Chinese Language Classes

Contact Hours:
48h (36+12 online)
Credits:
3 AU

Synopsis

This is an elementary Chinese course for beginners with no previous knowledge of the language. It aims to introduce Chinese language and culture through practical use of the language to students. The learning activities are designed to develop students’ listening, speaking, reading and writing skills and gradually build up students’ confidence in using Putonghua for daily communication. In order to establish a solid foundation for long-term study, the learning of Chinese characters is an essential part of this course.

This following content will be covered:

  1. Basic phonetic and phonological knowledge of Putonghua and the Hanyu Pinyin system;
  2. Reading and writing 200 Chinese Characters;
  3. Basic vocabulary and sentence structures for use in essential everyday situations, such as:
    - Greetings
    - Asking name, occupation and nationality; address
    - Introducing oneself, friends, family and others
    - Food and drinks
    - Meetings and making plans;
    - Time and Schedules
  4. Introduction to the social and culture background of the language.

Pre-requisite:
No previous knowledge of the language

Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion of the course, students are expected to:

  • acquire a basic knowledge of Putonghua phonology;
  • be familiar with the Pinyin system and be able to use Hanyu Pinyin to master  Putonghua pronunciation;
  • have basic knowledge about Chinese characters and be able to write Chinese characters with precision;
  • be able to read and write approximately 150 Chinese characters;
  • understand and be able to use 250 words;
  • carry out simple conversations  in Chinese to achieve different social purposes.
Contact Hours:
48h (36+12 online)
Credits:
3 AU
Synopsis

This course is a continuation of the Chinese Language level 1 course. It aims to improve and enhance the skills of speaking, listening, reading and writing in an integrated manner, with emphasis on developing communicative skills in order to carry out conversations on a range of topics related to daily life. The course will also enable students to acquire skills to speak and write Chinese paragraphs with confidence. Students will learn to read and write Chinese texts with minimal help and will try to learn Chinese texts without the aid of pinyin.

This course is designed to advance the learners’ proficiency of the Chinese Language. It is theme-based and includes communicative activities which help the learners develop their skills in listening, speaking, reading and writing. The focus is on helping learners with their functional needs such as making an appointment and expressing need or necessity. More advanced sentence structures and grammatical rules will be introduced. Through the use of more challenging texts, learners’ knowledge of Chinese culture will be enriched.

Pre-requisite:
Chinese Language Level 1 or
Placement Test

Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

  1. Advance their knowledge of spoken and written Chinese and describe their daily lives in Chinese
  2. Further improve skills in the areas of listening, speaking, reading and writing in Chinese in order to understand and convey messages
  3. Understand basic Chinese culture
Contact Hours:
48h
Credits:
3 AU
Synopsis

This course is a continuation of the Level 2 course. It aims to improve and enhance integrated skills of speaking, listening, reading and writing, with an emphasis on developing communicative skills in order to carry out conversations on a range of topics related to daily life. The course will also enable students to acquire skills to read and write Chinese characters, and write short essays in Chinese. To facilitate the study of the language, different aspects of Chinese culture and society will be introduced through audiovisual materials and group activities.

The following content will be covered:

  1. Master sounds of Pinyin, proper pronunciation, intonation and stress patterns
  2. Convention of character construction;
  3. Pattern of words formation;
  4. Verbal aspects and six basic syntactic components of a sentence;
  5. Topics and themes:
    o   Festivals; birthdays and celebrations
    o   Location and position
    o   Hobbies and sports
    o   Weathers and seasons
    o   Travel and transportation
    o   Health and medicine
    o   Housing
    o   Future plans
Pre-requisite:
Chinese Language Level 2 or
Placement Test

Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion of the course, students will:

  • be able to carry out Putonghua conversations fluently in a variety of situations and topics and engage in more detailed conversations on specific topics;
  • be able to write 250 new Chinese characters and understand around 500 new words;
  • be able to read and write simple passages and communicate with others in writing on specific topics;
  • develop further understanding of Chinese culture and society, such as Chinese food, festivals and traditional art.
Contact Hours:
48h
Credits:
3 AU

Synopsis

This course is a continuation of the Chinese Language level 3 course (HC5903/LC9003). It aims to advance your integrated skills in speaking, listening, reading and writing in Chinese. You will learn to speak at greater length than before and learn to read not only to become literate but to extract information from the printed word. This course will provide you with a deeper understanding of Chinese language and culture.

Pre-requisite:

Chinese Language Level 3 or Placement test

Learning Outcomes

By the end of this course, you should be able to:

  1. Master a series of complex grammatical points, such as verb aspects; different types of time expressions in a sentence; Verb complements; modality; series verbs sentences; passives; imperative sentences, etc.
  2. Speak at greater length than before on a series of daily topics; not only to convey information, but also to give comments and opinions.
  3. Be able to extract information implied in the text.
  4. Write a short paragraph in Chinese Characters with accuracy and confidence.
  5. Understand some of the unique features of in China culture

Contact Hours:
48h
Credits:
3 AU
Synopsis

Business Chinese is designed for you (as a student) to understand the forms of Chinese and Chinese usage appropriate to business, and to improve the communicative and presentation skills. You will be trained in writing business correspondence, formal business writing and report. Public relations techniques such as advocacy, presentation and interview techniques will be taught. Through lively authentic teaching materials (print/non-print), such as financial newspaper reports, business related web resources, and TV business news broadcasting and interviews, etc., you will be extensively exposed to business related Chinese language and multiple topics reflecting finance and economics. The course will be conducted in a highly interactive mode. You will be motivated to take active participation in carefully designed activities including forum-like tutorials, group discussions, radio and TV financial news broadcasting, mock interview, presentations, group project, etc. The course aims to not only train you to be professional in Mandarin listening, speaking, reading and writing skills, but also to understand and be sensitive to current affairs and international financial situation.

The course is organized around the following topics:

  • Brief Introduction of China, Taiwan and Hong Kong
    • Economic geography
    • History and modern Chinese society
  • Financial news writing and broadcasting; mock interview 
  • Career Development
  • Marketing and advertising in the business world

 

Pre-requisite:
At least a C6 in the GCE ‘O’ Level Chinese or its equivalent 
(except students in the Division of Chinese)

Learning Outcomes

By the end of this course, you (as a student) would be able to:

  1. Use words and terms appropriately in structures required for formal style in your interested areas (career development, business environment, international business and economics).
  2. Prepare scripts for public speaking / summaries of discussion sessions or meetings in a given period of time.
  3. Engage in formal discussions on various topics reflecting trade, economics and business culture.
  4. Give public speeches and presentations to the class and receive on-spot feedback for discussion and improvements.
  5. Train to write business news reports and broadcast financial news as well as to do a radio or TV interview.
  6. Describe key ideas and details presented in reading materials, such as newspaper articles, official documents and correspondence.
  7. Write basic business communications including meeting minutes, phone messages, brief summaries, emails, letters, and reports etc.