The Chinese market is estimated already to be worth 10% of the UK's global sales, and China is predicted to overtake the US as the world's largest economy by 2025.  The Mandarin-speaking island of Taiwan, with its close trade links to mainland China, is a growing and vibrant economy in its own right, with an excellent infrastructure, high purchasing power and a UK export value of £289m in the third quarter of 2010. 

Research has revealed, however, that compared to other nations UK businesses are heavily disadvantaged by a lack of Mandarin skills as well as a poor understanding of Asian business culture.  A Department of Trade and Industry study found that over 20% of British firms had already lost business due to a lack of linguistic skills.  As one recent report affirmed:  "Business Executives should start developing Chinese language skills now."

It's All Chinese delivers Mandarin language training at your office in the North West of England, to provide you or your employees with the tools to promote your business, build your relationships, and extend your networks in the Chinese world.

The Teaching

Our teaching style is professinal, yet fun and interactive, with lots of opportunity for speaking and listening practice - after all, this is the only way to learn to speak a language with confidence.  You will be taught by an experienced professional; qualified both as a teacher and as an expert on the Chinese language.  Uniquely, we offer a native English teacher, unrivalled in their ability to explain the nuances of the Chinese language in a way that you can relate to - without compromising accuracy.

Class Size, Timing and Duration

We like to give you the flexibility of deciding on the schedule, size and timing of classes to suit your needs.  In our experience, we suggest that the optimum class duration time is 1-2 hours, and that classes are held either once or twice a week.  We recommend that, for the best results, class sizes remain small so that every learner has a chance to interact meaningfully with the teacher.  A 20- or 40-hour starter course is a great way to master the basics and can be supplemented by further training as required.

Course Content 

The course content can be adapted to suit your needs, budget, and time requirements.  You may wish to focus on spoken conversational language only, or on a mixture of speaking and writing.  If you would like to focus on certain areas of situational dialogue, this can be arranged.

Our basic course includes the essential introduction to the Chinese phonetic system, with the focus on good pronunciation and the all-important tones.  Students are introduced to vocabulary around popular topics (greetings and formalities, family, hobbies, weather, food, travel, etc.) but the basics of Chinese grammar are always explained clearly and there is lots of substitution practice, allowing students to build towards independent sentence formation.     

Materials

We provide our own course materials, allowing lessons to progress without the need for costly textbooks.  However, if you feel more comfortable using a textbook, or if you would like to progress towards the HSK or another Mandarin qualification, textbooks may be incorporated into the course.