Ulysseus Chinese Beginner 1Laajuus (5 cr)

Learning objectives

After successful completion of the course, the student will become familiar with the whole Mandarin Pinyin transliteration system and the fundamentals of the Chinese writing system. The student is able to manage in short superficial everyday communication situations. The student will have a deeper-than-usual understanding of Chinese culture and the Chinese ways of thinking and behavior as well, and obtain a solid knowledge for further study in Chinese language and culture.
Chinese is the most spoken language in the world. It is used officially in mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Singapore. It is used in Malaysia and the business world of Southeast Asia to a large extent as well. Chinese language has had a great impact on East Asian languages and cultures. Thousands of Chinese characters ?? have been borrowed and used in the Japanese language, and about 65% of Korean words have their origin in Chinese.
Contrary to what many people believe, Chinese is not that difficult to learn. The grammar is extremely simple, the verbs are not conjugated and most words are short – only one or two syllables. Learning the Chinese characters takes time, but the graphic writing system is extremely interesting. The art of writing characters, i.e. calligraphy, is itself one of the most esteemed art forms in East Asia.
According to the latest research made by the Ministry of Education, only 581 characters make up 80% of common Chinese texts. And if you know 934 characters, for whatever you might wish to read in Chinese, you can already recognize 90% of the characters.

Contents

Course Content
• the four main tones and the 5th toneless
• all the consonants and vowels of the Pinyin transliteration system
• vocabulary and sentence types from everyday conversation
• grammar rules on adjectives, verbs, tenses and sentence structure, etc.
• different areas of Chinese culture
• over 100 Chinese characters

Starting level and linkage with other courses

There are no prerequisites for this course.

Implementation methods, demonstration and Work&Study

The course includes voluntary online consulting- and learning sessions, where pronunciation and conversations are practiced.

The student will learn and practice independently with the help of teaching videos, recordings, texts and various exercises on the learning platform. The student is required to complete independently different learning tasks and assignments.

Assessment criteria, approved/failed

Weekly assignments 30%
Final assignments: 70%
Pass/Fail

Learning materials

All learning materials can be found from Ulysseus Moodle. All students will receive instructions for the login before the course starts.