Part Time Group Classes

FAQ's

How many students are there in a class?

On average an LTL group class has three students per teacher, and guaranteed never more than six.

Is it ok to cancel a class?

If you cannot make it to class that is OK. Just let your teacher know and you will be told which materials were covered, so that if you have time, you can go through them yourself before the next class.

Why do group levels only work well up to intermediate Chinese?

At the beginning students tend to all be at a similar level in all aspects of the language, i.e. speaking, listening, reading and writing. The more advanced students are, the bigger the differences get. Someone who lived in Shanghai for many years and can express themselves very efficiently might know almost no characters at all. Another student who studied at university abroad might know hundreds of characters, but has almost no experience in speaking Chinese at all.

Then there are students with Japanese language backgrounds who know almost 2000 Chinese characters without ever having studied Mandarin – because those characters are used in Japanese too! So even with the small group sizes at LTL, an advanced group class is almost always either too difficult or too easy for some of the students.

How will I be placed in a group?

Before you start your classes, our Director of Studies will do an informal assessment with you – either in person or via Skype/Phone/WeChat. Based on this assessment you will be assigned to the most suitable group.

Will I study both spoken Mandarin and Chinese characters?

While the focus of LTL group classes is on quick progress in spoken Chinese, characters are used and taught throughout the course. The main aim is reading and character recognition rather than writing, because hand writing is not really needed in modern day China. If you want to only study spoken Chinese, you might want to have a look at the Spoken Chinese Only Program; if, however, you want to work on your characters then a better option would be to take individual Chinese classes.

How about full time classes in Shanghai

If you have the time to commit to full time Chinese classes in Shanghai, great! We offer small group Chinese classes or 1-on-1 Mandarin lessons, depending on your preference.

Do you teach us the local dialect of Shanghaihua in these lessons

Not in these lessons but we do offer a separate Shanghainese course which you are welcome to take with us. If you have any questions do let me know.