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Fluenz Mandarin was designed by a small team determined to find a path through Chinese that would make the most sense to English speakers. This unique perspective helps learners master the basics faster, as the grammar and vocabulary are explained in English by a tutor who guides learners every step of the way.
On-screen tutors Yi Wei, a native speaker of Mandarin who grew up in Chicago and went on to Harvard, and Sonia Gil, who relates her experiences of what worked and what didn't as she applied herself to learning Mandarin in Shanghai and Hangzhou, form the ideal team to explain, challenge, and inspire learners in their journey through this ancient and beautiful language.
Yi and Sonia guide learners step-by-step through this custom-made program, emphasizing grammar and vocabulary relevant to teens and adults who need to communicate in real-life situations with more than one billion Mandarin speakers around the world.
Fluenz Mandarin takes advantage of the most advanced media technology to create an immersive learning environment that recreates the model of classical education right on your computer. Executives at Microsoft, Intel, and HP, senior personnel at the UN and UNICEF, and students at Harvard Business School and other universities have found Fluenz Mandarin the ideal program for those planning to go to China, or to pursue advanced study of the language.
A real on-screen teacher. It's tough to learn a language, especially on your own. Language tutors Yi Wei and Sonia Gil explain everything clearly so you don't have to tackle a new language all by yourself. Having a teacher who has already learned what you are trying to understand really makes a difference when learning Mandarin.
Using English to learn Mandarin. Unlike children who soak up languages like a sponge, teens and adults can apply their knowledge of English to learn Chinese. Fluenz Mandarin has found a path through the language that uses its many similarities to English grammar as leverage for learning Mandarin.
Teaching important words right away. Learners need to start with those few words and structures that will allow for communicating the most in the least amount of time. That means focusing on critical, real-world vocabulary and structures—"cell phone" and "The check please" instead of "red apple" or "The man is running."
Approaches that ban the use of English while teaching Mandarin create a burden when it comes to understanding the four-tone system because learners are expected to figure out by themselves something that a teacher can easily explain. We believe that it is very difficult to learn the tones if they are not clearly explained and specifically practiced.
The phonetics of the Mandarin tone system is alien to English speakers because we are not used to relying on subtle pronunciation differences in order to understand the meaning of a word. Without explicitly addressing and practicing the four tones, no-English approaches to teaching Mandarin fail to provide the confidence-building necessary for speaking and understanding the language.
No-English approaches also miss one of the great opportunities for English speakers learning Mandarin: the surprising similarities between Chinese and English grammar (i.e. simple future, lack of verb conjugations, etc.). When explained clearly and in English, these similarities can be taken advantage of to accelerate the learner's range of expression in Mandarin.
Fluenz Mandarin is organized around one-one on tutoring sessions that each take up to two and a half hours to complete. Mandarin 1+2 has 45 sessions while Mandarin 3 has an additional 30 for a total of 75 sessions.
The Beginning: The Fluenz tutor, Sonia Gil in the first part and Yi Wei in the latter part of the program, begins each session with a brief introduction. This provides an understanding of how the new material will take you a step closer to fluency, while immersing you in the cultural context and the experiences of everyday Mandarin.
Conversations: This is followed by a realistic conversation between native speakers that uses all the words and structures to be learned in the session. These conversations place you in the most common, everyday situations right from the very beginning.
One-on-one Tutorials: Immediately after the conversation, the tutor presents a full tutorial explaining in detail and in English how every single new word and structure works. Beyond in-depth explanations, these tutorials offer strategies, tactics and personal experiences that give you valuable insights.
Workout to Fluency: After each tutorial, the program turns to over a dozen different types of increasingly challenging workouts that cover reading, writing, speaking, and listening. These workouts reinforce and expand your communication at the same time.
Coaching you Forward: At the end of the session, the Fluenz tutor returns to offer a conclusion, along with the kind of inspiration only a great teacher can provide.
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Test Drive Fluenz Mandarin
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