Overview
This course introduces spoken Mandarin Chinese through structured interaction and practical communication tasks. Students develop accurate pronunciation, tones, rhythm, listening comprehension, core grammar, and functional vocabulary while progressing from memorized expressions to spontaneous responses.
Conversation practice addresses introductions, family and friends, school life, daily routines, hobbies, food and restaurants, shopping, directions, transportation, appointments, weather, and making or changing plans. Students also examine forms of address, politeness, turn-taking, social expectations, and differences between direct translation and natural Chinese usage.
The course develops the ability to sustain short conversations, ask and answer follow-up questions, communicate basic needs, understand common classroom and everyday speech, and use clarification and repair strategies when comprehension breaks down.
Learning Outcomes
- Produce Mandarin syllables, tones, rhythm, and common expressions with increasing phonological accuracy.
- Construct short spoken exchanges concerning familiar personal, academic, and everyday situations.
- Demonstrate comprehension of common classroom instructions and everyday conversational speech.
- Apply core grammatical structures and functional vocabulary to requests, offers, preferences, comparisons, invitations, apologies, and plans.
- Sustain brief conversations by asking follow-up questions and responding appropriately to interlocutors.
- Employ clarification, repetition, and repair strategies when communication breaks down.
- Adapt forms of address, politeness, turn-taking, and directness to familiar social contexts.
- Evaluate and improve spoken performance using pronunciation, fluency, comprehensibility, and interaction criteria.
Timetable
| Type | Length | Frequency | Period |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lecture | 2 hours | Weekly | All semester |
| Tutorial | 1 hour | Weekly | All semester |
| Lab | 1 hour | Weekly | All semester |
Assessment Schedule
| Type | Description | Weighting |
|---|---|---|
| Deliverable | Recorded dialogue portfolio (2 × 10%) | 20.00% |
| Quiz | Listening and pronunciation checks (4 × 5%) | 20.00% |
| Test | Live role-play assessment | 20.00% |
| Assignment | Conversation strategies assignment | 15.00% |
| Attendance | Participation in structured interaction | 10.00% |
| Exam | Final practical conversation | 15.00% |
Teaching Staff & Programs
This course is delivered jointly by faculty from the participating programs listed below. In line with the Douchewater Way, the University of Sexology tailors core instruction directly to each cohort's specific discipline — adapting curriculum to program needs rather than forcing students into a one-size-fits-all model. Learn more about our approach at The Douchewater Way.
