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n About the Program
| Our high school program is designed for students ages 14 to 18 to learn Chinese while participating in a homestay. Students will study Chinese in quality language programs catered to teenage learners and will stay with a Chinese family with a resident teenager. These families are specially selected for hosting high school teenagers. During their homestay students will be taken good care of and experience be fully immersed in the language and culture. Our program features a variety of activities, including cultural activities, volunteer events and weekend excursions provided by Lotus and host families. Programs we offer to high school students are: |
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¡ñ 4/5/6-Week High School Small Class Program
With a maximum of 5 students per class, our High School Small Class Program provides students a more intensive study-focused atmosphere for quick and effective learning. Most instructors hold teaching positions at renowned institutions such as at Beijing language and Culture University, Tsinghua University, Peking University and Beijing Normal University.
The program includes 20 lessons per week from Monday to Friday. Students will be placed into appropriate classes according to their Chinese levels. Teachers use teaching methods that combine all aspects and skills of language such as grammar, pronunciation, vocabulary, listening, reading, conversation and writing, in an interactive way that makes language learning productive and interesting. Our high school students are always surprised by how fast they learn with the program.
The High School Small Class Program is held at Lotus Beijing office, which is located in Haidian, the ¡°university district¡± in Beijing, within walking distance to Peking University.
More than an academic in-class learning experience, the High School Small Class Program also features a variety of activities, including cultural activities, volunteer events, and weekend excursions while learning Mandarin in Beijing. See Activities & Excursions for details.
Schedule & Fee
4-Week High School Small Class Program (Jun 24- Jul 22)
Program fee: US$ 3,880£¬which includes:
- Registration and all the paper work before and after you arrive in China.
- Tuition fee and textbooks.
- Homestay in a family with a teenager of similar age. Homestay includes a private bedroom, daily breakfast & dinner, computer and DSL internet service.
- Welcome dinner and other items prepared by the host family.
- Cultural activities, volunteer events and weekend excursions in Beijing which includes lunch, transportation and admission fees.
- Airport pick-up and drop-off upon arrival and departure.
- Welcome Package, which includes: Chinese-English-Chinese dictionary, map of Beijing, phone card of 100RMB and a mobile SIM card, etc.
- 24 hours Assistance and supervision, provided by our on-site staff.
Course |
Date |
Campus |
Application Deadline |
Fee |
4-week High School Small Class Program |
Jun 24-Jul 22 |
Lotus Beijing office |
Jun 17 |
$ 3,880 |
5-week High School Small Class Program |
Jun 24-Jul 29 |
Lotus Beijing office |
Jun 17 |
$ 4,480 |
6-week High School Small Class Program |
Jun 24-Aug 5 |
Lotus Beijing office |
Jan 17 |
$ 4,980 |
¡ù The optional afternoon one-on-one tutoring class is also available. Please contact us for detailed information.
¡ñ One-on-one personally designed independent study for high school students
Our One-on-One tutoring program is flexible and held all year around. It offers participants the opportunity to learn Chinese, when, where and how they desire. Our tutors are native Chinese university graduates with at least two years experience in teaching Chinese as a foreign language. Most of them teach at renowned universities in China such as Beijing language and Culture University, Tsinghua University, Peking University and Beijing Normal University. They will customize individual study plans based on students¡¯ Chinese levels and desired study fields. Based on the textbook, the tutor can also conduct the class in real communication environment such as shopping, taking bus, meeting friends, etc. The One-on-One tutoring program is the most efficient way to improve Chinese language skills in a short period of time.
Schedule & Fee
One-on-One personally designed tutoring
Date: Anytime to fit your schedule
Location: One-on-one tutoring can be held at student¡¯s host family¡¯s place, the tutor¡¯s place, or another location that both the student and the tutor agree upon.
Program fee: US$920/week, which includes:
- Homestay in a family with teenager of similar age. The homestay includes a private bedroom, daily breakfast & dinner, computer and DSL service.
- 20 hours/week personal tutoring.
- Excursions and activities organized by Lotus.
- Textbooks and other materials.
- Airport pickup and drop off.
- 24 hours Assistance and supervision, provided by our on-site staff.
