Spanish Lessons at Instituto Cervantes

I'm still thinking whether I would study Spanish the same time I'm studying Mandarin. As much as I'm determined to learn at least some functional Chinese, it would take me until next year to do that and it would take me too long to make some headway with my Spanish if I start it after Chinese. Oh well, as I try to decide, I'll post here the schedule of classes at Instituto for the first part of 2007.

Instituto Cervantes
855 T.M. Kalaw St., 1000 Ermita, Manila
UN LRT Station

(This is near the police station and Casino Espanol. It is behind Masagana Supermarket and not in that portion of T.M. Kalaw near the National Library. Coming from Roxas Boulevard, you have to cross Taft Avenue to get to that part of T.M. Kalaw Street.)

Their contact numbers are:
526-1482 to 85

Intensive Program
- 3-week course, 10 sessions, 3 hours per session
- Course Fee is P2,410 plus P1,200 for the textbook

(Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Friday)
9:00 am to 12:00 nn
1:00 pm to 4:00 pm
5:30 pm to 8:30 pm

9 January to 24 February
30 January to 14 February
20 February to 7 March
13 March to 28 March
10 April to 25 April
26 April to 15 May
16 May to 31 may

Regular Program
- 5-week course, 10 sessions, 3 hours per session
- Course Fee is P2,410 plus P1,200 for the textbook

(Tuesdays and Thursdays)
9:00 am to 12:00 nn
1:00 pm to 4:00 pm
5:30 pm to 8:30 pm

9 January to 8 February
13 February to 15 March
20 March to 24 April
26 April to 31 May

(Wednesdays and Fridays)
9:00 am to 12:00 nn
1:00 pm to 4:00 pm
5:30 pm to 8:30 pm

10 January to 9 February
14 February to 16 March
21 March to 25 April
27 April to 30 May

Extensive Program
- 10-week, 10 sessions, 3 hours per session
- Course Fee is P2,710 plus P1,200 for the textbook

(Saturdays)
9:00 am to 12:00 nn
1:00 pm to 4:00 pm
5:00 pm to 8:00 pm

17 February to 28 April

Summer Program
- 5-week course, 5 sessions, 6 hours per session for Levels 1 to 4; 3 hours per session for reinforcement of skills.
- Call 5261483 to 85 for details.

(Saturdays)
9:00 am to 12:00 nn
1:00 pm to 4:00 pm
5:00 pm to 8:00 pm

Chinese Language Classes at the Ateneo

I should have posted this message earlier, but anyway, I'll still post it and I will just post updates when the next classes will be. The next batch would not start earlier than March, Sorry! =)


Chinese Language Classes at the Ateneo Confucius Institute

Venues:
Ateneo Makati Campus, 130 H.V. dela Costa St., Makati City
Ateneo Quezon City Campus, Loyola Heights, Q.C.
Xavier School, 64 Xavier St., Greenhills, San Juan

Classes:

Basic Chinese 1
- for beginners.
- taught using hanyu pinyin (Chinese phonetic system) and the simplified form of characters.
- focuses on pronunciation and exposes the learners to basic sentence patterns by engaging them in situational dialogues.
- students also learn to recognize commonly used characters.
- course fee is P3,800 plus materials.

Basic Chinese 2
- a continuation of Chinese Mandarin 1.
- exposes the students to more situational dialogues wherein they learn the fundamental sentence patterns and more Chinese characters.
- course fee is P3,800 plus materials.

Pinyin and Simplified Characters
- designed for students with background in Chinese traditional phonetic symbols and its classic form of writing.
- course fee is P2,200 plus materials.

Business Chinese 1
- practical business conversation and reading of business-related articles.
- enrolles are required to at least be at intermediate level.
- course fee is P4,800 plus materials.

Business Chinese 2
- continuation of Business Chinese 1.
- exposes the students to more business situation dialogues and reading business articles.
- enrollees must take Business Chinese 1 as a pre-requisite.
- course fee is P4,800 plus materials.


