the Price of Chinese Lessons

Took a month long intensive Mandarin Chinese course. It was 6 hours daily, 5 days a week. The price paid included one lesson book and daily group lessons (4 hours) and private one on one lesson (2 hours). The group lessons were taught by 2 instructors, private lessons by one instructor. At the end of the course we did have a weekend review to prepare for the HSK Chinese proficiency exam.

I felt the quality of the language school varied a lot with different instructors. Some classes would be very beneficial while others were either too advanced or too basic. While the instructors seemed to be helpful and concerned about our learning the target language, I could tell that they wanted to use traditional Chinese teaching methodology (rote memorization) which doesn't work well for learning a 2nd language. I wished the classes would have been more interactive between students (i.e. role plays) instead of predominantly lecture based.

Request a demo lesson. If you will have group classes and private classes, ask to sit in on both to see how the teaching methods vary for each. See if the school offers any type of extra practice classes (i.e. Language corners to practice speaking with many people in that language). Review the materials that will be used. Make friends with other students to help practice outside of school. Speak and use the target language as much as possible, it might be difficult but will be come easier the more you do it.