Chinese Intensive Course in Berlin

Absolute beginners without any previous knowledge who want to learn Chinese from scratch – for travel, work or out of fascination with Chinese culture.

You start with the Pinyin transcription system and learn to hear and pronounce the four tones and the neutral tone with confidence. In parallel, you write your first characters and understand how they are built from strokes and radicals. Chinese sentence structure (subject–verb–object, no conjugation, no articles) allows quick early progress: you introduce yourself, count, ask questions with 吗 and form simple sentences with 是 and 有. You will master your first everyday situations such as greeting, ordering and shopping in Chinese.

Learners with a solid foundation who have mastered Pinyin and the tones and now want to systematically expand their character knowledge and everyday communication.

You expand your vocabulary to several hundred characters and express past events and changes with the particle 了. With modal verbs such as 想, 要 and 会 you formulate wishes, plans and abilities, and with 比 you compare people and things. You get to know the most important specific measure words and connect sentences into short narratives. This way you handle typical situations such as asking for directions, eating out and shopping with increasing ease.

Intermediate learners who can already communicate in everyday situations and now aim for more complex structures and more fluent speaking and reading.

You dive into the characteristically Chinese sentence patterns: the 把 construction brings objects into focus, 被 forms the passive voice, and resultative and directional complements make your verbs precise. You link sentences with connectors such as 因为 … 所以, 虽然 … 但是 and 不但 … 而且 into coherent arguments. Your character knowledge grows to around 800 to 1,000 characters, enabling you to read simple news items, short stories and chat messages and to talk at length about experiences, opinions and plans.

Upper-intermediate learners who want to hold more demanding conversations, read authentic texts and increasingly use Chinese professionally.

You discuss social and professional topics spontaneously and in a nuanced way, defending your point of view convincingly. You distinguish formal and informal registers, understand your first chengyu (four-character idioms) and use them deliberately. You work through longer newspaper articles, reports and TV series with growing independence, and you write structured, stylistically appropriate emails and shorter texts. Your active character knowledge grows to around 1,500 to 2,000 characters.

Highly advanced learners who speak Chinese fluently and want to further refine their language for university, work and demanding texts.

You understand longer speeches, news broadcasts and specialist presentations even at fast speaking speed, and you read demanding non-fiction and literary texts. You recognise stylistic differences between spoken language and the concise written language with its classical elements. In negotiations, presentations and specialist discussions you express yourself precisely, idiomatically and with rhetorical effect. Your repertoire of chengyu and set phrases allows natural, nuanced expression.

Learners at the highest level who use Chinese practically effortlessly in university, work and everyday life and want to master the final subtleties.

You understand practically everything you hear or read – from regional colouring and wordplay to literary and classically influenced texts. You summarise complex information from different sources and present arguments in a structured, incisive way. Your expression is spontaneous, highly fluent and differentiated; you handle fine shades of meaning, irony and cultural allusions with confidence. At this level you move through every situation – from small talk to specialist conferences – as in your native language.