Chinese Mandarin Beyond Beginners (part 1)

In part 1 you will revisit topics taught at beginners level, while expanding your vocabulary to cover a wider range of topics.

The course covers the basic rules of Chinese characters, as well as the vocabulary needed for daily life. You’ll learnt to interact with shopkeepers by asking prices, bargaining with sellers and making a payment. You’ll also learn how to buy fruit and to talk about your favourite food and drinks.

To improve your grammar, you’ll cover question words, common measure words and learn how to make comparisons. Our experienced native-speaking tutor will also offer insights into Chinese culture and society. In just 10 weeks you will be equipped with basics skills for communication – and have the confidence to use them.

Who is it for?

Have you completed our beginners syllabus or a similar course elsewhere? If you have studied Mandarin formally for approximately 60 hours this is a good place to join. See our eligibility section to check your level.

Timetable

This course takes place one evening a week at 18:30 for 10 weeks.

Benefits

• Learn new vocabulary and practice your skills in just 10 weeks
• Develop conversations skills, useful for travel
• Follow best practice learning techniques and access materials on Moodle, our e-learning platform.

By the end of this course, you will be able to

• understand basic rules of Chinese characters
• ask prices and make a payment
• buy fruits and order food and drinks
• bargain with sellers
• discuss gift options
• compare style, colour and material of clothes
• talk about favourite food and drinks
• discuss food preferences and dining experience.

Grammatical structures

• question word duōshǎo and its difference with jǐ
• common measure words
• comparison word bǐ
• use aspect marker guò to describe past events
• verbal complement de for result.

You will be awarded an official City, University of London certificate on completion of the course if you attend over 70 per cent of the classes. The course is not formally accredited.

Your tutor will monitor your progress and give regular feedback, both on the homework and your participation in class.

Teaching

This course is designed to develop your skills in listening and speaking, as well as learning to understand and use basic Chinese characters.

We use a mixture of tutor-led teaching, hands-on tasks and role-plays. All are intended to create realistic situations helping you to build confidence using your skills in real life.

You’ll have access to our digital learning platform, Moodle, which hosts lesson content and other learning materials - so you can learn in and outside of class.

You’ll need some basic knowledge of Chinese Mandarin to join this course. You may have completed our beginners syllabus or have around 50-60 hours of formal prior learning with another provider.

You should already be able to:

• use pinyin pronunciation
• make introductions, giving surname and full name
• talk about your nationality and birthplace
• state time, date and days
• use basic sentence structures and word orders
• understand how to use three particles: ma, ne and ba
• use question words nǎli and shéi
• use zài as a preposition
• understand duōjiǔ for time and duration
• use háishì for alternatives.

English requirements

You will need a good level of spoken and written English to enrol on this course.