2 . A Language Program for Teenagers

Welcome to Teenagers Abroad! We invite you to join us on an amazing journey of language learning.

Our Courses

Regardless of your choice of course, you will develop your language ability both quickly and effectively. Our Standard Course guarantees a significant increase in your confidence in a foreign language, with focused teaching in all 4 skill areas—speaking, listening, reading and writing.

Our Intensive Course builds on our Standard Course, with 10 additional lessons per week, guaranteeing the fastest possible language learning (see table below).

Evaluation

Students are placed into classes according to their current language skills. The majority of them take on online language test before starting their program. However, if this is not available, students sit the exam on the first Monday of their course.

Learning materials are provided to students throughout their course, and there will never be more than 15 participants in each class.

Arrivals and Transfer

Our programme offers the full package—students are take good care of from the start through to the very end. They are collected from the airport upon arrival and brought to their accommodation in comfort. We require the student’s full details at least 4 weeks in advance.

Meals/Allergies (过敏)/Special Dietary Requirements

Students are provided with breakfast, dinner and either a cooked or packed lunch (which consists of a sandwich, a drink and a dessert). Snacks outside of mealtimes may be purchased by the student individually.

We ask that you let us know of any allergies or dietary requirements as well as information about any medicine you take. Depending on the type of allergies and/or dietary requirements, an extra charge may be made for providing special food.

6 . Looking for educational and inspiring books for your children? You cannot miss these tales of surviving in the wild.

Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome

A tale of a joyful childhood summer spent sailing in the Lake District of England, this novel is based on Ransome’s own family. Two groups of children each have their own sailboat, and spend the summer defending against an imagined enemy, camping, fishing, and exploring, while trying to catch their enemy’s boat.

The Swiss Family Robinson by Johann David Wyss

Inspired by Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe, Wyss decided to write a story about how a Swiss family survived a ship accident and made a new way of life on an unexplored island in the East Indies so that his four sons could learn about basic family values, the use of the natural world and self-reliance. Morals aside, it’s a great thrilling story.

A Girl of the Limberlost by Gene Stratton-porter

Poor, unpopular Elnora Comstock grows up in the dangerous but beautiful wetlands of northern Indiana, building an unusual life. She loves wildlife more than anything. The book was written as a protest against logging (伐木), drilling for oil (钻井油) and drying up rivers for agriculture that were taking place in the Limberlost Swamp.

Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O’Dell

The main character, Karana, is a woman left on what’s now called La Isla de San Nicolas,   just off the coast of California. She struggles in the strange conditions, experiences natural disasters and lives alone on the lonely island. Her story is inspired by that of a real woman who spent 18 years alone on the island.

7 . Researchers found that sleep deprivation（剥夺）has something with overeating. They studied 17 healthy men and women for 11 days and nights in a lab, where researchers recorded their every movement and recorded everything they ate. That way, researchers could make calculations of how much energy the participants were taking in and how much they were burning off through activities.

After a three-day baseline period, one group was freely assigned to sleep and wake whenever they wanted for eight days, while another was woken up after only two-thirds of their usual sleep time—that amounted to about 80 minutes less sleep per night on average. The group that experienced such restricted sleep tended to eat more the following day, adding 549 extra calories to their usual diet, while those who slept as much as they wanted ate about the same on each of the eight experiment days as they did during the three-day baseline period.

The poorly sleeping group was likely to gain weight over the long term, if their sleep was continually restricted, since they didn't burn any more calories than their better sleeping counterparts. That may help explain why previous studies have found that shift workers who work at night and sleep during the day tend to gain more weight than day workers: their disturbed sleep pattern may enhance them to eat more while they don't expend any more energy to work off the added calories.

Therefore, it's important for people to remember that the relationship between sleep, eating and weight is a complex one. Getting a sufficient amount of sleep each night may play an important role in regulating how much we eat and how many calories we burn, and it may also help determine when we eat. Eating when we should be sleeping may increase the risk of weight gain, as the body is more likely to turn nighttime calories into fat rather than burning them off.

8 . The New Year comes with Northeast China's coldest days, but it's also, the peak season for winter tourism.

