Mandarin -
HSK 1

Yes, Chinese is hard to learn for English speakers (Not for Hindi Speakers)

Along with Arabic, Japanese, and Korean, both Mandarin and Cantonese are listed as “Category IV, super-hard languages” (the hardest level) by the Foreign Service Institute. This means that, according to their estimates, it would take an English speaker 88 weeks (or 2,200 class hours) to reach professional working proficiency in speaking and reading Chinese.

However, for an Indian speaker, its super easy since its largely related to Hindi Language. Hence knowing Hindi would be a cherry on the cake if you wish to learn Mandarin.

Five countries/regions list Chinese as an official language.

The official language of both China and Taiwan is Mandarin. In Singapore, Mandarin is one of four official languages. In Hong Kong, Cantonese and English are official languages. In Macau, Cantonese and Portuguese are official languages.

There are also sizable populations of overseas Chinese in countries where Chinese is not an official language, like in Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, the US, and Canada. Many in these communities continue to speak some form of Chinese, even if the Chinese language is not an official state language.

The largest Chinese character dictionary—the Zhonghua Zihai (中华字海; pinyin: Zhōnghuá Zìhǎi), compiled in 1994—lists 85,568 characters.

That being said, the vast majority of those characters are not used in everyday life. Many of those characters are considered archaic and come from old literary texts and historical documents. Not even educated Chinese native speakers will know the vast majority of these characters.

To be proficient in the Chinese language, you need to know far fewer characters. To pass HSK level 6—at which point you should be able to express yourself effortlessly in Chinese—you’re expected to have learned 2,663 characters to be able to form 5,000 different words. This considerable amount is still only about 3.11% of the characters present in the Zhonghua Zihai.

According to the Foreign Service Institute, an English speaker should reach professional working proficiency in speaking and reading Chinese in 88 weeks or 2,200 class hours. On the contrary, a Hindi speaker should take about 60 weeks.

Learn simplified Chinese if you want to engage with mainland China or Singapore. Learn traditional Chinese if you want to engage with Hong Kong or Taiwan.

This just has to do with the practical consideration of where traditional and simplified Chinese characters are used.

If you have no preference, you will probably want to learn simplified Chinese to study in, work in, or visit mainland China. There are also more study materials available for learning simplified Chinese than there are for learning traditional Chinese.

Pinyin is the official system for romanizing Mandarin Chinese in China, Taiwan, and Singapore.

Its full name, Hanyu Pinyin (汉语拼音; pinyin: Hànyǔ Pīnyīn) literally means “spelled sounds” (拼音) of “the language of the Han people” (汉语). Basically, pinyin allows you to write out the sounds of Mandarin using the Latin alphabet.

For example, pinyin allows you to write out the sound of “你好” as “nǐ hǎo” since the pinyin for “你” is “nĭ,” and the pinyin for “好” is “hăo.” If you come across characters that you don’t recognize, pinyin can tell you how to pronounce them.

Though convenient, pinyin is not a replacement for or alternative to Chinese characters. It simply tells you what the characters sound like in Mandarin.

The HSK, or the Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi (汉语水平考试; pinyin: Hànyǔ Shuǐpíng Kǎoshì), is a standardized Chinese language proficiency exam for non-native speakers.

The HSK is divided into six levels that get progressively harder from level 1 to level 6. Level 1 tests for very basic knowledge of Mandarin, while level 6 tests for your ability to converse fluently in Chinese about complex topics. Each level tests listening, reading, and oral skills, though the oral exam is administered separately. Writing skills are tested beginning in HSK level 3.

Both students and professionals take the HSK to demonstrate their levels of Chinese proficiency. Students take the HSK to gain entry into Chinese universities, while professionals take the HSK to show employers that they can work in Chinese. Generally, both students and professionals try to show that they have passed either HSK level 5 or 6.

For future considerations, though this six-level system is still in place, the HSK is undergoing reform to make it more difficult with nine levels. This will take effect at a future date that remains unannounced.

The best way to learn Chinese words is to study them every day and concentrate on retaining your memories of the words you’ve already learned.

Even if you learn a bunch of new words, it will be wasted time if you don’t review them and end up forgetting them. Try to make a habit of spending some time every day reviewing your Chinese vocabulary, even if it’s only for 15–20 minutes. Do your best to make this habit sustainable over a long period of time.

Unlike other institutes, we are open from 7am – 10pm (15 hours) so that anyone and everyone including kids, teens, students, working professionals, business professionals residing in any country can fulfil their dream of learning Chinese.

For Level 1: 1 hour (Class) + 20mins (Practice + Homework)

For Level 2: 1 hour (Class) + 20mins (Practice + Homework)

For Level 3: 1.5 hour (Class) + 30mins (Practice + Homework)

For Level 4: 2 hour (Class) + 40mins (Practice + Homework)

For Level 5: 2 hour (Class) + 40mins (Practice + Homework)

For Level 1: Approx 2-3 months

For Level 2: Approx 3-4 months

For Level 3: Approx 4-5 months

For Level 4: Approx 5-6 months

Of course, students of Chinese with different circumstances will learn at different pace. Some factors that influence acquisition pace include the student’s personal abilities, the student’s past language experiences, the environment in which the student learns (through language immersion, in a classroom, online, through self-study, etc.), and how much extra personal time the student devotes interacting with Chinese content (through TV shows, music, books, movies, newspapers, etc.).

For HSK Level 123, we have Indian trainers. Level 4 onwards we have combination of Indian/Chinese Native Trainers.

Yes, we do provide assistance and support in getting job opportunities post Level 5.

Yes, we help students to pursuit their dream in the Chinese education world.

We teach only on weekdays. However, demo lectures can be conducted on weekends depending on the availability of the trainer.

We use official Internationally certified HSK Standard Course Books, Workbooks and Mock papers of previous years to teach all the levels.