Study Abroad

MHC-BLCU Summer Program

The Mount Holyoke summer program offers eight weeks (tentative dates for 2006 are July 3 to August 26) of intensive language study. The program will provide an immersion learning experience and will cover the equivalent of one year of Chinese as normally taught in an American college classroom. Students must have completed at least one year of college-level Chinese language study, and will be placed at the appropriate language level (intermediate or advanced) in Beijing.

The program facilitates learning through both curricular and extra curricular activities. Every day, classroom teaching is divided into lectures and drill sections in the morning, which are reinforced by individual help from language partners in the afternoon. Every two students will be assigned to a Chinese language partner who, in addition to individual tutorials, is responsible for arranging language-related activities outside the classroom.

Elective culture courses, such as Taiji Boxing, Taiji Sword, Chinese Calligraphy, Chinese Songs, and Cooking, will also be offered by the program. These courses will usually meet in the afternoon. Four major cultural tours will be arranged by the program, including visits to the Great Wall, the Forbidden City, the Beijing Opera, and the Chinese Acrobats.

Students who complete the program successfully will receive a total of eight credits toward their Mount Holyoke degree. These credits are treated as transfer credits, and count against the maximum of 8 summer school credits that students may use toward the Mount Holyoke degree.

The Host University

The summer program is hosted by the Beijing Language and Culture University and all of the courses will be taught by BLCU faculty. BLCU specializes in teaching Chinese as a foreign language and has more than five thousand international students on campus studying Chinese at different levels. Prof. Ying Wang will accompany the group and will be available throughout the program as an adviser and resource person.

BLCU is located in the northwest part of Beijing, on a beautiful campus with a lot of phoenix trees. It has a newly built international student residence hall, a modern gym, a Japanese tavern, a Korean restaurant, and a Muslim dining hall, in addition to several Chinese cafeterias.

The University is a ten minute walk from a commercial area called Wudao kou, where local residents and international students shop and entertain themselves. A city railway in this area conveniently takes one to the downtown area of Beijing.

Study Abroad - Center for Global Initiatives

Beijing Language and Culture University

Other Study Abroad Programs

Princeton in Beijing (PRC)
Associated Colleges in China (PRC)
Inter-University Program for Chinese Language Studies (PRC)
CET Academic Programs (PRC)
International Chinese Language Program at NTU (Taiwan)
Center For Chinese Language and Culture Studies (Taiwan)