Beginner Chinese 2

This course will last 10 weeks and consist of 10 lessons (2 hours each). The course is tutor led in small groups of up to 5 people.

Topics & Vocabulary

  • Knowing how to say the days, dates, months and year.
  • Ordering drinks/food in a restaurant.
  • Asking about nationality and the town/city you are from.
  • Describing the things of your choice.
  • Asking for information about public transport.
  • Ordering food in a restaurant (from entering a restaurant to paying the bill).
  • Arranging to meet.
  • Shopping: asking about the size, colour of clothes.
  • What to say at a table, for instance, how to toast or give a compliment.

Grammar

  • Chinese sentence order (Time+Location+Action)
  • Measure words (一杯，一个，difference between 一星期 and 一个星期)
  • Talking about the past and future with the time words “zuo tian昨天” & “ming tian明天”
  • Question words: ma, shenme, nar, shenme defang, shenme shihou, zenme, ji, duoshao.
  • Chinese sentences with two words (Subject + verb1+verb2).
  • How the possessive word ‘de’ is used.
  • Learn a large variety of sentence patterns according to textbook.
  • Focus on sentence patterns instead of grammar (the importance of memorising sentence patterns)

Cultural Content

  • Chinese dishes and staple food/ 讲一讲菜和饭的区别
  • Various celebrations, e.g. Chinese New Year, Mooncake and Dragon Boat Festivals;
  • Distinguishing between the major dialects in Chinese language.