1. Chinese Course Introduction
2. Why Royal Membership?
3. How do I start?
4. FAQ

Chinese Course Introduction

A) Our Offers
In AskBenny, we offer 3 different ways to learn Mandarin Chinese, namely, Royal Membership, Short Courses and Face2Face Courses. What are they?

  1. Royal Membership - With Royal Membership, you will have access to all 8 Standard Chinese Courses. These Chinese courses are a set of comprehensive Mandarin Chinese learning material organized into levels, from beginner to advanced. You can take an Exam to understand your Mandarin Chinese level, and have the proper level standard course assigned to you for you to work on. Moreover, you can use Vocab List to keep track of what word(s) that you have learned. In the future, a personal tutor will follow your progress, and you can have assigned exercise to work on.
  2. Short Courses - If you want to learn something specific and fast, or you don't have time to follow through our standard courses, Short Course is the perfect match for you.
  3. Face2Face Courses - Why not have a personal teacher who can tailor-made courses just for you? We are based in Shanghai but Face2Face course can be conducted anywhere and anytime. In Shanghai, our teacher can meet you in your office, home or in our classroom. Nevertheless, in cyberspace our teacher teaches using Skype+Google Docs.

B) What are the differences between our offers?

FeatureRoyal
Membership		Short
Courses		Face2Face
Courses
Learn Mandarin Chinese at your own pace image image image
Follow a comprehensive learning materials moving into Advanced Mandarin speakerimage
Learn to speak specific topic fastimage
Teach by a personal teacher with tailor-made courseimage

Why Royal Membership?

A) What can I learn in the Royal Membership Courses?
We have divided your Mandarin learning into 8 levels. There is a standard course for each level. Details on what you can achieve once you finish each level is listed in the table below.

Level(s)Achievement
Beginner 1
white belt		 About 370 new words and characters
Survival Chinese, including how to order food, talk to the taxi driver, shopping, expressing your emotions.
Beginner 2
yellow belt		 About 350 new words and characters
Basic commands, requests and able to get by easily day to day. Understanding basic local expressions, behaviors and slang.
Intermediate 1
green belt		 About 320 new words and characters
You are able to communicate using business words and phrases. Understand the complexities of industries. Your understanding is of a significant level.
Intermediate 2
blue belt		 About 330 new words and characters
Understand most words, phrases and local sayings related to daily life. Produce connected text on topics which are familiar or of personal interest.
Intermediate 3
purple belt		 About 200 new words and characters
Ability to live, eat and socialize in an easy, comfortable and confident manner. Describe experiences and events, dreams, hopes and ambitions.
Advanced 1
red belt		 About 180 new words and characters
Understand a wider range of demanding words, longer texts, and recognize implicit meaning. Briefly give reasons and explanations for opinions and plans.
Advanced 2
brown belt		 About 200 new words and characters
Express yourself fluently and spontaneously without much obvious searching for expressions. Talk Mandarin freely to locals and give Chinese speech.
Advanced 3
black belt		 About 240 new words and characters
Use language flexibly and effectively for academic and professional purposes. Produce clear, well-structured, detailed text on complex subjects, as well as give Chinese presentations.

B) Why Royal?
To get the best of AskBenny Mandarin learning content, and get personal help from your tutor. Check out from below table for the feature comparison, or go straight to "Chinese Course" and become a Royal member.

SectionFreeRoyal Membership
Beginner Member (Mandarin Chinese Learning)
Access to only level 1 (White belt) Mandarin Chinese Learning - articles, audios, comics, and videos. 		image image
Royal Member (Mandarin Chinese Learning)
Access to ALL 8 level (White, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple, Red, Brown, Black belt) Mandarin Chinese Learning - articles, audios, comics, and videos. 		image
My Vocabulary
Add Chinese vocabulary from the library to your own and grow your list. Create and manage your own Chinese vocabulary. 		image
Flashcard
Create your own flashcard according to your learning progress from the library or your Vocabulary List. 		image
Mock Exam
Test your Chinese skill and prepare for the Exam. 		image
Exam
Conduct self-assessment on your Chinese skill at your leisure. 		image image
Chinese Tools
Throughout your learning process, there will be help available at anytime using Pinyin Converter, Pinyin Table and Chinese Dict. 		image image
Benny's City
Tour Benny's City and learn Mandarin Chinese in Benny's Home, Blog and Body. Enjoy the Games while you learn and check out the Hall of Fame to see if your name is at the top. 		image image
Angel's and Friend's Tips
Check out various grammar, vocabulary and culture tips from Benny's Friends and Angels. 		image image
My Tutor
A professional tutor to guide you each step of the way. 		image *
Course Exercise
Tailor-made exercise on your standard course by your personal tutor. 		image *

Note : * = coming soon


How do I start?

