Chinese 102, Beginning Chinese II

• Instructor/Institution: Zack (Zouting) Wen/Earlham College
• Semester/Term Dates: Spring 2022 (Jan 31 – May 13, 2021)
• Class Days/Time:  10:00-10:50 am M,T,W,R,F 
• Prerequisites: Beginning Chinese I or approval of professor required
• Credits 5

Description:  This is a beginning class of Mandarin Chinese in listening, speaking, reading, and writing. CHIN102 introduces the fundamentals of the language, namely pronunciation, writing system, common words and expressions, and basic sentence structures. The emphasis of the course will be on linguistic capacity essential to everyday usage of the language in real – life contexts. When it becomes relevant, sociocultural backgrounds of Chinese societies and the emotions and moral judgments embedded in the language will also be introduced and discussed. Course objectives: This course aims to develop the ability of learners to communicate in Chinese, either by speaking or by writing, at the elementary level. While classes held for the course will be largely devoted to speaking and listening in Chinese, students enrolled for the course are expected to be able to read and write all the Chinese characters/vocabularies that are introduced in each lesson, and be able to comprehend and produce them in a sentence and paragraph level. Students will develop their ability to carry on short conversations in Chinese on the topics introduced in class.

Chinese 202, Intermediate Chinese II 

• Instructor/Institution: Mingda Sun/Earlham College
• Semester/Term Dates: Spring 2022 (Jan 31 – May 13, 2021)
• Class Days/Time:  11:00 am – 11:50 am M,T,R,F
• Prerequisites: Intermediate Chinese I or approval of professor required
• Credits: 4

Description: This course is the continuation of CHIN 201. It aims to help students consolidate their mastery of basic vocabulary and grammar, acquire a higher language proficiency and conversational competence, and introduce them to more complex grammatical structures and background cultural information. At the end of the semester, students are generally expected to have achieved the following competencies: 

• Ability to initiate a dialogue and converse with a Mandarin speaker on various topics of daily life with ease, and to formulate and understand syntactically complicated sentences (questions, answers, and statements). 
• Ability to understand short essays written with various combinations of approximately 1,400 characters, and to produce compositions (a letter, a story, or an argument) formulated by a few comprehensive paragraphs. 

Chinese 302, Advanced Chinese II 

• Instructor/Institution: Mingda Sun/Earlham College
• Semester/Term Dates: Spring 2022 (Jan 31 – May 13, 2021)
• Class Days/Time:  1:00 pm – 2:20 pm M,R
• Prerequisites: Upper level requirement or Advanced Chinese I or approval of professor required
• Credits: 3

Description:  This is a communicative-based course, in which listening, speaking will be practiced in class, with assignments targeted on reading and writing training. The third-year Chinese course continues to build on the language skills that you have previously acquired. The emphasis of the course will be on linguistic capacity essential to everyday usage of the language in real-life contexts. When it becomes relevant, sociocultural backgrounds of Chinese societies and the emotions and moral judgments embedded in the language will also be introduced and discussed. For purposes of instruction and testing, simplified characters are used throughout the course. 
Course objectives: 

• To be able to understand complex social and cultural issues in the Chinese-speaking world that are directly mediated through the language 
• To become familiarized with the ways in which mandarin Chinese is used for journalism and creative writings by contemporary Chinese authors 
• To be able to apply vocabularies, grammars, and expressions learned from the material studied for the course to one’s own writing as well as oral articulation in Chinese.

Chinese 340, Masterpieces of Premodern Chinese Literature in English Translation

• Instructor/Institution: Zack (Zouting) Wen /Earlham College
• Semester/Term Dates: Spring 2022 (Jan 31 – May 13, 2021)
• Class Days/Time:  1:00 pm – 2:20 pm T,F
• Prerequisites: Upper level requirement or approval of professor required
• Credits: 3

Description:  This course introduces students to texts that contributed to Central Plain Chinese knowledge of their surrounding regions from the 3rd century BCE to the early 20th century CE. By focusing on Chinese travel writings, students will learn about the historical interactions of different people and cultures in the Eurasian continent and develop an awareness of the early stages of globalization before the Age of Discovery. Students will also develop skills to analyze different cultural perspectives from reading and discussing selected scholarly works.  This course is organized around English translations of Chinese travel writings and biographical information of twelve historical figures. It aims to simultaneously provide the student with basic knowledge Chinese culture, history and geography.