No, I didn’t take the full three quarters. It’s an academic year, BTW, not a full year.But you probably know that.
How much I learned is a good question. No, I can’t read the newspaper, nor can I watch TV with no problems. I know that’s the impression of everyone that goes through the program, but it just isn’t reality. People enter at different levels. I saw people there who were in their second year at ICLP who I thought weren’t all that great, but they had started at a lower level. If someone went in with great Chinese, then they’d likely leave with fantastic Chinese. It all depends on your level.
I went in at the 300 level. A lot of people did. If you’ve studied at the book three level in Taiwan, then you’ll probably be at that level too. I left after studying at the 400 level.
I don’t believe for a second that people at the 400-500 level will be able to leave ICLP reading newspapers. But then what does “reading newspapers” mean? Reading without a dictionary? Reading every section of the newspaper equally well? I don’t think any of that is possible at the 500 level.
The problem is that advanced Chinese is incredibly vocab intense. It’s just not realistic to think that you’re going to read at that level in 9 months. Most people get burned out because there’s only so much you can stuff in your head in a short amount of time. Advanced Chinese, especially, seems to need lots of time to get used to the “vocab explosion” that happens at that level.
But I will say this for ICLP, they got me over the hump of middle level Chinese. I’m at the advanced level, meaning that there are no other classes in Taipei for me to take. I’m beyond what any other school offers. But I’ve become so hyper aware of how far I have to go to achieve fluency, that I’m a little burned out right now.
So basically, I recognise more characters than every before, I understand more TV than I ever did in the past, but I still have a long way to go to reach my goal. Thing is, after ICLP, it’s all on you. Haha.
BTW, I HIGHLY recommend the advanced level podcasts over at chinesepod.com
They have the high-level stuff that I find more relevant to living in Taiwan than you’ll find at ICLP. Would mastering all those advanced level podcasts get you further than ICLP if academic Chinese isn’t really your goal? Hmm…