Our Program
As with our non-corporate adult classes, our corporate classes are shaped by two primary objectives. The first is to educate students in a way that is theoretically informed from a linguistic perspective, and the second is to supply students with a clear road map identifying both their ultimate goals for Chinese learning in concrete, accessible terms, and what they can expect to achieve after any given amount of study with us. Where our corporate offerings veer off from our non-corporate adult offerings is in the degree to which they are custom tailored (click here to see the five levels of our non-corporate adult program). Our service begins with a needs analysis interview to determine the needs of your organization along seven dimensions. Based on this interview, we will design and implement a curriculum appropriate to your specific needs. The seven dimensions include:
- The number of personnel you wish to have trained
- The intensity of training (number of hours per week)
- The proficiency you wish your personnel to achieve
- The current proficiency level of the personnel to be trained
- The mode of training you wish your personnell to receive (everyday Chinese, survival Chinese, business Chinese).
- The linguistic area in which you would like your personnel trained (just conversational Chinese, or written as well).
- The deadline by which you need to have reached your organization’s goal.
Our Approach
Because of the regrettable gap between the best practices in second language education -- as advocated by academics and top-quality language programs -- and the provision of second language education as it often occurs in practice, many would-be language learners turn away from Chinese language learning on the assumption they will be exposed to extensive pronunciation practice, rote memorization, and grammar drills. In contrast, HC employs The Communicative Approach which allows students to use spoken Chinese in meaningful and interesting ways from the very start.
Our Teachers
All of our teachers are fluent in Chinese and most have degree in a related field (Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language, Applied Linguistics, etc). Nevertheless, our philosophy of teaching provides that content knowledge is only a portion of successful teaching. Much also hinges on classroom ability. Classroom ability includes such skills as creating a positive classroom environment, motivating students, engaging students, putting students at ease, lowering stress levels, inspiring student confidence, and successfully conveying knowledge. As educators, we place classroom ability at the center of successful education, and it is the first thing we look at when evaluating a potential teacher. Click here to contact us for more information about our corporate program or to arrange for Chinese lessons.