Hong Kong Institute of Languages - Reading & Writing Skills

Select a Language

These courses are designed for non-Chinese speaking adults who want to be able to speak, understand, read, and write Mandarin.

They are available either as a complement to our general conversational courses (see 'Listening & Speaking Skills' section) or as a stand-alone course.

These courses will not only teach you how to read and write the language, but very importantly, will also enable you to embrace Chinese culture and traditions, and help you to better appreciate the Chinese people's way of thinking.

There is much controversy as to whether or not a non-Chinese speaker should start studying Chinese characters at the same time as learning how to speak. At HKIL, our experience shows that if serious character study is included from the beginner level, when not in an intensive course structure, it will considerably slow your overall progress in the spoken language. This is why we have designed separate programmes for 'Listening & Speaking Skills' and for 'Reading & Writing Skills'.

If you are a complete beginner, we recommend that you postpone serious character study until you are reasonably proficient in the spoken language, that is to say, until you reach the end of the Elementary Level.
If you are at Intermediate Level and wish to seriously pursue your learning, we recommend that you start to also study how to read and write as this will help you to better understand the nature of the Chinese language and therefore progress further. To this end, we recommend that you join our 'Reading & Writing' course as an additional component to your Intermediate 'Listening & Speaking Skills' core course.
If you are really proficient in the spoken language, and would like to focus mainly on the study of the characters, then we recommend that you join our 'Reading & Writing' course as a stand-alone course.

Our courses make use of practical, easy to follow textbooks that offer a step-by-step approach to written Mandarin. In addition to your course book, you will receive supplementary materials to make your learning experience more varied and interesting.

Level 1

Level :	Exam Options:
About 1 year of Mandarin	HSK (Basic Level)
For people who have reached a proficient enough level in spoken Mandarin, keen to embark on a more in-depth study of Mandarin, and/or who aim to be able to sit for the HSK (Han Yu Shui Ping Kao Shi) examination. Course includes an introduction to simplified Chinese characters, and comprises such aspects as a presentation of the different types of characters; their origin; the order and orientation in which strokes should be written, as well as strategic ways to best memorise them. By the end of the course, you will have acquired a fundamental knowledge of how Chinese characters work, will know at least 400 of the most frequently used characters (or about 1,400 words), and will be able to recognise about 70% of the characters used in books and newspapers.

Level :

Exam Options:

About 1 year of Mandarin

HSK (Basic Level)

For people who have reached a proficient enough level in spoken Mandarin, keen to embark on a more in-depth study of Mandarin, and/or who aim to be able to sit for the HSK (Han Yu Shui Ping Kao Shi) examination.

Course includes an introduction to simplified Chinese characters, and comprises such aspects as a presentation of the different types of characters; their origin; the order and orientation in which strokes should be written, as well as strategic ways to best memorise them.

By the end of the course, you will have acquired a fundamental knowledge of how Chinese characters work, will know at least 400 of the most frequently used characters (or about 1,400 words), and will be able to recognise about 70% of the characters used in books and newspapers.

Schedule Tuition Fees

Level 2

Level :	Exam Options:
About 2 years of Mandarin	HSK (Elementary & Intermediate Levels)
For people who have a good foundation in Mandarin and its writing system. The content of this course is diverse and includes extracts from literature; ancient tales, poems, and proverbs; excerpts from newspapers and advertisements, that lend themselves naturally to both oral exploitation and extensive practice of more complex sentence patterns, as well as forms of expression and address appropriate to a variety of social circumstances. Through this course, you will acquire not only the ability to read and write but also to better appreciate the richness of the Chinese language and literature, and gain a deeper understanding of Chinese culture and traditions. By the end of the course, you will know at least 900 of the most frequently used characters, introduced in the wider context of about 4,000 + words formed with them, and will be able to recognise about 90% of the characters encountered in everyday modern reading.

Level :

Exam Options:

About 2 years of Mandarin

HSK (Elementary & Intermediate Levels)

For people who have a good foundation in Mandarin and its writing system.

The content of this course is diverse and includes extracts from literature; ancient tales, poems, and proverbs; excerpts from newspapers and advertisements, that lend themselves naturally to both oral exploitation and extensive practice of more complex sentence patterns, as well as forms of expression and address appropriate to a variety of social circumstances.

Through this course, you will acquire not only the ability to read and write but also to better appreciate the richness of the Chinese language and literature, and gain a deeper understanding of Chinese culture and traditions.

By the end of the course, you will know at least 900 of the most frequently used characters, introduced in the wider context of about 4,000 + words formed with them, and will be able to recognise about 90% of the characters encountered in everyday modern reading.

Schedule Tuition Fees