Out of the thousands of languages that exist in the world, Chinese is the most widely spoken. To put that into perspective, about one in five of the world’s population speaks some form of Chinese. People in different parts of China speak different forms of the Chinese language. As such, it was difficult for citizens from various provinces to communicate with each other. Hence, Mandarin Chinese, or Pǔtōnghuà (普通话), was adopted as a “common” language for the people of China to communicate with one another. Today, it is the official language of the People’s Republic of China and by far the most widely used version. In Singapore and Malaysia, Mandarin Chinese is commonly referred to as Chinese or huayǔ (华语) and in Taiwan, it is referred to as Guóyǔ (国语).

At Oxford Language Academy, we offer a variety of Chinese courses that are sure to meet your requirements in learning Chinese. These include part-time group or private conversational Chinese language classes for adults, corporate language training for businesses and preparatory courses for the Chinese Proficiency Test.

English is used as the medium of instruction. This conversational course also uses the romanized Chinese alphabet, Pinyin.

In addition to covering simple Chinese dialogue (through the aid of English translations), basic grammar, vocabulary and expressions, the course will also illustrate interpersonal communication etiquette and formalities on how to address others. Even though this class emphasises on the speaking aspect of the Chinese language, it also offers a small portion on reading of Chinese characters.