Beginners
Prerequisites: No prior knowledge of Chinese required. Learner has no previous Mandarin learning experience or has very limited exposure but has not mastered Pinyin.
With a strong emphasis on proper pronunciation and speaking Chinese, expect to spend ample time learning new expressions and vocabulary and grammatical structures. The course covers elements of:
- Language overview
- Mastering Mandarin pronunciation (Pinyin, tones)
- Chinese numerals and ways of counting (1 - 999)
- Some Chinese songs
- Two well-known Chinese classical poems
- Four well-known Chinese idioms
- Introduction to the first verse of Confucius' sayings
- Daily expressions: greetings and goodbyes, gratitude, apology, requesting help, enquiries, introducing oneself (name, age, address, family, nationality etc.)
- Dialogues: dates (week, year), telling the time, ordering a taxi, shopping and bargaining, ordering food, asking directions etc.
- Chinese characters and words: recognising signs
- Basic grammar and sentence patterns
- Using a computer to write some Chinese sentences and find out if they are correct
- Chinese cultural information
The beginner student will learn 1000 items of new vocabulary, 60 new grammatical structures, and the ability to speak Chinese in daily situations.