Before coming to China to study at LTL, I had heard a lot that Chinese is a very difficult language and is almost impossible to learn due to having “thousands of letters”, so I was intrigued to read a bit about this scary language. Just reading a little bit about the logic behind character writing and formation made the language much less frightening and actually more logical than many others.

[caption id="attachment_5857" align="alignright" width="300"]<a href="http://ltl-chinois.fr/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/mohamed.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-5857" alt="chinese" src="http://ltl-chinois.fr/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/mohamed-300x225.jpg" width="300" height="225" /></a> Mohamed climbing one of China's sacred mountains[/caption]

Deciding to later on pursue Chinese Mandarin, I started looking for schools to study for a short duration (limited time because of work), and LTL was my first choice as it is located in Beijing and offers homestay residence which helps a lot in advancing faster as I found from a previous experience. In addition to that, LTL offers Chinese immersion programs which I would have tried had I only had more time.

One month before arriving to Beijing, I started to study as much as possible. Work limited the amount of time available for studying, but still I was able to read and say basic expressions, with apparently a very weird accent once I got to China

I took 1on1 individual classes (4 hours daily) for three weeks since I wanted fast progress and a course tailored to my own interests.

The good thing about individual classes is that progress is much faster since you are forced to talk and focus most of the time, differently to group classes where you have the chance to take a break when other students are talking. In addition my classes were tailored exactly to what I wanted to learn, which I enjoyed a lot. For my case, my main focus was on conversations and vocabulary required to survive during my planned travels. The downside (or the upside?) of 1-on-1 classes is that you have to be focused all the time, to show much dedication, and should prepare for each class beforehand. I found the quality of teaching at LTL excellent and my teachers very friendly, and even though I did not have any classmates, I met a lot of other students during breaks, after classes or during activities organized by the school.

The 1on1 classes benefited me a lot in noticing the errors I used to have in pronunciation and in tones, and working more and more to correct them.

One important thing to know before taking 1on1 classes is to know what you are expecting in and from these classes so they can be planned in a way that fits you. Outside the class, try as much as possible to use whatever you learned with native Chinese people - I found my homestay family very helpful in that regard.

After about a week, I was having basic conversations and at some points was able to impress native Chinese by saying not-so-easy phrases. After another week, I was able to check train tickets online on only-Chinese websites, and to buy these tickets from the ticket vendor. I struggled a bit at the beginning, but it did work.

After three weeks of classes, I went on a 6-day trip to two other cities and back to Beijing, climbed two of China’s five sacred mountains, camped and slept there, slept once on a train, missed a train and had to negotiate to refund and buy another ticket, met and befriended lots of Chinese, and took LOTs of pictures with locals as a foreigner (wài guó rén  –外国人-you will hear this a lot).

Two weeks after returning to Lebanon, I miss China and LTL a lot.