Classes
Our standard program consist of group classes which run from Monday to Friday, whereby you will attend classes from 8.00 am to 12.00 pm (4 hours), with a 10 minute break in-between each 50 minutes of study. Unless you are a beginner, your level will be evaluated upon arrival through a short test, which will help the school to place you into the appropriate learning environment. This initial placement can be changed later on in your studies, if the allocated class does not suit your ability level.
We guarantee that group sizes will never exceed 6 people and typically groups are 2-4 people at any one time. We also offer the unique guarantee that if you book a group class and you are the only person in the group, for example in our low-season over the winter, we will offer you the same number of hours at the same price, even if you receive one-to-one tuition. Every participant will be provided with a certificate confirming their participation and level of Chinese at the end of each course. We also arrange 1-on-1 classes at our language school, which can be booked instead of, or supplementary to group classes. For pricing please contact us directly.
The School
As with our school in Qingdao, in Zhuhai we visited all the available Chinese language schools in the city before finally deciding upon a provider for our Mandarin language programmes; a relationship which continues to this day. We chose our school for several reasons. One of the reasons was the perfect location of the school, being situated in NingXi, an area of Zhuhai which is a 15 minute bus ride from our office and equally close to the majority of our internship host companies in Zhuhai. NingXi is a bustling area with plenty of shops and restaurants and because there are several English language training schools in the area, there are plenty of potential language-practice partners and friends to meet in the area. Our school is brand new and has several classrooms which are all modern, light, well equipped and air conditioned.
Besides the location, the central factor in our decision was the high quality of the teaching; a combination of the aptitude of the teachers, the structure of the lessons and the small class sizes which means that student-teacher interactions is consistently high. Our group classes are divided into 5 levels which are structured as follows:
Level A: is for beginners. This course includes the study of Chinese pinyin, basic sentence patterns, Chinese characters, and grammar.
Level B: is for students who already had some pronunciation training, knowing about 800 Chinese words, and are able to have simple, daily conversation. Courses include reading, writing, listening, and speaking. The course focuses on Chinese pinyin, daily conversation, improving listening skills, reading skills, and writing exercises.
Level C: is for students who know about 2000 Chinese words as well as recognize basic sentence patterns. They should be able to understand and maintain daily conversation. This course mainly centers skills such as listening, writing, reading, and speaking abilities. Furthermore continuing to study sentence patterns and grammar to intensify reading exercises, to understand the meaning and usage of words and the further building of vocabulary will be stressed.
Level D: is for students who know at least 2500 Chinese words. The participants can carry on discussions on daily topics at normal speed with the right intonations, proper diction and coherent sentences, and demonstrate creativity and flexibility in using the language.
Level E: is for students who know more than 3000 Chinese words. Attendees are able to read basic Chinese novels, master native phrases and can freely express themselves on issues such as society, culture, and poetry. This course level fosters in addition communication techniques, grammar comprehension and awareness
of Chinese etiquette. On top of this our school also offers some special HSK Preparation classes. Please contact us if you are interested.
Teaching Materials
We use a range of books published by the Beijing University Press which are very similar to the official HSK books, but in our experience offer a more comprehensive and interesting curriculum, which can easily be adapted to include more useful day-to-day vocabulary and scenarios. Each student at our school is provided with a book and corresponding DVD, which are both included in the price. As you keep the teaching materials, you can continue learning after returning home, so the classes in Qingdao might be the start of a life-long learning process.
Chinese Language Facts
The Chinese Language is one of the oldest languages in the world with roots reaching back almost 4000 years. Since the carving of characters on shells up to the characters used in modern Chinese, the language has evolved significantly, including the change from traditional to simplified characters from 1956. There are more then 11.000 characters which are still used in modern Chinese, but you will struggle to find a Chinese
person who is able to use all of them. In fact, if you know 1500 characters, you already are able to read 95 %
of Chinese texts. Knowledge of 3000 characters should be enough to read a Chinese newspaper.
Why study Chinese?
Together with English, Chinese is one of the most spoken languages of the world. It is difficult to measure, but certain sources mention that nowadays more then 22% of the world population speak Chinese, including countries in Southeast Asia such as Singapore , Indonesia , Malaysia and Thailand. Apart from the characters, the pronunciation of the four tones and the intonation of emotion will be the most difficult part for westerners who learn Chinese. However, there are also some easy parts about learning language in comparison to European languages: The grammar is quite simple, with no conjugation of verbs, no articles and easy sentence structures. We have found that learning Chinese is also much more fun than learning European languages as it is so fundamentally different and you don't need to get too bogged down in learning grammar.
