Mandarin Chinese Language and Culture, Level 2 - Elementary.
Tutor: Julia Jiang
Date and time: Wednesdays 6:30 - 8:00pm
From: Wednesday 8th October 2025
20 weekly meetings, 1.5 hours each
Price £345 (£315 concessions*)
*If you are a full-time student, staff or alumni at the University of Sussex or not in full-time employment (benefits, unemployed, retired) or an NHS worker you are entitled to the £315 concession rate. Please make sure you specify this by typing the reduced price into the 'price' box before you add the course to your shopping basket.
Terms & Conditions - https://www.sussex.ac.uk/study/short-courses/language-short-courses/terms-and-conditions
Detailed Description
A course for those moving on from a beginners' course, or those whose knowledge is rusty or who have learnt the language for a short time and are familiar with language for basic topics including greetings, idiomatic phrases when meeting people, general interests, talking about places to visit, weather, pets, asking questions, numbers, comparing objects, etc. This course is for students who now need more speech pattern practice, character writing knowledge, and awareness of Chinese customs in language usage. They will also build up vocabulary for progress to an intermediate course. This course aims not only to consolidate learners’ communication skills but also to develop strategies in reading and writing Chinese characters. More grammatical structures will also be covered in the course.
A course book is used in order to allow students to work independently and to form a framework for learning. Students will be encouraged to develop strategies for learning within the framework of the syllabus.
Everyday situations will be covered in more detail in the following areas along with the character reading materials: Personal information - family/social arrangements • Directions - time/numbers • Travel/transport • food and drink/ buying and selling • Accommodation - hotel/lodgings/business • Holidays and leisure. Some business Chinese can be covered if the majority of the class requests it.
Grammar and functions revised are: • past tense ‘le’ and ‘gou’ • negatives • questions • descriptions • adjectives • prepositions • possessives • idea of future • time phrases/quantities • measure words
New grammar and functions include: comparative/superlative forms • adverbs • future forms • other past tenses.
You will be given an insight into the culture of the country within the framework of your language studies.
