We sent our child to Camp Lingua for the Mandarin summer camp and it was so bad we withdrew her after the first 2 weeks (that was the minimum you had to pay for). We really wanted this camp to work as we had been looking for a Mandarin camp for a while.
1. First of all, the camp is more expensive because of the language aspect. Since my child already had a year of Mandarin and knew the basics, they promised that they would keep that in mind and help her build on what she had already learned since there were only 3 kids in the Mandarin camp, they could work with each one individually. They didn't do that. Instead, they stuck to the curriculum which was days of the week, numbers from 1-10 (even though my daughter already knew the numbers from 1-100) and so there was nothing to justify the extra money we were paying. There were plenty of other great camps with activities like sports, crafts, etc, we could have sent to her instead.
2. I wanted to visit the camp during the day to see the activities they were doing during the day but the person in charge raised as many objections as possible before finally agreeing to let me visit at 11 am one morning but only after I insisted that I wanted to see what we were paying for. When I got there, I saw the kids just doing crafts the entire time, which she could have easily done at home or in some other cheaper camp. To add to my annoyance, after 30 mins they told me I had to leave because I was only allowed to stay there for 30 mins. They didn't tell me this when I got there or before that or I probably wouldn't have taken time off from work to go and sit there just for 30 mins.
3. The Mandarin kids didn't even have a proper place to sit. They were crammed into the administrator's office along with the kids from the Portuguese camp. All we could hear in the room was Brazilian Portuguese (which looked a little more exciting than what the Mandarin kids were doing).
4. The room, apart from being small was full of mosquitos. I was eaten alive in just the 30 mins I was there. My daughter came home with mosquito bites all over her legs and arms.
5. The people running the camp seemed to have no interest at all in any feedback regarding the camp. They just didn't seem to care. They grudgingly let me sit there for 30 mins and then asked me to leave without asking me what I thought of the camp. When I did not sign her up for the 3rd week, they didn't seem to care enough to ask why we weren't coming back.
6. Quite a few times my daughter came home telling me that she got 'lost' during the activities and ended up with the Spanish camp (my daughter already speaks Spanish so there was no reason for her to be there) when we were paying the extra money for Mandarin. The Mandarin Camp had 2 (sometimes 3) kids!! How could she end up in the Spanish camp more than once??
7. I also found out that they barely did any Mandarin during the day. Most of the exciting Chinese activities we were told they were going to do when we signed her up seemed to have just been made up. They did very little Mandarin. She brought home some dumplings they had made in class that smelled so bad we had to throw them out immediately. She didn't even know how to say 'dumpling' in Chinese. She told us that the main Mandarin counselor often left before lunch and never came back, leaving them with a substitute who basically didn't do much with them. My daughter kept talking about movies that she watched so I'm guessing they spent part of the time watching TV (which I sent her to camp to avoid). She even spent enough time with the Portuguese camp to actually perform with them in the small show at the end of the two weeks program.
Basically, I would not recommend this camp to anyone at least for Mandarin. I cannot speak for the other languages. At least the Spanish camp had their own room. I look at those 2 weeks as a complete waste of my daughter's time and our money. We put her in the summer camp that was run by her elementary school and it was much better and cheaper. They learned a lot more (even though not language related) and did a lot more activities.
I could I would have given it zero stars but 1 is the minimum. I hope this review was helpful. read more