Chinese Language Courses

Chinese Class Levels

There are multiple levels for beginner through advanced Chinese students. We have developed our own curriculum based on standards and best teaching practices.

Beginner 

Chinese students learn the basics of Chinese such as greetings, classroom phrases and conversational skills. They also learn how to shop, order food and discuss in detail their schedules and activities. They can form basic sentences and also be able to read and write pinyin and some Chinese characters (hanzi).

Adv Beginner 

Chinese students go more in-depth with everyday life skills in Chinese. They start out by discussing one's home and giving commands, then traveling and giving directions, and finally, they can discuss their experiences and hobbies. Students start to learn how to do more advanced discourse. 

Pre-Intermediate

 Students start out with phrases and vocabulary to discuss their travels in depth. Included in this is discussing experiences abroad, but also descriptors on recommendations and making appointments.

Pre-Intermediate 2 enables students in-depth to go shopping and go to restaurants, moving beyond basic vocabulary that was covered in Beginner 2. Pre-Intermediate 3 teaches students how to address needs in the doctor's office, and describing in general your body and feelings.

Pre-Intermediate 4 is movies, Pre-Intermediate 5 is a technology and change and how it affects daily life and Pre-Intermediate 6 is festivals. 

Intermediate

 Students will work to expand their speaking, reading, listening and writing skills. Intermediate students can communicate about themselves fluently, have mastered all basic grammar and vocabulary from the beginner and pre-intermediate levels.

Intermediate students learn how to navigate situations outside themselves, where they need to communicate and get around in all difficult situations. In the higher intermediate levels, students will challenge themselves to communicate outside of everyday situations. 

Upper-Intermediate

students are trying to prepare to work and function like an advanced student. Students start to move beyond just speaking in concrete terms and instead get used to speaking in abstract terms about language.

Topics such as community, current events, history, and other subjects are brought up and discussed. Students also start focusing much more on real world resources and materials, dramas, tv shows, music, and other materials created for Chinese native speakers.  

Advanced

Students are feeling accustomed to discussing difficult subjects in language. From current events to economics, students will be discussing abstractly on a variety of levels.

It is assumed that all students can both discuss themselves thoroughly and also navigate all intermediate needs in language.

Advanced students start out by really trying to get used to speaking abstractly, and then they move forward into discussing specialty areas using language. Most students at times will sound like native speakers and should be able to be understood by speakers of the language not accustomed to speaking to non-native speakers.