i love your icon, haha

international business? great choice. what college do u plan to go to? i think international business is more about international trade more than anything else. so i doubt u gonna learn much from a program. i think it would be a better idea for u to start from SALES. that is the most fundamental aspect in business. u got know the art of selling in order to be a successful business man. i also recommend the book "Rich Dad Poor Dad" before you start thinking about business. you are 17. that's really young. i wish i had a chance to start learning about business at that age. classes/school/collge, none of them gonna teach you how be a GREAT business man. they teach you how to be a WONDERFUL employee, maybe not even that.

a summer program or whatever the program is, will NEVER teach you how to survive in the business world in CHINA. you have got to get in there and actually try it out yourself. by try it out, i mean you have to either start your little company (which is impossible for you), or work for a chinese firm in china. a successful business man can be successful in America, but may not be so successful in China.

if you need more help, im me. sn is poloboy8665

btw, I too, is interested in international business. I goes to Emory.

well, i was looking at that mainly for the language part. i just want to get a foothold before i go into a university, since i'm dual-enrolling at a community college (senior in hs, fresh in college). lots of people already know mandarin and english... so i feel that puts me behind in the entire area, since i grew up with my dialect and vietnamese. i thought at least going to china for both vacation and to learn (at least a little) would let me get more comfortable with the language, since the whole vietnamese language doesn't really do as much as some would think in learning mandarin...
in university terms, idk yet. california is a good place for international business, so i was looking at a few. or a lot. they have too many colleges >_> i was mainly leaning towards fullerton, san francisco state, uc sacramento, and uc berkeley. outside of cali, i was looking at university of georgia... but yeah. i still have to make up my mind on what to zero in on since i'm stuck at this community college for the next two years (one if university of georgia or university of central florida accept me in the middle of an associates).
i wasn't really looking to learn all the survival basics in that program, but just to know some names, see a little bit of that world over there if i even did the program.

You can speak Vietnamese? That rocks.

I know next to nothing about that language.

uh, with an american accent. which leads me to hardly use it. yeah yeah yeah, i know if you wanna get rid of the american accent part you keep speaking it but... oh well.

if you wanna know something... it sounds very informal. sounds like you're dissing the person you're talking to so it can be very fun. :D

try asking at this site http://www.beijingcommunity.com/

I'm currently studying at Beijing Language and Culture University through Worldlink Education. I'm not involved with the business program at all so I'll just comment about the language problem and Worldlink generally.

The company is very much legit. The advantages (as I see them) of World Link are that they organize all your university stuff for you (enrolment, fees etc), they pick you up at the airport and drop you off when you leave, they organize social events and tours, free internet access in a computer room,you have a bunch of people who can help you out with problems once your here. The biggest advantage for me is having a group of people to do things with - most people hang around with other World Link students who started at the same time. You can also get free tutoring and extra-curricular classes.

The disadvantages - it's incredibly expensive, and if I am ever in the position of coming back to China to do language study - I'd probably just apply to the university directly (I'd recommend BLCU as a language university). Also the staff are much more organized outside of China than in China. Also the social events and tours aren't held *quite* as often as the website seems to imply.

It really depends on you. If you want some help when you're in China - and you want to find a group of friends really easily, have a few tours to places that you don't want to organize yourself - then going through Worldlink is probably a good idea. If you think you can handle doing things on your own - just do it yourself.

I am posting regularly to my LJ on my impressions so you're welcome to check it out and see if that helps you make your mind up :-)

wow, ty. that was very helpful.

expensive? maybe i'm being naive, but the prices for the program itself didn't see too horrible, unless you're counting the expenses of the plane ticket, food, and personal wants over there...

but yeah, i have some questions. how is the language program itself? is it very intensive and personally, how much did you learn there? were you a complete beginner or just expertising your own skills? how well did the language program teach and are the classes just in one room? or do you move around in the same groups, etc? and how was room and board? sorry for the barrage of questions, but i've really been wondering XD.

I guess I'm calling it "expensive" in comparison to paying for tuition and board at BLCU as an individual. Everything here in China is very cheap so living expenses aren't a problem :-)

The language program - I'm studying at BLCU,not at Worldlink's Beijing Language Academy. The process is that you take a placement test at the start of your program and that determines what class level you're placed in. There are 5 levels from A-E, A being beginners and E proficient. I was placed in Level B after performing badly on the placement test - I really wanted to be in Level C. I've studied Mandarin for three years and done research in Chinese studies (not language specifically, but I've improved my language skills along the way) for 2 1/2 years.

For the most part, I've been very impressed with the teachers and the teaching standards. If you do a standard program, it's 4 hours per day from 8am-12pm. Intensive programs are 6 hours per day. I'm doing the standard program. The classes are held in one room, with 2 or 3 teachers. One teacher takes the 8-10 session, discussing the vocabulary and grammar in the current chapter, and the second teacher teaches pronunciation. The first class I took had 14 students, my current class has 20, although lots of students skip classes after the first day or two.

The rooms that Worldlink arrange vary - mine is excellent - I'm in a studio room at the Worldlink Residence. The campus rooms are mostly good although they vary a bit too. You can choose to have a roommate if you want (although usually Worldlink will pick your roommate, unless you're going over with a friend you want to share with). The rooms have air-conditioning, heating, a fridge, tv, bed/s,a desk, chairs - and the studios have cooking facilities. They also have a private bathroom.

Let me know if you have any more questions :-)