Mandarin Chinese Language Program Objective

The Boston Language Institute, New England’s leading language school, offers Mandarin Chinese language courses to individuals and companies. The quality of instruction provided in our Mandarin Chinese language classes are on a par with the best native Mandarin Chinese language school.

We consider it to be the major goal of our program to have you use Mandarin in as large a variety of real-life situations as possible. To that end, our Mandarin courses have been designed to build fluency in both the spoken and the written language. Communication in a warm and relaxed environment is an important feature of our programs, as is homework, which includes exercises for review and practice of the material taught in class. Moreover, by keeping the class size limited to twelve students, we ensure that each student will be able to actively participate.

Mandarin Level 1
Upon completion of this course, students can expect to converse in simple sentences as well as to read and write basic words. This course emphasizes oral expression and phonetics. Four tones and pronunciation will be practiced repeatedly. The Pin-Yin spelling system will be introduced and drills will help students master the correct intonation. Topics include: greetings, identifications, names and nationalities.
(New Practical Chinese Reader Vol. 1, Lessons 1-5)

Mandarin Level 2
After completing Level 2, students should be able to converse with greater ease about topics including sports, meeting people, family members, etc. Chinese characters including strokes, stroke order and radicals will be introduced. Students will practice on character writing and character recognition.
(New Practical Chinese Reader Vol. 1, Lessons 6-8)

Mandarin Level 3
Upon completion of this course, students can expect to read text based on the recognition of characters. They will comprehend more complex sentences. Students will make dialogues on the topics including age, shopping, etc. Grammar learned in this level includes: verb + object; tag questions, prepositional phrases, etc.
(New Practical Chinese Reader Vol. 1, Lessons 9-10)

Mandarin Level 4
In the advanced level, students will be given more time to make daily conversation based on the text. The students will be able to talk about learning Chinese, seeing a doctor, making appointments, etc. Grammar includes: measure words, to have, expressions of desire and necessity, adverbial modifiers, etc.
(New Practical Chinese Reader Vol. 1, Lessons 11-12)

Mandarin Level 5
Advanced course requires that the students have more solid basic vocabulary to make sentences in order to converse in daily life. The students will learn vocabulary including Christmas, New Year, holidays, etc. Grammar includes adjectives "many, much" and "few, little". Students will learn how to make apologies and send regards, etc.
(New Practical Chinese Reader Vol. 1, Lessons 13-14)

Conversational Mandarin
This program is designed to further increase the conversational ability of students proficient in levels 1-5 above. Conducted entirely in Mandarin, this course provides students with an opportunity to markedly improve their speaking and listening skills. Magazines, video and audio tapes, and other resources designed to provide practical opportunities for vocabulary and skill development are selected to match student interests. Grammatical topics are addressed as needed.

Text and Supplementary Materials

Since communication in a foreign language requires an understanding of the cultural context, our aim is to teach you the living language through carefully selected textbooks, newspaper and magazine articles and other relevant materials, rather than have you repeat and memorize tourist phrases.

Over the past twenty years, we have reviewed many university-level Mandarin textbooks and have selected New Practical Chinese Reader (Beijing University Press) as the one that best fulfills the objectives of our students. Corresponding to the lessons in the book is a complete set of tapes with challenging exercises, which you may borrow for home listening from our Cassette Lending Library. Teachers provide texts and supplementary materials at the higher levels. Books may be purchased at the Boston University Bookstore, 660 Beacon St., Boston or from our on-line bookstore specializing in foreign language textbooks, study guides and audiocassettes.

Tuition and Course Organization

Tuition for the Mandarin program at all levels is $499. There is a non-refundable $35 registration fee for first-time students only.

In addition to our core program, we offer a Daytime Intensive program which covers three to four semesters in eight weeks - offering the greater likelihood of actually speaking, as well as reading and writing, the language than a traditional university course. Tuition for the Daytime Intensive Program and the Group Immersion Program is $2,495.

Private Programs

Immersion Programs

The Boston Language Institute Guarantee

Because of the individualized nature of our programs and the high quality of our instruction, we guarantee your satisfaction. If you are not satisfied with the quality of instruction within the first two weeks of a main session, or the first week of an accelerated session, we will refund your tuition in full.
Refund requests must be made no later than the business day after the second meeting of a once-a-week or the fourth meeting of a twice-a-week class of a Main Session; and no later than the business day after the first meeting of a once-a-week or the second meeting of a twice-a-week class of an Accelerated Session.

Class Schedules

We encourage students to register at least a week before the session starts, especially since classes are limited to 12 students. A Program Coordinator will be happy to take registration information by phone, fax or e-mail.