The Mandarin program offered at ICEC aims at helping students acquiring Mandarin fluency and the disposition to be life-long learners. In ICEC Mandarin Learning Program, Students learn Mandarin just as they learn English--by living it. Mandarin Classes are taught entirely in Mandarin with students engaging and absorbing a Chinese-speaking environment. Students are grouped into Beginning, intermediate, advance level class, according to grade and language proficiency.
ICEC- Hand-Signal learning methods, Role Play, the ICEC-Story-Telling techniques and Daily Diary entries are the main components of each structured ICEC Chinese lesson. Students learn Mandarin, socialize in Mandarin, and complete homework under the guidance and support of our Mandarin instructors at ICEC. We also have an additional Basic Speaking course that focuses on speaking and conversation using words and phrases learned in the previous classes.
1. Conversation
Conversation classes aim at helping students to build confidence of speaking the language and help them to communicate freely in day-to-day Chinese. We provide students with the Mandarin speaking environment that encourage them to speak Chinese. By offering different real life context that can cover a wide range of topics, students can learn the practical conversation skills and expand their vocabulary at the same time.
In the conversation classes, students will: - develop oral Mandarin speaking skills; - build confidence of speaking the language; - expand their vocabulary; - learn practical conversation skills; - get individual feedback and help and support from the ICEC mandarin teacher; - learn the language at their own pace.
2. Reading and Writing
Chinese characters are one of the essential part of Chinese learning, so ICEC reading and writing classes aim at helping students obtain a deeper understanding of the language and make associations and stronger connections with Chinese words. Classes are designed in a way that can help students develop the practical skills of using the language, for example all the reading and writing materials are created based on real-life examples, like learning about reading menus, maps, order deliveries and so on.
In the reading and writing classes, students will: - develop Mandarin reading and writing skills; - obtain the practical skills of using the language in real life settings; - deepen their knowledge about the language; - get individual feedback and help and support from the ICEC mandarin teacher;
3. Culture Learning Learning Chinese culture is essential for learning the language and also cultivating friendships. ICEC offers students the opportunities to learn Chinese culture and get to know China better. Culture learning classes will learn proper Chinese etiquette, the history of China, the different regions of China, Chinese food, and etc. In the Culture Learning classes, students will: - get basic knowledge of Chinese culture; - make friends with students from China via Skype; - learn proper Chinese etiquette, the history of China, the different regions of China, Chinese food, and etc.