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.
This set of Chinese tutorials are less specific and more targeted at those who want to get a range of different things from learning Chinese. Even though all novice students will cover survival Chinese: enough Chinese to make a visit to the country or make good contacts with the locals, but what do you do from there? It depends on your needs. Those who have benefitted from these lessons have been those moving or investing overseas, spouses of overseas nationals, people who love to travel all over the world, those interested in Chinese culture, and those who just want to pass a specific examination in Chinese.
These Chinese lessons are driven towards people who have a requirement to learn Chinese to bolster their work output. For novices, you will find it useful to learn basic greetings and business etiquette; and once you have become more proficient then reading and writing will come to the fore. Typical students include those concerned with import/export, those seeking work in multinational companies, international negotiations, and anyone working with international colleagues or administration. Even on our most rudimentary beginners lesson, students can expect to finish the lesson with decent telephone and e-mail Chinese, as well as a good enough grip on the language for a short trip to the 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.
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
Chinese is very reliant on the pitch and tone of the speaker - if a word is spoken with the wrong stress, it can have a very different meaning
Since it is frequently the only common tongue between Chinese people of different regions, Mandarin is often used for logistical reasons and convenience
Cleveland
Language learners seeking native speaking teachers are spoilt for choice in Cleveland. Ohio's second largest city and the "most livable" city in the United States according to a 2005 study from The Economist, Cleveland also boasts of substantial ethnic diversity. Once claiming to have the highest concentration of Hungarians outside of Budapest, there are also sizable communities of Polish, Romanians, Czechs, Slovaks, Ukrainians and Lithuanians in Cleveland. If learning an Eastern European language isn't your thing, never fear. There are also significant numbers of people of German, Italian, Arabic, Greek, Korean and Han Chinese ethnicity, which translates into the perfect opportunity to practise with someone else in their mother tongue! Speaking of which, get down to Little Italy, Slavic Village and Tremont and be sure to treat your tongue and taste buds - international cuisine has played a large role in defining the regional cuisine of Cleveland.