Chinese Language Academy of Los Angeles — Local services in Los Angeles

Took the CLA 16 class during the weekdays, Wed/Thur 7:30pm-9:30pm for 4 weeks. Had an amazing experience and feel much better about speaking a little Mandarin now.

LOCATION: Our class was located on the top floor of a law office. Seems like CLA has an arrangement with the law office to use their space when the law offices close after normal business hours. It was good to have a smaller meeting space because our class size was small.

PARKING: Street parking is ample along the street, my classmates (Tóngxué) and I all parked on the street (which was no parking zone for 2am-6am, but free all other times).

CLASS SIZE: We had 5 students in this class. From other reviews, seems this class doesn't really get larger than 10, but I feel lucky to have such a small and intimate class as we all got decent amounts of attention and guidance.

CONTENT: Our instructor Lulu helped us learn how to read all the pinyin, and we got through the entire textbook (shū) which consisted of 125 pages. We covered many topics learning topics, including introducing one's self (Wǒ jiào _), counting (一二三四五六七八九十) and some more advanced things like how to give/ask for directions, how to describe what you want, ordering at a restaurant, and what to say when you're shopping.

Much of the course is still in pinyin and you must take 2-3 more courses with them until you get to a level without pinyin. I've tried learning by myself (PIMSLEUR, various books and online resources) but it definitely makes it easier to have someone live coaching and guiding you.

I will admit I had gone thorugh the Chinese numbers 1-10 several times before but could never get them to stick in my head. After the activity that Lulu made us do in class, all of us could easily count to 10, with great pronunciation and without looking at the book by the end of that same class.

Lulu also made several jokes throughout the class that made Mandarin feel relevant and real, showing us come music videos that help us remember what she taught in class and show us the vocabulary we learned in action.

The class is structured so you learn a lot in a little time, with only 1x 5 min break in each 2 hour class. Well that was enough ...sometimes we didn't even want the break since all of us were so excited to learn :) I highly recommend you...

Chinese Language Academy ("CLA") is one of the best language institutions I've ever been too. Previously, I studied Spanish and Japanese in school and with private tutors. When I decided to take Chinese I looked around at a bunch of options for language classes. I considered various private language institutes and extension programs at colleges and universities. Ultimately, I decided on CLA for two reasons.

One, it was dedicated EXCLUSIVELY to Chinese. That means that its staff and admin do not have their attention split between various language departments. Everyone at CLA is focused upon one thing - to teach you Chinese. Second, I joined because it had great reviews which, after completing their CL16 class, I can say are well earned.

My CL16 teacher was Lulu. She is so patient and makes learning fun. More importantly, this immersive experience really works! I'm already forming basic sentences. More incredibly , I'm also reading some characters! I have to admit I had no intention of reading or writing Chinese. It seemed too different and difficult from the Roman alphabet. All I wanted was to be able to speak. I struggled with Kanji (which is modified Chinese characters) in Japanese. So I was pleasantly surprised when I found myself being able to type and read characters!

Overall, an amazing experience and I look forward to continuing into the next level. Thank...

I recently completed two Chinese language classes and found them both enjoyable and enriching. Here are the highlights of my experience:

High-Quality Teaching The teacher was exceptionally professional and taught in a clear, understandable manner. We engaged with various aspects of the Chinese language through activities like reading texts, translating, and creating sample sentences. Being a non-native English speaker, I was initially quite anxious. However, the warmth and support from both the teacher and my classmates made it a very comfortable learning environment. Effective Use of Online Resources A significant advantage of these online classes was the real-time typing of example sentences and student responses in chat, complete with Pinyin, by the teacher. This feature alleviated any concerns about misunderstanding the instructor’s explanations. Additionally, a compilation of these chat logs was sent to us after each class, enabling easy review without the need for frantic note-taking during the lessons. Ease of Homework and Review Homework was assigned after each lesson through Padlet, offering a great system for revising words and expressions. The inclusion of recommended videos and songs on Padlet also made each review session something to...