Park School Chinese I

1. Park SchoolChinese I Instructor: Xiaomu Hu xhu@parkschool.net

2. Intro-duction • Chinese I is the introductory course of Chinese language and culture. Students are expected to be able to be proficient at Pinyin (the phonetic system), communicate with people on some simple topics (such as introducing oneself, taking a bus, finding a restroom, etc) and also recognize around 500 characters by the end of the year. Although we do not emphasize on writing, students are expected to be able to write around 100 characters after one year’s learning. Which is equally important is the culture, and students will also have a taste of Chinese traditions, history, geography, modern society, popular culture, etc. through presentations, songs, movies and many other activities.

3. Class Struc-ture • Review -- 10 minutes • Pinyin (Chinese phonetic system) – 10 minutes • New Lesson (reading, grammar and recognizing characters) – 30 minutes • Learning and tasting food (5 minutes) • New Lesson (writing) – 10 minutes • Chinese culture (watch video clips and slides, etc.) – 15 minutes • Free speaking in Chinese – 10 minutes We also have M blocks to review and practice pronunciaion.

4. Assessment • Classroom Contribution – 25% • Homework – 25% • Quizzes – 25% (One quiz every four or five weeks) • Final – 25%

5. Fun Acti-vities A quiz only takes 30 minutes to finish. After each quiz, students will do a fun activity. In this school year, the following activities have been planed for them: • Practicing Chinese calligraphy • Using Suanpan (ancient Chinese calculator) to calculate • Typing in Chinese on a computer and surfing Chinese websites • Watching a Chinese movie • Playing Chinese chess • Going to a Chinese restaurant to have lunch • Cooking Chinese food

6. Thank you for coming!