- Welcome Package, which includes: Chinese-English-Chinese dictionary, map of Beijing and phone card of 100RMB.
- Welcome dinner and other stuff prepared by the host family.
To apply for our One-on-One tutoring program, there is an application fee of US$ 250.
¡ù Please note: Group activities, including cultural activities, volunteer events and weekend excursions are available for students who join High School one-on-one tutoring program from Jun 24-Aug 5 (the study period for other high school programs). For students who join High School one-on-one tutoring program outside of this period, the activities available depends on if the program period falls within our pre-arranged activity calendar. If it is outside our activity calendar then the program fee is $790/week. Email Lotus for the more information.
¡ñ 4/6-week Intensive Chinese Immersion Program for high school students at Beijing Language and Culture University
 Beijing Language and Culture University (BLCU) is the only University in China whose main function is to teach Chinese language and culture to foreign students. Over the last several years, more than 20,000 foreign students have graduated from BLCU. Every year, some 3,000 students from several countries, and more than 1,000 Chinese students study here. BLCU is by far the largest and most popular university to study Chinese for foreign students. The HSK Test (Chinese TOEFL) is administered and developed by BLCU.
Each weekday morning for four hours each day (with breaks), students will join a Chinese Immersion Program class at BCLU. The classes offer lectures on the Chinese language as well as instruction on written and oral communication. Students will be graded based on test results, completion of homework and attendance. Students Credit transfer is available. After-class electives are also provided by the university.
In addition to an academic in-class learning experience, the Chinese Immersion Program for high school students at BLCU also features a variety of activities, including cultural activities, volunteer events, and weekend excursions while learning Mandarin in Beijing. See Activities & Excursions for details.
Schedule & Fee
4-week Intensive Chinese Immersion Program for high school students at Beijing Language and Culture University (Jun 24-Jul 22)
Program fee: US$ 3,880£¬which includes:
- Registration and all the paper work (including supporting documents for visa application) before and after you arrive in China.
- Tuition fee and textbooks
- Homestay in a family with teenager of similar age. The homestay includes a private bedroom, daily breakfast & dinner, computer and DSL service.
- Welcome dinner and other stuff prepared by the host family.
- Cultural activities, volunteer events and weekend excursions in Beijing including lunch, transportation and admission fees.
- Airport pick-up and drop-off upon arrival and departure
- Welcome Package, which includes: Chinese-English-Chinese dictionary, map of Beijing, phone card of 100RMB and a mobile SIM card, etc.
- 24 hours Assistance and supervision, provided by our on-site staff.
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4-week High School Program at BLCU
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6-week High School Program at BLCU
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¡ùThe optional afternoon one-on-one tutoring class is also available. Please contact us for detailed information. |
n Host Families
| The families that host teenage students are carefully chosen and interviewed from a large number of applicants. They will help students during orientation on their arrival, and provide them with assistance for the duration of their stay, and will be especially if any unexpected situations arise like illness or injury. They will also be warm and open-mined and will offer the student a real family environment where students can learn the Chinese language, better understand Chinese customs and culture and build a lifelong friendship. |
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Staying with a local family is definitely the best way to practice language and have close contact with Chinese culture. As a fully integrated family member the student will eat, watch TV, shop, and experience daily life with your "mom, dad and brother or sister." Meanwhile, you won't have to give up your privacy as you will have your own space -- a private bedroom and bathroom. |
Each family has all the convenient living facilities you would find in a Western home, including a TV, DVD player, computer with DSL access, refrigerator, microwave, washing machine, air-conditioning and western toilets with 24-hour hot water. Your room will be fully furnished with a bed, desk, wardrobe (or closet) and air-conditioning. Most families are located in nice communities, where swimming pool, tennis courts and a supermarket are available.
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Each of our host families has been interviewed by our staff and a security check is completed before any family is accepted. In addition to our on-site staff, the host families can also assist you and provide all the necessary information and first-hand help needed during your stay.
