The first and most important principle to understand about instruction at our school is that realistic progress is only possible if study and practice continue throughout the week, as well as when you are actually in class.  For younger students this means that full cooperation/ participation/ monitoring of the parents is crucial. Older and adult students must understand that, in order to make optimal progress, they must consistently spend time on Chinese between classes.

 SWFCLS instruction centers on gaining competence in communicating in Chinese. People in real life spend a good deal of their communicative time speaking and listening, quite a bit reading, and much less time writing. Therefore, the emphasis on skill areas at the School follows this natural situation by first of all concentrating on learning to speak, then on character recognition/ reading, and, lastly, writing. We believe this ranking of skill areas to be treated most effectively fosters the timely achievement of communicative competence by students.

 All instruction at SWFCLS uses simplified characters (the writing system used in China, Singapore, and, increasingly, in other Chinese-speaking areas). However, any student who wishes may purchase traditional character forms of text materials, and complete any writing assignments in that system.

 All students should bring pens or pencils, a dedicated Chinese language notebook, and, of course, any required text materials.