English
简体中文 
I’ve Got a Hot Date!
Learn to talk about love, relationships and the world of dating.
Who? This class is for intermediate members. If you’re interested in other people’s opinions about dating and meeting the love of your life, come along to chat about this hot topic and improve your fluency.
What? Learn to compare old fashioned dating customs with the modern dating scene. Express your personal opinions about different ways to meet men and women. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of internet dating, blind dates, high school boyfriends, marriage and speed dating. Book Now»
Cornering a Market
Learn the language of marketing, plan the introduction of an exciting new product into the Chinese fast-food market and practise presenting your ideas.
Who? This class is for intermediate members. Market is a big word in English. You can use it to describe the place where you buy vegetables and you can use it to describe selling vegetables to the whole of China. There is a local market, a domestic market and a global market. And that’s just the noun! If you sell anything, you’ll want to learn how to describe where you sell it, and to whom; in other words, how you market it.
What? To find a market for your products, you need to do some careful thinking and discussing first, and some careful planning afterwards. In this class, that’s exactly what you’ll do – in English of course – and once you have your strategy worked out, you’ll practise presenting your ideas and learn how to convince people how good they are. Book Now»
Creatures of Habit
Learn to describe your habits and routines and practise talking about dates and times as well as the things you always, often, sometimes or never do.
Who?This class is for pre-intermediate members. To speak English fluently, you need to talk about normal things, the kinds of things you do everyday. You also need to speak about and understand the date and time without thinking too hard. This is a class for members working towards basic fluency, who want to improve the accuracy of their language.
What? Learn how to use lots of adverbs of frequency like usually, often, occasionally, sometimes, rarely and never and get you descriptions of the date and time in English right. Book Now»
Learn how to talk about holidays and give foreign visitors advice on where to go in China.
Who? This class is for intermediate members. Sometimes you just need to leave the city and get away from it all. Some people go up mountains, where they can get in touch with nature, other people prefer the excitement of a new city or just lying on the beach. And we all like to talk about where we have been. In this class you’ll learn to do just that.
What? This class is all about travel. You’ll practise talking about holidays you have been on – an excellent way to practise the tricky past tense – and learn how to give people advice on where to go so that next time your colleagues talk about travelling in China, you’ll know exactly what to say. Book Now»
The Concrete Jungle
Learn to compare a busy life in the big city with a simple life in the countryside.
Who?This class is for pre-intermediate members. People like to talk about where they live and where they come from. What people say is sometimes positive, but it’s often negative too. If you want to learn the language we use when we talk about this common subject, so that you can express your ideas about the way modern lives are lead, this class is for you.
What? In this class, you’ll learn some basic ways of comparing two places and discover new ways to describe your surroundings so that the next time the conversation turns to life in Shanghai, you can join in. Book Now»
Better City, Better Life
Learn to describe your environment, development and the difference between cities and the countryside. Practise talking about your opinion.
Who? This class is for upper-intermediate members. Shanghai is constantly changing and, most people agree, constantly being improved. Roads, buildings and trains are always being upgraded, but soft things, things like culture and manners, are changing too. If you’d like to learn how describe your always changing environment in the year of Shanghai’s World Expo, this class is for you.
What? People all over the world are leaving the countryside and moving to big cities, exchanging rural life for a nine-to-five job and urban living. While there are advantages to living in the city, it is also stressful, unhealthy and sometimes very lonely. This class is about describing how you experience where you live – what you like, dislike, miss and want, as well as describing the trend that is transforming China and the world. Book Now»
This Just Doesn’t Sit Right With Me
Build your fluency and boost your vocabulary while discussing ethical dilemmas and difficult situations.
Who? This class is for intermediate members. Do you live in an “ivory tower”? Or do you often find yourself “caught between a rock and a hard place”? If you want to learn some useful vocabulary for discussing ethical dilemmas (questions where the lines between right and wrong may be a little blurred) and build your fluency skills at the same time, this is the class for you! Just remember that “people in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones”…
What? We’ll look at some of the common idioms that native-speakers often use when trying to “toss-up” what’s right and what’s wrong and when they need to take a decision that might make them feel bad whatever they choose. As part of this, we’ll focus on some specific situations where people often put their own needs before those of others, and situations where the needs of individuals “rub up” against the requirements of society. You think you know right from wrong? Well come to this class and prove it! Book Now»
The Global Office
Learn to describe how modern business is done and improve your ability to discuss ideas and opinions.
