Last week I took part in five glorious days of 100% pure Mandarin immersion on our Summer Camp.
I began organising Mandarin retreats for two years, after becoming frustrated at the lack of immersion opportunities while studying Mandarin in the UK. Since then, we’ve organised over 10 retreats and given nearly 100 learners from all over Europe the chance to taste full Mandarin-speaking immersion.
Initially, these retreats took place over weekends. Native speakers and learners lived under the same roof for two days of cultural activities, cooking, and hiking together, all in Mandarin Chinese. Then, last year, we decided to start hosting longer five-day camps. This was my first ever experience of total language immersion for five days.
Although I lived in Taiwan last year and attended advanced Chinese classes on a daily basis there, I didn’t live with Mandarin speakers and my days were usually spent using a mixture of English and Mandarin to socialise. Naturally, I couldn’t wait for the event to start!
I’ll reveal what the experience was like and give five of my key takeaways from the trip