Harbin

A major draw for Harbin, known as “Ice City”, is its more than 400 activities started from early November to early April. They cover tourism, culture, art, fashion, sports and trade. The 22nd Harbin Ice, and Snow World, a 600,000-squaré-mcter: wonderland of sculptures, opened on Dec 24 and will run until the end of February. Another important event in the city — the 33rd China Harbin Sun Island International Snow Sculpture Art Expo — kicked off on Dec 20. At the expo, tourists can view 50 groups of snow sculptures, which use more than 90,000 cubic meters of snow, including the 116-meler-long main snow sculpture The, Chinese Dragon.

Mohe

Mohe, China's northernmost city, is also presenting its unique winter charms to tourists. As the coldest place in China, winter tourism season begins in mid-October and lasts until late January. Beiji Village, 88 kilometers from the city center, attracts almost all the' visitors who land at Mohe. In the village, a recently built hotel made of ice and snow has become a popular attraction. Almost everything inside is made of frozen water in some forms, including the beds, tables, sofas and decorations.

Jilin

During this winter tourism season, which started in mid-November until April,nearly 300 snow and ice themed activities will be held across Jilin. The fifth Jilin International Ice and Snow Industry Expo promoted a combination of Winter Olympics themes,winter culture,ice and snow tourism and winter sports. On the frozen Chagan Lake, an impressive winter fishing lasts ritual（仪式）that dates from the Jin Dynasty also takes place. The activity of winter fishing lasts two months. The traditional skills of Chagan Lake winter fishing were listed as an intangible cultural heritage in 2008.

9 . Over centuries, kung fu has been used for self-defense and to defend against enemies in war.

In Dengfeng today, ten kilometers from the Shaolin Temple, there are over 60 martial arts schools with more than 50,000 students. They come to the schools for a variety of reasons. The majority hope to become movie stars. Some come to learn skills that will ensure good jobs in the military or police force. A few are sent by their parents to learn self-control and hard work.

Master Hu Zhengsheng teaches at a small school in Dengfeng. Recently, he was offered an important role in a kung fu movie. It would have been good publicity for his school, but he did not accept. He doesn't agree with how kung fu is often shown in movies. Unlike many large schools, which teach acrobatics (杂技) and kickboxing, Hu teaches his students traditional kung fu forms. He teaches them the way his master taught him. But attracting new students to this style of kung fu has become a problem. Hu's afraid his art will soon die out. He has to remind his students that kung fu was designed for fighting, not to entertain.

“There are no high kicks or acrobatics here,” he says. “It is hard to convince boys to spend many years learning something that won't make them wealthy or famous.” Hu's students sleep in unheated rooms and train outside no matter what the temperature is. They hit trees with their bare hands and take turns sitting on each other's shoulders to build leg strength. To master kung fu, they must learn respect, and how to “eat bitterness”, a Mandarin expression meaning to “enduring suffering”. The life of a Shaolin master, Hu belives, is not easy or attractive.

Master Hu is in a difficult position. For old traditions to survive, the young must learn. Gradually, he has begun offering a few courses in kickboxing and the acrobatic kung fu forms, hoping to attract new students. Then, maybe, he'll be able to convince them to learn Shaolin kung fu the traditional way.

10 . On the Father's Day before my father entered a nursing home, I gave him an Elmo doll. Like the colored pencils and sketchbook I bought him a year earlier, this was a desperate attempt to bring some joy to my increasingly bedridden father. Years ago, my father suffered a stroke which left him in bed for the rest of his life.

At the sight of Elmo, my three elder sisters shook their heads, certain that our father who was anything but childish would not like it. Sure enough, my father, 76, broke into that unpleasant smile that barely concealed his dislike.

“What on earth is this?” shouted my sisters, bursting into laughter.

“Daddy knows why I give him this,” I said, thinking that they had no idea what Elmo meant to my father. To my disappointment, my father shrugged. How could he not remember? Years earlier, I had been in the kitchen and heard something rare from the living room: laughter. I ran downstairs and saw that Elmo was on the PBS cooking show “The Frugal Gourmet”. “I don’t know what it is about him that gets to me,” my father choked out between laughter and tears. “He's just so funny!”

As my father lay in the nursing home, I would visit him in the evenings. We watched old movies with the lights off. Even though he never asked for it, I brought Elmo from home and put him where my father could see him. Before leaving, I would take Elmo from the dresser and place him in my father’s immobile arm. A slight smile would appear on his face. It never looked softer.