Chinese (also known as Mandarin or Putonghua) with over 1 billion speakers, is the most spoken language of the world. Besides being used in Mainland China, it’s also spoken in Taiwan, Hongkong, Macao, Singapore and Malaysia. It’s also one of the six official languages of the United Nations. With an ever-growing presence of China being felt in every domain of this globalized world in the 21st century, and China emerging as the second largest economy of the world, learning Chinese provides a unique and necessary link to understand one of the ancient civilizations and a global player better.
This free Online course on Basic Communicative Chinese is designed for those learners who have no prior knowledge of Chinese language. It is an elementary level course with an aim to enable learners to understand and initiate basic conversation in Chinese. By the end of the course, learners are expected to be able to make clear distinction between five different tones and communicate effectively using the basic and frequently used expressions in Chinese Language.
The course consists of ten modules, with each module having a video component and interactive exercises based on the content covered in the particular module. It applies pinyin-approach (romanization of Chinese language), and not Character-approach (Chinese scripts) , to teach the language and covers various aspects of the language such as Chinese pinyin, tones, basic Chinese syntax, greetings, number, time, direction, and various situational dialogues which are essential for day-to-day communication in Chinese.
The course begins with a module on Chinese sound system covering how to pronounce Chinese syllables. It’s followed by a module on tones, wherein all tones have been extensively explained. Considering the importance of tones in Spoken Chinese, learners are advised to practice tones thoroughly before proceeding to the next module. The next two modules are on Chinese syntax and greetings in Chinese. It is followed by numbers and currency, wherein learners can learn how to initiate conversation in a shop. In module 6 and 7 you are going to learn words and expressions related to time and direction. Module 8 will make you familiar with words and expressions which are frequently used at airports and enable you to carryout conversation in Chinese at airports, while module 9 covers vocabulary related to food and dining in a restaurant. The last module is about sight-seeing, wherein you will learn Chinese names of different tourist spots of China and India, and their cultural and historical significance.
We hope you would enjoy this course on basic communicative Chinese. For better understanding you can repeat any module at any time. Happy Learning!
