Review by Leon W. on Trustlink

I highly recommend Next Step China and give it a high 4 rating.

My wife and I began looking for a summer program for our 16 year old son who already had taken a year of Mandarin in the US. We asked many people if they had any recommendations but were not successful. We then searched via the web, and came up with many programs. Some were not in a major city, so we did not select them. Others were more of a summer program nature and emphasized travel and sightseeing over education. A few were in Beijing, but after many phone calls and emails, we selected NSC for our son.

A few key points went into our decision. Our son wanted an intensive language course, and the university in which he was enrolled seemed to be the best choice. Other leading programs had teachers which they hired and did not teach at a university.

Second, NSC provided additional tutorial time at a very reasonable price. So, in addition to learning in a classroom environment, our son was able to travel around the city and speak the language in everyday situations.

Third, NSC arranged for everything–the school, an apartment, pick up and drop off at the airport and other things that a young person who was never in China could not possibly do without a lot of headaches.

Fourth, NSC was incredibly flexible. If we needed to change a day of a trip, they accommodated my son. At the last moment, he considered staying an extra 4 weeks and his program was put together in the span of 1 day.

Most importantly, and what distinguished NSC from the other leading contender, was that Derek would respond to our inquiries almost instantly, both before our son went to China and while he was there.It gave us considerable comfort knowing that someone was there to answer our questions and we were not in limbo for 2 days wondering what was happening.

Again, I strongly recommend NSC.