Course Outline
Module 1: Basic Chinese 初級中文
By the time you finish Module 1, you should have built your basic speaking ability up to the point where you can carry on a conversation about any kind of daily task, whether at home, work, school, travel, shopping, leisure, gossip, and even in some emergency situations. Although your vocabulary is still limited, you should be able to handle yourself in a great variety of situations with your communication strength lying mostly in the use of verbs, when and how things happened. The most important goal of Module 1 is to build as much expression and flexibility of the use of a limited vocabulary.
Now, on to the lessons.
| Lesson 01. Who’s Who |
| Lesson 02. Names |
| Lesson 03. Nationalities |
| Lesson 04. Pronouns |
| Lesson 05. Excuse me |
| Lesson 06. Location, Where? |
| Lesson 07. Daily Activities, Expressing Continuous Action |
| Lesson 08. Playing, With |
| Lesson 09. Numbers, Time, Daily Activities (continuous) |
| Lesson 10. Ordinal Numbers, Telling Time/Dates |
| Lesson 11. Adverbs of Time, When?, Expressing Past Action |
| Lesson 12. Adjectives and Nouns, Comparisons |
| Lesson 13. Have, Can, Want, Activities, Expressing Present Perfect, Future Adjectives (will it be…) |
| Lesson 14. Ability, Possibility/Would/Could, Lend/Borrow/Give, Good At… |
| Lesson 15. Senses vs. Action (hear/listen), Willing, Should |
| Lesson 16. Directionals, Action Verbs+Direction (up/down/over/across/away…) |
| Lesson 17. Tell What Something Is/Says, Trying, Doing for a Moment |
| Lesson 18. Weather, Seasons |
| Lesson 19. Family Members, Adjectives, Conversation Review |
| Lesson 20. Before/After/Later, Places Around Town |
| Lesson 21. Clothes, Getting Dressed |
| Lesson 22. Laundry, Wash/Iron/Wrinkle/Ruin/Hang |
| Lesson 23. Expressing Past Tense |
| Lesson 24. Perfective Aspect, Already, Not Yet, Perfect Tense |
| Lesson 25. Change in Situation for Present and Future, Adjectives |
| Lesson 26. Perfect Continuous Tense |
| Lesson 27. Right Now, Continuous Aspect |
| Lesson 28. Continuous Aspect |
| Lesson 29. Experential Aspect |
| Lesson 30. Near and Distant Future |
| Lesson 31. Have To, Must |
| Lesson 32. Jobs, Noun Suffixes |
| Lesson 33. Always, Before, After, Later |
| Lesson 34. Driving, Lost, Parking |
| Lesson 35. Assuming, Originally, Was Supposed to/Going to |
| Lesson 36. Making it There on Time |
| Lesson 37. Getting Hurt, Injuries, Body Parts |
| Lesson 38. Heard Bad News, Consolation, Expressing Past Continuous |
| Lesson 39. As Much As Possible |
| Lesson 40. Inviting, Rejecting Advances and Invitations, Giving Excuses |
| Lesson 41. Doing Something Really Well, Special Verb Structure |
| Lesson 42. Decided to… |
| Lesson 43. Keep on Doing, Decided to… |
| Lesson 44. Working Overtime, Taking Off Work |
| Lesson 45. Won’t/Can’t Do Until |
| Lesson 46. Start, Hate, Avoid, Quit, Consider, Enjoy, Extend, Postpone, Suggest |
| Lesson 47. Paying, Check Out |
| Lesson 48. Airport, Customs, Baggage |
| Lesson 49. Banking, Loan/Mortgage, Bank Account |
| Lesson 50. Paying Bills |
Lesson 01. BPMF, DTNL, GKH, IU
Lesson 02. JQX, IU
Lesson 03.
Lesson 04.
Lesson 05.
Lesson 06.
Lesson 07.
Lesson 08.
Lesson 09.
Lesson 10.
Lesson 01. Students and Teachers
Lesson 02. School, Neighborhood, Renting
Lesson 03. Renting, Neighborhood, Home
Lesson 04. Home Activities
Lesson 05. School, Home, Eating
Lesson 06. Home
Lesson 07. Bedroom, Clothes
Lesson 08. Cleaning Up
Lesson 09. Cleaning Up
Lesson 10. Around Home and School
Lesson 11. Getting Around
Lesson 12. Around Town, Weather
Lesson 13. Weather, Seasons
Lesson 14. Seasons, Activities
Lesson 15. Doctor, Medical, Sick
Lesson 16. Hospital, Medical, Sick
Lesson 17. Miscellaneous Practice
Lesson 18. Miscellaneous Practice
Lesson 19. Eating Out
Lesson 20. Chinese Food
Lesson 21. Exercise
Lesson 22. Teachers
Lesson 23. Leisure Activities
Lesson 24. Leisure Activities
Lesson 25. Public Transport
Lesson 26. Shopping
Lesson 27. Shopping
Lesson 28. At Work
Lesson 29. Adjectives
Lesson 30.
