I have up to 6 months off work to study Mandarin, but I am now thinking that I might easily reach a plateau before the end of that period if I study as intensively as I planned. I don’t want to waste time and money, so am asking for advice.
I plan to take 9 weeks 1-1 study and live with a Chinese family in Beijing, then take a 1 week holiday, then come to Taiwan and do exactly the same thing (tho’ probably not with a homestay, as it is very difficult to sort this out from here.) I will be at TLI in Taipei. I wanted originally to finish at the end of the 3rd week in January - almost five months in all, save, say, ten days for my week’s holiday and Xmas, National Day etc.
FYI, I am a graduate in Chinese but need to refresh and improve it, hopefully surpassing my original level.
Do you think this is too much? I could easily reduce my time off work and use it later in 2005 for a refresher.
