Learn Chinese

• Programs
  • Mandacentre offers various courses to reach the diverse goals of all our students. With us you have the possibility to enrol in a language course with a private teacher or in a classroom with a maximum of six students of the same level as you.
    Students who prefer to be taught in private one-on-one courses should contact Mandacentre first, for more detailed information.
  • Morning classes are from 9:00 AM till 11:30 AM and afternoon classes are from 14:30 till 17:00 with a break every 45 minutes. We believe it is better for students to learn in the classroom instead of memorizing words in their free time. Therefore students will have enough time outside the classroom for leisure.
  • Our Chinese teachers are all experienced in modern teaching methods and have highly developed English language skills. We only employ teachers who speak Standard Beijing Mandarin a.k.a. Putonghua.
    In our classes we will use a Chinese Textbook as well as free talk with topics introduced by our teachers. Classes will be given in English.
  • We start a new course every first week of the month.
  • Once you’ve arrived at Mandacentre one of our teachers will do an interview with you to find out the level of your Chinese and to put you in the right class.
• Everyday Mandarin Courses
  • Everyday Mandarin Course
    Beginner Courses
    
    The beginner level includes two courses – Elementary I & Elementary II. These courses are suitable for students who have had no previous mandarin instruction. Upon completion of the beginner courses, students will have a command of more than 1,000 basic words and 200 sentences for writing and speaking. This will enable students to conduct and understand communication in daily life, such as greeting, self introduction, shopping, taking a taxi, making appointments, asking for help, ordering food, seeing doctors, booking tickets, communicating with housekeepers, etc.
    
    Details & Prices for Group Classes

    Levels	Hours/Wk	Duration	Starting Date	Class size (Max.)	Tuition Fee
    Elementary I	25	6 Weeks	Every Month	6 students	￥3600,-/month
    Elementary II	25	6 Weeks	Every Month	6 students	￥3600,-/month
    Individual	25	3 Months	Every Week	1 student	￥5900,-/month

    Textbook
    ‘New Standard Chinese – Peking University Press’ Elementary I & II.

    What are the features of our textbook?
    * Interesting and practical topics that are related to daily life;
    * CD of standard pronunciation attached, read by the TV anchors from the Shanghai Broadcast Station.
    * Useful listening exercises
    
    Everyday Mandarin Course
    Intermediate Courses
    
    The intermediate level includes three courses –Intermediate I, Intermediate II & Intermediate III. These courses are suitable for students who have achieved beginner level or possess a vocabulary of approximately 1,000 words. The courses focus on topics concerning the expat-experience in China, whether it be living, working or travelling. As a primary classroom activity, dialogue exercise will be conducted so as to enable students to master different expressions within diverse situations. Upon completion of the courses, students should have a command of about 1,800 words, as well as the ability of speaking fluent Chinese in daily life using complex sentences.
    
    Schedule for Group Class

    Levels	Hours/Wk	Duration	Starting Date	Class size (Max.)	Tuition Fee
    Intermediate I	25	6 Weeks	Every Month	6 students	￥3600,-/month
    Intermediate II	25	6 Weeks	Every Month	6 students	￥3600,-/month
    Individual	25	3 Months	Every Week	1 student	￥5900,-/month

    Textbook
    ‘New Standard Chinese – Peking University Press’ Intermediate I & II.
    
    What are the features of our textbook?
    * Interesting and practical topics that are related to daily life;
    * CD of standard pronunciation attached, read by the TV anchors from the Shanghai Broadcast Station.
    * Useful listening exercises

    Everyday Mandarin Course
    Advanced Courses
    
    The advanced level includes two courses–Advanced A and Advanced B.
    The course is suitable for students who have achieved intermediate level or possess a vocabulary of approximately 2,000 words. Courses focus on communication skills through discussion of current issues in society, for example; the economy, culture, and other facets of China. The texts are mostly selected from magazine, newspaper and literature. There will be a unique topic in each lesson, such as, “Knowing Yourself”, “Leisure and Entertainment”, or “Human beings and the natural science”, etc. Upon completion of the course, students should have a command of about 3,500 words, including slang, phrases and, especially, local dialects. In addition, students will acquire a better understanding of Chinese society and culture and further perfect their language ability.
    
