The Chinese Language Centre
School of Chinese, Faculty of Arts
THE UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG
香港大學中文學院漢語中心
Chinese Language and Culture Courses
CHIN9501 - 9508: Mandarin
CHIN9511 - 9512: Cantonese
CHIN21-22: Chinese culture course
Student Voice
Mandarin Orientation
Students applying for CHIN9501-08 should:
(i) watch the video;
(ii) register through the SIS by the deadline of the add-drop period, AND
(ii) SEND THE CLASS TEACHER**(See CHIN9501-08 Teachers' Email) a completed Statement of Current Level of Proficiency in Chinese Language and Pre-course Test Answer Sheet in the first lesson.
Click HERE to download Question paper.
(Note: Applications will not be considered unless the above procedures are followed.)
Textbook Purchase:
CHIN9501-02: The Rudiments of Mandarin at HKUP Bookshop at G/F, Run Run Shaw Heritage House, Centennial Campus
CHIN9503-06: New Practical Chinese Reader at Pop-up bookstore: RM716, 7/F, Run Run Shaw Tower, Centennial Campus, Every Wednesday 10:30am - 16:30pm from 13 Sept. 2023 to 27 Sept. 2023
Cantonese Orientation
For students applying for CHIN9511-21
Textbook Purchase:
CHIN9511: Cantonese for Everyone (Jyutping version) at Joint Publishing (H.K.): Shop 111, Level 1, The Westwood, 8, Belcher's Street, Sai Wan (MTR HKU Station Exit C2)
Low-enrollment class(es) will be cancelled during the add/drop period.
1. CHIN9501 Chinese as a Foreign Language I (6 credits) (old course title: CHIN1501)
This course is for foreign students who DO NOT have previous knowledge of Chinese. It covers FOUR main areas: speaking, listening, reading, and writing (actual writing of Chinese characters).
Assessment: 100% coursework
2. CHIN9502 Chinese as a Foreign Language II (6 credits) (old course title: CHIN1502)
This intensive course is intended for foreign learners who have completed CHIN9501 or who can demonstrate equivalent competence in the placement test. A greater emphasis will be placed on oral drills and listening comprehension. Upon the completion of the course, students should be able to write an essay of 300 characters.
Students will also be exposed to various aspects of Chinese culture and history in learning the origins of Chinese characters and idioms.
Prerequisite: “CHIN9501 Chinese as a foreign language I” or equivalent
Assessment: 100% coursework
3. CHIN9503 Chinese as a Foreign Language III (6 credits) (old course title: CHIN2501)
This intensive course is intended for foreign learners who have completed CHIN9502 or have attained an equivalent level of competency. It aims to increase students’ communicative and linguistic competence in listening, speaking, reading, writing and translating. It also provides in-depth study of Chinese culture and modern Chinese society. So CHIN9503 give students a solid foundation of communication ability to go to higher levels in Chinese studying. Students will learn these techniques through analyzing short passages and presentations for features of successful communication and practicing these through a variety of activities, including in-class discussions, presentations, role playing, peer and teacher feedback on both speaking practice and written assignments.
Prerequisite: “CHIN9502 Chinese as a foreign language II” or equivalent
Assessment: 100% coursework
4. CHIN9504 Chinese as a Foreign Language IV (6 credits) (old course title: CHIN2502)
This intensive course is intended for foreign learners who have completed CHIN9503 or have attained an equivalent level of competency. It aims to increase students’ communicative and linguistic competence in listening, speaking, reading, writing and translating. It also provides in-depth study of Chinese culture, geography of China, Chinese history and modern Chinese society. So CHIN9504 give students a solid foundation of communication ability to go to higher levels in Chinese studying. Students will learn these techniques through analyzing short passages and presentations for features of successful communication and practicing these through a variety of activities, including in-class discussions, presentations, role playing, peer and teacher feedback on both speaking practice and written assignments.
Prerequisite: “CHIN9503 Chinese as a foreign language III” or equivalent
Assessment: 100% coursework
5. CHIN9505 Chinese as a Foreign Language V (6 credits) (old course title: CHIN3501)
This intensive course is intended for international undergraduate students, exchange and visiting students who have completed CHIN9504 or have attained equivalent competence in the language. It aims at enhancing students’ communicative competence, i.e. listening, speaking, reading and writing. Students will be exposed to Chinese society and culture through a variety of topical discussions and different audiovisual media including films (movies)and Vlog.
Students are required to write compositions of 350-400 Chinese characters, and use short phrases/words/sentence structures learnt in class to further strengthen their knowledge of the Chinese language and culture. This course will help intermediate-high language learners broaden and deepen their grammar and vocabulary knowledge, fill the gap between spoken sound and written word, and strengthen their practical Mandarin language skills.
