Charly1967

No difference between an American and a non American woman. Plenty of women in the US who just want your money too. Plenty of women abroad who do not - and the other way round. I would take the same common sense approach to any woman, wherever from.

I have not been to their Shanghai school, so cannot comment on that. I personally recommend Beijing because in Shanghai they speak Shanghaihua and heavily accented Mandarin so the practicing environment is better in Beijing. I am not really sure how a homestay in Shanghai would work as I believe most people speak Shanghaihua at home. Depends where you want to go to of course, but if it is mainly for learning Mandarin then Beijing is probably the better choice.

try italkie maybe?

anything else would have been quite a surprise. Dongguan is full of prostitutes and with the insistence of most Chinese men to not wear a condom a disaster waiting to happen. Well, unless it already happened that is...

I managed to get 8 weeks holiday last year and spent them in Beijing learning Mandarin after years of trying to learn this language online. I think you are doing the right thing - intensive study in a Chinese language envrionment is the only thing that will give you real progress - unless you are some language wizzard who can learn how to speak from just studying grammar rules. I spent almost half a year planning my trip, there are a lot of different options. After talking to just about every single language school in China I chose LTL in Beijing (http://www.livethelanguage.cn/learn-chinese-beijing/), because a) their website looks professional and b) they were very helpful with answering questions and support with the planning (they also have staff who can speak proper English, which helped a lot). If you are looking for a recommendation, I can recommend them. My teachers were very good (not just some Chinese person who goes through a book with you, but real full-time, trained teachers), the school well organized (it is run by a German...) and they are very helpful and supportive once you are there. The school is not that big and has a very personal feeling to it, which made for a nice and relaxed studying environment. Even though I am in my 50s, I chose the homestay option, which meant that my "homestay parents" were not that much older than myself. It worked out very well though, the food was great, the apartment nice and I ended up speaking pretty much nothing but Mandarin all day at home. I am still not fluent (not did I expect to become fluent in 2 months, though it remains my final goal), but I got a lot closer to it during those eight weeks than I thought I would.

The phone/skype classes via Chinesepod are pretty pricey. I havent tried them but read some ok reviews about them on other forums. I find 30 GBP per hour for a non full time teacher expensive though.

Does Witopia still work for anyone here? I have been having a lot of troubles recently and after many years of being a loyal customer am considering a change.....

Beijing is where it is at. The Taiwanese might still claim superiority, but on the ground Taiwan style Mandarin is just another Southern accent, considered by most mainland Chinese as not very sophisticated and something that one should not learn unless one wants to live in Taiwan/Fujian. The best Mandarin they speak in Heilongjiang by the way, though it is -50 there in the winter, so not sure if I will ever get to hear it.