Revised November 2024
Prerequisite for entry
Successful completion of Mandarin syllabus level 2+ at UCL Centre for Languages & International Education or a high GCSE (or equivalent).
Term duration
10 x 2-hour classes.
Aims and objectives
The course aims to help students become more confident speakers of Mandarin using good basic knowledge of Chinese to develop all four skills (speaking, listening, reading and writing) to an intermediate level. Students should be able to have a good command of the language in most common situations. Cultural awareness will be developed.
Functions
- Understanding hotel check-in procedures
- Giving simple descriptions about historical periods
- Exchanges about orders at a restaurant
- Exchanges about bargaining
Course content
Main topics/themes to be covered:
- Hotel accommodation
- Check-in and room facilities
- Museums, history and cultural relics
- Eating out, food and drink, Chinese dishes
- Shopping for souvenirs, sending a package by post
Linguistic structures/ Phonetics
- Tone sandhi 3rd+3rd tones
- Difference between “ü” and “üe”
- Difference between “en” and “eng”
- The finals: “ian” and “üan”
Grammar
- adequacy with 够/不够
- passive voice using 被
- a continuing action or state with 着
- 是……的 constructions
- 把sentences
- The more...the more越……越……
Learning resources
Books
Discover China: Student's Book Two, edited by Chen Xin, Jing Lili , Macmillan, Chapters 5-8
ISBN: 9780230406391
Discover China: Workbook Two, Chapters 5-8
ISBN: 9780230406407
Bilingual Dictionaries
- Oxford Concise English Chinese/Chinese English Dictionary
Websites
In addition there are supplementary materials for self-study in the Self-Access Centre.