    Details & Prices for Group Class

    Levels	Hours/Wk	Duration	Starting Date	Class size (Max.)	Tuition Fee
    Advanced I	25	6 Weeks	Every Month	6 students	￥3600,-/month
    Advanced II	25	6 Weeks	Every Month	6 students	￥3600,-/month
    Individual	25	3 Months	Every Week	1 student	￥5900,-/month

    Textbook
    ‘New Standard Chinese – Peking University Press’ Advanced I & II.
    
    What are the features of our textbook?
    * Interesting and practical topics that are related to daily life;
    * CD of standard pronunciation attached, read by the TV anchors from the Shanghai Broadcast Station.
    * Useful listening exercises

• Special Mandarin Courses
  • SPECIAL COURSES
    Chinese Character Course
    This course covers the history, composition skills and system of Chinese character writing. Upon completion of the course, students should be able to recognize and write more than 1,000 Chinese characters, which cover about 90% of daily reading material, such as newspapers, road signs and guide information.
    Schedule for Group Class

    Levels	Hours/Wk	Duration	Starting Date	Class size (Max.)	Tuition Fee
    Beginner	12.5	1 Month	Every two Weeks	6 students	￥3000,-/month
    Intermediate	12.5	1 Month	Every two Weeks	6 students	￥3000,-/month
    Advanced	12.5	1 Month	Every two Weeks	6 students	￥3000,-/month

    Textbook
    Self-made Materials SPECIAL COURSES
    Professional Chinese
    If you want to study for professional purpose, such as finance, chemicals, literature, etc, we will customize the vocabulary content of the text materials on an on-going basis, seek advice and comments from you to cater your specific requirements. This course normally will be arranged for private tutoring.

    Tuition	Less than 20 hrs	20+hrs	One level(10 hrs)	10+hrs	Two levels(80 hrs)	100+hrs
    1 on 1	￥120,- hour	120	110	100	90	85
    1 on 2		100/person	85/person	75/person	70/person	65/person

    Textbook
    Self-made material
    

• Mandarin Courses for Children
  • Chinese Courses for Children
    Mandacentre offers four courses for children with different Chinese levels. The course is designed for students who are under eighteen. Students’ speaking ability will have priority through various interesting and dynamic teaching activities, which are in line with children’s cognitive features. In addition, a number of Chinese characters will be taught as the supplement in the class. Upon the completion of the complete course, students should have a command of about 2,000 new words and 1,500 Chinese Characters, and the ability of conducting daily communication fluently, reading essays, as well as the understanding of Chinese culture and customs.
    Schedule for Group Class

    Levels	Hours/Wk	Weeks	Start Date	Class size	Tuition Fee
    Beginner	25	3 Months	Every Month	6 students	￥3600,-/month
    Pre-intermediate	25	3 Months	Every Month	6 students	￥3600,-/month
    intermediate	25	2 Months	Every Month	6 students	￥3600,-/month
    advanced	25	2 Months	Every Month	6 students	￥3600,-/month

    Textbook
    This teaching material is especially made for children. It is vivid and practical, most suitable for children from five to fifteen years old and is internationally recommended.

• Chinese Culture Classes
  • CULTURE COURSES
    Chinese Culture Courses
    The Culture courses are group or individual class focusing on specific aspects of traditional Chinese culture, such as, Chinese wash painting, calligraphy and Tai Chi.
    
    Chinese Tea Ceremony Course: The course introduces briefly the knowledge of Chinese tea categories, tea set and the preservation of tea leaves. Students will learn the process of making-tea, including various methods to serve green tea, oolong, red tea and Pu er tea, as well as the Chinese tea culture.
    Chinese Tai-Chi Course:
     
    Chinese Cuisine Course: The process of making Chinese snacks and Chinese dishes will be presented in each lesson, such as, spring rolls, wonton soup, rice dumplings and steamed dumplings; Mapo Tofu(Spicy beancurd with shredded pork meat), Tangcu Paigu (Sweet and sour pork rib), Yuxiang Rousi (Pork strips in spicy sweet and sour sauce), Qiezhi Guiyu (Mandarin fish in tomato sauce), Hongshao Shizitou (Braised pork dumpling), etc.
     
