What Happens in a Cactus Chinese Mandarin Class?

What Happens in a Chinese Mandarin Class with Cactus?

Whether you’re learning Chinese, French or Arabic, starting to learn a language is a roller-coaster adventure. Before you start, and before you book your course (with Cactus), it’s always good to know a little bit more about what to expect and what you will experience. For some people their only memory of learning a language is that of memorising lists of words and verb tables. The language courses at Cactus are nothing like that and focus on speaking, communication, real-life use, and fun! To give you a bit more of an insight into our classes we are going to take you inside the classroom of our Chinese Mandarin Beginner 1 Group in Liverpool, taught by the wonderful Rina.

Speak Chinese from the First Lesson

From the very first lesson in week 1 the students in Rina’s Chinese Mandarin class start speaking Chinese! The course is 10 weeks long, 2 hours per week, and although Chinese Mandarin is one of the more difficult languages for speakers of European languages to learn, Rina creates a relaxed atmosphere in which the students feel comfortable from the first day. This video shows some of the students in their first class, speaking Chinese Mandarin from the very first lesson.

Learning to Write Chinese Characters

The Chinese writing system looks much harder to learn than an alphabetic writing system but Rina makes it easy with her creative and fun ways of practising the Hanzi characters. An important part of learning and understanding the Chinese Mandarin language, Rina includes a range of activities that help students familiarise themselves with the techniques needed to produce the Hanzi symbols. Writing in a new language doesn’t have to be boring!

When in China….

In China is obligatory to bargain whenever you buy anything in a market or from a street stall. The art of bargaining is an important skill to develop in Chinese so Rina sets up an activity in her class where students need to ‘buy’ various items from one another. From handbags to watches the students try to negotiate a lower price in order to purchase these items. This replicates the real life situations they may find themselves in when visiting China!

Our Chinese Mandarin Class Teacher Rina

Rina is fluent in Mandarin (mother tongue) and English, and has been a teacher of both Mandarin and English for many years. She has taught Mandarin for a range of individuals from business professionals to school children. She also taught English in Inner Mongolia Normal University. Rina is a Qualified TESOL teacher, a qualified DPSI interpreter and DPSI tutor. Rina is an extremely popular teacher and always makes her lesson engaging, lively and interesting. You can find out more about her classes through her twitter account.

Contact Us

To find out more about learning another language, or information on any of our courses simply call us on 01273 830 960 or email us. Our multilingual team will be happy to answer any questions you may have.

Cactus language offers the following types of language courses:

Evening language courses: 19 different languages in 15 UK locations
Language holidays: worldwide immersion courses in the country of the language
Private tuition: tailor-made and corporate language training solutions throughout the world
TEFL: teacher training courses for both English and other languages all over the world
Online courses: for teacher training, English and French