You'll still have lots of problems in China even if you speak fluently; most of the problems we encounter are cultural and not linguistic. You'll get ripped to shreds unless you can find an honest but savvy local partner.
If you do intensive for a year at BLCU, you could get fluent. I did intensive for 6 months at PKU, and my Chinese has gotten worse since I started working here 7 years ago. You don't have that much time to practice chinese and do your job at the same time (my Chinese today is limited to communicating with taxi drivers).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dashan
You'll still have lots of problems in China even if you speak fluently; most of the problems we encounter are cultural and not linguistic. You'll get ripped to shreds unless you can find an honest but savvy local partner.
If you do intensive for a year at BLCU, you could get fluent. I did intensive for 6 months at PKU, and my Chinese has gotten worse since I started working here 7 years ago. You don't have that much time to practice chinese and do your job at the same time (my Chinese today is limited to communicating with taxi drivers).