    Chinese Calligraphy: Calligraphy is an art dating back to the earliest day of history and is still widely practiced throughout China to this day. Although it uses Chinese words as its vehicle of expression, one does not have to know Chinese to appreciate its beauty. Because in essence, Calligraphy is an abstract art. While viewing a Western abstract painting, one does not ask, "What is it?" When viewing Chinese calligraphy, one need not ask, "What is the Chinese word?" In our Calligraphy course we will present you the basics and backgrounds of this fine Chinese art and after completing the course you will be able to write every Chinese Character in Calligraphy-style.
    
    Cantonese Course: To learn basic daily conversation, such as, greeting, introducing somebody, asking way, shopping, ordering food, and taking taxi, etc.

    Note: The longer your course – The lower the price
    For detailed information please contact us

• Business Mandarin Courses
  • Business Mandarin
    Business Mandarin Course
    For those interested in Chinese business vocabulary and phrases, Mandacentre has designed special evening classes where we focus on Business principles. This course can be followed as an optional course next to your regular tuition, since Business Mandarin is being taught at different levels of Chinese. It is also possible to just enroll in the business course without doing the regular Everyday Chinese Course.

    Levels	Hours/Wk	Duration	Starting Date	Class size (Max.)	Tuition Fee
    Beginner	12.5	1 Month	Every two Weeks	6 students	￥3000,-/month
    Intermediate	12.5	1 Month	Every two Weeks	6 students	￥3000,-/month
    Advanced	12.5	1 Month	Every two Weeks	6 students	￥3000,-/month

• Recommended Hot Courses
  • Recommended Hot Courses
    Preparation For HSK
    This program prepares students for taking the elementary/intermediary level of HSK (The Chinese Proficiency Test) and is designed to assist them to achieve a high score on the HSK. The course content includes exam taking skills and strategies as well as general Chinese, including grammar, vocabulary, reading and listening comprehension.
    Our HSK Preparation Program runs for 4 weeks, 6 weeks, 8 weeks, 10 weeks and 12 weeks prior to the exam date. So right after taking our preparation course, you can take the exam in Guilin - one of the Chinese cities where HSK is being held, 65 km North of Yangshuo.

    Schedule for Group Classes

    5 hours per day

    Monday to Friday

    Each lesson is 50 minutes

    Level: absolute beginner to advanced

    Class size: 6 students maximum

    Duration: 4, 6, 8, 10, 12 weeks

    Starting dates: In accordance with the HSK test
    
    Prices for Group Class

    	4	6	8	10	12
    HSK Beginner’s Level	￥3900,-	￥5750,-	￥7450,-	￥8900,-	￥9750,-
    HSK Basic Level	￥3900,-	￥5750,-	￥7450,-	￥8900,-	￥9750,-
    HSK Elementary-Intermediate Level	￥3900,-	￥5750,-	￥7450,-	￥8900,-	￥9750,-
    HSK Advanced Level	￥3900,-	￥5750,-	￥7450,-	￥8900,-	￥9750,-

• Yangshuo – Life inside a Painting!

  

  Two Weeks Painting Holiday in Breathtaking China for only €1365,-

  France is Fascinating, Portugal is Pretty and Italy is Impressive, but for those who enjoy to paint scenery we'd like to introduce a new possibility to you. Discover the natural beauty of the steep mushroom-like, green coloured mountains combined with the smooth brightness of meandering rivers flowing gently between bamboo bushed banks in the South of China.

  Chosen by the Chinese to be the most beautiful scenery in the world, the adorable farmer village of Yangshuo has hidden itself amongst inspirational mountains and peaceful rice-paddies. With no major cities nor industries in the near surroundings the town hasn't heard of the word 'Pollution'. Skies are blueish blue and trees are greener than green.

  Yangshuo – Life inside a Painting!

  

   

  *     What is it?
  A fifteen day holiday in one of the world's most astonishing and inspiring locations, where we shall focus on the painting of Karst Mountains, Rivers and Forests using traditional Chinese painting methods. A certified teacher will help you to obtain all the necessary skills so you will be able to paint landscapes in a Chinese way yourself.

  *     When is it?
  Mandacentre organizes two painting holidays every year. We have chosen April and September to be the most impressive Months and therefore our trips will take place during these periods. The next trip will start on April 2009. It is possible to chang the arrival and/or departure date and place at will. Please inform us in advance.