For details, you may contact:
426-6001 local 5208, 5209 and 5280
confucius@admu.edu.ph

Let's learn Chinese! (Women qu xuexi Zhongwen!)

Finally, after much planning, I began to formally return to my study of Chinese. On January 6, 2007, I started attending the Basic Level 2 class at the Ateneo Confucius Institute. The class will have a total of 24 hours and conducted in 8 sessions at 3 hours per session. I was a bit surprised on the first day to see that we were so many in the class. Most of them came from two separate Basic Level 1 classes which were conducted from October to December 2006. I was expecting to be a bit behind since they have learned their Chinese fairly recently while my last review was quite a number of years ago. However, I was petrified when we were asked to introduce ourselves in 5 lines of Chinese as I didn't reveiw at all. I was even more shocked when I heard some of them speak like they were straight out of a Beijing-made Chinese movie. What are they studying Chinese for, I wondered. I did survive the ordeal as the Chinese that I already knew came back to me, thankfully! I guess you will never really gonna loose it once you know it. I was also pleased to confirm that I was right in deciding to skip Basic Level 1 as it focuses on a lot of basic stuff and pronunciation which I've already learned. My teacher in UP, I think, taught us very well. Eventually, by the following week, a handful of the my original classmates were moved to Basic Chinese 3 (where the teacher speaks no English at all - *gasp!*). Still, a little over 2 dozens of us remained in the Basic Level 2 class.

Four weeks into the classes and actually halfway done, I would say I would have learned more if we were not too many in the class. At any rate, it is still an advantage to study Chinese at the Confucius Institute because you will be assured that there will be continuity in your studies as the institute would offer the Basic Level all the way to Level 4, the Intermediate Level from Levels 1 to 4, and also my target, which is Business Chinese, also in 4 levels.

I am actually having a lot of fun studying Chinese. It's been a while since I last attended a class and had classmates and it is such a welcome relief from the usual work-house-recreation routine. I'm optimistic that in the next few months, I will be able to post messages here entirely in pinyin. And I will definitely work hard on it.

Let's watch Chinese movies! (Wǒmen kàn zhongguo piān.)

NOTE: The films have english subtitles (Yǒu yīngwén zìmù.)

SPRING FILM FESTIVAL 2007
in celebration of the Chinese Lunar New Year

15-18 February 2007, Gateway Cineplex 10, Araneta Center
P100

Contact Ricardo Leong Center for Chinese Studies Ateneo de Manila University for details
426-6001 local 5208/5209
leongcenter@admu.edu.ph

Movies:

Sunflower

The Monkey King
Animation: Hsuan-tsang the monk embarks on a journey westward in search of the Buddhist Scriptures. With a trio of helpers - the Trickster Monkey, Oinker the Pig, and the fierce-looking but kind-hearted Wu Ching - he must conquer the infamous Mountain of Flames.)

Xanda

Little Red Flowers

Shanghai Dreams

I Not Stupid


Schedule:

February15 (Thursday)
1:00 I Not Stupid
Shanghai Dreams
3:45 Sunflower
4:00 Monkey King
6:30 Little Red Flowers
6:45 Monkey King
9:00 I Not Stupid
Xanda

February 16 (Friday)
1:00 I Not Stupid
Monkey King
3:30 Monkey King
Xanda
6:00 Shanghai Dreams
6:30 I Not Stupid
9:00 Little Red Flowers
Sunflower

February 17 (Saturday)
1:00 I Not Stupid
Sunflower
3:45 I Not Stupid
4:00 Little Red Flowers
6:30 Monkey King
Xanda
9:00 Monkey King
Shanghai Dreams

February 18 (Sunday)
1:00 I Not Stupid
Monkey King
3:15 Shanghai Dreams
4:00 Monkey King
6:00 Sunflower
6:30 Little Red Flowers
9:00 I Not Stupid
Xanda