High School Student Exchange Programs in Beijing

I am Brent Smith. My son, Kyle，joined GAC summer high school language program in 2023. Like many other parents of a high school student, I was worried that first about our son being in Beijing. After my son finished the program, I am very happy to say that GAC has very safe and well-organized arrangement, all of the teachers both the university and through the one on one tutoring curriculum that set up from GAC were excellent. The host family was nice and took care of Kyle a lot. We are happy to recommend GoAbroadChina language programs for high school students in China.

Wandering the streets of Chengdu with my host sister, we created a game called 这是什么？or 'what is this?' as I knew almost no Chinese upon arrival. Throughout my six weeks in country I pointed at ingredients from the local market, signs advertising the newest tech in the city's downtown hub, and of course, the pandas at the Chengdu Research Base of Panda Breeding all the while expanding my vocabulary and understanding of Chinese culture. By the end of my time in China with AFS I could order my favorite dumplings from a street cart on the way to school and even sang Beijing opera style for our program's closing ceremony! All of this was made possible with the support of AFS and the funding of the NSLI-Y program. My 6-weeks in China simply wasn't enough, so I enrolled in Chinese classes at university and have been in pursuit of reuniting with my host family (and those dumplings) ever since. My exchange experience not only opened up opportunities for cross-cultural understanding, but also prepared me for a globally focused academic and professional career.