This course will allow you to breach another “Great Wall of China”–the language barrier. We will learn the basics of Mandarin Chinese (called Hanyu, Putonghua, or Guoyu) the national language of both the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and the Republic of China (ROC, or Taiwan.) During the first two weeks of CN 125 we will concentrate on the sound system and writing system covered in the introductory portion of our textbook. During the remainder of the first semester we will proceed to some of the more basic sentence patterns, vocabulary and characters introduced in Lessons 1-8.
Course Learning Goals (for lesson-specific communicative goals see the course moodle page):
- Learn the Chinese Sound System & Pinyin Romanization
- Become familiar with the basic strokes and radicals in the Chinese Writing system, and learn to recognize and write approximately 200 characters
- Learn basic sentence patterns
- Be able to employ all four language modalities (speaking, listening, reading and writing) to exchange basic information about yourself, your family and your studies
Textbook:
Integrated Chinese Level 1 Part 1 4E Essential This is a web app, which you can buy on the Cheng & Tsui web site.
Course Moodle Page (This page includes the course schedule and class materials. It is open to enrolled students. E-mail me at [email protected] if you would like access.)
LRC Resources
- Tapes accompanying “Integrated Chinese” Level 1 Part 1 Textbook, & Level 1 Part 1 Workbook (3rd edition) can be accessed through the LRC Virtual Listening Lab You may also access the videos that accompany our lessons through the Chinese VLL site.
- The LRC Chinese Resources Page
Internet Resources for Beginning Chinese Language Study
- Pinyin Chart This is a visual and audio representation of all initial-final-tone combinations possible in a chart form.
- Pinyin exercises from the University of Iowa Great exercises for practicing tones, initials and finals!
- Chinese Grammar Wiki Grammar points not clear? Look up the structure on this wiki!
- Berkeley Integrated Chinese Site Web-based activities to allow you to practice and review the vocabulary and patterns introduced in the lessons of Integrated Chinese. Another really fun and useful site.
- “Teaching and Learning Chinese” This page contains links to many useful sites for beginning to advanced Chinese language students.
- Zhongwen.com A Chinese online dictionary and character geneology, with other useful links
- On-line Chinese Tools Provides a variety of tools to assist Chinese learning.
- Lost-theory Chinese pages Links to a number of sites useful for learning the Chinese languages