Chinese Courses for Business in Durham

Designed and customised for the individual student’s needs, SIMON & SIMON’s Chinese courses, taught by a team of qualified native Chinese speakers who average 15 years of experience, have already benefited professionals and non-professionals across the UK. Courses cater for all levels of experience. The feedback on our Chinese tutors that we receive from our clients is consistently excellent. Prior to the start of your Chinese course, you will be sent a profile on your specific Chinese teacher’s experience and background.

If you have only studied languages before at school you will find that teaching approaches to modern language training have changed enormously in recent years - it's now a lot more fun and a far more rewarding experience! Your teacher will conduct your Chinese lesson in Durham almost entirely in Chinese - a method known as the Communicative Approach - and you will find yourself making progress from the very first lesson and soon growing in the confidence to communicate in Chinese in a variety of social and business situations.

Our Chinese courses are usually offered by our clients as 1:1 training for their employees. Group sessions, however, are also available and can be excellent value for money. Planning is required so that participants all meet at the same time each week, and we recommend that numbers are kept to 6 or less. 1:1 Chinese lessons at Durham mean that you will have your individual needs, weaknesses and strengths catered for, so that your progress is quicker.

Chinese Course Management

Every SIMON & SIMON Chinese language course is overseen by one of our highly experienced Account Managers, all of whom are multi-lingual. At the start of your Chinese language course we will send you a profile on your trainer, followed by a Course Plan and relevant course materials, and then a Progress Report after every 40 hours of training. You will also receive a copy of our quarterly newsletter, Breaking the Language Barrier, featuring a superb prize draw and invaluable weblinks to language learning sources.

The Chinese language courses of SIMON & SIMON have been run in numerous locations. As we have a global network of language trainers your Chinese language course can be arranged in major cities across Europe and further afield. Most of our clients arrange for their Chinese lessons to be run in their offices so that there is less need for travel, but we can also run Chinese lessons in your home. We also run residential full-time Chinese language courses in a variety of locations which our office will be happy to inform you of.

Durham Chinese Course Schedules

Our Chinese language courses in Durham run throughout the year. The majority of our students attend at least one 90-minute session per week and many students will try to do more than one session depending on work commitments. Our Chinese teachers are available Monday - Friday from 8am - 8pm, and Weekend Courses can also be arranged on request. Our intensive Chinese language courses run for 30 hours per week, (6 hours per day Monday - Friday), and take place on our clients' premises or at a residential centre here in the UK or abroad.

The content of your Chinese language course will reflect your level and your particular objectives. We will assess your Chinese language level before your course, and discuss with you in detail the subject areas you wish to focus on. You may be a complete beginner looking for day-to-day Chinese survival language skills, or a more proficient Chinese speaker needing to improve your fluency when discussing areas such as law, banking, finance, insurance, sales, travel, marketing, and administration. You may want to focus on improving your Chinese for meetings, discussions and negotiations, or to concentrate on improving your listening comprehension, pronunciation and telephone skills. Whatever your needs, working with one of our highly experienced Chinese language trainers you can be confident that the content of your Chinese language course will be tailored just for you and that you will soon be meeting your objectives.

Chinese Language Examination Courses

We can also help prepare you for Chinese examinations of a business or general nature. We are proud to say our students have a 95% pass rate in language examinations, and their success further underlines the value we place on working with Chinese teachers in Durham with above average experience. As part of our service, SIMON & SIMON will also organise the registration and administration of Chinese examinations and the issuing of result certificates.

The table below is based on recognised language levels used by various academic institutions accross the European Union. A highly motivated student attending weekly sessions with their language trainer can expect to move from one level to another after 50 hours providing they also commit to a similar number of hours of self-study.

Of course, some people find learning languages easier than others, and some students will have more opportunities to practise the language in the course of their work and leisure, so these factors also need to be considered when trying to assess how long it will take to move from one level to another.

Company Funded Training

If your company is thinking of investing in language training our free consultation and demo lesson is a real opportunity to see if SIMON & SIMON is right for you - hundreds of other companies have chosen SIMON & SIMON, so we hope you will join them.

To take up this special offer, please call Cristiana Aragoni, on 020 7931 9869 - quoting "Demo Lesson" - our no-obligation consultation and demo lesson is free of charge.

Self-Funded Training

If you are interested in taking one of our courses as a private individual, then our free demo lessons are a perfect opportunity for you to meet one of our language trainers, experience the teaching methodology firsthand, and for us to assess your level and course needs - all with no obligation.

Demo lessons typically last 1 hour, and take place at our offices in central London, close to Victoria Station.

To take up this special offer, please call Cristiana Aragoni, on 020 7931 9869 - quoting "Demo Lesson" - our no-obligation consultation and demo lesson is free of charge.

Standard Chinese is a standardized form of spoken Chinese, based on the Beijing dialect of Mandarin Chinese. Standard Chinese is the official language of the People's Republic of China (PRC) and the Republic of China (ROC, also known as Taiwan), as well as one of four official languages of Singapore. It is one of the six official languages of the United Nations. About one-fifth of the world’s population, or over one billion people, speaks some variety of Chinese as their native language. Linguists often view Chinese as a language family, though owing to China's socio-political and cultural situation, and the fact that all spoken varieties use one common written system, it is customary to refer to these generally mutually unintelligible variants as "the Chinese language".

Durham is a city in the North East of England. It is within the County Durham local government district, and is the county town of the larger ceremonial county. It lies to the south of Newcastle Upon Tyne, Chester-le-Street and Sunderland and to the north of Darlington. Durham is well known for its Norman Cathedral and 11th-century castle, and is home to Durham University. HM Prison Durham is also located close to the city centre. Archeological evidence suggests a history of settlement in the area since roughly 2000 BC. The present city can clearly be traced back to AD 995, when a group of monks from Lindisfarne chose the strategic high peninsula as a place to settle with the body of Saint Cuthbert, that had previously lain in Chester-le-Street, founding a church there. Local legend states that the city was founded in A.D. 995 by divine intervention. The 12th-century chronicler, Symeon of Durham, recounts that after wandering in the north, Saint Cuthbert’s bier miraculously came to a halt at the hill of Warden Law and, despite the effort of the congregation, would not move. Aldhun, Bishop of Chester-le-Street and leader of the order, decreed a holy fast of three days, accompanied by prayers to the saint. Saint Bede recounts that during this fast, Saint Cuthbert appeared to the monk Eadmer with instructions that the coffin should be taken to Dun Holm.