There was an increase in enrolments of Chinese heritage language learners across Australia over the last 5 years.
We adopt a broader definition of the term, heritage language speaker. To describe those who have contact with or exposure to some variety of Chinese through family or a community connection, but have been primarily educated in English. Therefore, they are fluent in English but have varying degrees of proficiency in their heritage language. This may include students of Chinese-speaking families born in Australia, or who migrated here at a young age from China, Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan, Hong Kong or Indonesia.
Learning Mandarin as a heritage student is very different to learning Mandarin without any Chinese background. As a Chinese-descent speaker you can use your current knowledge of the language to process Chinese faster than someone with zero background in Chinese. With more than 12 years’ teaching experience in Australia, we have accumulated extensive experience in teaching Chinese to heritage language learners.
Chinese Heritage Limitations:
- Previous exposure to Chinese language through family and community.
- Speak Chinese at home, but mix up the pronunciation between Dialect and Mandarin.
- Listening is significantly higher than other abilities, especially speaking and reading. There’s limited recognition of Chinese Characters.
- Conversation is simple but it’s more challenging to express deep thoughts and cover a broad range of topics?
- Didn’t have a strong interest in learning Chinese, but have a clear learning goal now.
Learning Recommendations:
- Consolidate pronunciation.
- Improve recognition skills of Chinese characters.
- Increase vocabulary bank to more easily converse on various topics.
- Consolidate your current Chinese grammar foundation.
There are three main benefits:
- Ability to send messages in Chinese to relatives and family. You’ll gain a better connection to your heritage/background.
- Ability to read Chinese subtitles while watching Chinese TV programs.
- Recognise more signs in Chinese when visiting China. You’ll really enjoy your trip!
Learning Objectives:
- Daily conversation with family and relatives.
- Express more abstract concepts and understand complex topics.
- Improve relationships with your Chinese colleagues and clients.
- Using professional Chinese to share your thoughts in a business setting.
- Improve your career competitiveness and seek more opportunities in Asia.
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