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FutureLearn

Contemporary Chinese I: 1.1

Chinese Plus via FutureLearn

Overview

Expand your horizons and discover the Chinese language

Learning the Chinese language is an essential first step towards understanding China’s culture, history, political and economic system. Mastering the Chinese language will broaden your employment channels and increase your employment opportunities.

On this five-week course from Chinese Plus, you will learn the foundations of Chinese, while also exploring traditional Chinese culture and current Chinese society.

Discover Pīnyīn, the Chinese pronunciation system

Pīnyīn is a special system designed to help people learn Mandarin pronunciation. The system transcribes Chinese characters to make them easier to pronounce. While they look like English, pīnyīn letters are spelled and pronounced slightly differently.

This course will introduce you to the Chinese language system and character system alongside pīnyīn, making it easier for you to develop your Chinese pronunciation and overall speaking skills.

Learn the basics of Chinese Mandarin

Once you have the foundations of pronunciation, you’ll move on to conversational Chinese. You’ll start by learning how to introduce yourself and ask others about their name, nationality, and language before building up to wider greetings and personal information.

Explore Chinese names, traditional customs, and family trees

Learning a language isn’t just about pronunciation and words; it’s also about understanding the culture.

In this course, you’ll delve into traditional Chinese culture, learning about Chinese names as well as family trees. You’ll also develop the ability to ask and discuss families and names to coincide with and enhance your study of the culture.

This course is designed for anyone interested in learning Chinese, no matter what your previous learning experience was. It lays the groundwork for the Chinese language, making it ideal for a beginner.

Syllabus

  • Preparation
    • Welcome to Contemporary Chinese I: 1.1
    • Introduction of "PÄ«nyÄ«n"
    • Syllables I
    • Syllables II
    • Syllables III
    • Syllables VI
    • Syllables V
    • Summary
  • Hello!
    • Weekly Overview
    • What's your name?
    • What’s your surname?
    • Language Points
    • Weekly Summary
  • Glad to meet you!
    • Weekly Overview
    • I work in an import and export corporation.
    • Eastern College is big and beautiful.
    • Language Points
    • Weekly Summary
  • How many people are there in your family?
    • Weekly Overview
    • The child is cute.
    • How many students are there in your university?
    • Language Points
    • Weekly Summary
  • I want to go to China
    • Weekly Overview
    • Do you want the Chinese one or the English one?
    • This dictionary is very useful.
    • Language Points
    • Weekly Summary
    • Test & Summary

Taught by

Fasen Yuan

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