A question commonly posed is, why do you have one of the best-selling HSK courses on the web? The answers lie in the instructional philosophy behind our courses. This page outlines some of the important differences between our courses and other learning products commonly found on the web.

First of all, our courses aim to form a complete suit with progressive and interconnecting units. Rather than littering the collection with disjointed one-shot lessons, our material forms a complete whole – a series of step-by-step video-based instructional units that take a beginner beyond the highest level, progressing from HSK level 1 all the way through HSK level 6 and beyond. Such an integrated approach reassures the students that once they sign up with us they will be shown a clear path to success, thus saving them considerable amount of time and uncertainty.

Granted, to be successful in acquiring Chinese as a second language, a learners need much more than a set of courses. They must be willing to make use of a variety of resources and expose themselves to large amounts of the target language through reading and listening.Nevertheless, our courses can form the “backbone“ of their learning, providing the structure students can base their learning on.  Learners will find unparalleled success if they take our courses in conjunction with the vast array of learning options out there.

Second, our courses put the spotlight on what many students struggle with – grammar. Without proper knowledge of grammar, learners cannot accurately understand what they read or hear. In this regard, dictionaries are not particularly helpful because they do not explain sentence formation, at least not in a way that is clear to students at varying levels. Learning sentence formation is especially critical at the beginning stages where learners are utterly oblivious of even the most basic sentence patterns. As a result, many learners often resort to “guessing” by applying English grammar to Chinese sentences and misconstrue their meaning. Therefore, to learn Chinese effectively, grammar instruction cannot be overlooked.

Some resist the idea of explicitly learning grammar in favor of a more natural, input-based approach. We agree to this assertion to some extent because the nuances of Chinese grammar simply cannot be taught with explicit instruction alone. Nevertheless, input is only meaningful if they are understood. If learners are never taught grammar, how can they possibly understand sentences correctly? It is obvious, therefore, that some grammar must be made familiar to the students, especially at the beginning stages. Our grammar instruction strives to be simple and clear with ample examples so that the learners can form sentences correctly without being unduly concerned with jargons and terms.

In short, curricular completeness and clear, step-by-step grammar instruction distinguishes us from most learning products out there. We hope these courses offer a meaningful contribution to the Chinese learning community.

Engaging

Learning is hard work, but it should never be boring, so we designed our courses to be concise yet fun and engaging.  We use instruction design principles proposed by Robert M. Gagné, as well as multimedia learning guidelines by Richard E. Mayer.  The instructional designs are so successful that we have received many raving reviews from our students.

Standardized

All of our courses use the standardized HSK curriculum.  When you complete a course, you will be able to pass the HSK test for that level so you can measure your progress and prove your ability.  Carefully designed lessons following a well established program delivers real, measurable results. All courses follow the HSK Standard Course textbook by Jiang Liping.