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Learn Chinese efficiently
| Focus
Language offers Mandarin
Chinese classes for beginners
and intermediate
students. We work with businesses,
corporations and
individuals.
We concentrate on
developing good speaking
and comprehension
skills. We use
the Pinyin transliteration
system, which allows rapid
progress in learning grammar
and vocabulary. We
initially focus on developing
a good practical knowledge of
the tone system, which is
absolutely essential if you
want to learn Chinese. |
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use recordings, podcasts and
in-class work to help you
gradually understand and speak
Mandarin Chinese. Enjoyment,
concentration and effective
learning are the keynotes in
our teaching method.
Chinese can be a challenging
language. You need a
teacher who understands how
to teach the tone system
to Western learners. It
is the foundation of all
Chinese study. If you
bypass it, you will not be
understood. We
understand exactly how to
present it to you so you are
successful in learning
Mandarin. Understanding
native Mandarin speakers
is another formidable
challenge for
Westerners. We have
developed simple and powerful
techniques to help you succeed
there as well.
If
you want to receive updates on programs at Focus Language
School Chicago & Phoenix or useful
articles on how to learn languages, please contact
us. You may unsubscribe at any time.
Or call us at
(630) 338 1144 in Chicago or ( 602) 569 7526
in Phoenix.
Mandarin
Chinese Classes Chicago
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| ABOUT
MANDARIN CHINESE |
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Mandarin
Chinese is an amazing language
to learn, rich in culture,
philosophy and tradition. It is
quickly becoming vitally important in our modern world
and many people have begun the
task of learning
Mandarin. Chinese is
quite different from the
European languages we normally
learn during our school
years. In some ways it
is much easier to learn and in
others far more challenging.
Our Chinese classes (in
Phoenix, Arizona) are set up
to insure you get the most
comprehensive approach
possible as you learn. |
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| The
easy part: |
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Chinese
grammar |
| Chinese
grammar is very
simple. There are no
verb conjugations at all.
Each verb has one form used
for all tenses and all
persons. Nouns have no
singular, plural, masculine,
feminine or neuter
forms. There are no noun
declensions. Sentences
are put together in a very
simple and easy to understand
way. The old expression:
"Long time no see!"
is a direct translation from a
common saying in Chinese and
shows how simple it is. |
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Pinyin |
| The
transliteration system used in
China - called Pinyin - uses
the Roman alphabet to
represent Chinese words.
It really makes it easier to
learn the language. Pinyin
is learnable, systematic
and has no exceptions.
It makes it very doable to
learn to pronounce and read
Chinese. |
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Vocabulary |
| Words
are very short usually
consisting of one or two
syllables. They directly
represent the concepts they
describe: e.g.. fire
mountain = volcano. |
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Pronunciation |
| Chinese
does not have many sounds. Most
of them have a direct equivalent in
English and all of them can be
learned rather easily by English
speakers. |
Mandarin
Chinese Classes Chicago
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| The
challenging part: |
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Tonal
system |
| The
Chinese language has 4 tones or
notes. Every syllable has a
tone. In order to be understood,
you must pronounce the tones.
This needs to be learned and
absorbed when you first begin to
learn Chinese. The
Roman alphabet Pinyin writing system makes it much
easier to learn, since it uses accents
to represent the different tones. We
make sure you become competent there. |
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Vocabulary |
| There
are thousands of words that sound
exactly alike one to the other.
(like lie and lie or lead and led in
English). This can make
memorization and comprehension more
challenging. There are tricks
and techniques to help learn Chinese
vocab. |
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Word
order |
| Chinese
word order is quite different from
that of English and needs to be
learned gradually |
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The
famous Chinese characters |
| This
is a major memorization undertaking
for those wanting to learn Chinese. Fortunately, the
Roman alphabet-based Pinyin
system allows you to learn grammar,
vocabulary and pronunciation right
away. You can actually begin to
read and speak quite comfortably
without having to learn the thousands
of characters necessary for basic
knowledge. In this way, you can
start slowly working on your
characters (if you choose to) while moving faster on the
other parts of the
language. We use Pinyin in
our instruction, since our primary
focus is to help you speak and
understand Mandarin. We will
help you begin your character study if
you are interested. |
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| This
brief overview can give you a sense of
what is involved in learning Mandarin.
We offer Mandarin Chinese classes for
beginner and intermediate levels.
Give us a call if you want to Learn
Chinese. We will explain the
nuts and bolts of our programs. |
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See
out Programs page for more details
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Language
School Chicago
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Language School Phoenix
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