CHINESE COURSES AT INTERTU EDUCATION

Since China rose to become the second largest economy in the world, Chinese language has also become popular worldwide after English. In Vietnam, the number of China-invested enterprises is increasing, which proves a career opportunity for those who are fluent in this language.

See also: Foreign languages

1. A brief introduction to Chinese

This language is popular not only in Vietnam but also throughout the US and the Western because it is the official language of more than 1.4 billion people of China and is used in countries of Chinese origin such as Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong… and because of the growing influence of the China economy all over the world.

Even within mainland China itself, Chinese language has many regional variations, which are often referred to as “dialects”. Variations are very diverse with 7 to 13 different genera, in which subgenus Mandarin has the largest number of speakers at more than 950 million, followed by Wu with approximately 80 million users, Min over 70 million and Cantonese over 60 million… However, the most popular language taught outside of China is Mandarin for easy communication between people from other countries and any Chinese.

Regarding the writing system (Han characters), this language is divided into two types, traditional and simplified, but without different pronunciation. Traditional Chinese is a traditional script, originating from ancient times, preserving the traditional culture and ideology of the Chinese people, but is no longer commonly used today. Simplified Chinese is about characters that have been simplified in terms of radicals, complex and sophisticated strokes compared to traditional characters to make writing easier. Simplified characters are widely used in Mainland China, Singapore or in publications that teach Chinese to foreigners. Traditional characters are still maintained and used officially in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau and a small part of Singapore.

2. Should learn Chinese or not?

The answer is “yes”. The main reasons for choosing it as a second language:

• • Open career opportunities: Investments of China enterprises in our country gradually increase on a yearly basis and are currently ranked first (if including Hong Kong and Taiwan) on top of Japan and Korea. The number of tourists from China to Vietnam is also ranked first with nearly 1.5 million arrivals in 2019, contributing largely to tourism revenue and creating hundreds of thousands of jobs in the fields of hospitality, commerce, aviation, interpreter, service, airline, office, accounting…
  • Expanding business routes: China is the world’s largest producing and manufacturing market. If you are fluent in Chinese, you can easily buy goods, negotiate prices, make transaction and trade any time without depending on an interpreter.
  • Integrating with the world: With a huge number of speakers worldwide, knowing Chinese allows you to integrate with people. The Chinese-speaking community is present in almost every country, for example, the number of Chinese international students studying in the US, Australia or Europe.
  • Study abroad: Although China’s science and technology cannot be compared with the West, it can be said that this is one of the technologically advanced countries. Instead of studying in the US, which is economically expensive and culturally unfamiliar, studying in China is an option that many young people have preferred in recent years. You can study a country of technological breakthroughs while living close to Vietnam from geographical distance to customs and culture.
  • Personal development: Many studies indicate that people who speak two or more languages ​​have better general intellectual ability than those who speak only one language. Learning Chinese makes you familiar with a completely different type of writing from the Latin alphabet, which stimulates the brain to find ways to absorb. From then on, the nervous system begins to operate well, helping increase the ability to think logically, creatively and cleverly.

Is learning Chinese difficult is a question many young people want to answer before choosing to study this language. Firstly, it is not difficult in pronunciation and communication, but it is challenging in writing skills because it is imperative to learn how to write Chinese characters – something Vietnamese people are not familiar with because they have learned the Latin script since birth.

Secondly, learners must know the phonetic transcription (pinyin) to type Chinese on the computer. It is almost as if you have to learn two ways of writing both Chinese characters and phonetics, to be able to use it fluently. Thirdly, you need to know about six ways of how Chinese characters are created: pictograms, phono-semantic characters, simple ideograms, compound ideograms, transfer characters, and loans characters.

However, that doesn’t mean this is a difficult language. If you really put in the time and determination for any kind of language, you will definitely become fluent.

See also: The most effective ways to learn Chinese

3. What Chinese courses does Intertu offer?

The popularity of Chinese leads to diverse learning needs of many ages and levels. Intertu offers courses ranging from beginners to preparing for HSK at all levels to meet the demands of a large number of students.

• • Kids class
  • Specialized Chinese class
  • Exam preparation class for HSK 1 to HSK 6
  • Conversational Chinese – Beginner – Basic – Advanced – Accelerated
  • Special note: Intertu also teaches Chinese in international programs such as IGCSE, A-level, IB, AP for international school students.

4. Teaching staff at Intertu

• • Native teachers have highly qualified qualifications and many years of experience in teaching Chinese both in HSK preparation and in international schools.
  • Vietnamese teachers graduate with a major in Chinese from top universities with good academic records and rich teaching experience.

In addition, teachers at Intertu also have approachable and comprehensible methods of communication and good Chinese learning tips to help students easily learn this language even if they are not familiar with Chinese characters.

5. Teaching method applied by Intertu teachers

Depending on different learning levels, teachers will have appropriate teaching methods. Teachers will instruct students the easiest way to learn this language in terms of both reading and writing. The methods used by teachers at Intertu include:

• • How to pronounce initials (consonants), finals (vowels) and tones
  • How to read the inflection of some initials and finals going together
  • Basic grammar rules
  • Commonly used Chinese radicals
  • Integrating grammar into lessons
  • Learning vocabulary through common topic 
  • Learning to listen and speak reflexively
  • Practicing reading comprehension in Chinese
  • Writing different types of text
  • Learning to translate Chinese to Vietnamese and vice versa

6. Chinese curriculum used by Intertu

The textbooks selected by Intertu to be used in the teaching process include the following:

• • Hanyu Jiaocheng from book 1 to book 6
  • HSK Standard Course Series from HSK 1 to HSK 6
  • Boya
  • HSK and HSKK exam preparation books

However, teachers do not completely depend on books, but will design lesson plans based on their own knowledge and experience to best suit the learning pathway and progress of students. Moreover, teachers do not necessarily sticking to a specific textbook but create different types of exercises from many sources to support students’ rapid language development as each textbook has its own advantages and disadvantages.

See also: Effective Chinese textbooks and materials

7. Form and type of studying at Intertu

7.1. Type of studying

• • Online classes: Suitable for students who live far from Intertu headquarters but want to study with native teachers with professional qualifications and many years of experience in teaching Chinese. Intertu applies a complete “virtual classroom” with specialized teaching features to help students feel that online learning is not as boring as other software.
  • Offline class: Suitable for students living in HCMC who want to pursue a pure learning environment, or students who are just starting out to make it easier for the initial stage of learning.

7.2. Form of studying

• • 1 on 1 tutoring: Suitable for students who want to learn quickly in a short time or want to focus on a specific skill, for example, writing Chinese. When learning 1-1, the learning pathway will be personalized in accordance with the student’s learning progress and the interaction between teachers and students is enhanced to help students progress faster than a normal class.

• • Private tutoring: The advantages of this type are low tuition fees, interaction with classmates to help motivate, support each other, and elevate teamwork skills.

8. What is outstanding about the Chinese course at Intertu?

• • 100% native teachers have professional qualifications
  • The method of teaching the nature of Hans characters (6 ways to form Chinese characters): pictograms, phono-semantic characters, simple ideograms, compound ideograms, transfer characters, and phonetic loans in order to help students easily recognize characters and learn them quickly
  • Diversify levels, types and ways of learning to meet students’ requirements
  • Modern facilities, inspiring learning space
  • Teaching Chinese in English to students from international schools
  • HSK certification exam preparation from HSK 1 to HSK 6

Intertu Education is currently enrolling students for communicative English, academic English, specialized English, business English, Chinese, French, Spanish. If you have any questions, please contact us directly, via email or hotline for a free consultation.