyone out there who has studied at this school and would be willing to share their experiences with me?

I am a just a tad above a beginner. I have studied through book 1 of the New Practical Chinese Reader and probably recognize 150-200 characters. I am most interested in speaking, but I also want to continue with the characters - more for reading than for writing. I teach in Chongqing, so I am also having some tutoring on the side. But, it is hard to focus on Chinese when you are busy treaching.

I am also looking at the program that is advertised as PRC Study Academy. This is not the standard BLCU, but a separate program where they offer smaller class sizes. They claim 4 to 5. If you have any knowledge of this, as well, please let me know.

Thank you for

your help.

[onebir]

I spent a month at the TLI in chaoyang. Their core texts- which are very well designed - have pinyin as well as hanzi, and tuition's all one to one, with well trained teachers. You can make a rapid progress in spoken chinese, especially if you don't worry about the characters which will slow you down. but pricey...

I thought they were great - posted more about the place somewhere else here...

[Barb in Maryland]

Onebir -

Thanks for the info. How many hours/lessons did you study each day?

Thanks

[onebir]

There's more here.

[self-taught-mba]

For others reference: cross ref post to where I addressed it here

[Barb in Maryland]

Onebir -

Thank you for your help. I have been emailing TLI trying to get other references from them to email/chat with. So far, not able to.

Can I ask you a question (which I think is not answered in your referenced thread). When you studied at TLI, where did you live. I expect to be there 6-8 weeks. They are pushing me toward the Hostel. Do you know anything about it? Hotels seem like an expensive option?

Did you feel at all isolated being in a 1-on-1 class or were you able to socialize with other students at the school?

Thank you, again.

B

[onebir]

Hi Barb - i lived in their hostel. It was $9 a night when i was there i think. Basic but adequate mini apartments with 2 bedrooms. No real cooking facilities, but quite a few restaurants within 5-10 mins walk (the cheaper ones are further - nearest ones mainly japanese and korean).

Most of the students who stay there are japanese, korean or chinese (in that order) - it's the hostel used by the "japan-china interchange centre" (zhongri jiaoliu zhongxin) so they're all studying japanese or chinese. I asked for a japanese roommate and we spoke chinese all the time. Also many of they have people on reception 24 hours a day, who dont really speak little english - unless the english books i got them have helped :-S. I must have spent hours talking to them. One downside is the lack of shared facilities where you can meet other students. In the end i met a few in the dorm laundry!

I was happy to avoid the other TLI students most of the time - going out and talking to beijing ren as much as i could. That approach is quite isolating and stressful, but it was my one big opportunity for immersion... If you're going to be in China after the TLI experience, you can probably be a bit more relaxed about it, and there are opportunities to socialise with the other TLI students and the teachers - lunch, breaks between classes and the occasional organised activity.

If you have 6-8 weeks i'd say:

a) don't book too many hours a week. 1-1 language tuition is VERY tiring. i did 12 hours a week and it was plenty

B) use the TLI texts - with pinyin as well as hanzi. they're infinitely better than the BLCU hanzi only texts for developing fluency.

c) get the tapes to go with these texts and listen to them in your (ample ) spare time. they're expensive, and they're strangely reluctant to sell them. but you can use them to work ahead a little, and also to revise old material efficiently - basically they can help you get your money's worth from the pricey TLI classes ;-)

d) hook up with some chinese language exchange partners. (many of the teachers at TLI are learning english, so they're a happy to do this, but there are also language exchange websites & adverts in places like that's beijing.) Random conversations tend to stay on the beaten track of where your from etc - you can move beyond this with language exchange partners, and at the same time make some friends

e) Get some listening comprehension (tingli kecheng) courses - the BLCU publishing house courses from the wangfujing bookstore are pretty good (i've given details in a post somewhere). Practice with them on your own a bit too.

f) Get a dvd player and bribe the chinese students from the dorm with snacks so they'll hang out with you watching films. Start doing laundry little and often, and you'll bump into some! (I actually failed to get into the social set of the chinese students in the dorm, and looking back i think it was a major missed opportunity.)

You can make a hell of a lot of progress in 6-8 weeks (say 75-100 hours) of good quality 1-1 classes if you really use the language. The way i did it - completely cutting myself off from english speakers and not having any real chinese friends - was unnecessarily stressful and isolating. And i insisted on using hanzi texts, and failed to use tape-based resources until i got back to the UK. If you don't make these errors, and also get some chinese friends too (using d & f above) you should be able to make better progress than i did, and have more fun while you do it. Good luck

[allenedgar]

I’ve been meaning to write up a review about TLI and your question has motivated me to actually to do so, so thanks.

I studied at TLI in Beijing for about five months last year. Here’s my list of pros and cons. Take these with a grain of salt because while TLI has it’s problems I routinely heard greater complaints from students at other schools. I am happy to correspond one-on-one to any specific questions.

Pros

1. One-on-one classes – you learn a lot!

2. Very flexible – both for scheduling and what areas you want to study. You set your own pace, expectations, and course of study (this can be a con if you're looking for direction from the school).

3. Responsive to concerns and complaints regarding teachers and schedules – I found everyone to be very nice. There seemed to be a genuine notion of caring about the students and wanting students to be happy.

4. Good location – The TLI in Dong Cheng is in a great location if you want to live in the middle of the city. Most other language schools are located in Wudaokou, which is pretty far north.

