r/LTL_Chinese

I've been at LTL (Shanghai and Chengdu) for half a year now and so far I can definitely recommend this school to anyone who wants to study Mandarin! I have a lot of positive things to say so i will try to make it as organized as possible.

Organization:
Mojca was very quick to respond and the application process went smoothly. Check your Documents for the Visa Application though, since my first ones had incorrect information on them.

Management:
I had some problems with my Homestays (First in Shanghai due to miscommunication , second in Chengdu due to lack of cleanliness in the apartment). Both times the schools were very quick to react and changing Homestays was no problem. In Shanghai they reacted a bit too quick, which led to more additional problems with my homestay since I didn't get the chance to talk to them first before the school did. So if you encounter any problems with the Homestay talk to them first before you tell the school about it because LTL takes these problems very seriously and wants to eradicate them as soon as possible. It turned out very good in the end and I'm grateful for their quick response and good advice, just keep in mind that sometimes you can fix these issues yourself, without having the school get involved.

Location:
Both the Shanghai and Chengdu school were very central, with lots of restaurants and other interesting places around them, which was very convenient.

Shanghai School:
I made some of my best friends in Shanghai and I would love to go back someday. Both of my teachers, Kristen and Jason were very kind and made my Chinese progress from absolute 0 to HSK3 in 5 months. They didn't just teach me the words in the book and the grammar but additionally taught me more frequently used words, other alternatives and put me to the test in regularly making me use those words and structures. The lessons were very easy to follow and made me learn a lot about chinese culture and history. They were very helpful whenever I had problems (whether that might be setting up an account on a platform, ordering coffee for the first time,...) Especially Kristen went out of her way to help us and even accompanied my friend to the hospital. Jason on the other hand was very involved in freetime activities, often accompanied us to eat and taking us to his leisure time activities, such as archery. I loved this and me and my friends always had a lot of fun while having a chance to connect even more! These activities are definitely a great opportunity to make friends. It was hard to say goodbye to them and I hope I'll see them again!

Chengdu School:
When I first came to Chengdu my teacher PanPan and I became friends immediately. She is very quick to pinpoint my weaknesses and helps me to erase them very quickly. She is also very assuring and gives me a lot of motivation to study. Classes with her always feel very comfortable, even though she pushes me lot, especially when it comes to writing characters. The wellbeing of her students is very important to her and she makes sure everyone is included! She also regularly goes out with us and plans fun trips, even taking us to travel to another city and organizing the entire trip. We all had different interests but she made sure that everyone got to see the places they wanted to visit and do the activities the showed interest in. (Which was only another demonstration of her great organization skills).Making friends in Chengdu felt as easy as in Shanghai, thanks to her. I want to go to University in China and Panpan helped me look up a lot of universities, their requirements and even called one of the schools! She isn't only a teacher that wants to help, she truly is a friend that wants to see you succeed. Even when not at work she spends time with her students and simultaneously teaches a lot about cultural differences, how to bargain prices and a lot of words people use on the internet that otherwise might confuse people that only work on the HSK books. Because of that, it has also been a lot easier to communicate with Chinese people roughly my age because I understood more of their inside jokes and references. All of the Chengdu teachers are amazing, that dedicate a lot of time and passion to their students and you can tell they all enjoy doing their job. They helped me gain a lot of confidence in my chinese speaking and even taught me Sichan hua! (The local dialect). It was a bit of a struggle at first to understand the locals here but after their explanation of pronunciation and how certain letters are used differently I've become way quicker at understanding it.

In total LTL is a good school that I would definitely recommend to other people who want to study chinese efficiently!

My stay at LTL Shanghai and Chengdu