Award-Winning Mandarin Chinese Lessons in Omaha, NE

Varsity Tutors can connect you with quality Omaha Chinese lessons whether you're studying Chinese at Central High School, the College of Saint Mary, a work-related language program, or on your own. The lesson options we provide include private tutoring, live online classes, or a combination of the two.

Chinese has many dialects, the most popular of which is Mandarin. In the US, Cantonese is also very commonly learned. The language has a rich history and the written characters can be considered a highly developed art form. About 20,000 of the more than 50,000 Chinese characters are used on a regular basis, so it's a good thing Pinyin was developed. Pinyin is a written language using Western letters to represent Chinese words phonetically.

Learning Chinese can open a whole new world to you both academically and socially, and can improve your career prospects exponentially. Though it's considered one of the hardest languages to learn, being nothing like English, it's worth the time and effort if you want to live a global life. We're happy to provide lessons that can help you on your language-learning path.

What specific topics do Omaha Chinese lessons cover?

Your course will cover vocabulary and grammar and all the common things that language courses cover, but there are some interesting things to go over with the Chinese language that might be especially interesting.

Many language students spend hours creating and studying verb conjugation and tense charts. It's an accepted part of language acquisition, but not usually considered the most exciting part. When you learn Chinese, you don't have to make a single verb chart. Why? Words in Chinese have just one grammatical form each. Whether a person is using past or future tense or talking about one person or a group of people, the verb is said the same way and the context provides the details. This can (almost) make up for the difficulty of learning Chinese for many students!

There are four tones in Mandarin Chinese, and anywhere up to nine tones in other dialects. Mandarin is made up of flat, rising, falling then rising, and falling tones. It's important to learn these tones so as to avoid mistakes like receiving candy when you wanted a bowl of soup, or telling somebody you're going to sleep for dinner when you really plan to boil dumplings. As you study common phrases and essential vocabulary along with sentence structure and grammar, you may want to keep pronunciation and tones at the forefront until you've mastered them.

Which Chinese lessons should I choose between group and individual?

While it's ultimately up to you to decide which type of lessons would work better for you, there are some things to consider. Are you more energized by group discussions or by one-on-one interactions? Do you generally learn at an average rate compared to the rest of your class, or do tend to learn at a much faster or slower rate than others? Are you interested in general knowledge of the Chinese language, or do you have a specialized focus such as restaurant ownership, vehicle imports and exports, or architecture? Do you want to learn in an online class or with an online tutor?

If you prefer the first choice in each question, you probably want to sign up for an Omaha Chinese course. The course is taught by an expert instructor, and you can communicate with them as well as your classmates during your lessons. You may even make beneficial connections with one or more students you can study with outside of the class. You can save money by signing up for a course as well. Plus, there is always the safety net available knowing that you can request one or more private tutoring sessions if you fall a bit behind or have trouble with a particular concept and need to catch up.

If you prefer the second choice in each question, you're a good candidate for an individual Chinese tutor. When you work with a private instructor, the two of you can follow a study plan based solely on your needs. If you're very good at learning characters but have a hard time pronouncing words, more time can be spent focusing on pronunciation. A one-on-one learning situation naturally provides more flexibility, because no one's needs must be taken into consideration other than your own.

No matter which choice you make, you can rely on Varsity Tutors to provide effective Chinese lessons for students of all ages and all ability levels.

Why are Omaha Chinese lessons better than studying on my own?

Even if you're taking Chinese classes at Creighton Preparatory School or The University of Nebraska at Omaha, you'd benefit more from taking supplemental Omaha Chinese lessons than studying on your own. During a large school class, the teacher mostly talks and the students mostly listen. That works for taking in information, but the best way to learn Chinese is to use it in meaningful conversations with others. Even if you're learning to read, if you get stuck on a particular word or learn it wrong, it could be more difficult to relearn the right way than if you had learned it correctly in the first place.

Since communication between people is the only reason language developed in the first place, learning it on your own is counterintuitive. Whether you have the personal attention of a fluent Omaha Chinese tutor or the valuable collaborative experience of an online Chinese course, you have a better chance of learning both effectively and efficiently with the help of others who understand the language and how to learn it.

How do I get started with Omaha Chinese lessons?

Signing up for an Omaha Chinese tutor or enrolling in a Chinese course is as easy as contacting Varsity Tutors and answering a few questions regarding your current level of fluency, your goals, and your schedule. You can also ask our educational consultants any questions you have at that time. Then they can set you up with an Omaha Chinese tutor, class, or both types of lessons. We look forward to hearing from you soon.