Chinese Characters

Catalog description

This is a 2-credit 200 level intermediate Chinese course aiming to help students master the skills of reading and handwriting Chinese Characters, gain relevant knowledge of the simplified Chinese characters writing system, and understand the culture behind Chinese characters. Through the learning and intensive practice of the Chinese strokes, radicals, components, characters, and culture, this course also aims to improve students’ ability to recognize, analyze, appreciate, and handwrite Chinese characters; and improve their abilities of observing and appreciating Chinese characters and the related culture; reinforce the vocabulary and the structures of Elementary and Intermediate levels; to encourage their self-reflection on Chinese characters learning, and help them to have a better and stronger foundation for future learning. In this course, students will be engaged in various in-class activities, field trips, and presentations. For in-class activities, they will build Chinese characters with Lego, work with peers to complete information-gap tasks, draw characters’ mind maps, and write calligraphy on Century Avenue with brushes, etc. During field trips, students will appreciate the work pieces of Chinese Calligraphy and observe/examine authentic materials that refer to Chinese characters in Galleries. Students will give several types of : They will tell stories about Chinese characters and the culture behind them; they will also present the connection of the pronunciation and meaning of each Chinese character. By participating in various activities, listening and speaking skills will be improved in addition to the emphasis on reading and writing skills. Prerequisite: CHIN-SHU 102 or the equivalent. Anti-requisite: Students who have completed CHIN-SHU 202 or the equivalent ( CHIN-SHU 211 , CHIN-SHU 202A ) are not eligible. Any student enrolled in a higher class…