The most important thing is to sign up and sign in.

Once you have signed in www.AskBennyChinese.com, you can decide which offer is best for you.

A) Royal Membership

  1. Sign in.
  2. Click "My Account" and you will find the standard white belt course is given to you.
  3. Start learning the standard course at your own pace.
  4. Grade yourself by taking the "Exam" after you have completed the standard course.
    (My Account -> My Study -> Exam)
  5. Progress to the next level once you have passed the Exam.

B) Short Course

  1. Sign in.
  2. Click "My Account" and you will find paid short courses listed out for you. If you don't have any paid short course, go to "Chinese Course".
  3. Start learning by clicking on a short course.

C) Face2Face Course

Email askbenny@askbennychinese.com

FAQ

Q1: What is AskBenny?

Ans: We're more than meets the eye.

Q2: What does AskBenny want to do?

Ans: AskBenny's goal is to become the household name in language learning. Our first step, with internet presence, is to spread the Mandarin Chinese globally. At the same time, we also provide Mandarin Chinese and English language learning to both individuals and corporations (mainly) in this energetic, ever-changing, pulsating cosmopolitan city they call - Shanghai, PRC.

Q3: What is the Library, and what I can do with it?

Ans: For our Alpha & Beta Members, you can see we've been busy little bees and part of this transformation, is that everything, seriously, every content we developed or are developing for Mandarin learning content, are in here.

Q4: How do I get a different belt?

Ans: Take the exam, and pass. It's that simple.

Q5: How does Benny's City, and Benny's Pad help me in my Mandarin Chinese learning?

Ans: Very good question. We asked ourselves that same question too but we have always believed that visual stimulation mixed with a dash of fun and marinated with practicality is one of the best ways to learn!

Q6: Why can't I get a different belt even if I pass the exam?

Ans: If you pass the exam, the system will tell you whether you are upgraded to next belt level. If for whatever reasons, you still aren't upgraded, please email us. We'll be glad to upgrade you (after you answer few of our standard questions.) FYI, under normal circumstances, the system works, however, with ever developing new technology, e.g., the chrome browser, flash, etc, we can't always guarantee it will work in infinity scenarios (basically meaning we can't guarantee it can work on all systems all the time!)

Q7: How can I have Buddies?

Ans: Register, login, search for other Members and add any Member you deem appropriate (or cute) as a buddy, simple right? We do expect interaction with Members in AskBenny as Members are all serious Mandarin Chinese language learning people. But, as many social networking sites out there, we can't guarantee your added buddy will actually interact with you, so help them make a better and faster decision by uploading your 'Profile Pic' and add your interests and hobbies.

Q8: Why do I need to register? Why do I need to pay?

Ans: Registration is important to us, as it shows your sincere appreciation of our site. As many Alpha & Beta users know, our site was free for over 2 years and as any site grows, we too have enhanced and upgraded our content, features and functions, providing our Members with continual new content, services and support!

By paying, you become a 'Royal Member' of AskBenny. You have full access to everything, i.e., everything on the system, except Short Courses. You can follow our systematically developed standard courses to progress your Mandarin Chinese, or find out how good your Chinese vocabularies are. Well, there are more there already, and we're going to put more in! Be a Royal Member of AskBenny today!

Q9: How do I share AskBenny with my friends and family?

Ans: "TELL A FRIEND" Here you can spread the word and share your love for AskBenny to all those you care about!

Q10: How do I become "Most Buzzed Member"?

Ans: To earn this prestigious title, all you need to do is be the most active in posting comments, replying to posts and generally creating the "buzz" in Bennysland.

Q11: What are Short Courses?

Ans: If you want to learn something specific and fast, or you don't have time to follow through our standard courses, Short Course is the perfect match for you. Each short course teaches a specific topic. Each short course is an individually purchased learning content. Once you purchase a short course, it is yours forever.