Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Who are your potential students?

You will benefit from taking BCMIP courses from Le Mandarin School if you are:

• A beginner, either an adult or a teenager, who wants to learn Pinyin to understand Chinese pronunciation without incurring hefty fees.

• Someone who wants to learn Mandarin on his/her own. You cannot master Pinyin on you own as you need a teacher to guide you on your pronunciation. Once you have learnt Pinyin in this course, you will differentiate the similar sounds in Mandarin and avoid making embarrassing mistakes that are common for foreigners as they are new to a tonal language like Mandarin.

• A person who is unsure whether Mandarin is too difficult for them. Learning Pinyin i.e. the spelling sounds first would give him/her an idea before deciding to embark further.

• Someone who is busy and so a Learning Management System (LMS) is good as you can spend your idle time learning Mandarin. Examples of idle time are taking the subway, waiting for someone etc.

• Chinese Singaporeans who want to communicate effectively with Mainland Chinese or speak with their children/grandchildren to help them improve their Mandarin.

• Someone who wants to learn Mandarin but cannot find any school/teacher in the neighbourhood. 

Which course should I take?

Note that BCMIP1 and BCMIP2 are sub-courses of BCMIP，

Below are the available course combinations:

• BMCIP1 followed by BUOCC

• BCMIP1 followed by BCMIP2 and BUOCC respectively

• Complete BCMIP courses (BCMIP1 and BCMIP2) if you do not intend to learn Chinese characters

• BUOCC as a standalone course if you already know Pinyin

Some recommendation after you have completed trials at BCMIP1 and BUOCC:

• If you are a beginner or someone who wants to improve your pronunciation, you can select BCMIP1.

• If you think you want to practise more on Pinyin or apply it in daily conversation without the need to learn Chinese characters, then you can select BCMIP2 after finishing BCMIP1. In this case, then you can select BCMIP1 + BCMIP2 package  as you will enjoy some cost savings compared to taking both BCMIP1 and BCMIP2 separately.

• You can sign up for the different packages of BCMIP1, BCMIP2 and BUOCC for maximum cost savings.

Do you have a refund policy?

There is no refund policy as you can try out the free lesson 1 trial to determine whether the course meets your expectations.

Why only Pinyin (spelling sound) is taught? Why are we not learning Chinese characters?

The traditional method of learning Chinese: Pinyin + Character memorisation is difficult if you do not start from young. This is because the brains of mature learners whose mother tongues are Latin alphabet languages (phonograms) such as English, French, Spanish, German etc have difficulty to adapt to a system of phonograms (pinyin) + logograms (Chinese written characters) since their brains have been attuned to the Latin alphabet language system.

Therefore, a good strategy of learning Mandarin is to master Pinyin first as this is similar to Latin alphabet languages & other languages which are sound-based. Once you have mastered Pinyin, then you can focus on Chinese characters. You will understand the importance of Pinyin as you need it to input Chinese characters if you are using a computer.

The Pinyin method is also suitable for beginners who do not want to spend a lot of time and money to learn Mandarin as you can use it in common day-to-day scenarios. Also, some people are unsure whether Mandarin is too difficult for them and learning Pinyin first would help them to decide whether Mandarin is their cup of tea.

In addition, if the students wish to proceed further in learning Mandarin, then they face an easier time by just focusing on the written characters next since they have overcome the hurdle of learning the pronunciation. Hence this is why the School recommends the BUOCC (Basic Understanding of Chinese Characters ) course if the student wants to understand the basics of Chinese Characters. 

.

For those who intend to take the Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi (Chinese Proficiency Test), a complete list of Chinese characters associated with the Pinyin is provided. You will have the detailed information which include the meaning, grammar type, HSK category etc. A sample is shown below: