Course description of 20 weeks Fall/Spring semester Intensive program (for beginners A level)

30 hours a week of Mandarin Chinese language classes for all levels for 6 hours of classroom instruction at Beijing Language and Culture University . The average class size is around 15 students.
Total Classroom Hours: 600

This is a semester long intensive introductory course. 6 hours of classes are taken daily, 4 hours in the morning from 8-12:00 and 2 hours in the afternoon from 2:00 to 4:00. This class is for those who want to achieve a basic level of fluency in the language in a very short time. Introduces the fundamentals of standard modern Mandarin Chinese (putonghua), including pronunciation, grammar, and Chinese characters, emphasizing the four basic language skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Uses simplified characters and hanyu pinyin method of romanization. Emphasis is placed on tone differentiation and pronunciation as well as survival language skills so that students will develop both the good habits and confidence that come from successfully completing daily tasks in a foreign language. Numbers, greetings, basic etiquette, customs, food names, directions, and place names are covered in the vocabulary while basic grammar is taught. By the end of this class students will be able to ask directions, navigate by taxi or mass transit, buy a wide variety of products, bargain with vendors, buy tickets for events or transportation, and hold a basic but polite conversation with a person of any age. In addition, students will be able to read and write simplified Chinese characters, hanyu pinyin and use a Chinese dictionary. This class uses simplified characters and hanyu pinyin method of romanization. Students will study a minimum of 1200 characters and should have a working vocabulary of at least 1800 words upon completion of this course.