Families near the campus are on convenient public transportation between the university and their home, which usually takes no more than 30 minutes by bus or train. |
n Activities and Excursions
 In addition to an academic in-class learning experience, our high school program also features a variety of activities, including cultural activities, volunteer events, and weekend excursions while learning Mandarin in Beijing. The activities are designed to give students the opportunity to communicate with local people, learn Chinese culture and have a chance to do volunteer work in China.
Chinese traditional art:Students will have the opportunities to enjoy genuine Chinese traditional art performances such as Peking Opera, acrobatics, etc.
Chinese martial arts:The curriculum will teach students the basic forms and routines of Chinese contemporary Wushu (martial arts).
Panel discussion with Chinese students:Students will attend panel discussions on global issues, culture, history, etc, with Homestay brothers and sisters. Exchange with Chinese students of the same age will deepen students¡¯ understanding of Chinese culture and enhance their Mandarin ability.
Chinese cooking class: We offer a vegetarian cooking class to give students some basic training in Chinese cooking and students can enjoy the interesting experience of cooking.
Painting class:¡¡Classes introduce elements of the traditional art of Chinese watercolor painting under the guidance of a professional artist.
Weekend excursions: On weekends, students will tour the famous and historical sights in or surrounding Beijing. Sights include: Great Wall, Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City, Wang Fujing Street, Lama Temple, Confucian Temple and the Hutong Tour, Badachu Park, etc.
During the excursion Beijing Lotus Staff will introduce traditional Chinese culture and history. Students will have an interesting hands-on experience while studying the Chinese language. They will learn new idioms, sayings, and gain a deeper understanding of traditional Chinese culture. They will also receive a nice gift from our on-site staff.
 Charity excursion to senior center and orphanage school:
Students will visit a rural senior center and orphanage school with our Beijing Lotus staff and some Chinese volunteers. This is a precious opportunity for students to understand life in other places in China, and offer help and companionship to Chinese seniors and orphans.
Tourist visits arranged with host families
Lotus can arrange tourist visits in and around Beijing with their host families at a discounted price. Students will be guided by their host families while visiting famous sight-seeing and cultural sites. They will learn Chinese language, culture and history and have a fun, interactive experience with their host families during the visits. This arrangement is recommended to students who sign up for the One-on-One tutoring program and whose stay period does not coincide with the weekend excursions offered during our small class and BLUC program period.
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n Student/Parent Feedback
Brent and
Kyle with their host families
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Brent Smith, Managing Director of
Developing Bank of Singapore, joined Lotus 2 weeks
summer program in 2007; his son Kyle Smith, from
Singapore American School, joined Lotus 3 weeks high
school program. |
| I highly recommend Lotus, and
had an excellent experience. I found the program to be
very well organized, all of the teachers both the
university and through the one on one tutorial program
that was set up from Lotus were excellent. The other
program, the extra curriculum programs set up by the
Lotus was fun and instructional. And I had a very good
time; I felt the program was well put together and I
would recommend it.
Like many other parents of a high school student, my
wife and I were apprehensive that first about our son
being in Beijing, lucky I was able to be with him for
part of the time, I am very happy to say that Lotus has
a very safe, well-organized, and age-appropriate program
for teenagers that I would recommend, I feel very happy
about it.
Do home stay has been an intriguing part of the
program for me, living with the Chinese family not only
practicing a language outside the classroom, but
actually being a part of the culture, learning new words
was a very exciting and very important part of the
program, and I had a lot of fun doing it, and would
recommend to others. |
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See Video Testimonial of
Mr. Brent Smith  |
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Jillian
Schacher, German, studies in Newton South High
School, USA, joined 2-week one-on-one high school
program in 2007.
See video Testimonial of Jillian
Schacher |
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Laura & Meredith with their
host family (host wife and children) |
Laura & Meredith, mother and
daughter, from USA, joined Lotus One on One program in
summer 2006.
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Dear Lotus Educational
Foundation,
Thank you for the wonderful experience my daughter
and I had in Beijing. Being able to be immersed once
again in Chinese helped Meredith speak and understand
the language more fully and apply the knowledge gained
from her high school Chinese classes.
Meredith found her tutor helpful, responsive and
knowledgeable. Meredith had specific goals she wanted to
attain to help her with her continuing study of Chinese
and the tutor helped her achieve those goals. On our
daily wonderings and sight seeing through Beijing after
her lesson, Meredith confidently spoke Chinese in all
situations. It certainly was nice for me to be able to
have someone about who could speak the
language!
