Our native speaker qualified Chinese language teachers can train you and your colleagues at your office or home at a time to suit you. Classes can be any day of the week (even weekends) in the morning, afternoon or evening. In certain circumstances, if your home or office is not suitable, you can take your classes at the trainer's office. Lesson books are provided.
These Chinese lessons are more general in nature and are targeted at students with a whole range of different needs. While all beginners level students can expect to cover Survival Chinese - required for short visits to a country where English may not be spoken and/or the intention is to make good contacts with the local population, students then generally progress in different directions depending on their needs. Typical students include those buying property overseas, spouses of overseas nationals, people about to set off on that long-awaited world trip, Chinese culture enthusiasts and those who are keen to pass a particular Chinese examination.
These Chinese Lessons are intended for people who really need to learn Chinese to help make that difference in their work. For beginners, it will be useful to learn greetings and basic business etiquette, at higher levels reading and then writing become more important. Typical students include those involved in import/export, international negotiations and acquisitions, jobseekers in multinational companies where an additional language is required, and those working with international colleagues, academia and government. Even on our most basic lesson for Beginners, students should expect to end the lesson with basic Telephone Chinese and e-mail Chinese skills for communications as well as Survival Chinese required for short visits to a country.
2 or more people can benefit studying Chinese together as these Chinese lessons are also offered to groups (Two-to-One Chinese Lesson or Small Group In-Company Chinese Lesson). Every student must have the same degree of knowledge of the language, the same business or language needs and the ability to study at the same time and place as everybody else. The booking has to be made for all students at the same time. Listen & Learn do not advocate group sessions of more than 6-8 people, though Taster Chinese Lessons can be experienced by up to 12 people.
53 percent of China are able to converse in Standard Mandarin, and while that seems like a low figure, it represents about 700 million people
Chinese has changed a lot over the years - the 20th century saw the disappearance of a lot of Imperial Chinese, which included many words used for politeness and to indicate social status
Writing in Chinese is a mystery for the uninitiated - you simply have to learn each symbol's meaning and pronunciation - there are no clues from how each symbol looks
Cape Breton
Cape Breton is an island city located off of the coast of Nova Scotia. This historic Canadian town has over 125,000 residents and has long been the home to the coal mining and steel industries. Perhaps Cape Breton's more famous resident of all time was Alexander Graham Bell who, after inventing the telephone, moved to the area to continue his research and invention-making. While in Cape Breton, Bell developed new ways to help the deaf communicate, even playing host to Helen Keller for a time. Today, Cape Breton is a mixture of different nationalities and cultures, including Scottish, Irish, Acadian and English. This unique mixture of residents and travelers has made learning a second language in Cape Breton a useful experience. With the world's borders coming down thanks to the Internet and inexpensive travel costs, this is an outstanding time for Bretons to jump in and start mastering a new language.