Chinese Mandarin Beginners (part 3)

Do you know how to ask and tell the time in Mandarin or enquire about opening hours? Are you already familiar with the Pinyin phonetic system and know how to use words like jǐ, duō shǎo or yǒu?

Part 3 of our dynamic Chinese Mandarin Beginners course will continue to build your communication in a wider range of settings.

Over the 10 weeks, you’ll learn to engage in conversations about the weather, the seasons and methods of transportation. You’ll also cover new grammatical topics including the preposition zài, and Duōjiǔ for time and duration.

Who is it for?

This course is ideal if you have completed part 2 of our Chinese Mandarin Beginners course, or an equivalent course elsewhere (approximately 40 hours of prior study). See our eligibility section for more details.

Timetable

This course takes place once a week at 18:30 for 10 weeks.

Benefits

• Learn part 3 to complete your beginners knowledge of Mandarin
• Taught by qualified native speakers in small groups
• Incorporates interactive and varied learning techniques.

By the end of the 10 weeks you’ll be able to

• make an enquiry
• discuss favourite seasons
• ask for directions
• ask and tell prices and currencies
• buy food
• give suggestions on buying gifts.

Grammar

• using zài as a preposition
• duōjiǔ for time and duration
• use háishì for alternatives

You will be awarded an official City, University of London certificate on completion of the course if you attend over 70 per cent of the classes. The course is not formally accredited.

Teaching

We’ve designed this course to give you confidence in communicating in basic scenarios.

Teaching is varied to include:

• classroom discussion
• pronunciation and intonation
• pair, group work and role play
• grammar in context.

Our tutors will set weekly homework to help you practise what you have learned in class.

You will need to have had around 40 hours of prior learning.

This course is the right level for you if you can:

• talk about dates and days and your daily routine
• discuss your job and workplace
• talk about weekly plans
• know how to use questions words jǐ and duō shǎo
• understand the cóng…dào sentence structure
• use yǒu
• use the question structure hǎo bu hǎo/xíng bu xíng
• use past perfect tense and the present continuous particle zài
• use huì to indicate future tense
• use three particles ma, ne and ba
• be familiar with question words shénme shíhou and ji hao, xing qi ji.

Looking for something more challenging? Try our Chinese Mandarin Beyond Beginners courses (Year 2).

English requirements

You will need a good level of spoken and written English to enrol on this course.