Prerequisites
Fluent speaker with little or no prior exposure to written Chinese
Textbook:
- Oh, China! (中国啊！中国！)： Modern Chinese Reader for Advanced Beginner/ Chih-ping Chou, Princeton University, 2011.
- Jay Chou（周杰伦: 亚洲流行天王）： New 2nd Edition with Pinyin. Chinese Biographies by Grace Wu, Cheng & Tsui Co., Boston, 2016.
Coordinator
Ms. Grace Wu (gracewu@sas.upenn.edu)
Descriptions:
This course is designed for students who can speak Chinese but cannot read and write in Chinese characters. The major purpose of this course is to help students develop the ability to use written Mandarin Chinese in linguistically and socially appropriate ways. By the end of the terms, students are expected to be able to read and write with Pinyin romanization, recognize and write approximately 600-800 Chinese characters (30 new characters per week), make sentences with learned vocabulary and sentence patterns, write coherent simple multi-paragraph essays with correct grammar, acquire accurate and culturally appropriate usage of the language, and become an independent reader with the help of online resources. Topics covered in this course include my Chinese name, I am Chinese American, my family language, Mandarin and other Chinese dialects, cross-cultural and intergenerational communication, etc.
Sample Text (Entry):
这是什么？
这是地图。
这是什么地图？
这是中国地图。
为什么这两张中国地图不一样呢？
因为一张是中华民国地图； 一张是中华人民共和国地图。
From Lesson 1《两张地图》
Sample Text (Exit):
美国是一个移民国家，美国人来自世界各地。所有的移民在适应美国生活的过程中都或多或少经历过一种心理上的矛盾。这就是一方面要“美国化”， 另一方面却又想保持自己原来的语言和文化。这种心理在许多中国移民当中是非常明显的， 我的父母就是这样。
From Lesson 11《为什么学中文》