  *     What will we do?
  Every morning after we finish our eggs on toast we will have one hour Theory Class, where you will be educated in Chinese painting methods, brush usage, history, culture, etc. Classes will be given by a Chinese painting teacher with an English speaking translator for your convenience. After our morning class we will leave the village of Yangshuo for the countryside where we come at ease at a quiet spot and let our brushes do the work, while our teacher observes, monitors, suggests and helps out to let you create your own pieces of art. We will spend  our lunch in a traditional farmer restaurant.

  *     For who is it?
  Our painting holiday is specifically created for people who enjoy painting magnificent landscapes and who are eager to explore new painting methods. Professional painters as well as amateurs can join this trip, since art is still an individual and personal experience.

  *     Where is it?
  The holiday will take place in the South of China in Guangxi province. Known best for its Karst Mountains, we will stay ten nights in Yangshuo. Two nights will be spent among the world famous rice terraces of Longji. Another two nights will be spent in the night train from Hong Kong to Guilin (near Yangshuo) and vice-versa.

  *     How many people can join?
  The number of people who can join the group is limited to eighteen. We have experienced that this is a convenient number and we don't want to cross this line for logistic and attentional reasons.

  *     How much will it cost?
  The two week painting holiday costs €649,- to be paid on arrival in China in local currency. Exchange rates can differ so the fixed price in local RMB is ￥6990,-

  

  *     What is included?
  Accommodation in decent hotels with Western Comforts based on two people per room. Single rooms can be booked for an extra RMB 1950,- (€165,-);
  · All transportation, using night trains (2x), private buses and minibuses;
  · Entrance fee for the Longji Rice terraces;
  · Painting equipment;
  · Painting teacher and English speaking translator;
  · English & Dutch speaking tour leader from Holland who will meet you at Hong Kong airport.

  *     What do I have to take care of myself?
  · Airplane ticket to Hong Kong. (Return ticket from Amsterdam for €715,- with KLM);
  · A 30 day Visa for China. Cost: €35,- Easy to obtain at the Chinese Embassy in your country or in Hong Kong;
  · Foods and Drinks (Countryside prices are low);
  · Individual excursions or day trips besides the regular schedule;
  Travel Insurance;
  · NB: Mandacentre can advise you about all of these five topics and we can strongly recommend you to contact us first if you seem to have any questions.

  *     How do I book this holiday?
  In order to keep our prices low, Mandcentre is registered as a foreign-owned joint-venture operating from Yangshuo, China and so we can only collect your payment inside China. At the moment of booking, however, we require a deposit of €125,-. For your convenience we have opened a European bank account in Holland to which the deposit can be paid. The booking procedure goes through email or telephone and booking for the September 17 trip will close on August 31.

  *     How to contact Mandcentre?
  If you have any questions you can contact us by
  Email:            spoormaker@gmail.com
                       mandacentre@gmail.com
  Telephone:   +86 1387 837 4343 (China – Dutch & English)
                       +31 641 85 82 74 (Holland – Dutch & English)
  Website:        http://www.mandacentre.com/painting.htm

  *     Useful Information
  · Chinese currency is the RenMinBi (RMB), also named Yuan, and 11 yuan is about as much as €1,- ATM's can be found anywhere using Western bank- or Credit cards.

  · The language in China is Mandarin, but in Yangshuo and Longji all you need is English, since all hotel and restaurant personnel can speak English.

  · Yangshuo & Longji both have every kind of necessary Western conveniences.

  · The weather in April and September is nice with temperature circling around 25°C and normally fair weather conditions.

  · We advise you to visit your local Health Department for information about vaccinations. Malaria doesn't occur in the area's we'll visit.

  · The schedule we have created for this trip is optional. This means that if you rather don't follow a morning class or prefer to go on a bicycle tour in an afternoon you are of course free to go.

  · Mandacentre is a partner of the Dutch travel organization JoHo, where you can find information about Airplane tickets, Travel Insurance and more travel related topics. See www.joho.nl for more information.

   

  The Mandacentre Travel Team Welcomes You!

  Mikolaj Macioszek & Roland Spoormaker