To add to my previous entry: I'm actually in classes only with other heritage speakers--I'm told that wasn't done on purpose, and the teachers were actually rather amused to find that they had to correct a bunch of Southern accents all at once. But even among heritage speakers, there are a lot of differences in background. Some people grow up speaking Mandarin, while for others it's Cantonese or Shanghainese, and there's a wide range of how much exposure students have actually had to Chinese.
Otherwise, all I can say is that you shouldn't plan on coming to IUP if you're really excited about having a summer full of time to explore Beijing. (I can see how you might be able to squeeze enough time out of an entire year?) Advanced students often not only have 3 classes over 2 different textbooks, but also have a 4th class with extra work. I'm reading a short story by 王朔 (Wang Shuo) called "空中小姐" for Monday, but it's about 40 pages in Word (with some spacing between dialogue)--it's also the third short story I've ever somewhat seriously attempted to read in Chinese. Since this fourth class is only twice per week for me, I always forget about it as I'm caught up in finishing my daily homework, and then it comes around on Mon. & Wed. to kick me in the butt. But basically, I've only been outside of Wudaokou once (798!! A post on this later?) over the past 3-4 weeks, and I'm getting pretty familiar with all the cafes in the area. If I'm on-task, I'm probably doing 3-5 hours of homework per day.
Unfortunately, I have to say that Beijing is tough on your health. Most people I've talked to have had some sort of stomach problems, and everyday there are a few students who are absent. While things are somewhat better now, I didn't go to class for two days this week since I had stomach problems for almost a week, ended up not eating enough as a result, and felt too weak & exhausted to actually do any work. These problems seem to have also brought up my old respiratory issues from the aftermath of bronchitis. Since I'm guessing the stomach issues were helped along by careless eating habits, sleep deprivation, and stress to begin with, all I can say is, it's important to manage your time wisely and remember to take care of yourself, too! I appreciate the chance to spend the summer clearing my head by studying ~100 Chinese vocab. words per day, but the program is a lot of work, and it can start to wear down on you along with the pollution, heat, noise, & general chaos even just in Wudaokou.
On a more *positive* health-related note, I had to get a wisdom tooth pulled and went to Arrail Dentail after asking for advice from IUP--half the price of United Family Hospital's dental care, and very professional. Everything went smoothly! However, although someone will speak a bit of English, at the Zhongguancun branch the dentist and assistants seemed mainly comfortable with Chinese (they did have forms & instructions for after-care in English). I didn't really mind since I got everything except for the very technical details about what exactly was happening, which I wouldn't have understood in English anyhow.
http://www.arrail-dental.com/en/
All right, I do have a lot more to say, but I deserve some sleep now!
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