Registration Prerequisites

The class time is only 3 hours per week for the regular classes in PCS. Except the learning in the classroom, the students are expected to continue their studies at home through the homework assigned by the teachers.

Following is a list of prerequisites and an explanation of why the requirement is necessary:

• Mandarin conversation ability. The teaching of classes, starting from introduction, will be conducted mostly in Mandarin, and the students need to be able to understand and speak basic Mandarin to communicate with the teacher and the classmates. If the student doesn't speak any Mandarin, s/he needs to be enrolled into the preparation class to build up basic Mandarin conversation skills.

• Proficient Chinese speaker at home. As stated above, there simply will not be enough time in class for the teacher to teach everything that is required. A significant part of the student's coursework will need to be done at home with the help of a proficient Chinese speaker (who can read/speak/write Chinese well).

• Student's Age. The curriculum at PCS is designed to match a standard K-12 program. Thus, the ages of students in each grade is similar to that found in a regular American school. The minimum ages for the preparation and the introduction classes are 4 and 5 respectively. For students who wish to start their Chinese school at older ages, their proficiency in Chinese language will need to be evaluated and they will be placed in the most suitable class.

• Students who learned Chinese in simplified characters: They can still be enrolled into PCS after evaluation and class placement. However, PCS teaches Chinese in traditional characters and phonics (i.e. Bopomofo) and doesn't teach Hanyu Pinyin until 5th grade. The student needs to adapt to a learning environment (lecturing/homework/tests) with traditional Chinese characters and phonics.

註册波特蘭中文學校的須知

波特蘭中文學校每個星期上課的時間只有三個小時，所以學生除了在學校學習外，在家裡也必須花時間閱讀和書寫老師規定的功課。

下面三大項是入學波特蘭中文學校必要的條件：

• 基礎班以上的年級，在課堂上的教學以中文為主，學生必須能够理解並且以中文和老師同學溝通。如果學生完全沒有任何中文基礎，必須先就讀準備班，以培養基本的中文會話能力。

• 家中必須有一位家長或親友通曉中文。因為波特蘭中文學校每個星期上課的時間只有三個小時，老師没有足够的時間在課堂上一對一的教學。因此大部分的作業還是需要學生家長或親友的幫助與輔導。

• 年齡限制: 準備班和基礎班學生，在九月一日前必須滿四和五足歲。波特蘭中文學校和一般美國學校的班級是同步的；也就是說，如果您的孩子在美國的學校就讀一年級，在波特蘭中文學校也是就讀一年級。但如果學生晚入學中文學校，那就必須先經由考試決定其中文程度而分班，這種年紀例外則是依每位學生的案例而定。

• 波特蘭中文學校的教學是以繁體中文配合注音符號為主，五年級以上將會教授漢語拼音。只有簡體中文基礎的學生仍可入學，會視個別情況分發到適當的班級，但必須適應繁體中文及注音符號的上課、作業及考試。