As you are about to learn one of the most fascinating languages in the world, you may wonder what lies ahead for your Chinese language education here at the CNSCS. Provided below is information in a question and answer format to get you familiar with the curriculum and instruction at the CNSCS.
A: You can expect to
acquire listening and speaking skills in Mandarin Chinese in primary
grades. Additional
instruction in Chinese culture will be added during your secondary year
(see
A: You are given one
textbook per year from Kindergarten year. The contents in these textbooks
are in line with our curriculum goals. To enhance the learning, teachers
often prepare supplementary materials for their students.
A: Practice,
practice, and more practice.
You need to work extra hard to learn Chinese as it is the only
existing language without an alphabet to sound out words. Every character corresponds to a
single syllable in Chinese.
Therefore, you need to know about 4,000 characters for reading a
newspaper and most other common purposes. It is necessary for you to learn
Pinyin (sounds forming syllables) to allow you to learn the Chinese
through phonetics rather than characters.
A: As mentioned above, learning Chinese through characters is very hard. The “bo po mo fo” helps you to pronounce Chinese for easy learning. This non-Roman alphabet system is specially designed to be written next to Chinese characters as a supplement. As this system is unrelated to other alphabet, it is more difficult to learn, yet it captures the phonetic structure of Chinese in a logical manner. It will also aid you in mastering the Chinese language. |