Prerequisite: “CHIN9504 Chinese as a foreign language IV” or equivalent
Assessment: 100% coursework
6. CHIN9506 Chinese as a Foreign Language VI (6 credits) (old course title: CHIN3502)
This intensive course is intended for foreign learners who have completed CHIN9505 or have attained an equivalent level of competency. It aims to increase students’ communicative and linguistic competence in listening, speaking, reading, writing, and translating. It also provides in-depth study of Chinese culture and society.
Students will learn these through a variety of activities including in-class discussions and conversations, completion of tasks and assignments, peer and teacher feedback on both speaking practice and written assignments.
Prerequisite: “CHIN9505 Chinese as a foreign language V” or equivalent
Assessment: 100% coursework
7. CHIN9507 Chinese as a Foreign Language VII (6 credits) (old course title: CHIN4501/ CHIN3503) (To be Offered in the 2nd semester, 2023-24 ONLY)
This intensive course is intended for international undergraduate students, exchange and visiting students who have attained equivalent competence to HSK level 6 or New HSK level 4. It aims at enhancing students’ communicative competence, specifically targeting at speaking, reading and writing. Students will be exposed to Chinese society and culture through a greater variety of topical discussions and different audiovisual media include films (movies), television, and Vlog. Students are required to write essays of 800 or more Chinese characters, and use short phrases/words/sentence structures learnt in class to further strengthen their knowledge of the Chinese language and culture. This course will help advanced language learners enhance their lexical and syntactic knowledge, as well as improve their writing and presentation skills through live practice and feedback through training.
Prerequisite: “CHIN9506 Chinese as a foreign language VI” or equivalent
Assessment: 100% coursework
8. CHIN9508 Chinese as a Foreign Language VIII (6 credits) (old course title: CHIN4502/ CHIN3504)
This intensive course is for those foreign students who have completed CHIN9507 or CHIN9506, or attained equivalent competence to Chinese Proficiency Test (HSK) Level 4-5. The Students will be exposed to some hot topics on Chinese society and culture through the study of the textbook and Chinese news articles. Students will write a topical report and express opinions on some selected social and media topics to strengthen comprehension and writing abilities. Presentation and in-class discussion are designed for students to improve speaking and listening skills. This course will teach 300 new phrases on top of about 2000 characters accumulated in previous levels, with the focus on Chinese news words.
Prerequisite: “CHIN9507 Chinese as a foreign language VII” or equivalent
Assessment: 100% coursework
9. CHIN9511 Cantonese as a Foreign Language I (6 credits) (old course title: CLDC0001/ CHIN1511)
This intensive course is intended for foreign learners who have no prior knowledge of Cantonese. The course introduces students to present-day Cantonese, with an emphasis on learning correct pronunciation through the Jyutping phonetic romanization transcription system and basic structure. It aims to develop fundamental oral communication skills through a variety of situational conversations in a highly interactive classroom.
Assessment: 100% coursework
10. CHIN9512 Cantonese as a Foreign Language II (6 credits)
This intensive course is designed for international undergraduate students, exchange and visiting students (Non‐Heritage Learners) who have completed CHIN9511 or who can demonstrate equivalent competence in the placement test. It aims at strengthening students’ mastery of the phonetic romanization transcription, the Jyutping system, and at enhancing their competence in expressing themselves in the language. A greater emphasis will be placed on oral drills and listening comprehension. More practical sentence patterns and a large range of useful words and expressions related to various aspects of life will be introduced as well.
Prerequisite: “CHIN9511 Cantonese as a foreign language I” or equivalent
Assessment: 100% coursework
11. CHIN9521 The Fundamentals of Chinese Characters (6 credits) (old course title: CHIN1521)
This intensive course is intended for international students whose mother tongue is not Chinese. It is designed to introduce the origins and evolution of Chinese characters. The formation and the structure of Chinese characters will be emphasized to help students to break the puzzles of Chinese written form. This course also familiarizes students with the distinctive features of the Chinese characters as a means to introduce them to the unique characteristics of the Chinese language and culture. Students will be equipped with the writing skills to copy any Chinese characters in correct stroke-order and will be familiar with the commonly used components of combined characters after this course. The course will teach up to 220 Chinese characters and about 350 compound words. Students are taught how to use Chinese dictionaries in order to continue learning Chinese characters by themselves.
Assessment: 100% coursework
12. CHIN9522 Exploration of Major Cultural Themes across Chinese History (6 credits) (old course title: CHIN1522) (NOT Offered in AY 2023-24)
A history and culture course that familiarizes students with China and its past, approached from non-traditional perspectives. The course introduces international students to Chinese history, schools of thoughts, cultural themes and achievements in Chinese civilization; highlights differences and similarities between Chinese and other cultures; stimulates students’ interest in deeper understanding of China, its people, its history and its culture in the global context. Students are required to make presentations on assigned topics.
Assessment: 100% coursework
CHIN9522 Course Outline