Q2: Do you teach Pin Yin?
We start teaching children Pin Yin when they are in year 1 or 7+ years old.

Q3: Will there be a lot of homework?
Playgroup and preschool classes do not have written homework. Parents are encouraged to play chinese songs to them and let them listen to online story daily (which is around 10 - 15 minutes).

Children at kindy level will have very light (< 10 mins) written homework on top of the daily songs and story time.

Children up to 12 years old will have maximum of 20 mins of written homework.

Q4: Do you focus on speaking or writing?
Our philosophy for teaching is develop children's interest and enjoyment towards learning Chinese and to empower them to learn for life. We believe it is more important for them to learn listening and literacy (i.e. reading and comprehension.) Children naturally are able listen and read. Once they listen enough, they will start speaking. Speaking is a more individual behaviour. Some children speak early, some children only speak when they feel that they know everything. However, an immersion environment will allow them to develop that language sensitivity and tuning. Songs and rhymes will help them to exercise their tongue in a children natural and friendly way. Literacy skill will empower them to learn for life.

Q5: Do I need to stay with my child?
You child will learn better if you do not stay with the child. However, for playgroup age children, we encourage the parents to stay close to the premise e.g. next room in the learning centre or downstair coffee shop.

Q6: What are teachers' qualification?
All of our teachers are fully qualified teachers in China and experienced with teaching young children. Most of our teachers has at least one or more of the following qualification: early childhood or pre-school certificates, university language education degree.

Q7: What accent will they teach?
Our teachers are all native mandarin speaker and they all have standard mandarin accent.

Q8: What is the class size?
Our class size is from 6 to 10 students. We are very particular of not having more than 10 students per class which allow our children to have a lot of mandarin communication time and more personal attention from the teachers.

Q9: Can my child learn if we don't have Chinese background at home?
Yes, the curriculum we have chosen is specially designed for children from non-background family. It is the best chinese language curriculum in the world for 3-12 years old children who are brought up outside china. The curriculum comes with one of the riches online support in the world which is designed to bring the immersion environment from classroom to home. This is particularly important for non-background speaking children if they want to learn a second language with only once a week classroom time. (Please check http://www.betterchinese.com/ for more details about the curriculum.)

Q10: Is it only for non-background speakers?
No, the curriculum is also extremely suitable for background speakers children to truely learn Chinese in outside China. One of the biggest challenge for children learning chinese outside china is they find it difficult to develop their literacy skill. Generally, children from background speaker family don't have trouble communicating in chinese, they can also learn how to write and recognise chinese characters quite readily. However, they find it difficult to develop comprehension and literacy skill. This is because traditional text books only focus on single dimension words and sentence building teaching. Books are not designed to help them to develop literacy skill by systematically putting the words they've learn into different context, stories and drill them into literacy. Better Chinese curriculum focus heavily on stories. It is through age appropriate stories and readings that they will develop literacy skill.

Q11: What happens if my child is sick?
Children can take replacement classes if they are sick. Since classroom education is only 50% of NICE learning language education, the other 50% is from the online delivery at home; children should be able to attend the replacement class and use the online environment to catch up.

Q12: What happens if we take holidays during term?
We don't have a policy of discounting holidays. You can take alternative make up classes to make up the difference.

Q13: If I enrol for a whole semester but my child do not want to continue, can I have refund?
Yes, if for some reasons your children do not want to continue mid-term, you will get a pro-rata refund with $30 administration fee provided you have given us 4 weeks notice.

Q14: Can I let my child try first until they feel comfortable with the class before I enrol?
No, we don't take casual students. Students can observe classes with parents but cannot attend on a casual basis.

Q15: None of the available class time suits me, can I choose another time?
Yes, if you have at least 6 students to come to your preferred time. Or you can put your name on the waiting list for the time you desire. We will notify you once we have enough students.

Q16: Can you set up a class in my area?
Yes, if you at least 6 students to come to your preferred area and you can help us to find a venue with computer, we can open a class in your selected area.

Q17: Can I learn with my child?
Provided your children is 12+ age, you can join the same class as your children.

Q18: My child has learnt before but I don't know how much they know.
Make an appointment and bring your children to your school and let our teacher assess their language ability. For children who have learnt before and are at My First Reader level, we are developing a "gap class" for them to transit into the Better Chinese curriculum so that they can be at the same level (with no gaps) as other children.

Q19: My child has been learning for a while but they do not want to speak.
This is very normal for children. Children do not want to do activities that they do not find to be relevant or natural. They generally will not speak a second language if they do not see the need for it. I did not speak Mandarin until I came to Australia when I start meeting lots of Mandarin speaking friends. However, I fully understand Mandarin when I was in Hong Kong. As a result, my num never knew how much I understand the language because I refuse to speak.

Q20: How can I help my child to learn at home?
For children who do not have language background, the most important element is language exposure. Play the Better Chinese CD daily whenever possible. Put a little CD player next to their bed and play them before bed time. The exposure will tune their ear to mandarin language and make their classroom time much more effective. Playing the multi-media online story daily is also very important.

For children from background speaking family, doing the exercises and get them to do the reading challenge is very important. They are there to help them develop the literacy skill. Reading appropriate level chinese stories weekly is important also. Better Chinese has online story library which can be used to help them develop their literacy skill.