Cons

1. Teacher quality is mixed. Some teachers were very, very good, most were ok, and a few were bad.

2. Expensive. Generally one-on-one lessons are going to more expensive than group classes but I think the one-on-one lessons at TLI run a little higher than average.

3. Few out of class resources. There’s no book, cd, or movie library for students to use. There’s no system for setting up language exchanges. There’s only two, very slow, often broken computers for student use. There’s no assistance with non-school related problems that always pop-up when you move to a foreign country such as registering with the police, figuring out how to make a phone call, making travel arrangements, finding a place to live, or using public transportation.

4. Little fluency in English (or other foreign languages). Some people may argue this point but I think to learn Chinese there some things that need to be explained in one’s native language. At TLI very few of the teachers and administrators speak English (or other foreign languages). As a native English speaker, this made my lessons very frustrating. It also made accomplishing administrative tasks (registering, paying, etc.) very difficult. There is an English speaker on staff but she’s rarely there.

5. Few extracurricular activities. There were occasional outings to cultural locations but it was often difficult to find out what was going on because information was passed informally or communicated in Chinese, which as a beginner I didn’t understand well enough to know what was going on. These excursions were typically quite expensive (far more than you would pay going on your own) and not scheduled on a regular basis.

6. Small school/few students. The TLI location in Dong Cheng is quite small with only a few students and thus it is difficult to meet people at school. There’s little sense of camaraderie and no place within the school to socialize. People tend to just attend class and then leave.

If you want a well-rounded China experience it might be better to find a more comprehensive program. One-on-one classes are great for learning the rules, grammar, and pronunciation of the language but if you don’t have any friends to practice with then the memorization part is difficult to study. You can only do so much sitting alone in your dorm room or wandering the streets of Beijing alone. Of course in an ideal world one would engage with local, native speakers but this is hard to do when your language skills are at a beginner level.

TLI is great if you are self-directed and want intensive language instruction without any frills. I think TLI is ideal for a professional person who lives and works in Beijing and is looking for a place to learn/practice their language skills.

[onebir]

I have a few quibbles with the previous post - although perhaps things have changed since i was there (Nov 2003). Basically, there are shortcomings - but you're paying top dollar there ($13.50/hour) and they know it. So in my experience, just about everybody did their best to help.

4. Good location – The TLI in Dong Cheng is in a great location if you want to live in the middle of the city.

According to their website, there's still a branch in chaoyang qu, about 10 mins bus ride up liangmaqiao lu from dongzhimen underground stop. If they're encouraging someone to stay at the hostel - 5 mins walk from the chaooyang school - they probably want her to go there. (Unless they have another hostel for the dongcheng branch.)

Cons

1. Teacher quality is mixed. Some teachers were very, very good, most were ok, and a few were bad.

I think if you're there for more than a week or two, you could probably indicate your preferred teachers... And the good teachers are really very good.

2. Expensive. Generally one-on-one lessons are going to more expensive than group classes but I think the one-on-one lessons at TLI run a little higher than average.

I must agree.

3. Few out of class resources. There’s no book, cd, or movie library for students to use.

I have copies of a couple of TLI books and tapes to go with them. But i did have to ask for the tapes, and they may not have them for all levels. CDs and DVDs are very cheap in china, and you can ask the teachers to recommend ones with lots of clear dialog... The staff were also happy to look at the materials i bought outside and identify which ones they thought were good quality and the right level for me.

There’s no system for setting up language exchanges.

True. I don't know if they also run english classes - if not, for most of their students of chinese there's no obvious source of people to exchange with, although they could 'twin' with a nearby english school. But I think you could post something on the noticeboard. And there are lots of language exchange websites listing probably 100s of people for Chinese-English language exchange in Beijing alone...

There’s only two, very slow, often broken computers for student use.

Not ideal, but there are (were?) cheap wangba not too far away.

There’s no assistance with non-school related problems that always pop-up when you move to a foreign country such as registering with the police, figuring out how to make a phone call, making travel arrangements, finding a place to live, or using public transportation.

In my experience, some of the teachers were more than willing to help with stuff like this.

4. Little fluency in English (or other foreign languages). Some people may argue this point but I think to learn Chinese there some things that need to be explained in one’s native language. At TLI very few of the teachers and administrators speak English (or other foreign languages). As a native English speaker, this made my lessons very frustrating. It also made accomplishing administrative tasks (registering, paying, etc.) very difficult. There is an English speaker on staff but she’s rarely there.

True.

5. Few extracurricular activities. There were occasional outings to cultural locations but it was often difficult to find out what was going on because information was passed informally or communicated in Chinese, which as a beginner I didn’t understand well enough to know what was going on. These excursions were typically quite expensive (far more than you would pay going on your own) and not scheduled on a regular basis.

True.

6. Small school/few students. The TLI location in Dong Cheng is quite small with only a few students and thus it is difficult to meet people at school. There’s little sense of camaraderie and no place within the school to socialize. People tend to just attend class and then leave.

The chaoyang branch may be bigger - i think it gets quite a few staff from the embassies near there. There is/was a basic common room, and seating in the corridors where students and staff would hang out, and joint trips to the IYU canteen - v cheap but so noisy it makes conversation almost impossible if you're learning - and nearby restaurants were pretty common when i was there. Having said that, the transport to/from the chaoyang branch isn't great, especially at rush hours.