Prerequisites
CHIN 0500
Textbook:
A New China （《新的中国》）, Chou Chih-p’ing et al. Princeton University Press, 2011.
Coordinator
Dr. Ye Tian (tianye1@sas.upenn.edu)
Course Descriptions
The main purpose of this 6th semester Chinese course aims to push learners from Intermediate Mid to Intermediate High level by introducing more complex grammatical structures and vocabulary that help students to understand formal Chinese. The second purpose is to continue enhancing your understanding of Chinese culture, society, people and their everyday life as well as China’s status quo since Deng Xiaoping’s opening of China’s market to the western countries in 1978. The following 9 topics is covered in 212: obesity; 5-year-plan; population aging; infrastructure construction & national minority; 5G; study abroad policy; Hong Kong issue; E-commerce; the history of Sino-Foreign cultural exchanges. Content and language integrated learning (CLIL) is the key feature of this course. We use non-language content as vehicle for promoting Chinese language proficiency. In terms of technology skills, this course explores Machine Translation (e.g. Sogou Translate), Speech Recognition (e.g. Sogou Input Method), and Optical Character Recognition (e.g. Sogou Translate) tools to prepare students for life-long Chinese learning after Penn Chinese education.
Sample Text (Entry):
从前两个中国人要是一段时间没见面，再见面的时候常说对方“发福了”，意思是“你胖了点儿，近来过得一定不错，真有福气。”说“发福了”是恭维别人的客套话。（From Lesson 33 《从发福到减肥》）
Sample Text (Exit):
许多人一谈到“传统”这两个字，就认为“传统”是固定的，是不变的。其实，中国传统之所以伟大，绝不在于它的固定和不变，而在于它与其他文化交流时能不断地吸收新成分。推陈出新，日新月异，正是中国文化伟大的所在。（From Lesson 48 《改变的中国》）