There are more of us!
As you probably know, I'm not the only NSLIY kid who exposes their whole story to the world wide web for everyone to see! I particularly found the videos previous participants posted on YouTube really helpful! In particular, the vlogs from their trips were about the only thing that kept me sane through the long waiting period from September to March lol. For future applicants and anyone curious, I have compiled a list of all my favorite NSLIY videos for your viewing pleasure! These will mainly be focused around the Chinese program, but I will include links to other countries towards the bottom of the post :) I will probably expand this post to include application/interview videos alums have posted once it gets closer to that season. For now, enjoy the show!
One more thing, if you are an applicant this year or are planning on it, I highly recommend Nha Dang's channel. She did the Korean program, but she is well known throughout the NSLIY community as being about the best resource to applicants. Not only does she video document her entire experience in Korea (even PDO!), she also has posted videos about her application process, FAQs about NSLIY, and general NSLIY application and interview tips. I have it linked above, so go check it out! NOW enjoy the show :)
CHINESE SUMMER PROGRAM VIDEOS
Xiamen, China
Xiamen is a fairly large city in Fujian province on China's southeast coast. It also happens to be a NSLIY location! The students at Xiamen study at Xiamen University, a nationally prestigious university. But don't take my word on it, take theirs!
Zhuhai, China
Zhuhai is another city on China's southeastern coast. It is unique in that it is the first mainland Chinese city you get to after you leave Macau. For those who don't know Macau was an old Portuguese colony handed over to China in 1999. It is very close to Hong Kong. To my knowledge the kids didn't get to go to Macau or Hong Kong for visa reasons, but they had a lot of fun nonetheless!
Alisa Chen is actually in our Kaohsiung groupchat! This is because she is not just a alum of the Zhuhai summer program, but she was invited back this year for Academic Year in Kaohsiung! Even though she isn't going with us for our summer trip, she is our guru for any questions we have!
Xi'an, China
Xi'an is NOT a city on China's southeast coast, it is located in central China's Shaanxi province (Not Shanxi, that's a different province). We don't get to choose locations, but his was actually my first choice of where I hoped I'd be placed. It's a beautiful city blending western China with the Han core.
Now, whenever I think Xi'an I think of this song XD
Deyang, China
Deyang is a city in Sichuan. If you know anything about Sichuan, you know the food is spicy and it's far away from everything XD. For the right type of person, this would be the perfect trip.
Shanghai and Surroundings, China
For the largest metropolis in China, NSLIY has multiple locations. From the city proper to Suzhou to Jiaxing, they cover it all. Enjoy! (Also if anyone is wondering what side of the Beijing/Shanghai debate I am on, I'm team Shanghai all the way)
This was actually the first NSLIY video I watched. I was so memorized that I could do this too and that it was FREE??? I applied just a few days later!
That's about it for China! If I missed any of your favorites (or a whole city), please let me know!
CHINESE AY PROGRAM VIDEOS
There's also a good chance that you could get placed in Taiwan for AY, so check out the NSLIY Taiwan YouTube Channel, where most of the AY participants post vlogs regularly, along with other content!
MY TOP PICK FROM EACH OTHER LANGUAGE
I can't post everyyy NSLIY vlog, so I'll just post my favorite video from each other language program. Even if you are just applying for China, you should check these other ones out to get more info on how NSLIY works in other countries! Also you could be transferred to another language like the poor Turkish kids this year :(
Korean (South Korea)
For Korean, I did pick Nha's vlog series. For NSLIY, you are hard pressed to find someone who vlogs their whole program, even just the summer ones. Nha not only does this, but manages to create interesting and entertaining vlogs! On average the Korean kids are the ones who vlog the most, almost half the NSLIY videos on YouTube are the Korean kids LOL
Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesia) ~ None???
So there aren't any videos from Indonesia lol... Not many people know about this program and it might be very small? Or it might just be the first year and I'm just ignorant (most likely)
Hindi (India)
So the india program is special in the fact that the kids are only allowed to go to the house and school and back... and there's a bus that takes them! Pretty confining in my mind but they seem to have fun.
Persian (Tajikistan)
It might strike most that it is odd that they put the Persian program in Tajikistan. The State Department's reasoning I guess is that they don't want the kids going to Iran (idk why, it's second on my list of travel), so they moved it to another Persian speaking country that's "safer", Tajikistan. "We should take the NSLIY Persian program and push it somewhere else!" (just a small Spongebob reference)
Arabic (Morocco and Jordan) [Formerly Oman]
If other NSLIY kids know one thing about the Arabic program, it is how much fun they have. Not only do they first hand get to experience cultures they would have never dreamed of, but they also get to eat such good food!! Their implementing organization is AMIDEAST, so they comment all their food posts #amideats XD
Turkish (Turkey)
Unfortunately for 2018, they cancelled the Turkish programs due to the American -Turkish diplomatic fallout in the winter. They cancelled it right before admissions to add insult to injury, but all of the accepted were transferred to India. We are unsure about the state of the 2019 programs... For now, we can look back to what was!
Russian (Russia, Moldova, and Estonia)
The Russian programs is one of the keystone NSLIY programs. In recent years they have expanded into Estonia and Moldova. To my knowledge, this year they did beginners in Estonia, intermediate in Russia, and advanced in Moldova. All of the kids have a very fun time, no matter what country they are in :)