This course is tailored to improve students’ four communication skills (speaking, listening, reading and writing). This program is suitable for heritage and nonheritage Chinese language learners alike.
This course introduces students to authentic materials to hone their Chinese proficiency, specifically vocabulary and grammatical structures. Furthermore, this course explores aspects of Chinese culture and society.
Chinese Language
Chinese is an intoxicating combination of sounds, tones and variations in meaning that can be learned easily in this course. Students learn the fundamental components of spoken and written modern Standard Chinese with an emphasis on pronunciation as well as basic grammar and vocabulary. Students read and write simplified characters found throughout Oracle Language China today while simultaneously engaging in classroom drill sessions to build listening, reading and speaking abilities. At the completion of this course successfully they take weekly tests as well as a midterm. Successful completion fulfills your foreign language requirement.
This intensive first-year series of Chinese general courses is tailored to heritage learners with uneven levels of competence in each of the four language skills speaking, listening, reading and writing. The emphasis of the curriculum lies on improving these abilities to an intermediate level within one semester.
Students enrolled in this accelerated first-year Chinese course will further their overall proficiency through readings and discussions of contemporary cultural/social topics. Introductory language skills learned in Chinese 1, 2, and 3 will be reinforced as students read longer texts and compose more complex sentences. Furthermore, Hanyu Pinyin (phonetic spelling), used widely throughout modern language classes, will introduce students to Chinese writing system as well as traditional and simplified characters used throughout Chinese writing system.
This course equips students to engage with Chinese businesspeople, understand more of its cultural context, and improve their Chinese abilities at an advanced level while expanding their business vocabulary. Through readings, discussions and dialogue in class this course aims to build students’ abilities to converse in Chinese with fluency while expanding business vocabulary knowledge.
Culture
Students at an advanced intermediate Chinese proficiency (Chinese 120A through 160B). Focusing on speaking, listening, reading, and writing; lively narratives from authentic texts introduce China’s core cultural components of history, legend, geography, historical and ethical values and modern transformations through lively narratives and texts; conversation classes, composition exercises and pronunciation exercises are included.
Students of non-Chinese heritage wishing to hone their four language skills – speaking, listening, reading and writing with an emphasis on written skills will find this course particularly valuable. Training includes speaking on various topics at relative length with appropriate vocabulary; writing personal narratives or informational narratives about various topics while comparing/discussing viewpoints and solving non-complex textual problems through dictionary usage; as well as covering contemporary Chinese culture and society through readings related to course materials and discussions about various related subjects.
Dream of the Red Chamber (18th century). One of the best known classic Chinese novels and widely adapted for film, music, opera, painting and other media; with LA distribution credit.
History
History is a narrative of constant struggle for survival against both external forces and internal ones, both externally and internally. Understanding this historical background of China is essential for grasping modern Chinese culture and society; during this course students will investigate key events from Qing Dynasty down through modern day China history.
This accelerated course series is tailored specifically for heritage students with some speaking ability but limited reading and writing ability, who wish to advance from introductory level to intermediate level within one semester by learning through relevant socio-cultural topics that pertain to them personally. Students will become proficient reading and writing using both simplified and traditional characters while Hanyu Pinyin will help assist pronunciation.
Students will explore the foundational structures of Chinese through various text materials that focus on characters, phonetics and grammar. Furthermore, students will become acquainted with China’s unique cultural identity through lively narrative texts that introduce its basic core including history, legends, geography ethics values and modern transformations.
Life in China
China is one of the oldest living civilizations on Earth, boasting a staggering history and culture from ancient texts such as Journey to the West and Dream of the Red Mansion to modern literary masterpieces by Nobel Prize winners Gao Xingjian and Mo Yan. Silk and pottery production, Kung Fu, ping pong are just some of the ways Chinese culture has profoundly impacted humanity worldwide.
No matter your purpose for learning Chinese – be it work, travel, or personal – the key is immersing yourself in its language. With this program you’ll do just that – in classroom and out – visiting historical sites and tasting Sichuan cuisine from this area of China. Plus you’ll experience some of its most vibrant cities!
Your studies will focus on honing core language skills listening, speaking, reading and writing with an emphasis on vocabulary development and pronunciation practice. Additionally, you’ll gain insight into Chinese literature as well as its social and cultural foundations of contemporary China.
In this course you will develop the abilities to effectively navigate simple social situations; express personal meaning on learned phrases or recombinations thereof; compose complex sentence structures; understand idioms and expressions with word families; master the Chinese tone system and negotiate deals when shopping. You will be able to narrate stories, comment on daily activities and negotiate bargains when making purchases.
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