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Start your time in Shanghai with a One-week
Intensive Mandarin Course - this will enable you to get a lot more out of
your placement because you will have the basics to communicate in your teaching
life and your day-to-day living and socialising. You don’t need any Mandarin to
teach, as the children have a reasonable level of English, but learning a little
of the language would definitely be of benefit to you while in the country.
Mandarin is a difficult language to grasp, with many different tones and
intonations. Very few people in China outside the education system speak
English, and while travelling around there are frequent opportunities to strike
up conversations with people who are as curious about you as you are about them!
Learning a little Mandarin will enable to you speak with these people, thus
enriching your time here immeasurably, as you find out things about the culture
and the way of life that someone without language skills simply would not have
access to.
Course Location and content:
You'll have three hours of lessons a day and your
classmates will be other Travellers volunteers who are starting their projects
at the same time as you. During the week of your Mandarin Course,
you'll stay in accommodation together in the City, which will give you a good
opportunity to relax and explore the area before starting your project.
Your language course will take
place in a language centre in the centre of Shanghai, right in the
centre of the city. The centre is experienced in
providing courses for foreigners in Shanghai, and you'll receive your
lessons from a qualified teacher experienced in teaching Mandarin to
beginners. The course is usually
taught in English but lessons in other European languages can sometimes
be arranged.
The course will not give you an
official qualification or certification. The idea is to teach practical
things which will be of use to you in daily life in China. You’ll learn
conversation through speaking, writing and reading. You won’t usually
learn any Chinese characters (unless you are already of a reasonably
high level), you’ll work in pinyin, which is a system of writing the
Chinese language using the Roman alphabet.
During this time you'll also receive your
Induction from Jessie, our Shanghai Organiser. By the time your project starts,
you'll already be feeling much more at home and part of the local community.
The Language
skills you acquire from the course will also be useful on your weekend trips
around China, and during your travels after your placement if you decide you
want to stay in the country longer (which most of our volunteers do!). There are
plenty of things to do in Shanghai itself, and nearby to the city are the famous
towns of Nanjing, Suzhou and Hangzhou, which all make wonderful weekend trips. Your students
will also really appreciate hearing you speak some Mandarin - any attempt to
become a little more Chinese goes down very well with the locals!
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SPECIALS AND EXTRAS IN CHINA:
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+44 01903 502595
