Overview of beginners course for Mandarin.

1. LGP MANDARIN
BEGINNER 2019-2020
Tuesdays 16:00 - 17:50
Taught by: Yinghong.Huang.1@city.ac.uk

2. Course Outline
The course is designed for students:
a) Have no prior knowledge or have little knowledge of
Chinese Mandarin.
b) Wish to learn to communicate with Chinese native
speakers in social and business settings.
c) Keen to understand Chinese culture and business
culture.

3. Course Outline
• It uses pinyin system as the learning tool for
pronunciations. Focuses on basic Chinese grammar and
essential daily topics.
• Comprehensive exercises help develop 4 linguistic skills.
• Provides blended learning of Mandarin and Chinese
culture.

4. Lecturer Profile
• Yinghong Huang, born in Shanghai, holds BA in Chinese
Language and Literature, MA in Education.
• Trained as a Mandarin Chinese teacher in Shanghai
China.
• Taught at London Business School, King’s College,
Imperial College London. Working at Cass since 2004.
• Author of Business Chinese 20 Essential Topics textbook
& workbook

5. Teaching and Learning Materials
• Textbook
“Business Chinese 20 Essential Topics”
ISBN: 978-1-84570-026-3
(amazon.co.uk/cypressbooks.com)
• Workbook
“Business Chinese 20 Essential Topics workbook”
ISBN: 9781845700348
• Handouts
• Audio materials

6. Textbook & Workbook

7. Attendance and Assessment
• Attendance: 2 hours per week for 10 weeks. 10 weeks per
term. 2 terms a year.
• Assessment: 2 coursework. 1 coursework at the end of
each term. 1 portfolio project at the end of the academic
year.
• Coursework 1: Reading & Writing (Open book test)
• Coursework 2: Speaking & Listening ( Role play)
• Portfolio: All four skills

8. Course Completion Reward
• You will be given a certificate of Business Mandarin
Beginners after completing 2 coursework and 1 portfolio.

9. Chinese Culture Quiz
• Find out how much you know about culture in China.

10. What will we do
• Introduce Chinese as a language and dialects.
• Introduce using pinyin system as the learning tool
for pronunciations. Focuses on basic Chinese
grammar and essential business topics.
• Pronunciation of 23 Initials and 35 Finals.
• Four tones and neutral tones.

11. Eight dialects

12. Chinese language
• There are eight major dialects in Chinese language,
Cantonese is one of them.
• Different dialects differ in pronunciation, but share the
same written form.
• Northern dialect is spoken by 70% of Chinese population;
form the base of Putonghua.
• Putonghua is also called Guoyu or Huayu in Taiwan and
Hong Kong, is called Mandarin Chinese in English-
speaking countries, Zhongwen or Hanyu among language
learners.

13. Chinese language
• Putonghua is the term used between native
Chinese speakers in China. Its literal meaning is
“common speech” which is based on Northern
dialect.
• Zhongwen or Hanyu means Chinese which is the
term used outside China. It used to refer to
Cantonese as it was the main dialect taught
outside China, but nowadays is replaced by
Mandarin.

14. Pinyin
• Pinyin is a phonetic system based on English
alphabet.
• Using Pinyin for learning to pronounce Chinese
words.
• Pinyin is for Mandarin pronunciation.
• It was developed in China at the end of the
1950’s.
• Pinyin consists of 23 initials, 36 finals, 4 tones.

15. Pinyin & Character
Yǐng
tone
final
initial
影

16. Pinyin Initials
The initial is a consonant that begins the syllable.
• b p m f
• d t n l g k h
• j q x
• z c s (z: beds c: cats s: cheese)
• zh ch sh r
• y w

17. Pinyin Finals
i u ü
a ia ua
o uo
e ie üe
er
ai uai
ei uei (ui)
ao iao
ou iou (iu)
an ian uan üan
en in uen (un) ün
ang iang uang
eng ing ueng
ong iong

18. Pinyin Tones
4 different tones in Mandarin. A syllable
pronounced in a different tone, has a different
meaning.
• 1st tone: a higher flat tone
• 2nd tone: a rising tone stretched from a low to
high pitch.
• 3rd tone: starting low, dropping slightly and then
rising.
• 4th tone: starting from a high pitch and dropping
very sharply and quickly.