Print this page Beginner Mandarin Chinese: Course 2

Building on approximately 20 hours of prior Mandarin study, this course extends students' everyday communication skills through practical situations including ordering food, making requests, asking for and giving directions, travelling by taxi, exchanging telephone numbers and discussing hobbies and leisure activities.

Students develop greater flexibility in constructing sentences through additional verb patterns, adjective predicates, reduplication, degree complements, serial-verb constructions and expressions of possibility, suggestion and ongoing action. Vocabulary expands into food and drink, restaurants, directions, places, transport, telephone communication and leisure.

DELIVERY MODE

Language courses are offered in two delivery modes:

• Face-to-Face: WEA Sydney
• Online: via Zoom or Microsoft Teams

Please check the delivery mode listed before enrolling, as some classes are face-to-face and others are online.

TEXTBOOK

• Hello Chinese / Ni Hao Zhongwen 1 (Shanghai Jiaotong Uni Pre, 2016), ISBN: 9787313156846

Suggested Textbook Suppliers: Abbey's Bookshop · Intext Book Company / Language International Bookshop · The Language People

The textbook is not included in the course fee. Please check textbook availability with the supplier and wait until your course is confirmed before purchasing. WEA Sydney cannot accept responsibility for textbook purchases if a course is cancelled. Courses are confirmed or cancelled at least 7 days before the start date.

COURSE OUTLINE

Communication

• Ordering food and drinks and making requests when eating
• Asking for and giving directions
• Talking about places, facilities and transport
• Communicating with taxi drivers
• Asking for and giving telephone numbers
• Talking about hobbies and leisure activities

Grammar

• 还 (hái) and 再 (zài) for expressing something additional or repeated
• 想 (xiǎng) + verb for expressing what someone wants or intends to do
• Adjective-predicate sentences
• Verb-object constructions and verb reduplication for trying an action
• 怎么 (zěnme) + verb for asking how to do something
• 从……到…… (cóng… dào…) for expressing movement or a range between points
• 多 (duō) + adjective for asking about degree
• 吧 (ba) for supposition and suggestions
• Double-object sentences and 得 (de) complements for expressing degree
• 在 (zài), 正（在）……呢 for actions in progress
• 可以 (kěyǐ) for expressing permission or possibility
• 和……一起 (hé… yìqǐ) + verb and serial-verb constructions
• Adjective reduplication
• 每……都…… (měi… dōu…) for expressing something that applies to each member of a group

Vocabulary

• Food and drinks
• Restaurant expressions and ordering food
• Directions and places
• Facilities and locations
• Transportation and taxi expressions
• Telephone numbers
• Hobbies and leisure activities
• Common everyday expressions

LEARNING OUTCOMES

By the end of this course, students should be able to:

1. Communicate in everyday situations involving food, restaurants, directions, transport and telephone numbers.
2. Ask for information, make requests and give simple directions using a wider range of Mandarin structures.
3. Talk about hobbies and leisure activities and describe actions and activities in greater detail.