Chinese 1 (Mandarin)
Instructor: Ed Nace; [email protected]
Prerequisites: none
Grade Level: 8th-12th
Supply Fee: $30 PER semester (Teacher will supply curriculum)
Supplies needed: Notebook
Course Description: Step into the wonderful world of Mandarin Chinese! The goal of Chinese 1 is for students to come out truly able to understand and speak basic Chinese, and when an opportunity presents itself, to confidently converse, not freeze up. Students will become proficient in basic interactions, including pronunciation and tones, vocabulary, sentence structure, and dialogue skills. As we go, we will have a heavy interest in achieving good, natural pronunciation. It’s weird and it’s fun! It’s also totally achievable - after all, almost one-fourth of the world’s population speaks this language. No matter where they go in the world, they’ll always find Chinese people to talk to. The main goal of this course is to equip them to do so and to give them a strong foundation for future learning if they wish.
Teaching method: Every class is extremely interactive. Our two basic rules are “Everyone Must Participate!” and “Don’t Make Fun. Only Encourage.” Active participation in class is vital. This is not a “textbook” language course. Students will quickly learn to respond to commands. They will learn a couple songs. They’ll start to instinctively rattle off the most essential verbs, daily phrases, objects, and exclamations. We will do a lot of practice in class by using real objects and accomplishing little missions. Along the way we will begin to add basic describing skills (adjectives, etc.) by learning to use words to describe pictures or videos. Chinese 2 and 3 will delve much deeper into the fun and useful process of storytelling.
Chinese Characters?? (If you want to.) This is primarily a course in conversational Chinese. Listening and Speaking, as the foundation for Reading and Writing, are the main goals in Chinese 1. I will definitely introduce reading and writing characters. I can also give homework and guidance to students who want to do this. But it will not become a real focus until more advanced classes.
About the Instructor: I am a Christian, husband to Jaclyn, and dad of 4 kids. We spent 8 years as missionaries to the unreached “H” people in East Asia. I became fluent in Mandarin Chinese through intense study, yes, but also through using it in day-to-day life. My team and I opened a business. We took the practical on-the-street language-learning principles we used to learn Chinese and adapted them into the successful “Awesome English!” curriculum that impacted many students in schools in the Yunnan Province.
Instructor: Ed Nace; [email protected]
Prerequisites: none
Grade Level: 8th-12th
Supply Fee: $30 PER semester (Teacher will supply curriculum)
Supplies needed: Notebook
Course Description: Step into the wonderful world of Mandarin Chinese! The goal of Chinese 1 is for students to come out truly able to understand and speak basic Chinese, and when an opportunity presents itself, to confidently converse, not freeze up. Students will become proficient in basic interactions, including pronunciation and tones, vocabulary, sentence structure, and dialogue skills. As we go, we will have a heavy interest in achieving good, natural pronunciation. It’s weird and it’s fun! It’s also totally achievable - after all, almost one-fourth of the world’s population speaks this language. No matter where they go in the world, they’ll always find Chinese people to talk to. The main goal of this course is to equip them to do so and to give them a strong foundation for future learning if they wish.
Teaching method: Every class is extremely interactive. Our two basic rules are “Everyone Must Participate!” and “Don’t Make Fun. Only Encourage.” Active participation in class is vital. This is not a “textbook” language course. Students will quickly learn to respond to commands. They will learn a couple songs. They’ll start to instinctively rattle off the most essential verbs, daily phrases, objects, and exclamations. We will do a lot of practice in class by using real objects and accomplishing little missions. Along the way we will begin to add basic describing skills (adjectives, etc.) by learning to use words to describe pictures or videos. Chinese 2 and 3 will delve much deeper into the fun and useful process of storytelling.
Chinese Characters?? (If you want to.) This is primarily a course in conversational Chinese. Listening and Speaking, as the foundation for Reading and Writing, are the main goals in Chinese 1. I will definitely introduce reading and writing characters. I can also give homework and guidance to students who want to do this. But it will not become a real focus until more advanced classes.
About the Instructor: I am a Christian, husband to Jaclyn, and dad of 4 kids. We spent 8 years as missionaries to the unreached “H” people in East Asia. I became fluent in Mandarin Chinese through intense study, yes, but also through using it in day-to-day life. My team and I opened a business. We took the practical on-the-street language-learning principles we used to learn Chinese and adapted them into the successful “Awesome English!” curriculum that impacted many students in schools in the Yunnan Province.
