Intensive Mandarin
Boost your Mandarin skills
Looking to boost your language skills before starting your placement in China? Our Intensive Mandarin course is designed to put you through your paces in learning one of the most spoken languages on Earth – Mandarin Chinese.
We’re confident that the language skills you gain during your Intensive Mandarin course will help you to go even further during your internship.
Not only will you understand more about the people you’re working with and the office culture you’ll be working within, but you’ll also be highly respected for your efforts to communicate in Mandarin.
We’ve teamed up with a well-respected language school to ensure you get the highest quality instruction during your language course. Their teachers are dynamic and dedicated with a focus on relevant “Survival Chinese” that you’ll be able to use both in placements and in everyday life in China.
What’s the course structure?
Your course will include 17 days of instruction with 4 classes per day. Each class is 45 minutes followed by a 15 minute break* during which you can study independently. Your instruction will be in a small group of like-minded beginners where you’ll get loads of personal attention and instruction. Usually class sizes are no larger than 15 people.
If you already know some Mandarin, or you are not a complete beginner (ie: no prior study) please let us know in advance so that we can put you into a class of the right level. It is possible that you may need one on one lessons if there are no group classes that fit with your level.
Course Curriculum
Our course competencies range from Elementary to Advanced and you will be placed into the group that is the closest match to your current level of Chinese.
Our Elementary, Pre-Intermediate and Intermediate Levels use self-developed textbooks, which include simplified characters, Pinyin and English for all content. These are fully-aligned with the goals and requirements of the HSK and are revised every two years based on student feedback and insights from the Mandarin education industry.
Our Pre-Advanced and Advanced Levels use the Boya (博雅) series of textbooks (博雅加速 1 – 博雅飞翔 2), covering 10-12 chapters per book, as well as real-world materials such as newspaper articles and radio news reports.
All materials use simplified characters.
Elementary Level Outline
Following these levels, the student can talk about everyday topics in an easy way and can express a point of view referring to familiar situations. The student can also understand the general meaning of a conversation or text. Finishing Level 1 is equivalent to HSK 1. Finishing Level 2 is equivalent to HSK 2.
Level 1
Self introduction, dates, time, professions, transportations, explaining locations, buying fruits and coffee, arranging appointments, and ordering food.
Cumulative: 400 words, 50 grammar points
Level 2
Clothes and shoes, colors, the weather, zodiac signs and personality characteristics, hair style, sports, room decoration, birthday parties, travelling, how to give gifts and the meaning of the numbers.
Cumulative: 800 words, 80 grammar points
Level 3
Public transportation, opening a bank account, going to the post and sending parcels, buying a cell phone, going to the doctor, machine reparation, looking for somebody or something, booking tickets, travelling, using a digital camera, the Spring Festival.
Cumulative: 1200 words, 120 grammar points
*One-to-one lessons will be 30 mins