Chinese

Chinese is the most widely spoken language in the world, spoken natively by over a billion people. It is one of the Sino-Tibetan languages, which in addition to Chinese also include Tibetan and Burmese. The term Chinese is often used to refer to Mandarin Chinese, which is spoken in northern China and is the official language of China and the language of instruction in educational institutions. The written language is understood by all literate Chinese, regardless of dialect.

Basic Chinese grammar and writing system

Chinese is a very simple language in terms of basic grammar. Chinese words are not inflected at all, and there are no tenses or plurals as such. Chinese is a tonal language. The meaning of words is completely different when pronounced with different tones. Mandarin Chinese has 4 tones and a neutral tone as a fifth. The Chinese writing system is the oldest writing system still in use. There are about 100 characters, but there are about 000 commonly used characters, of which about 7000 are the most commonly used. To read a Chinese newspaper, it is usually enough to know about 3000-2000 characters.

Chinese language courses

Beginner Chinese language courses Level 0-A1.2

For beginners, there are new Chinese basics, which takes the first steps into the secrets of the Chinese writing system, structures and customs. Suitable for those who have already studied Chinese for about a year China sequel 2, where you can study more characters, practical expressions and sayings, and practice getting by in Chinese in everyday conversational situations.

“The course was really nice, the highlight of the week! The teacher was really good!”

Student

China

It's easy for us to come

College facilities Located with good transport connections, the courses are easy to get to. The courses are held at the university building on Runeberginkatu or in the center of Helsinki on Annankatu.

About study advice You will receive help with course selection and study-related questions. Feel free to contact us and together we will find the right course for you!

Course info

The lesson length is 45 minutes.

You can request a certificate from the office once the course has been completed.

Textbooks are not included in the course fee. We recommend that you purchase a textbook immediately after the first lesson. Textbooks for language courses can be purchased from bookstores, online bookstores, and through the publishers' websites. The college is not responsible for purchasing textbooks.

Learn more about language proficiency levels to choose the right language course for you.

Language courses cannot be paid for with sports and culture benefits, but if you want to study foreign languages ​​and use the voluntary allowance provided by your employer for them, tax-free cultural benefit (max. €400 per year), the institute can make a separate agreement with your employer. In this case, you choose the language course yourself and the institute will invoice the entire course fee or the part of it determined by your employer directly from your employer, i.e. payment is not made via Edenred, Epass or Smartum. Ask our office for more information.

Distance teaching

Some of the teaching at Helsinki Adult Education Centre is organised via distance learning. The distance learning applications are easy to use and you can join the class even from home. The link you receive will automatically direct you to the distance learning class.

If you are using Moodle as your learning platform, you will receive a username and password by email before the course starts.