Hong Li

Intermediate Chinese is designed for students who are able to carry out simple conversations about everyday topics in Mandarin. Students are expected to have mastery of pinyin, knowledge of stroke order, and recognition of approximately 45 radicals and 200 characters. The focus continues to be on the development of aural and oral skills, with the specific goals of expanding vocabulary, strengthening listening and comprehension, and exposing students to more complex sentence patterns. There is an additional focus on word/character analysis and reading strategies. The course is proficiency-based and class is conducted entirely in Chinese. This course is generally not suitable for Chinese heritage speakers, those who grew up speaking or hearing Mandarin or who attended weekend Chinese school, or who are able to converse comfortably in Mandarin for ten minutes. Such students should select to study a different language at NCSSM and, if they wish, apply for exemption from the NCSSM graduation requirement.