Your colleagues and yourself can be trained by our native-speaking fully-qualified Chinese tutors at a time and location to suit you. Classes can take place any day, even weekends, and can happen in the morning, afternoon or evening. If the case may be that your home or office is not convenient, there is always the option to take your classes at the office of your teacher. Study books for the course are provided.
These Chinese courses 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 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 course, students can expect to finish the course 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 courses are also offered to groups (Two-to-One Chinese Course or Small Group In-Company Chinese Course). 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 Courses can be experienced by up to 12 people.
Just under 900 million people speak Chinese Mandarin as their first language, and another 180 million can speak it as their second tongue - that's over a billion speakers worldwide
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
Saint Paul
Count yourself lucky to be able to embark on learning another language in Saint Paul, for this populous capital of Minnesota is brimming with possibilities! Home to a diverse global community, there are an amazing amount of languages on offer to motivated students, international business people and interested individuals. The Saint Paul district boasts over seventy primary languages spoken; how many do you know? It's the perfect time to start your studies afresh or even brush up on your previous linguistic knowledge. Even the city of Saint Paul may have had inauspicious origins as the tavern of a local character known as "Pig's Eye" - but we've all got to start from somewhere! It's the same with studying a new language, you've got to begin at the beginning and then with a little practice with qualified native-speaking teachers, you'll get there without a doubt.
