Chinese

This beginning Chinese language course is for students who have never taken Chinese courses or have taken less than 100 hours of Chinese language instruction. It teaches hanyu pinyin; the structure, stroke orders, and writing method of Chinese characters; basic Chinese sentence structure and word order; and topics such as self-introduction and carrying on basic conversation. The course develops proficient language skills in listening, speaking, reading, and writing to enable students to communicate effectively in their daily lives. Through the course, students further understand Taiwanese culture and language. Text: Practical Audio-Visual Chinese I” (chapters 1-6).

The course develops proficiency in listening, speaking, reading and writing that builds off already existing advanced proficiency in Chinese and further hones that proficiency through weekly discussion of the class text. The textbook will cover natural dialogues that integrate pieces of Taiwan culture and society. The methods of assessment will be conducted through attendance and participation, quizzes, assignments and midterm and final exams. 

This is a knowledge-based course introducing Chinese language and culture. The course is designed for CUHK students (both local and international) who are interested in Chinese language and culture; the theories, practices and situations of teaching and learning Chinese as a second language (including Putonghua and Cantonese learning); the importance of culture in Chinese as a second language learning; and the language situations in Hong Kong and in Mainland China.

This course begins with basic classical primers and steadily leads students to read more difficult and complicated literary Chinese writings in the Qin, Han, Tang, and Song Dynasties. The ultimate objective is to foster students’ literary Chinese reading ability. With classical poems and articles of all the past dynasties as the main materials, this course teaches step by step the methods for reading literary Chinese. This course is taken by local students as well as international students from around the world with varrying degrees of Chinese language ability.