CHINESE 100G Beginning Modern Chinese 1

Schedule
Schedule H: Languages

Semester
Summer School, Semester One

Campus
City Campus

Note: CHINESE 100 does not count for General Education; only CHINESE 100G counts for General Education.

This course is intended for total beginners of Chinese language. It aims to provide Chinese learners with basic grammar pattern, vocabulary and conversational skills.

Successful learning of a foreign language requires certain skills and study habits which might differ from your own educational experience thus far. In particular, you will need to actively apply yourself both in and out of class in order to learn the material.

• This means that you must spend a considerable amount of time each day outside of class previewing and revising the day's material.
• There are various types of self-paced exercises on CECIL for you to practice. You are expected to do these exercises following the chapter taught in the class.
• Naturally you will also need to attend class daily, each time with the clear purpose of being an active participant. Listening to other people speak without speaking yourself will do very little to improve your own ability in the language.

The more you are willing to give it a go yourself, the faster you will learn. The better prepared you are before class, the easier it will be for you open your mouth and try.

If you have any questions about study skills or strategies for learning, please feel free to ask any of the teaching staff. We are eager to help you.

This course is intended for students who have absolutely no previous knowledge of the Chinese language.

The course is to cover the basic Chinese grammar patterns with commonly used vocabulary for daily usage. The students are expected to be able to master the learned language knowledge in terms of listening, speaking, reading and writing skills.

• Chapter 1: Chinese pronunciation and romanization. Hanyu Pinyin.
• Chapter 2: Basic Chinese word order, questions, greetings and basic social talk.
• Chapter 3: More types of questions, asking about names, nationality and possession.
• Chapter 4: Direct and indirect objects, numbers and auxiliary verbs, talking about your abilities, likes, dislikes.
• Chapter 5: Classifiers, more numbers and numbering order, choices and options.
• Chapter 6: Money and prices, shopping.
• Chapter 7: Negation, ‘le’ and its extended usage, talking about friends, going to restaurants.
• Chapter 8: Modification of a noun, simultaneous actions, talking about doing more than one thing at the same time.
• Chapter 9: Location, position suffices, cause and effect, talking about giving directions and finding locations.

Summer School
Two 1-hour classes per day, five days a week are delivered with a focus on the four language skills in an interactive style. The use of Chinese is encouraged in the classes and the amount of it will be increased gradually as the semester progresses. All students are encouraged to participate actively in class to develop the communicative skills. Attendance at all classes is strongly recommended.

Semester One
One 1-hour class per day, five days a week for each student are delivered with a focus on the four language skills in an interactive style. The use of Chinese is encouraged in the classes and the amount of it will be increased gradually as the semester progresses. All students are encouraged to participate actively in class to develop the communicative skills. Attendance at all classes is strongly recommended.

Coursework — 50%:

• Participation: 10%
• Written test: 15%
• Oral tests: 2 at 10% each = 20%
• Class quiz: 5%

Final written exam (2 hours) — 50%

Prescribed textbooks
Fundamental Spoken Chinese 基石口语
Fundamental Written Chinese 基石读写
These texts are available at the University Bookshop.

Listening resources
MP3 listening files for the prescribed texts are available from the following websites:
Fundamental Spoken Chinese
Fundamental Written Chinese

MP3 listening files for the prescribed texts are also available from CECIL.

Recommended dictionary for the course
Manser Martin H, ed. (1999) Concise English-Chinese Chinese-English Dictionary. Oxford University Press.

Recommended websites
Chinese-English Online Dictionary
Animated Chinese Character Stroke Order
Pronunciation & Romanisation