Conversational Chinese I, II and III are designed for adult learners. They focus on practical content and effective learning. Each course selects the content most urgently needed in practice, puts the content into the most common and useful sentence formulas, and applies sentence formulas in real situations.

Designed for those with little or no Chinese language experience, this course focuses on spoken Mandarin and on developing conversational fluency. 16 hours (Textbook required)

Fee:

Conversational Chinese I will enable students:

To sound out words by reading the pinyin (Romanization).

To differentiate the four tones in Mandarin Chinese.

To converse in simple sentences in Mandarin Chinese.

To read a few written words in Chinese.

To be acquainted with some Chinese customs and culture.

Week 1: Introduction Chinese pronunciation guide pp. 8-12
A general introduction to the Chinese spoken language
Chinese romanization: pinyin system
Chinese sounds & tones

Week 2: Unit 1 Hello! How are you? pp. 13-22
Key words, phrases, and sentences
Numbers 0-10
2 characters

Week 3 Unit 2: What's your name? 23-32
Key words, phrases, and sentences
Numbers 0-20
2 characters

Week 4: Units 2-5 Numbers 20-100, time & calendar pp. 33-65
More cardinal & ordinal numbers
Time & calendar (year, month, week, day)
2 characters

Week 5: Unit 3 Where are you from? pp. 33-42
Key words, phrases, and sentences
2 characters

Week 6: Unit 4 Do you have brothers and sisters? pp. 43-53
Unit 5 What time is it now? pp. 54-65
Key words, phrases, and sentences
2 characters

Week 7: Unit 6 What do you want to do today? pp. 66-77
Key words, phrases, and sentences
I want to do…;
Tenses
2 characters

Week 8: Units 1- 6 Summary of grammar and key sentences from Units 1-6
Practice key sentence formulas in real situations
Questions and Answers
Chinese snacks

Listening and speaking
Questions and answers
Practice in group
Work in pairs

Suggested Exercises

Week 1: Practice on Chinese sounds & tones with tape, pp. 8 - 12; homework assignment

Week 2: Practice and memorize key sentences; numbers 1-10;homework assignment due

Week 3: Practice and memorize key sentences; numbers 1-20

Week 4: Practice time and calendar; numbers 1-100

Week 5: Practice and memorize key sentences

Week 6: Practice and memorize key sentences

Week 7: Practice and memorize key sentences

Week 8: Practice key sentence formulas in real situations

If you mastered what was taught in the week and have extra time, you can:

Read the whole unit taught during the week
Listen and repeat aloud after the tape
Do exercises and test in each unit