What courses do you provide?
We offer the following one-to-one fast-track Mandarin Chinese private tuitions based on your specific need.
Spoken Chinese
Mandarin / Standard Chinese
Business Chinese
Chinese for Children
Chinese Character Writing
HSK Test Preparation
How do I know which programme is suitable for me?
A tailored programme and a course format based on your specific need, strength and weakness will be discussed prior to your study to ensure that you achieve your objectives efficiently as well as get the best Chinese learning experience possible.
Can I have a flexible schedule and a preferred location?
Yes, we offer a flexible schedule, 7 days a week, Monday to Sunday, 9.00am to 9.00pm at a location of your own choice in London. You can choose and decide when and where you want to have your lesson each time based on your own schedule and convenience.
How much is the tuition fee? Can I make a flexible payment?
All lessons are priced in hourly rate £25.00/hr. However, based on your time availability, you can choose to go for 1 hour per lesson for £25.00, 1.5 hours per lesson for £30.00, or 2 hours per lesson for £40.00. The minimum number of hours you can study is 1 hour. You can also choose to book for 10-Hour Block Package for £180 (£18.00/hour), which can be taken flexibly at any time with any length of sessions. We offer a flexible payment solutions too. You can pay your tuition fees by cash, bank transfer or through online Paypal and credit card.
Can I get refund if I have to cancel my lessons?
Yes, you can ask for a refund before a course starts. You will get full refund for lessons you have booked in advance, or you can transfer the payment to the next available lessons. For the10-Hour Package booking, we will deduct the costs of the lessons you have taken based on the pay-as-you-go rate, and refund the difference.
About Chinese Language
What is Mandarin Chinese?
Mandarin Chinese refers to Standard Chinese and also often called simply “Chinese”, is the official spoken language of the People’s Republic ofChina(PRC), the official language of the Republic of China (R.O.C./Taiwan), one of the four official languages ofSingapore, and also one of the six official languages of the United Nations, under the name “Chinese”. Chinese speakers refer to the modern standard language as Pǔtōnghuà (on the mainland), Guóyǔ (in Taiwan) or Huáyǔ (in Singapore).
Is it easy to learn Chinese?
Many people may think learning Mandarin Chinese is more difficult because unlike English, Chinese is a tonal language in pronunciation as well as an ideograph language in character writing. But in fact, many people who begin to study Chinese quickly get “hooked” on it, because it is so interesting and fun to learn. More over, Chinese grammar is simple in comparison with western languages. There are no inflections, cases, genders, or declensions, and has little or no bound morphology and no complicated grammatical rules to memorize. Each word has a fixed and single form: verbs do not take prefixes or suffixes showing the tense or the person, number, or gender of the subject. Nouns do not take prefixes or suffixes showing their number or their case.
What is Pinyin?
Pinyin is formally called hanyu pinyin, including 21 initials, 39 finals and 4 tones. Hanyu means the Chinese language, Pin means ‘spell’ and Yin means ‘sound’. Pinyin is the most widely-used system of writing Mandarin Chinese and uses the Latin alphabet. It spells the sound, and includes tone marks to give the correct pronunciation. The four tones are very important in learning Mandarin Chinese, since the same syllables with different tones may lead to different meanings. It may cause misunderstanding if pronounce the four tones incorrectly.
Can I just learn spoken Chinese by Pinyin?
Yes, of course you can. You don’t have to learn Chinese characters to learn to speak Chinese. Pinyin is a method of writing Chinese in the roman alphabet. Spoken Chinese is much easier to learn. However, Chinese characters are very beautiful and interesting. Unlike the alphabetic systems of Western languages, the Chinese language integrates both semantic features and phonological information in its ideographic characters to express a meaning. It would be a fun to have a general understanding of the Chinese characters. If you want to read or write Chinese you will have to become familiar with the characters.How many characters required for Chinese literacy?
How many characters required for Chinese literacy?
According to a survey conducted by the Chinese Ministry of Education and Language Commission you only need to know about 1,000 Chinese characters to be able to read 90% of current Chinese publications. However, the 100 characters covering 45% of the most commonly used words is basic, and many Chinese teachers consider that some 800 – 1000 characters are more than sufficient to attain an excellent grasp of Chinese in daily use. We have provided 100 Chinese characters flash covering 40 most commonly used Chinese phrases. You can also download 2500 Chinese characters flash for free to study at your own convenience.
What are the differences between simplified Chinese and traditional Chinese?
Simplified Chinese are mostly used in MainlandChinaandSingaporewhile traditional Chinese are mainly used inTaiwan,Hong Kongand among most overseas Chinese communities. Simplified Chinese characters were created by decreasing the number of strokes and simplifying the forms of traditional Chinese characters.