Mandarin Program - Best for students who use Mandarin at home.
Wisdom was the first Chinese school in the San Francisco Bay Area to introduce pictograms to our kindergarten level classes. Students learn phonetic symbols to lay the foundation for pronunciation and reading, the history and evolution of Chinese "heiroglyphs" to the characters we recognize today. We also emphasize the importance of learning and becoming familiar with radicals in Chinese characters. In our Mandarin classes, not only will students learn correct stroke order, they will be guided by our teachers to learn correct writing grip through unique hand and finger exercises. The first grade The 1st to 7th grades use the series of textbooks (Let’s Learn Chinese) compiled and printed by the Overseas Chinese Affairs Commission. The texts focus on daily conversations, and have the aspects of communication, culture, connection, and application.
CSL Program - Best for students who do not use Mandarin at home.
The class begins by developing students’ listening and speaking skills before pursuing reading and writing. To develop students’ interest in learning the language, classwork and assignments are based on games, riddles, and dialogues, with an emphasis on accuracy of pronunciation. Our teaching method focuses on consistent practices on vocabulary, sentence structures, and everyday dialogue both in the classroom and out of it. Textbook contents largely come from everyday situations, allowing students to better connect to and use Chinese language in their daily lives. Teachers will use limited English in class as an aid to help students understand Chinese instruction. Hanyu pinyin is used as a learning tool for pronunciation. Additionally, students can access online interactive activities, recordings, and homework assignments. There are 6 course levels for our CSL program, starting from CSL 1 to CSL 6.