Mandarin Chinese, Year 1 (elective)

Course Description:  Mandarin Chinese Year 1 is designed for both non-heritage and heritage students who have little to no prior exposure to the Mandarin Chinese language. This course introduces students to the foundational components of Mandarin, including pinyin (Chinese phonetics), characters, character writing rules, sentence structures, and word order, which differ significantly from Western languages. Through an engaging and gradual learning process, students will develop essential listening, speaking, reading, recognizing, and writing skills. Additionally, they will naturally acquire topic-related conversational abilities. In the first year, students will explore two key topics, Family and Friends, while also gaining exposure to Chinese culture through an introduction to traditional holidays.