Lesson 31.
Lesson 32.
Lesson 33.
Lesson 34.
Lesson 35.
Lesson 36.
Lesson 37.
Lesson 38.
Lesson 39.
Lesson 40.
Module 2 Intermediate Chinese 中級中文
Now that you’ve built up your core communicative abilities from Module 1, we’ll move on to build your expressive abilities. This is where your command of the language will come alive by delving into Chinese culture, exploring its vast history and its stories, providing a huge boost to your vocabulary which will enable you to speak at a more proficient level. This module teaches thousands of vocabulary, practices about 4000 sample sentences, and then the reading of 160 stories in the following areas:
Lesson 1 曾參殺人
Lesson 2 一個不容易回答的問題
Lesson 3 道聽塗說
Lesson 4 墨子看染絲
Lesson 5 狐假虎威
Lesson 6 太陽的聲音
Lesson 7 杞人憂天
Lesson 8 宋人揠苗
Lesson 9 橘逾淮為枳
Lesson 10 五官四肢的爭執
Lesson 11 塞翁失馬
Lesson 12 愚公移山
Lesson 13 說話的藝術
Lesson 14 搶金鐲子的人
Lesson 15 一個隨便改變方針的人
Lesson 16 屠夫的見識
Lesson 17 鄒忌和徐公
Lesson 18 鷸蚌相爭
Lesson 19 農夫賣石頭
Lesson 20 自相矛盾
Lesson 21 殺雞取卵
Lesson 22 溫柔的月姊兒
Lesson 23 美姿巧舌
Lesson 24 點石成金
Lesson 25 不要隨便跟別人開玩笑
Lesson 26 狡兔三窟
Lesson 27 抬驢進城
Lesson 28 井底之蛙
Lesson 29 害人反害己
Lesson 30 尋求真理
Lesson 31 除禍要趁早
Lesson 32 致富之術
Lesson 33 忘恩負義
Lesson 34 不合時宜的詩人
Lesson 35 小魚的快樂
Lesson 36 知音難求
Lesson 37 替貓取外號
Lesson 38 狗和稻子
Lesson 39 比唱山歌
Lesson 40 梅花的故事
Lesson 41 過年
Lesson 42 天地君親師
Lesson 43 琴棋書畫
Lesson 44 清明節
Lesson 45 中國人與花
Lesson 46 娛樂
Lesson 47 終身大事
Lesson 48 喪禮
Lesson 49 端午節
Lesson 50 吃
Lesson 51 房屋
Lesson 52 交際
Lesson 53 孝道
Lesson 54 謙虛
Lesson 55 中國功夫
Lesson 56 中秋賞月
Lesson 57 廟會
Lesson 58 家族觀念的擴大
Lesson 59 酒和茶
Lesson 60 雙十節
Lesson 61 砍柴人遇仙
Lesson 62 春天的杜鵑
Lesson 63 螺殼中的少女
Lesson 64 千日酒
Lesson 65 巧木匠魯班
Lesson 66 水仙花
Lesson 67 董仙杏林
Lesson 68 螞蟻報恩
Lesson 69 兩兄弟尋寶
Lesson 70 好鼻師
Lesson 71 草鞋橋
Lesson 72 重九登高
Lesson 73 第一棵山芭蕉
Lesson 74 月亮裏的黑影
Lesson 75 孟宗和冬筍
Lesson 76 曹娥江
Lesson 77 靈蛇和寶珠
Lesson 78 姜太公釣魚
Lesson 79 陳文玉和雷州
Lesson 80 提燈的姑娘
Lesson 81 紫荊樹
Lesson 82 牛郎織女
Lesson 83 嫦娥奔月
Lesson 84 夸父追日
Lesson 85 孝子董永
Lesson 86 孟姜女哭倒長城
Lesson 87 月下老人
Lesson 88 一隻神勇的蟋蟀
Lesson 89 白娘子
Lesson 90 黃粱夢
Lesson 91 梁山伯和祝英臺
Lesson 92 鬼朋友
Lesson 93 辨盜鐘
Lesson 94 花木蘭代父從軍
Lesson 95 王寶釧苦守寒窯
Lesson 96 沉香劈山救母
Lesson 97 人面桃花
Lesson 98 濟公活佛
Lesson 99 楊四郎探母
Lesson 100 鎖麟曩
Lesson 101 管仲與鮑叔牙
Lesson 102 西門豹破除迷信
Lesson 103 伍員復仇
Lesson 104 馮諼買仁義
Lesson 105 扁鵲看病
Lesson 106 孟母三遷
Lesson 107 藺相如與廉頗
Lesson 108 張良的奇遇
Lesson 109 韓信
Lesson 110 蘇武牧羊
Lesson 111 缇縈救父
Lesson 112 司馬遷與史記
Lesson 113 孔融與李元禮
Lesson 114 王羲之愛鵝
Lesson 115 程門立雪
Lesson 116 寬宏大量的沈周
Lesson 117 戚繼光巧計退倭
Lesson 118 革命女俠秋瑾
Lesson 119 紀曉嵐的詼諧
Lesson 120 國父童年軼事
Lesson 121 忍辱負重的周公
Lesson 122 作法自斃
Lesson 123 人定勝天
Lesson 124 鴻門宴
Lesson 125 古代中國女性的典範
Lesson 126 醫術與醫德
Lesson 127 肥水之戰
Lesson 128 文化使節
