The whole world is changing rapidly, and modern Chinese is changing with it. Textbooks can’t keep up. How can a learner of Chinese hope to cover the right material? Rather than creating all of our own material, we’ve curated the best short, native Chinese material available online and adapted to the needs of the modern learner.

Challenging Topics at the Upper Intermediate (B2) to Advanced (C1) Level

The material for each lesson is taken from the ARC (Advanced Readings in Chinese) Newsletter, each lesson organized around a theme. The topics are challenging but practical, both interesting and modern.

What this 10-Lesson Discussion Course covers:

1. 为什么中国人不用本人照片当头像？
   探探发布社交报告：“普通却自信”成女性最反感男性特质TOP5

2. 星巴克开始做共享办公
   喝咖啡有鄙视链吗？

3. 10个省钱妙招
   40个经典的社交心理学现象（1）

4. 有哪些应该坚持的好习惯？
   低碳饮食未必适合所有人

5. 你赞同中国互联网大范围上线“IP地址显示功能”吗？
   虚拟数字人进入职场后，过得怎么样？

6. 用户感觉被“窃听” 个人信息安全如何保护？
   内卷和躺平

7. 电子游戏是不是精神鸦片？
   史上最贵 “垃圾袋”

8. 反酒桌文化
   为什么国人在遭遇心理困扰的时候总是羞于求助？（节选）

9. 人死了以后意识去哪了？
   麦当劳招收退休人员做服务员

10. 什么是元宇宙？
    AI会性别歧视？

You’ll find the links to the readings posted to the AllSet Learning Hub for you in advance, and we’ll provide relevant Chinese Grammar Wiki links for the trickier grammar points. Readings are provided (no fee for this excellent content), and you’ll definitely want to study up before each lesson in order to maximize the practice time with your teacher, freeing you up to talk, talk, talk during the lesson.

What You’ll Get

• 10 live, one-on-one online lessons, 60 minutes each, targeted at your level

• One carefully selected topic with accompanying ARC readings for each lesson

• Grammar points which match the material and suit the discussion

• Vocabulary tracking based on what you actually cover with our teachers

• Experienced, trained AllSet Learning teachers patiently guiding you and encouraging you to talk

We recommend that you do 2 or 3 lessons per week to maximize progress.

The ARC readings are freely available online. We have gone to the trouble of selecting and curating them for you, and building a very effective course around them. The course consists of carefully chosen material with well-designed supporting activities, delivered by a professional teacher.

How You Will Study Each Lesson

Your assignment for each lesson will be posted to the AllSet Learning Hub, our platform for managing our clients’ studies. There you will see what you need to prepare in advance, as well as the exact material (one new topic with lecture in each lesson) your teacher will cover with you during each lesson.

In each 60-minute lesson, the following material will be covered by your teachers:

• Vocabulary and Grammar Review (from your previous lessons)

• New Topic with Lecture (using our flexible 3-tier system–see below)

• Sum-up and Assess (can we move on to the next module, or do you need to keep working on this one? …plus integrated pronunciation feedback.)

Our Adaptive 3-Tier System

Every learner can’t be at the exact same level, so we can’t simply design a course for the “ideal” learner. Instead, we’ve designed a flexible 3-tier system which gives the lower-level learners more practice with the basic reading skills, and the higher-level learners more time practicing speaking.

1. ARC Reading Content. We start with these readings to provide interesting and engage topics with relevant vocabulary. These are not long, but they’re long enough to be challenging and to spur interesting discussion.

2. Vocabulary and Grammar Practice. If you understand what you’ve read, you may have a passive familiarity with the words and patterns in the chapter. Some of the vocabulary includes common but newly coined terms, however, so don’t be surprised if you’ve never encountered it. These modules are designed to make sure you can actually use them to express your own ideas.

3. Guided Discussion. Finally, you’ll be expected to share your ideas and experiences related to the main topic. It’s a great chance to share your views on current trends, and to learn about how the teacher applies technology in his or her daily life in China. Your teacher will encourage you to use the vocabulary and grammar covered today, and to correct you as needed.

Our Teachers

All of AllSet Learning’s teachers have been trained by John Pasden in person in Shanghai. They encourage communication, correct pronunciation, and hold our clients to a higher standard. They’re also quite engaging to talk to!

To guarantee flexibility and schedule coverage as full as possible, each of our clients will have multiple teachers. Teachers coordinate and follow their clients’ studies through the AllSet Learning Hub.

Lesson Policies

We offer flexible scheduling and a money-back guarantee. Check out the details on our policies here.

Get Started Now!