As many of us continue distance learning, here are some guidelines we have compiled for setting up a classroom space at home — for Mandarin, or any class. Download your own PDF copy here.

Interested in adding Mandarin to your skill set? Join the largest community of non-native Mandarin learners in the US!

The Columbus School of Chinese was founded in 2010 to help non-native learners excel in Mandarin Chinese. To meet the needs of busy students locally and beyond, we are excited to announce a new Beginner online class meeting Wednesdays, 6:30-7:30pm, June 3-July 29.

Online Course Features:

• Live interaction with the instructor and fellow learners
• Class recordings viewable throughout the term
• Course book and audio included
• Digital flashcards for practice anywhere, anytime
• Time-tested curriculum designed for and by non-native learners
• Lessons centered on targeted, practical interactions
• Join class from anywhere with high speed internet

Course fee $180. Spots are limited. For more information and to register, click here!

Would you benefit professionally from proficiency in Mandarin? Talk to your HR representative about this professional development opportunity through CSC.

Want a head start? Subscribe to CSC on YouTube for study advice and explanation of key concepts every student needs to know.

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The Columbus School of Chinese is excited to announce our next Chinese Immersion Weekend in Flushing, New York, July 24-26, 2020!

This three-day program is an immersive Chinese language and culture experience for students who have completed Beginner I and above.

Flushing, located in Queens, New York, boasts one of the largest Chinese communities outside of China. The Flushing provides learners with authentic opportunities to practice their language and cultural skills, apply their knowledge outside of the classroom and become more comfortable with life in a Chinese environment.

CSC language and culture experts will guide students through real-life scenarios and cultural experiences that will ultimately leave learners with greater confidence in their language ability and deeper, practical understanding of Chinese culture and society.

Participants will interact in Chinese with native Chinese speakers in a variety of settings:

• Interact with cab drivers;
• Purchase items through bargaining;
• Ask for directions;
• Order food and interact with restaurant staff;
• Experience a Chinese style banquet;
• Participate in authentic Chinese recreational activities, and more.

To register, please email info@columbusschoolofchinese.com before March 6, 2020. Spots are limited to 10 students.

Past Student Testimonials:

“I enjoyed our immersion trip to Flushing, NY. I was forced to use Chinese in order to communicate. This trip has strengthened my excitement for learning Chinese.” – Raju, Flushing Trip Participant

“Take it from someone who’s been there. You don’t want to miss out on this unique opportunity to improve your Chinese!”
– Brian, Flushing Trip Participant

Want to receive instruction from CSC experts for free? Subscribe to the Columbus School of Chinese on YouTube!

Our YouTube channel is continually updated with tips, hints, drills, and explanation for all of the important concepts students of Mandarin Chinese must grasp to maximize their proficiency in the language.

The CSC YouTube channel features the educational “Ask A Chinese Teacher” series, plus Chinese performance art, student spotlights, and more!

If you are a student of Mandarin, you won’t want to miss out on any of our fantastic content. Click here to visit our YouTube channel, click Subscribe, and start enjoying our free content today!

CSC student Rich surveys the Government District from the Hefei Municipal Foreign Affairs building, Hefei, Ahnhui Province.

CSC is excited to announce our Term 3 Adult Beginner 1 class will meet Mondays, 7:30-8:30pm, August 5 – October 7, 2019.

The Columbus School of Chinese (CSC) is pleased to announce dates for our Summer 2019 Flushing Chinese Immersion Weekend program: August 2-4, 2019. This three-day program is an immersive Chinese language and culture experience for students ages 10+ who have completed Beginner I and above. (Students under age 18 will require a chaperon.)

The Flushing neighborhood in Queens, New York, boasts one of the largest Chinese communities outside of China. Flushing provides learners with authentic opportunities to apply language skills and cultural knowledge outside of the classroom and to become more comfortable with life in a Chinese environment.

Over the course of this program, CSC China experts will guide students through real-life scenarios and cultural experiences that will increase learners’ confidence in their language ability and deepen their practical understanding of Chinese culture and society.

