Genesee Community Colleges Offers Free Mandarin Chinese Lessons

• by Genesee Community College

BATAVIA, NY (01/21/2010)(readMedia)-- Genesee Community College is once again providing culturally diverse learning opportunities to students and area residents with free Mandarin Chinese lessons. Lessons will be offered on Monday and Wednesday evenings throughout the spring. Introductory as well as Continuing classes will be offered and are open to the public.

Introductory Mandarin Chinese (Level 1) will be offered on Monday evenings from 6:00 to 7:30 PM starting February 1. Continuing Mandarin Chinese (Level 2) will be offered on Wednesday evenings from 6:00 to 7:30 PM staring January 27. Continuing Mandarin Chinese lessons require participants to have completed Introductory Mandarin Chinese or the equivalent. Both classes will take place in B360 at the Batavia Campus.

These free lessons will focus on integrating speaking and listening as well as reading and writing skills. Mandarin Chinese is taught by Genesee student Aiwen Yang. Aiwen was born in China and attended Chinese schools until moving to Spain. While in Spain she studied Spanish and French and taught Chinese to members of the business community. She is currently a Resident Assistant at College Village, Genesee's on-campus student housing.

"We're so pleased that one of our students has once again volunteered to share her language and her culture with the community," Karin Kovach-Allen, dean of Human Communication and Behavior at Genesee said. "This is a great cultural opportunity for not only our students, but for the community at large."

For further information about Tai Chi and Mandarin lessons, please contact Nina Mortellaro at 585-343-0055 ext. 6228.

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