Mandarín I (BGG90500)

General information

Type:	OP	Curs:	1	Period:	S semester
ECTS Credits:	3 ECTS

Teaching Staff:

Group	Teacher	Department	Language

Group	Teacher	Department	Language

None. The Mandarin Chinese 1 course is for beginners who have no prior knowledge of the language.

Knowledge of language acquisition techniques and abilities.

Face-to-face sessions: 100 hours. Autonomous work: 86 hours.

China's growing influence on an increasingly globalised world implies that a greater number of people need to speak the language and know the long-standing culture of China.
As a result of the increase of commercial relationships with China, many businesspersons and young entrepreneurs consider learning the language as an opportunity to improve their professional expectations.
The Mandarin Chinese 1 course is focused on people who have a connection to the language, whether personally or professionally. The aim of the course is to acquire a basic knowledge of oral and written communication in Mandarin Chinese and Chinese culture.

At the end of the course, students will be able to speak basic Chinese, read and understand simple messages, and describe their personal data.

Throughout the course, a series of specific objectives that derive from these global objectives will be addressed in relation to the development of certain abilities:

A. Oral Comprehension:
(1) Understanding conversations on everyday issues
(2) Understanding information (general or specific) of audio texts
To that end, the necessary skills must be developed in order to capture the general sense of an audio text and/or locate specific information.

B. Oral Expression:
(1) Asking for and giving information about everyday life and usual situations, using common expressions
(2) Participating in conversations about various known topics and related to their environment
(3) Making simple phone calls
To that end, it is necessary to learn basic compensation strategies (to compensate linguistic deficiencies) and develop communication strategies: indicating comprehension problems to the interlocutor, asking for repetition, etc.

C. Reading Comprehension:
(1) Understanding simple characters
(2) Understanding simple texts (letters, anecdotes, etc.)
To that end, the necessary skills must be developed in order to capture the general sense of a text and locate specific information.

D. Written Expression:
(1) Writing simple structured texts about known topics (e.g., about activities, persons, places, etc.).

E. Chinese Culture:
(1) To learn the basics of Chinese etiquette in various social situations
(2) To present common Chinese cultural elements of interest (food, music, interests etc.)
(3) To learn some basic differences in Chinese/Western cultural beliefs and habits
(4) To introduce the differences of family dynamics and the importance of family in Chinese culture

For being able to meet the objectives, the participant must acquire the following linguistic abilities for this level:

Lexical ability: Having a good command of a limited repertoire of vocabulary to deal with usual situations of everyday life
Grammatical ability: Using basic grammatical structures correctly
Semantic ability: Interpreting the meaning of words, structuring ideas despite having few linguistic resources
Phonological ability: Pronouncing quite clearly with focus on the five different tones
Spelling ability: Having a good command of the spelling of basic vocabulary, using 30 or 40 basic characters

1. Section I: Unit 1+ Unit 2 (book 1) - Starting Point Content: - First contact with the language - Mandarin Chinese speaking countries - Presentation: Pinyin phonetic system - Presentation: The basic character strokes - Addressing people "n" (informally) and "nín" (formally) - Asking and giving personal information - Getting to know classmates: "Wo shì" (I am...) - Task: Filling in a form with the main data of classmates, questions, etc. Linguistic abilities: - Vocabulary: Greetings, introducing yourself - Vocabulary: Identifying people (Chinese does not distinguish between masculine and feminine gender and does not have articles.) - Grammar: verb "shì" (to be) (in Chinese we do not conjugate verbs.) - Subject-pronouns - Basic questions - Phonetics: the letters of the alphabet and pronunciation; the four tones and the neutral tone - Grammar: Verb "jiao" (call), interrogative in an affirmative phrase + "ma" interrogative: "shénme" (what) - Phonetics: The consonants "d - t, h - j, zh - z" Cultural abilities: - Honorary title for the elderly - Honorary title for an important client - Business etiquette: Presenting the calling card - Chinese onomastics: Name, surnames, etc.

2. Section II: Unit 3 (book 1) - Nationality Content: - Asking and answering: Nationality "Ni shì nã guó rén" (Where are you from?) - Asking and answering: Origin "Ni shì nãr rén?" (Where do you come from?) - Making requests - Expressions for thanking, responses to "Thank you" - Calligraphy: The radicals Linguistic abilities: - Negative: "bù" (no) - Interrogative: "nã" (where) - Interrogative: question + ba - Phrase for requesting with "qing" (please) - Phonetics: The consonants: B, F, G and the vowels: - u, -an, - ie, - uo Cultural abilities: Customs: Usual negative expressions

3. Section III: Unit 4 (book 1) - Work Content: - Vocabulary: Jobs - Expressing and asking about occupations - The workplace - Calligraphy: Radicals and new characters Linguistic abilities: - Time adverbs - Structure: adjective + of + noun - The classifiers: "ge/míng/jiâ" - Phonetics: The consonants T, L, J and the vowels: -ia, -iao, -ian, -ua Cultural abilities: - Cultural differences: Work schedules

4. Section IV: Unit 5 (book 1) + Unit 1 (book 2) - Age and Date Content: - Numbers - Calligraphy: Strokes and numbers from 0-10 - Task: Knowing and practising the strokes and characters' structure - Expressing and asking about the age of a child - Expressing and asking about the age of an adult - Expressing and asking about someone's birthday - Vocabulary: Days of the week - How to politely decline an invitation - Giving advice and expressing obligation (have to/it is necessary to) - Calligraphy (additional characters) - Task: Invite someone to your birthday dinner Linguistic abilities: - Interrogative: "ji" (how many/much/long) - Subject-predicate phrase - Verb reduplication - Phonetics: The consonants P, K, Q and the vowels -eng, -iou, -in, -uai Cultural abilities: - Lucky numbers