Participants will interact with native Chinese speakers and a Chinese environment in a variety of settings:
Hotel check-in;
Interact with cab drivers;
Purchase items through bartering;
Ask for directions;
Order food, interact with restaurant staff;
Experience a Chinese banquet;
Participate in authentic Chinese recreational activities, and more.

Dates: August 2-4, 2019

Cost: Approximately $1,000 per student, depending on student number and other factors. Program cost includes airfare, lodging, ground transportation and instructional fees. Past programs have run between $800-1,200.

Past Student Testimonials:
“I enjoyed our immersion trip to Flushing, NY. I was forced to use Chinese in order to communicate. This trip has strengthened my excitement for learning Chinese.”—Raju, Flushing Trip Participant

“Take it from someone who’s been there. You don’t want to miss out on this unique opportunity to improve your Chinese!” —Brian, Flushing Trip Participant

CSC is excited to announce our new Summer Term Adult Beginner 1 class will meet Tuesdays 6:30-7:30pm, June 4 – July 30, 2019.

CSC’s 2019 Chinese Summer Camp will be held June 10-14, from 9:30-11:30am each day.

Children ages 4+ are welcome to join us for a week of developing confidence, skill and cultural knowledge through fun activities with CSC Chinese language and culture experts. Students will be grouped according to age and proficiency level.

Contact us today to register or for more information!

We‘re excited to announce our new digital language learning subscription service! Each month, Columbus School of Chinese experts will deliver a bundle of Chinese reading, writing, and grammar exercises directly to your email inbox!

Each bundle includes a detailed explanation of a common grammatical structure, a reading passage, Chinese character writing sheets, and audio files, all for just $5 a month — less than liǎng bēi kāfēi! ☕️☕️

Click here to enter your email address to our list!

Here is a comprehensive list of (mostly free) resources that we shared via our monthly newsletter over the course of 2018.

To receive more resources like these and stay up-to-date with new classes and events here at CSC, sign-up for our free monthly newsletter at the bottom of this page!

1. Little Fox Chinese on YouTube: Little Fox Chinese is a YouTube channel with hundreds of videos labeled by level that are geared toward younger Chinese language learners. Check out their channel for stories, songs, games, and more!
2. Youdao Dictionary:  Are you an advanced Chinese learner looking for a helpful new challenge? Yǒudào (有道) is a bilingual dictionary designed for Chinese learners of English and other foreigner languages. Its functions include an interactive dictionary and a translation tool that can translate text, audio, even text from picture.
3. Slow & Clear Chinese: Great video series about the daily life of a Chinese university student told in slow and clear Mandarin Chinese with subtitles.
4. Mingbai: Mingbai is a free service dedicated to sharing concise, poignant information about Chinese culture and society. Each day, Mingbai updates its website and Facebook page with a short article highlighting something that “everyone in China knows and you still don’t.”
5. Pengpeng Hu on YouTube: Pengpeng Hu’s educational animated videos for kids cover a wide range of vocabulary and topics.
6. Mandarin Bean: Mandarin Bean provides free reading and audio lessons that are organized by difficulty level. Quizzes, term-by-term translations and additional downloadable material are available for each lesson.
7. DigMandarin Pronunciation Guide: Ever have trouble remembering how the pīnyīn romanization system differs from English phonics? Check out this handy guide from DigMandarin.
8. Melnyks Chinese: Mandarin Chinese Lessons with Serge Melnyk was founded in January 2006 to help people interested in learning spoken Chinese for free. In addition to dozens of free lessons, there are also over 200 lessons and additional study materials, like worksheets and transcripts, available through a subscription.
9. Mandarin Corner: Mandarin Corner’s library of free Chinese-learning videos are delivered in a casual, conversational format with little to no English–perfect for intermediate learners looking to gain more exposure to native speech. Their website organizes the videos by topic and level. Audio files, PDFs, flashcards and more are also available for free.
10. Litao Chinese Pronunciation: Check out the full video Chinese Pronunciation Course here from Litao Chinese.
11. The Journey To the West Series: The Journey to the West series by Imagin8 Press is a six-book series of graduated readers for intermediate-level students. The books are a retelling of sections of one of China’s most well-known epic literary works, Journey to the West, written by Wu Cheng’en in the 16th century.