Practical Chinese for Living and
Working in China (Intermediate)
(suitable for lower-intermediate to advanced-intermediate students)
Taught by Anny Li.  Click here for Anny's profile.

This course is intended to continue in the same spirit as the beginner course, with practical conversation as our central focus, building on what has already been learned toward the goal of total fluency.  We will start where the beginner course left off, reviewing important sentence structures involving subjunctives, conditionals, comparisons, etc., as well as time/calendar and space-oriented phrases (in front of and behind, etc.), localities, giving your opinions, and phrases involving difference and degree, such as "It's not..., but...", and "The more..., the more...".

We will then progress toward more-complicated clauses, (if, when, before, after...).  We will employ role-play, games, activities, and interactive exercises involving everyday scenarios, such as chatting in a real estate agency, massage house, communicating with colleagues at work, contracting services (e.g., finding a handyman,  getting your water pipe repaired), and many others.

While this course places a strong emphasis on conversation, we will also undertake an intensive introduction to reading and writing Chinese characters, starting with essentials like reading signs and directions, instructions and notices, correspondences, and other important everyday written materials.

At the end of the 10 weeks, students should have a solid command of about 500 Chinese words, 50 phrase structures and 30 sentence structures; students will become confident in expressing their opinions more clearly and accurately; master the ability to comprehend everyday speech and to express themselves clearly, as well as the skills necessary for reading and writing on a basic level, e.g., read out the road's name in Chinese character.

Topics:

1. Renting an apartment

2. Daily transportation

3. Fixing water pipes, electricity, etc.

4. Massage

5. Fabric market, tailor-made clothes

6. Meeting customers & negotiation

7. Discussing the life in Shanghai

8. Sending gifts for birthday, wedding, etc.

9. Seeing somebody off  at the airport & travel preparations

10. How to learn Mandarin Chinese?

Key language points of each lesson:

1. Making contrast and comparison with "bi" "he" "meiyou" sentence/ "you" sentence for existential sentence

2. Cause & effect clause/ emphasizing sentence structure "shi....de"

3. Hypothesis sentence/ perfect aspect structure: "yijing......le"/ "duo + adj." in How question

4. Ordinal number/ clause of when, after, before

5. Color words/ Making contrast and comparison in detail with adv. "yidian"/ Giving comments with adv. "you dian"

6. Present continuous tense/ Making contrast and comparison in detail with adv. "de duo"

7. Giving one's opinion with "wo jue de"/ clause of while

8. "Zhe" for progression structure/ wherever whatever however whoever... sentence structure

9. Locality structure: "zai...li/shang"/ adv. "jiu" & "cai" for emphasizing

10. Words of time/ "duo + verb to do something"/ as much as you can...

Course Title: Chinese Language II
Tuition Fee: RMB 3200
Materials Fee: RMB 100

Spring Session 2013: March 6th to May 10th

Section A: Wednesday and Friday mornings (10:00 AM - 12:30 PM)   Registration Closed
10 weeks from March 6th to May 10th (Course Code: CL203)
Location: ELC Learning Center

Section B: Wednesday and Friday afternoons (1:00 PM - 3:30 PM)   Registration Closed
10 weeks from March 6th to May 10th (Course Code: CL204)
Location: ELC Learning Center

Section C: Wednesday and Friday evenings (6:30 PM - 9:00 PM)   Registration Closed
10 weeks from March 6th to May 10th (Course Code: CL205)
Location: ELC Learning Center

Fall Session 2013: October 9th to December 13th

Section A: Wednesday and Friday mornings (10:00 AM - 12:30 PM)
10 weeks from October 9th to December 13th (Course Code: CL203)
Location: ELC Learning Center

Section B: Wednesday and Friday afternoons (1:00 PM - 3:30 PM)
10 weeks from October 9th to December 13th (Course Code: CL204)
Location: ELC Learning Center

Section C: Wednesday and Friday evenings (6:30 PM - 9:00 PM)
10 weeks from October 9th to December 13th (Course Code: CL205)
Location: ELC Learning Center

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER FOR THIS COURSE

Registration Procedure:
First register online to reserve your place.  You will receive a confirmation email with further details and instructions.  Payment must be made on site at the ELC Learning Center during the payment dates shown below (you can come in person or send someone).

Tuition fee payment for the Fall Session 2013 will take place Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, September 13th, 14th, 15th, and 16th.  The payment hours are 11:00 AM to 4:00 PM.  Payments will be received in the Registration Office at the ELC Learning Center.  Payment must be received on time to complete your enrollment and maintain your reservation in the class(es) for which you have registered.

Register early to reserve your place, as many classes fill up quickly.  If the course for which you are registered does not reach the minimum enrollment requirement, you will be notified of the cancellation before the payment dates.  As such, we receive payments only for courses which are proceeding as scheduled.  Please note, we do not offer trial lessons or discounts of any kind.  Refund Policy: No refunds will be issued after the start of the term.