Chinese Language and Culture
The Pavilion of Absolute Perfection in Nan Lian Garden, Hong Kong. Photograph by Presidio Education®, 2020.
Meet Lucy Liu
Chinese Language & Culture Teacher
Lucy Liu, Chinese Language and Culture Teacher, was born and raised in Guangzhou, China. After graduating from Jinan University in China, she completed her master's degree in Chinese Culture from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University.
Lucy has nearly a decade of Cantonese and Mandarin teaching experience in Hong Kong. She has extensive experience teaching International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE) Chinese and International Baccalaureate (IB) Chinese exams. Parents and students also request Advanced Placement (AP) Chinese Language and Culture training from Lucy because all of her AP students have earned perfect AP 5 scores. As a very patient and thoughtful teacher, Lucy encourages students to perfect their listening, reading, writing, speaking and vocabulary skills.
Vocabulary is the Foundation
Vocabulary is the foundation of learning Chinese. Without a deep vocabulary, students will struggle to fully understand what they hear or read. A strong Chinese vocabulary is further necessary to express thoughts to others during conversations. There are approximately 1,000 frequently used Chinese characters and approximately 4,000 frequently used Chinese words.
Learning all aspects of Chinese
Perfecting Chinese language skills requires training with listening, reading, writing, and speaking. Unlike traditional subjects, language subjects, such as Chinese, truly require dialogue training. This is why we train students with Chinese passages according to each student’s Chinese level, then review these passages during class discussions so students may receive sufficient feedback.
Studying Chinese Culture
The more students train on Chinese culture, including history, population, traditional holidays, food culture, social relationships and even geography, the more vocabulary and phrases they are likely to master. For example, the stories of Chinese festivals are important in understanding traditional Chinese culture. Understanding Chinese culture is vital to improving Chinese language skills.
Analyzing homework Word by Word
Students often struggle with long Chinese sentences when writing and speaking. Our homework encourages students to focus word by word to learn the correct way to incorporate Chinese words. We also push students hard to polish grammar mistakes. Paying close attention to detail is essential when learning how to write coherent sentences and how to speak fluidly with proper pronunciation.
Studying Simplified or Traditional Chinese, Mandarin or Cantonese
Please complete our Private Class Registration Form to specify what type of Chinese training you need!