Lesson 129 凝碧池畔凝碧血
Lesson 130 再造唐室的郭子儀
Lesson 131 巾幗英雄梁紅玉
Lesson 132 耶律楚材
Lesson 133 賢德的馬后
Lesson 134 航海者的先驅
Lesson 135 阿里山神
Lesson 136 文祥與自強運動
Lesson 137 沈葆楨的賢內助
Lesson 138 好漢不怕出身低
Lesson 139 有志者事竟成
Lesson 140 牧牛人老王
Lesson 141 北京人的發現
Lesson 142 一日七十變的女媧氏
Lesson 143 自有巢到神農
Lesson 144 偉大的黃帝
Lesson 145 嫘祖和蠶絲
Lesson 146 指南車和指南針
Lesson 147 最早的文字
Lesson 148 青銅器上的文字
Lesson 149 刻在石頭上的文字
Lesson 150 字體的演變
Lesson 151 竹簡和帛書
Lesson 152 紙和筆
Lesson 153 墨和硯
Lesson 154 印刷術的發明
Lesson 155 中國的詩
Lesson 156 飲酒和喝茶
Lesson 157 文人和竹
Lesson 158 君子和玉
Lesson 159 古代的樂器
Lesson 160 萬里長城
We will also prepare some supplementary modules for the following subjects:
Module 3 Advanced Chinese 高級中文
With just the first two modules, you have all the tools to function normally as an educated citizen in Chinese society giving you complete language independence. In the advanced module, we look to take your Chinese further in business (商業), translation (翻譯), the art of rhetoric (修辭學), negotiation (談判), public speaking (演說), and common sayings (成語、歇後語、等等).
Meet the Cast
The guy on the left is Mike. He’ll probably appear in almost all the videos. He studied linguistics and has been speaking Chinese for over a decade and also speaks Min and Wu, commonly known as Taiwanese and Shanghainese. He loves trying to figure out more efficient ways of learning and explaining languages. He’s so used to talking to speakers of other languages that he tends to say the same thing many times in different ways so he tends to sound a little long-winded.
The girl on the right is Jasmine. She appears in most of the Module 1 videos. She grew up in Taipei and her native language is Mandarin. She studied foreign language studies and is also a runway model. She has studied English and French and although she’s shy in using them we need to give her more confidence in speaking English.
The girl on the right is Kelly. She appears in some of the supplementary videos. She grew up in Taipei and her native language is Mandarin. She also understands Wu commonly known as Shanghainese. She studied tourism, has worked in the service industry, and has lived abroad in Canada before so she speaks English. She’s always got a big smile and one of her favorite things to do is go to the beach and tan. Her English is not that bad, but if you speak Chinese to her, she’ll always speak Chinese.
The girl on the right is Mischa. She appears in some of the supplementary videos. She grew up in Taipei and her native language is Mandarin. She studied tourism and English and currently works in the service industry. A little shy in using her English, sometimes her English seems better than you might have originally thought.