You and your group can be trained by our native speaker qualified Chinese teachers, and can meet at your place of work or home at a time convenient to you. Tutorials can take place any day of the week, including weekends, and can be scheduled for the morning, afternoon or evening. If your home or office is not suitable for you, you can attend the lesson at the teacher's offices. You will be provided with all relevant lesson materials.
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.
Those wishing to learn Chinese in groups of 2 or more together (Two-to-One Chinese Lessons or Small Group In-Company Chinese Lessons) can sign up for our group classes. All students must be at nearly the same level of Chinese proficiency, must have the same needs from the language, and must be able to study at the same time and place as the others. Bookings must be made for all students simultaneously. Listen & Learn do not propose group sizes or more than 6-8 people, but In-Company Taster Chinese Lessons can occur with 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
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
Oshawa
Oshawa is located near Ontario, but is not technically a part of the Greater Ontario Area. The backbone of the Oshawa economy has always been the automotive industry. General Motors has long been a staple of the area, with the car manufacturer's Canadian operations located there. GM has been the primary employer of many of Oshawa's residents for years, at both the executive level and in the major parts assembly plant that sits just outside of the downtown center. Canada's most famous race horse, Northern Dancer, was born in Oshawa at Winfield Farms, the well-regarded Canadian horse farm and breeder. Of the 150,000 people who live in Oshawa, over 10% are minorities from around the world. As such, learning a second language such as Arabic, Chinese or others is an essential part of communicating with those who live there. In addition, the European heritage of the residents makes Eastern European tongues a popular learning experience as well.