GENERAL MANDARIN COURSES

For children who need additional support to make really significant progress at school and/or improve their overall Mandarin performance.
During these courses, your child will:

• reinforce his/her listening comprehension and oral communication skills, including proper pronunciation, tones, and sentence structures;
• practise his/her speaking skills in various contexts through interesting and enjoyable activities;
• develop his/her reading comprehension and writing skills (with activities tailored to the appropriate level for either non-Chinese or Chinese students);
• cultivate an interest in the language and Chinese culture.

Emphasis is on developing competence as well as boosting self-confidence while having fun.
Your child may also join our summer camp to China and get a unique chance to immerse himself/herself in Mandarin language and Chinese culture and develop his/her languages skills further.

For children from ESF or International Schools who need more speaking practice in order to develop strong oral communication skills from the start.
According to his/her level, your child will:

• strengthen his/her Pin Yin knowledge, helping him/her to pronounce the basic sounds of Mandarin Chinese and distinguish the different tones;
• become familiar with the uniqueness of Mandarin sentence structure;
• develop his listening comprehension skills;
• increase his/her oral Mandarin communication skills and confidence.

Your child will love this programme which unlocks the secrets of the spoken language and makes learning how to speak Mandarin easier and therefore more fun!
Best of all, your child will also learn to communicate with others, and gain confidence in speaking Mandarin in a group. A valuable complement to any of our courses!
Your child may also join our summer camp to China and get a unique chance to immerse himself/herself in Mandarin language and Chinese culture and develop his/her languages skills further.

For children who need to improve their oral fluency and increase their self-confidence in spoken Mandarin.
The small group setting (maximum 6 students) provides plenty of opportunities for your child to express him/herself in Mandarin and receive feedback from the teacher - a far more practical and effective arrangement than the large class setting he/she may experience at school.
This programme is the ideal complement to any school studies, and a must for students who need more speaking practice to be better prepared for their oral examinations or school interviews.
According to his/her level, your child will:

• develop his/her listening comprehension skills;
• practise his/her speaking skills and learn to communicate with others using the appropriate language, tone and style, in various contexts and for different purposes;
• learn to be more confident when speaking in a group or in front of an audience, becoming equipped with the skills to make a presentation and perform successfully in a school interview.

Emphasis is on developing competence, fluency in conversational skills and confidence.
Your child may also join our summer camp to China and get a unique chance to immerse himself/herself in Mandarin language and Chinese culture and develop his/her languages skills further.

For non-Chinese children, who are starting to learn Mandarin and need help to recognise, read, write, and memorize simplified Chinese characters.
According to his/her level, your child will:

• review the different types of characters (origin, stroke order, individual components, compound characters and common radicals);
• learn strategic ways to memorise them effectively;
• practise recognising and reading Chinese characters relevant to his/her age, level and areas of interest.
• enlarge his/her range of characters (and the words formed with them).

The ultimate goal is to draw on children's inner curiosity and fascination for anything new and different to teach them to read and write Chinese characters through fun activities. These are specially devised to grab their attention, while arousing their interest in Chinese characters and culture.
To add yet more fun and excitement to the course, your child will be provided with a special Chinese writing brush, and introduced to the art of Chinese calligraphy. A valuable complement to any of our courses!

For children who already have a foundation in reading & writing and wish to further develop their ability.
Depending on his/her background, and according to his/her level, your child will:

• review the different types of characters (origin, stroke order, individual components, compound characters and common radicals);
• study how compounds are formed and the way that different ideas and concepts are expressed;
• enlarge his/her range of characters (and the words formed with them);
• increase his/her reading and comprehension skills - from reading short passages to more complex texts;
• develop his/her ability to write his/her own short passages, poems, and stories, following the basic rules and conventions such as paragraph indentation and punctuation.

The overall objective is to guide your child from being able to read the words, to fully understanding their meaning through to grasping the fundamentals of written language and developing appropriate expressiveness in writing.
Through these courses, your child will not only increase his/her ability to read and write but also acquire a better appreciation of the richness of Chinese language and literature, and gain a deeper understanding of Chinese culture and traditions.

For children who love to pretend to be imaginary characters and to perform.
During this enjoyable, innovative programme, your child will:

• get used to speaking and performing in front of others;
• build his/her self-esteem and poise;
• improve his/her voice projection;
• develop his/her interaction and communication skills;
• practise his/her Mandarin in different contexts and learn correct pronunciation, rhythm, stress and intonation.

Depending on the age group, this course incorporates: acting out a simple story, using puppetry, role-plays, reciting and dramatising poetry, improvisation, or actually acting out plays.
Your child will also learn how to create dialogues; dramatise a story; create stage scenery; design costumes; build props and much more...
At the end of the term he/she will perform for you in our specially designed drama room, with the added thrill of seeing his/her action captured on video.
An exciting and creative way to develop both Mandarin aural comprehension and oral expression!

For children who wish to complement their Mandarin studies with added opportunities to re-use and consolidate what they have learnt in class, and to further develop their oral or written communication skills.
During these courses, your child will:

• engage in different projects and activities around different themes;
• use Mandarin naturally in a relaxed, friendly environment;
• reinforce what he/she has learnt in class;
• enhance his/her listening and speaking skills;
• develop his/her creativity and discover new interests.

Depending on your child's age and level, our variety of programmes range from engaging, stimulating theme-based activities to more significant projects, including a drama piece to be performed at the end of the term/year, computer and team project work, journals, movies, and more.
The aim is for your child to become so enthralled in exciting projects that he/she forgets he/she is actually learning and practising Mandarin.