Who? This class is for upper-intermediate members. Modern technology has made it possible to do business across borders and timezones, making today’s world more connected than ever before. This process, which we call globalisation in English, affects everything – in fact, it is the reason you are visiting englishcollective.org right now. This class will look at the positive and negative effects of globalisation – its pros and cons – as well as the future of a process that seems to only get faster.
What? Globalisation is complicated: it’s shaped by economics, politics and technology for a start. This means that high-level vocabulary, the vocabulary you find in good English newspapers, is an important part of the class. But not everybody thinks globalisation is a good thing, so you’ll also learn to use this vocabulary to express your opinions and win arguments. Book Now»
The Medium is the Message
Learn to describe the influence of news and the media on society.
Who?This class is for upper-intermediate members. The media is a central part of our lives. Almost everyday, we all spend time reading a newspaper, watching television, listening to the radio or browsing the internet and, though our media consumption habits might differ, we all rely on the information transmitted by these different mediums in one way or another. This is a class for people who understand the growing importance of media in modern society and would like to speak about across national boundaries.
What? During this class we’ll look at different ways of categorising the media. Is it news or entertainment, for example, and is it old or new, liberal or conservative? We’ll also look at the areas where politics and the media connect, and how different societies view these connections differently. This are areas of hot debate, so we’ll also work on your ability to argue and convince people of you opinion in English during the class. Book Now»
This Just Doesn’t Sit Right With Me
Build your fluency and boost your vocabulary while discussing ethical dilemmas and difficult situations.
Who? This class is for upper-intermediate members. Do you live in an “ivory tower”? Or do you often find yourself “caught between a rock and a hard place”? If you want to learn some useful vocabulary for discussing ethical dilemmas (questions where the lines between right and wrong may be a little blurred) and build your fluency skills at the same time, this is the class for you! Just remember that “people in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones”…
What? We’ll look at some of the common idioms that native-speakers often use when trying to “toss-up” what’s right and what’s wrong and when they need to take a decision that might make them feel bad whatever they choose. As part of this, we’ll focus on some specific situations where people often put their own needs before those of others, and situations where the needs of individuals “rub up” against the requirements of society. You think you know right from wrong? Well come to this class and prove it! Book Now»
Cornering a Market
Learn the language of marketing, plan the introduction of an exciting new product into the Chinese fast-food market and practise presenting your ideas.
Who? This class is for intermediate members. Market is a big word in English. You can use it to describe the place where you buy vegetables and you can use it to describe selling vegetables to the whole of China. There is a local market, a domestic market and a global market. And that’s just the noun! If you sell anything, you’ll want to learn how to describe where you sell it, and to whom; in other words, how you market it.
What? To find a market for your products, you need to do some careful thinking and discussing first, and some careful planning afterwards. In this class, that’s exactly what you’ll do – in English of course – and once you have your strategy worked out, you’ll practise presenting your ideas and learn how to convince people how good they are. Book Now»
Who Got the Last Word?
If you’re having an argument, make sure you win it! Learn to argue effectively.
Who? This class is for intermediate members. This class will help you to make your point come across more strongly in an argument or discussion. If someone else always has the last word when they argue with you, you need to take this class!
What? You will learn vocabulary for polite arguments and heated arguments. You will gain an understanding of how to organize your thoughts better when you need to think on your feet. Finally, you will practice expressing your ideas powerfully enough to win an argument! Book Now»
Hindi-Chini Bhai Bhai
Learn about Indian culture and the Indian economy, and get some help understanding Indian English from somebody who has lived there.
Who? This class is for upper-intermediate members. India is similar to China in many ways. It is a huge country with an even bigger population. It has a long history and traditions that are as important today as they were thousands of years ago. The two countries are also two of the world’s most important economies, and today, Indian and Chinese people do business with each other more and more often. When they do, they speak English, but many people find this difficult, because they don’t understand Indian accents and Indian culture. If that sounds familiar, this class is for you.
What? In this class, you’ll learn about Indian culture and customs. You’ll learn how to compare them to China’s, and you’ll listen to examples of the Indian accent, so that next time you’re on the phone to Mumbai, you feel like you’re speaking the same language. Book Now»
Getting Away From It All
Learn how to talk about holidays and give foreign visitors advice on where to go in China.
Who? This class is for intermediate members. Sometimes you just need to leave the city and get away from it all. Some people go up mountains, where they can get in touch with nature, other people prefer the excitement of a new city or just lying on the beach. And we all like to talk about where we have been. In this class you’ll learn to do just that.
What? This class is all about travel. You’ll practise talking about holidays you have been on – an excellent way to practise the tricky past tense – and learn how to give people advice on where to go so that next time your colleagues talk about travelling in China, you’ll know exactly what to say. Book Now»