Goeast — Local services in Shanghai

Extortion of money I doubt the validity of the reviews on all the sites. I will write a real review about this school. Never visit it!

I do not advise anyone to apply to this school to not feel persecution and extortion. I will tell you right away: it is very uncomfortable, stuffy in the classroom, at the entrance there are a lot of people sitting at computers(not students) and you feel uncomfortable, because there is not even a lobby at the entrance and there is not even a comfortable toilet. Although I would like to point out that this is by no means the cheapest school in Shanghai. Besides, as soon as you get there you will be written and written in vichat and offer to buy something from them. It's very annoying. And I really don't advise you to take a trial lesson there, because after it there may be even more surprises. By the way: in this school do not offer a trial lesson . They offer to buy classes of 50 hours or more. I asked about the trial lesson myself because in other Chinese language schools with not a small price it is there and it is offered. And they don't ask you to pay for it afterwards (more on that later 😂).

I asked for a trial lesson at this school and asked how long it would last. The manager (named Lexi) said that she could give me a free trial lesson for 2 hours. I didn't care, I could agree to a trial lesson of 30 minutes. It was the manager's own decision. I did not promise anything or make any contract. Nor did I make any promises. There was no talk that I would have to pay for the trial lesson if I didn't want to study Chinese at their school. Of course there was no such conversation. I didn't like the trial lesson and I also didn't like the fact that the manager Lexi came after the trial lesson, which lasted about an hour or so, and started asking me again and again with a disgruntled face what kind of package of lessons I wanted to buy at their school. I said that I would think about it. But the manager was not interested. She didn't want to see me off and insisted that I give her an answer about payment. It was horrible. In the end I didn't wait for her to say goodbye to me, I took my things and left. Then the manager wrote to me again and again for a month. I tried to be as polite as possible. And I told her that I would think about it and that I didn't want to go to their school. All the messages she wrote to me in Russian, because I am Russian, although I always answered her in English. After a month or even more after a trial lesson which lasted an hour, Lexi's manager wrote me again and again that I MUST pay for 1,5 hours of lessons as they were not free.

Over the course of a month, I received so many messages from her where she literally forces me to buy a package of classes from their school. These messages were big. I have now deleted her contact but she continues to text my husband as well.

Now it looks like extortion. And on top of that if you don't buy anything from this school you will be texted over and over again. Anyway, it looks terrible. But I still took screenshots of her extorting me for a free trial. I mean, she decided after a month she decided it was a free trial for 420 yuan. If the manager decided to give me a trial lesson longer than their custom, she must have had some kind of profit. I don't care. Besides, I didn't like the manager right away. And all the time asked about payment and money and especially almost nothing about me and my impression of the lesson and the school.

Despite the fact that she writes all messages in Russian. I think this is a worthy story for social networks. Besides, translating her messages into Chinese is not a problem. I wouldn't be surprised if the school principal is unaware of her actions. There are many good schools in Shanghai with polite attitudes and...

Location: Shanghai, Dingxi Road Campus. 上海市长宁区定西路988号银统大厦南楼801室 Room 801, No. 988, Dingxi Road, Changning District (8th floor). Just walz into the building and take the elevator to the 8th floor.

General: You can choose between "strict" and "open" teachers. I chose open, since I am an experienced learner. It was a very motivating pedagogical style.

Positive: Teachers: The two teachers I had for almost the entire course did an excellent job. They took care to only use the Chinese I learned for the lesson in question. Both made the lessons very student-oriented and kept me on my toes, in order to make the lessons efficient.

Management: My advisor took good care of me and was always available for wuestions or requests.

Material: Well designed.

Facility: The classrooms are great for 1on1 teaching. But they also had a very big classroom.

Neutral: I was also assigned one "strict" teacher. The lesson with her were bootcamp-style. It was demotivating for me, but there may be pupils who appreciate this style. My tipp: If you absolutely do not get along with a teacher, first talk to him/her. If this does not work, the great management team will do all they can to change the teacher.

Negative: The only negative aspect was that you cannot download the pptx-slides as pdf. I am also a lecturer and have never seen this mode anywhere before. You can learn online for six months after, but if you want to refresh your Chinese, if you did not speak for a longer time, it would be very belpful to have the material. I guess GE wants to avoid that some other school uses their material. Which is understandable. But if so. wanna do this, they might as well buy official HSK learning material and make their own material.

Summary: Will gladly learn here again! Great...

GoEast were easily the most flexible with my classes under their student visa package, allowing me to structure my classes how and when I wanted. I combined books, online courses and private lessons, and have now been with them just under 2 years. I don't do a lot of lessons, maybe one every 2 to 3 weeks on average, but that combined with self-study has allowed me to become proficient enough with Mandarin to communicate and do business with Chinese businesses and suppliers. I could not recommend GoEast highly enough to anyone out there, they are really good at helping you tailor a program to suit your needs and not trying to push you into a cookie cutter program...