Hi!&nbsp; My name is Patricia, and I am thinking about spending the 2008-09 academic year studying Mandarin at Tsinghua.&nbsp; My husband will be a visiting scholar in the Electronic Engineering department, and we will be putting our daughter (who just turned 3 last week) in Tsinghua&#039;s kindergarten.&nbsp; We will be living on campus near the south gate.&nbsp; <br /><br />Since we will be living on Tsinghua&#039;s campus, and the rest of my family will be working/going to school at Tsinghua, I think it makes sense that I would study at Tsinghua too, but some people have told me I should go to BCLU.&nbsp; Any opinions here?&nbsp; (BTW - I haven&#039;t had any Mandarin classes, and most of what I know is appropriate for my 3 year old or useful little phrases friends have taught me...)<br /><br />Thanks for any advice,<br />Patricia (aka Taozi)

I believe the classes offered by Tsinghua and BLCU are very similar.&nbsp; My suggestion is to take the class at Tsinghua and find yourself a private tutor to help you through the courses.&nbsp; The classes are a bit intense, and you may find them difficult.&nbsp; Private tutors though are easily attainable, and very inexpensive by American standards; they usually are about 25 Kuai/Hour which works out to be a little under 4 bucks a hour.&nbsp; <br /><br />For what it&#039;s worth I was very happy with the classes offered by Tsinghua, and really enjoyed my time there.<br /><br />Please let me know if you have any questions.&nbsp; For questions I can&#039;t answer, I can probably find a way to forward them on to one of the teachers at Tsinghua. <br /><br />Sunny.

Thanks, Sunny!&nbsp; So, there is 20 hours per week in class.... do you have any idea how much time a typical very beginner student spends studying outside of class?&nbsp; I&#039;m trying to figure out what my life is going to look like.&nbsp; I have been a very good student in the past, but I haven&#039;t been both a student and a mom at the same time before (I finished my most recent masters 2 months before we adopted our daughter in 2005).&nbsp; Plus - LOTS of people are coming to see us in Beijing - including parents who expect to actually see us while they are there - go figure.&nbsp; So, I&#039;m already coming to grips with not being able to maintain a &quot;4.0,&quot; but I DO want to actually learn the language....&nbsp; (BTW - I know that 1 year won&#039;t get me to fluent even if I&#039;m perfect at everything...)<br /><br />Thanks again for all of the info!&nbsp; I love the &quot;10 things&quot; lists!<br /><br />Patricia

For some reference, here is my background.&nbsp; I am a native speaker ( I grew up learning Chinese here and there) as well as speaking a dialect of Chinese at home.&nbsp; I was put in one Tsinghua&#039;s intermediate classes, and was initially spending 2+ hours a day reviewing and studying materials given out during class.&nbsp; I would imagine that there will be a lot of material given to you, and would anticipate at least 1-2 hours minimum a day just going over all the words, understanding all the various language constructs, and learning to speak and listen.&nbsp; I&#039;ll try and see if I can get some other input on this.<br /><br />Given that, the program at Tsinghua is very flexible.&nbsp; For example, if you have a day when you can&#039;t attend class, the teachers will usually be able to accomodate it.&nbsp; A lot of students are able to go to classes and still have time for other activities.&nbsp; Furthermore, lots of help is available from the teachers, the students, or private tutors if you feel you need it.<br /><br />Here&#039;s something that you might may not have thought of.&nbsp; Domestic help is readily available in China.&nbsp; I&#039;m not sure what the prices are in Beijing, but here in Hangzhou, hiring someone to come clean the house costs about 9 Kuai a hour.&nbsp; But for me, even though the price was very reasonable I opted to do the chores myself just because the time I spend overseeing their work is almost the same as if I was to do it myself. That and I am still not used to the idea of domestic help. <br /><br />You would be surprised at how much you can learn in a year in the right environment.&nbsp; I went from reading just a few basic characters to being able to read entire webpages, and am able to read enough of a newspaper to have a basic understanding.&nbsp; <br /><br />Sunny.

Thanks again, Sunny!&nbsp; This is all so helpful!&nbsp; Yes, I am aware of the domestic help (or ayi) situation.&nbsp; My best friend is Chinese (raised in Xi&#039;an - lived in Beijing for 5 years), and she knows some migrant workers very well that she will introduce me to.&nbsp; I had been pretty hesitant to use an ayi, but the last time we were in Beijing (in May) I got a literal taste of the dust and realized that cleaning there and cleaning in the US are 2 different animals...&nbsp; Plus I WILL be busy....&nbsp; Plus it would be SO nice to have a baby sitter for an occasional date night - something we don&#039;t have here.<br /><br />A couple of hours of homework per day is something I can get my head around.&nbsp; And knowing that the profs are flexible is a huge relief!&nbsp; Thanks (again)!<br /><br />Patricia&nbsp;

No problem! &nbsp; If you have any other questions please feel free to ask.<br /><br />Sunny.