Our host family was generous and kind. Fortunately,
most of them could not speak English, which was very
helpful to Meredith, although having some family members
have a good command of English was also helpful, as
Meredith was able to receive an in situ lesson for
things she did not understand. The host family was
comfortable having two additional people in their house
and Meredith also enjoyed playing with the children¡and
the opportunity to once again, use her Chinese.
To be frank, I wanted to go to Beijing to ¡°check out¡±
the situation regarding quality of tutoring, home stay
family quality and the overall quality of the program.
As you know, Meredith is a high school student and has
been studying Chinese for four years. She will continue
her study of Chinese for the remainder of her high
school career. To that end, I was looking for a program
in which Meredith could return to every summer that
provided steadily increasing difficulty of mastery of
Chinese, taking fully into account her steadily
increasing fluency and study of Chinese during the
academic year. The Lotus program provides such a
structure. I am also confident that staying with a host
family will also continue to be a very good experience.
As an organization, you all were always quick to
respond to my questions and provided information for our
alternative attainment of our Chinese visas. The pick up
and drop off service is terrific as well as all the
extras you provide, such as the SIM chip, the
dictionary, etc.
Kind regards,
Laura Hayward
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Kevin(left) with
other Lotus students
at the gate of Lama Temple
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Kevin Busch, USA student, joined
Lotus 4 weeks One on One program in 2006.
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A Thank-you note from Kevin¡¯s
mother Wendy Liang:
On short notice, we had to scramble to find a
suitable program for our son to fill the remaining
summer month with some productive activity. We did
exhaustive search online and came across with the Lotus
program. The program fits our need perfectly in three
areas. First, the program can be individual. A tutor
will be provided to tailor the program to student¡¯s
schedule and pace. Second, my son did not speak nor
write any Chinese, the tutor was able to start him from
ground 0. When he returned from only a month long, 4-6
hour/day one on one tutoring, he could converse and
comprehend in very basic Mandarin, which I think is
phenomenal progress. Plus, at the end of the program,
the tutor provided us with a detail study report with
description of the study plan, progress, and areas for
improvement. Third, my son chose the Homestay program
which provided a very safe, worry-free environment
especially he has never been in China before. The host
mother took really good care of him. In fact, he was
very ill for 3 days with fever and all and the host
mother took him to the hospital for necessary medical
attention and nursed him back to health. I wonder now if
he had stayed in a dorm or apartment, could he have
turned out ok. Last but not least, through both the
Lotus program and the host family, my son was guided in
various excursions to Beijing¡¯s favorite sights on the
weekends.
Throughout the program duration, I kept constant
contact with the program office in Beijing via email for
any question and concern. With the time difference, they
always responded within 24 hours. This has really
provided us ease of mind.
I also want to comment on their expedient sign-up
procedure. Although we made the decision to pursue the
program on short notice, they were able to accommodate
our need and got everything going in one-week time
frame.
I would recommend the Lotus program if you are
seeking an enriching cultural experience with full
language immersion. We will not hesitate to participate
again in the future.
Wendy Liang
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Jason (right) with his brother
Samson (left) and their host father
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Jason Cheng, 16 year old from USA,
joined Lotus four weeks summer program with his brother
Samson in 2006. |
| If you want to get even
better at speaking Chinese and learn about Chinese
lifestyle, you should join the Lotus program. With the
Lotus program, you stay with a host family where you are
forced to speak Chinese. If you decide to just stay in
the university's dorms, you are constantly speaking
English. The people I met there at the university all
say that they aren't getting much out of the class;
mainly because they only spend four hours speaking
Chinese and the rest of the time talking to classmates
in English. Besides that, you get to learn about how
Chinese people live their everyday lives. For example, I
learned that the family eats their food with much oil.
It was an unfamiliar taste at first, but you get used to
it after a few days. Overall, the Lotus program helped a
lot and I would recommend it to anyone who wants to
learn Chinese and Chinese culture.
Jason Cheng |
Register online
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