Study abroad in Beijing this summer and improve your language skills! Offering an ideal environment for acquiring and improving Chinese language skills, the IES Abroad Beijing summer program provides intensive beginner, intermediate, advanced intermediate, and advanced level Chinese language courses.
IES Abroad’s Beijing Summer study abroad program offers enrollment in IES Abroad courses, housing in student residence halls, regular meetings with local students as language and culture partners, and field trips in Beijing and throughout China; you will have the opportunity to meet Chinese and international students alike. Starting at the IES Abroad Center on the west campus of Beijing Foreign Studies University, you will gain a meaningful cultural experience and a deeper knowledge of what it means to be a citizen of the world.
Designed to help you acquire or improve Chinese language skills through intensive language instruction, an entire year of college-level Chinese is covered during this program. Small classes and private Chinese tutors make this program perfect for vastly improving your language skills. Students study at Beijing foreign Studies university (北京外国语大学), and follow a strict language pledge to maximize language learning. You can also take a 2-credit elective course, Understanding China. All students design a language project that explores the experience of integrating with a local community group.
These dates are preliminary and are subject to change. Students should not book flights according to these dates.
Each week, you will engage in 12 hours of classroom instruction and 4 hours of private tutorials with an instructor as part of a Chinese language course (offered at beginning through advanced levels) for a total of 8 credits.
You can also take a 2-credit elective course, Understanding China.
Please note - Additional upper-level language courses will be made available for advanced students.
This is a list of planned course offerings. After you are accepted, you will see a list of final course offerings in your MyIESabroad account.
In addition to the three-day mobile learning field trip, IES Abroad Beijing organizes field study trips that complement what you’re learning in the classroom, and contribute to your general knowledge of Chinese culture and society.
Our job is to make sure that your greatest challenge is deciding what landmarks to see first or discovering the best café—not finding a place to live where you feel comfortable. We do our best to locate housing that is reflective of how the local students are living. Our goal is that when you leave Beijing, it will feel like home.
You live in a double-occupancy, air-conditioned room located in the IES Abroad building on the Beijing Foreign Studies University (BFSU) campus.
For the first month, you live with a Chinese roommate from BFSU. After local Chinese students leave campus, you remain in the dorm. You are responsible for your own meals.
Part of making you feel at home in Beijing is doing our best to help you feel safe and cared for. Whether it’s the orientation program that prepares you for what’s ahead, your housing that is well-located and comfortable, or the field trips that take you to places off the beaten path—we’re all about our student services. This is just one of the things we’re known for.
Upon arrival, IES Abroad provides you with a four-day orientation full of information about Beijing and Chinese culture, as well as basic language instruction. Native Chinese residents help you adjust to the city and make the most of living in China. Additional noteworthy activities include a welcome banquet, “Discover Beijing” scavenger hunt, “Chinese Food 101”, and a session on navigating Chinese culture.
Past activites have included:
Some activities may offer you the opportunity to meet Chinese students.
To complement classroom instruction, IES Abroad Beijing arranges a three-day mobile learning field trip, led by language instructors. Possible destinations include:
Weekend excursions and cultural events, often organized with Chinese students, are also offered. In addition, you may sign up for an optional, 10-day post-program trip to Tibet (for an additional fee).
Optional Tibet Field Trip An optional post-semester 10-day trip to Tibet is offered to all IES Beijing students. IES staff and a team of professional Tibetan guides will take you from the markets and temples of Lhasa to high mountain passes and camping by the shores of alpine lakes. We will visit sites including the Potala Palace, once the home of the Dalai Lamas; Jokhang Temple, the holiest site in Tibetan Buddhism; and the Sera Monastery where we will watch the monks participate in their daily debate ritual. Lodging will be in local hostels or sometimes camping in tents under the stars. Most meals and all local transportation is provided. Contact IES staff for information on pricing and schedule. The itinerary is subject to change or cancellation depending upon the political situation in Tibet.
Since 2006, our Center has been located on the west campus of Beijing Foreign Studies University near BFSU’s library, gym, and Olympic-sized swimming pool. The Center is in Beijing’s northwestern district of Haidian, home to more than 20 universities and serves as Beijing’s largest residential district.
Features include:
Jeremiah JenneIES Abroad Director Jeremiah Jenne is a Ph.D. Candidate in History at the University of California, Davis. He specializes in 19th-century Qing history and is currently researching anti-foreignism and colonialism in the coastal ('treaty port') cities of the Qing Empire. He previously served as the Associate Director for China Studies at IES Abroad Beijing. Other research interests include the Qing as an imperial(ist) power, the construction of identity during the Qing Dynasty, nationalism in modern China, and gender and the family in Late Imperial China. His essays have appeared in China in 2008: A Year of Great Significance and The Insiders Guide to Beijing, 2009 Edition.
IES Abroad Staff Ning ZhaoAssociate Director
Xiaomeng LinAcademic and Internship Coordinator
Jiasui "Josie" WangStudent Affairs and Customized Program Coordinator
Chuantao XiangOffice Assistant
Jijiao ZhangAccountant
Language Faculty IES Abroad language faculty are experienced Chinese language instructors from the Beijing Foreign Studies University and other universities such as Peking University, Qinghua University, and the Beijing Normal University. IES provides regular training in Western second language teaching methods.
Area Studies Faculty IES area studies faculty typically hold advanced degrees from prestigious Chinese or Western universities,have studied or taught at Western universities, have published in China and abroad, and currently old positions at universities such as Peking University, Beijing Foreign Studies University, People's University, and the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. Many have been Fulbright scholars and in addition to their teaching responsibilities are editors of journals, chairs of departments, and directors of research institutes.
Links:[1] http://www.iesabroad.org/study-abroad/beijing [2] http://www.iesabroad.org/study-abroad/china [3] http://www.iesabroad.org/study-abroad/ies-abroad-beijing
Beijing Summer - Language Intensive
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