Wheres the Best Place to Learn Chinese in Perth

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Where’s the Best Place to Learn Chinese in Perth?

My parents do it. Kevin Rudd does it. Over one billion people in the world do it. And I want my children to be able to do it too. Yes, speaking Chinese seems to be a good skill to acquire nowadays. At the world stage, China is set to follow USA very closely as the biggest economy, and closer to our backyard, Chinese investments in Western Australia's mining companies mean sooner or later we will have to deal with Chinese speaking blokes.

How do we get about doing it though? Some schools offer Chinese as their Language Other Than English (LOTE) so kids who go there will be taught Chinese as part of their study, but the rest of us must look elsewhere for our skill enhancement. So, based on what you have heard or experienced, where do you think is the best place to learn Chinese in Perth?

To start us off, let us look at Chung Wah Chinese School . Chung Wah Association has been mentioned a lot in the local news recently as they were the managing committee for the first ever 2012 Perth Chinese New Year street festival . Judging from the number of visitors (reported as between 10.000 and 30.000 people), it seemed to be a successful event which bode well for the continuation of the festival into future years. The association has run three weekend Chinese School for years, two south of the river (where most of Perth's Chinese speaking people reside), namely in Rossmoyne and Leeming; and another one north of the river in the suburb of Noranda. Is any of them the best there is in Perth? You tell me, please.

Another Chinese School with multiple locations is the Five Star Chinese School. They follow Beijing curriculum closely, which means lessons will be mostly based on pinyin (the system to transcribe Chinese characters into the Roman alphabet). I visited one of their branches which conduct classes every Saturday morning during school terms at John Forrest Senior High School, Morley. I was quite impressed with the teacher who gave my kids their trial lesson. She was a native speaker with bubbling enthusiasm, and she patiently coaxed my reluctant son to copy the few Chinese words she uttered, with success I might add. But one battle does not win the war, so judgement reserved here.

Last but not least, Perth Chinese School operates out of Yokine Primary School every Sunday morning 9.30 am-12 pm during school terms. They have adult conversational and children language classes and optional martial art practice after school. If you happened to watch the Chinese New Year concert in January 2012 at Northbridge Piazza and noticed the elderly lady singing a Chinese song very competently (our own Susan Boyle, I thought at the time), well, she is the headmaster of this Chinese School. Of course, singing capability is not an indication of the quality of the Chinese lessons given, so the question remains, is this the best?


Is any of the Chinese Schools listed any good in your opinion? Is there any other school not yet mentioned? Please leave us your comments so that those of us stuck at "Ni hao" could progress from our meagre skill.

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