Intensive Intermediate Chinese

Description of Course Goals and Curriculum

The purpose of CHI108 is to prepare heritage speakers (people who grew up speaking Chinese but are not entirely fluent in either reading, writing, and or speaking) in Mandarin Chinese. As stated on the registrar, “the course will emphasize reading and writing skills and the analysis of grammar.” The class meets every single day of the week in addition to one exam on Friday. Overall, the curriculum includes ~two required readings, grammar structures, vocabulary, two homework assignments, one essay, and one exam each week. 20 minutes 1 on 1 precepts with the teacher occur biweekly. Additionally, throughout the year, there may be special assignments such as writing and performing essays or debates.

Learning From Classroom Instruction

 Learning grammar structures and vocabulary are key to success in the class. The readings from which the grammar structures and vocabulary are derived from are merely the vehicles for the material. Classroom instruction is provided in order to reinforce these new concepts and materials and to put into context how you might apply these new structures. Like most language classes at Princeton, a 50-minute class instruction occurs every single day of the week in order to reinforce new grammar structures and vocabulary. Each week explores two new readings and each readings’ grammar structures and vocabulary. It is crucial that you review or at least skim through the readings the weekend before class starts in order to have a sense of what the topic of the reading is about and to, perhaps, get a basic grasp of what the grammar structures and vocabulary are like; if you are feeling extra prepared, you can even make flashcards of grammar structures and vocabulary to practice throughout the week; learning a language takes time so give yourself time to really understand, memorize, and apply these grammar structures and vocabulary words. While sitting in language, the teacher will actively ask students questions about the readings or fill-in-the-blank grammar structures in order to help students recall and logic their way through the material. Asking questions and engaging with the material will only help you better understand and apply the material.

Learning For and From Assignments

Weekly homework assignments: homeworks are incredibly short and serve to help you understand how to use grammar structures and fit vocabulary words into sentences. Do not skip these, they are great for reinforcing the material and you’ll have to do similar exercises for the exam. Weekly essays: these assignments further allow you to practice applying the new grammar structures and vocabulary that you’ve learned and give you enough flexibility to write about anything, thus take it as an opportunity to fit what you’ve just learned with past weeks’ material. Weekly assessment: weekly assessments will include sections recalling vocabulary, creating correct grammatical sentence structures, and an essay section. These assessments are relatively straightforward and draw upon what you’ve learned from lecture and applied during assignments and essays. Oral assessment: this includes memorizing one of the weekly essays that you have written. Memorize early and practice correct intonation. Skits/Debates: Skits include creating a narrative that you will act out in front of the class using a required amount of grammar structures and vocabulary words. For the debate, the instructor will split the group into two and assign a pro and con team for some prompt. The point of both activities is to help you apply your grammar structures and vocabulary in a different context outside of the classroom.

External Resources

There’s a difference between learning a language and learning the culture of another country. While learning a culture of another country might be better served by reading literature and experiencing the country itself, learning a language is best learned through practice and not behind a textbook. Why does practicing a language matter so much? Because fundamentally a language is meant to be spoken (or written) and the only way that you can get better in a faster amount of time is to go through an iterative process of learning, applying, making mistakes, learning from those mistakes. Some resources on campus to help you practice those language skill including weekly Chinese tables at each residential colleges (they will provide free swipes for upperclassmen), meeting up with your friends from class and just chatting about life, precept with the Chinese teachers, talking with you family if they speak Chinese, or practicing memorizing, reciting, and understanding poetry/writings/. The range of activities is wide and what is most important is choosing one and sticking to it.

What Students Should Know About This Course For Purposes Of Course Selection

Be careful balancing other courses with a language course. Recognize that language courses require a certain skillset – very memorization based – and a lot of time in order to fully do well. As a result, try to either mix up the workload of the rest of your courses to include readings, essay-writings, movement- based (dance), to have balance in your academics.