5. Section V: Unit 6 (book 1) - Personal Characteristics Content: - Describing an individual's appearance - Describing an individual's height - Describing an individual's weight - Calligraphy: The radicals (additional characters) - Task: Describe your friend or somebody famous Linguistic abilities: - Interrogative: something háishì something else (something or something else?) - Interrogative: duô+gâo/ãi (how long is it?) - Interrogative: xiãng + verb + ma (Would you like?) - Phonetics: The consonants X, Z and the vowels: -ou, -ang, -ong, -iang

6. Section VI: Unit 7 (book 1) + Unit 2 (book 2) + Unit 4 (book 2) - The Address Content: - Expressing and asking about the address - Expressing and asking about the distance - Expressing and asking "How to go/get to a certain place" - Calligraphy: The radicals (additional characters) - Written sentence in Mandarin - Task: Simple evaluation on the neighbourhood where you live Linguistic abilities: - Expressing position - Giving directions, compass points - Vocabulary: The distance - Phrase: "A+lí+B yuãn/jìn" (A is further/closer than B) - Preposition: wang - Orientation guide - Preposition: dào - Destination Cultural abilities: - The most important cities: Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Chengdu

7. Section VII: Unit 8 (book 1) - The Family Content: - Family relationship - Differentiating between paternal and maternal grandparents - Differentiating between older and younger brothers/sisters - Expressing and asking for members of the family - Calligraphy: The radicals (additional characters) - Task: Introducing your family Linguistic abilities: - Phrase: "you" (to have) - Grammar: phrase "le" (to express the Past Perfect) - Grammar: "hé" (and) is not used the same way as in Spanish and English - Phonetics: The consonants ZH, CH and the vowels -iong, -uang, -ueng - Review and preparation for final exams

8. Section VIII: Unit 9 (book 1) + Unit 6 (book 2) - Expressing the Time + Healthy Lifestyle Content: - Activities of everyday life - Giving advice - Expressing and asking about the time - Vocabulary: Chinese food - Vocabulary: Silverware - Suggesting and recommending (1) - Lifestyle, health - Giving comments on the taste of food: It¿s very good. / It¿s delicious. / It¿s not bad - Eating in a restaurant: I need a knife/fork - Asking for the bill - Calligraphy (additional characters) - Task: Let's have dinner in a Chinese restaurant: The Great Wall Restaurant Linguistic abilities: - Vocabulary: Everyday life, food, the body, sports - Grammar: Imperative, amount and frequency, negative voice - Phonetics: The consonants SH, R and the vowels -iou, -ue, the variation of ü - Distinguishing the two different meanings of "Qing" (please / invite) - Expressing the need for something else / more: wo yao zai... Cultural abilities: - The table manners

9. Section IX: Unit 10 (book 1) + Unit7 (book 2) - Introducing Someone + Telephone communication Content: - Introducing and describing yourself and another person - Describing a place - Introducing the family - Making and answering a phone call - Transferring a call - Making an appointment - Calligraphy (additional calligraphy) - Task: Mini Opera - Our new classmate Linguistic abilities: - Vocabulary: How to make and answer a phone call - Request: Qing shao deng (Wait a moment, please.) - Expressing availability: ... wo you kong (I am free ...) - Making an appointment: women ... Zai... Jian. (See you in / at...) - Arranging a meeting: bu jian bu san (Let's meet up.)

Participative Sessions:
- Face-to-face classes are held in small groups and are based on the active participation of students
- Text comprehension practice, written, audio and audio-visual texts
- Exercises for developing specific skills or assimilating structures and vocabulary (oral and written)
- Simulation of communicative situations to be solved, changing information with the others, solving written tasks individually or in groups
- Explanation of new structures or clarification of problems by the teacher

Autonomous Work:
Course development requires regular work outside the class to promote assimilation of the subject:
- Exercises to promote assimilation, both on paper (book, notebook, photocopies) and computer format (CD, CD-Rom, Internet)
- Phonetics exercises on CD
- Regular writing tasks, to be organised in a portfolio
- Preparation of brief presentations on simple familiar topics
- Autonomous study and practice of vocabulary and grammatical structures
- Preparation for exams

Tutorial/Feedback:
- Feedback for the student throughout the course related to his/her learning progress

ASSESSMENT BREAKDOWN

Basic Bibliography:
- Great Wall Chinese - Essentials in Communication Text Book 1
Beijing Language and Culture University. ISBN: 978-7561914793
- Great Wall Chinese - Essentials in Communication Work Book 1
Beijing Language and Culture University. ISBN: 978-7561916223
- Great Wall Chinese - Essentials in Communication Text Book 2
Beijing Language and Culture University. ISBN: 978-7561914809
- Great Wall Chinese - Essentials in Communication Work Book 2
Beijing Language and Culture University. ISBN: 978-7561916230


Bibliography or Supplementary Material:
- Presentations: slides
- Additional pedagogical material: supplementary exercises, communicative activities, films, music
- Bilingual dictionary. Chinese/English dictionaries available with characters

Group	Teacher	Department

Group	Teacher	Department