Review of Keats School - Kunming

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In the past I’ve made passing mentions, in this blog, about attending Keats School in Kunming, in order to learn Mandarin Chinese. And, occasionally I’ve received private messages asking me about my experiences there. I absolutely adore messages and comments on anything I write (one of the reasons I blog instead of just getting a paper diary is because the interactive nature of blogging makes it so much more fun). However, I’ll admit that I’m much better at happily reading e-mails than I am at replying to them. Therefore, I think it makes sense to write a review of that (and maybe some of the other things I get questions about, like TEFL international, if I ever get motivated to do so).

I’ve attended Keats School three times thus far. I went for two weeks during my winter holiday in 2009, three weeks during my winter holiday in 2010, and one week in my summer holiday in 2010. That should let anyone reading know right off the bat that my review is going to be favorable, or else I would not have gone so many times.

I’ve had a different teacher each time I’ve gone to Keats School, and each one has been excellent. The Keats website will give you all of the information you need to know about the school, but I’ll reiterate a little here. The basic format is that the student has four hours a day of one on one Mandarin instruction with a trained, native-speaking teacher. The four hours can be either in the morning or the afternoon depending on preference, and there is a short break in the middle of the class where you can get coffee, interact with other students, and complete language speaking “missions” with the other students and teachers.

I’ve always liked learning languages, but I think I can be an obnoxious sort of student in a classroom. I’ve taken many big group language classes in high school and university, and I’ll admit that I at the time I was frequently frustrated. The reason is because I love language learning, and have always had my own ideas about what and how I want to study (and what I want to talk about in the target language.). At Keats, since the lessons are one on one, I get to have things my way. My lessons there have always been focused on oral Chinese, conversation skills, and vocabulary building. My first time going to Keats I said I wanted a lesson on Chinese tea related vocabulary, and I was given one. My second time there, I said I wanted to learn vocabulary and structure that would allow me to talk to my students’ parents about their progress should they ever ask, and so my teacher and I concentrated a lot of that topic. I’ve consistently asked for activities that would help me practicing my listening comprehension, and always had them. The teachers at the school are good at striking a balance between conducting a class that caters to what I am most interested in, and also letting me know what I have to study in order to progress in the language (in my case, that meant encouraging me to pay some attention to grammar points, and encouraging me to start learning characters.).

The lessons, I’ve found, do get results. After my first two week stint there I returned to Wuhan, and wanted to continue learning Chinese with a group of my friends at the local training school, Rainbow Reading (also worth going to, if you’re in Wuhan). I was able to skip the first level offered there, and go on to the second instead. After my second time, one of my classmates from the Wuhan language course was impressed with my progress to the point where he decided to take a Keats course as well (and will be arriving there in about a week and a half, actually.). My learning isn’t 100% Keats based -- I’ve used Rosetta Stone (it’s ok) done a lot of self study, used Chinsepod (amazing), and pretty consistently spent four hours a week in group lessons in Wuhan. I’ve also been living consistently in China for two and a half years. Keats, however, is a big part of the success I’ve had in learning Chinese, and also my enjoyment of the language.


Comments on some other aspects of the school --


The City -- Kunming is my favorite city in China. It’s very clean and laid-back. It’s easy to travel from Kunming to many other cities in Yunnan province, even just for a weekend getaway (I love Dali!). There are some lovely parks and nice temples there. The shopping is great, particularly at the flower and bird market. There are also teashops on literally every street corner. It’s not as filled with sites as some other Chinese cities, and if someone were vacationing there, I’d say a few days is enough time to get through everything that needs seeing. However, it’s very livable and just a pleasant place to be. The weather is usually amazing -- it’s not unusual to be able to go outside in a t-shirt in the middle of January, though Kunming does also have its share of cold rainy days.


Meal plan -- I’ve only done the meal plan at Keats once. I was completely satisfied by it. I don’t usually do it mainly because Kunming has lots of eating options that aren’t available in Wuhan (amazing western food, and an Indian restaurant! And, of course, typical Yunnan stuff.). I did spend less money on food the time I used the meal plan, though in theory it would be possible to eat more cheaply than the meal plan costs (if you like a diet consisting of noodles, noodles, and more noodles). I don’t think for somebody coming over from abroad, being able to eat amazing American food would be as big a draw as it is for me, so the meal plan is definitely worth considering.

Housing -- Comfy and quiet. No complaints.

TaiQi lessons -- I did these once. I was afraid to take them, actually, because I’m not that physically fit, and I’m the very opposite of coordinated. I think I had this fear in the back of my mind that my teacher would be angry at me for not being automatically good at what he was teaching. The teacher was actually very friendly and nice, went at a speed that I could follow, and never made me feel as if I wasn’t doing well enough, or I was a TaiQi failure. It was nice, fun, and gave me an introduction into Chinese culture that I might not have otherwise found.


Other tips -- If you come with some idea of what you’d like to learn, or a focus in mind, I find that helps you learn faster. Particularly if you are going for a very short time (like my one week stint), or you already speak a good deal of Chinese. Doing homework also helps. My first time at Keats I did practically no homework, because the city was new and shiny, and I just didn’t feel like it. The lessons still were very helpful, but my progress was faster my second and third time at the school, when I *did* do additional work outside of class. Also, go out of your way to speak Chinese to locals while you are in Kunming, rather than just hanging out with the other international students outside of class time.

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