CHI 101      Elementary Chinese (4)
Designed for students with no previous knowledge of Chinese.  Introduces students to the official Chinese language called “Mandarin” by English speakers, putonghua in the People’s Republic of China, and Kuo-yu in Taiwan.  The course aims to help students obtain the four basic language skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing the Chinese language.  Students will learn basic vocabulary and sentence structures for use in essential daily-life situations through various forms of oral practice.  Pinyin (the most widely-used Chinese phonetic system) will be taught as a tool to learn the spoken language.  Students will also learn Chinese characters.  Approximately 200 words and expressions in both Pinyin and character forms will be taught.  While linguistic aspects of the Chinese language are the primary focus, introduction to the social and cultural background of the language will also form an important part of the course.  Meets the new General Education Foreign Language requirement.