Continuing instruction in spoken and written Chinese, with particular emphasis on consolidating basic conversational skills and improving reading confidence and depth. Lab work required. This course is designed to consolidate the foundation built in Elementary Chinese and continue developing students skills in aural comprehension, reading, and writing. Upon completion of the course, students should be able to speak Chinese with some fluency on basic conversational topics, achieve a basic level of reading competence within simplified and traditional characters learned plus common compounds, and be able to write short compositions.

Continuing instruction in spoken and written Chinese, with particular emphasis on consolidating basic conversational skills and improving reading confidence and depth. Lab work required. This is the third of the four courses (Chinese I through IV) in MIT's regular (non-streamlined) Chinese curriculum. The four make use of the textbook, Learning Chinese: A Foundation Course in Mandarin (unpublished, but available online), to which are added various supporting materials as needs arise. The foundation level covers core grammar, linguistic culture, basic conversation, the principles of the writing system, and elementary reading. Reading is primarily in the simplified character set that is the standard on the Mainland, but also in the traditional set that is still standard in Taiwan and many overseas communities. All four subjects in the foundation level are (Chinese I and II) or soon will be (Chinese IV) available on OpenCourseWare. Students who have advanced through Chinese I and II to reach this level, as well as those entering at Chinese III, should review at least the late material in Chinese II before proceeding. To facilitate review, as well as to orient students who are new to these materials, highlights from all the units in Chinese I and II and a list of the characters formally introduced in Character lessons 1-6 are included in the readings section of this course.

This subject is the second semester of two that form an introduction to modern standard Chinese, commonly called Mandarin. Though not everyone taking this course will be an absolute beginner, the course presupposes only 21F.101/151, the beginning course in the sequence. The purpose of this course is to develop: (a) basic conversational abilities (pronunciation, fundamental grammatical patterns, common vocabulary, and standard usage); (b) basic reading skills (in both the traditional character set and the simplified); (c) an understanding of the way the Chinese writing system is structured, and the ability to copy and write characters; and (d) a sense of what learning a language like Chinese entails, and the sort of learning processes that it involves, so students are able to continue studying effectively on their own. The main text is J. K. Wheatley's Learning Chinese: A Foundation Course in Mandarin, part II (unpublished, but available online). (Part I of the book forms the basis of 21F.101/151, which is also published on OpenCourseWare..

Continuation of 21F.101. For full description, see 21F.101. For graduate credit see 21F.152.

This subject is the first semester of two that form an introduction to modern standard Chinese, commonly called Mandarin. Though not everyone taking this course will be an absolute beginner, the course presupposes no prior background in the language. The purpose of this course is to develop: (a) basic conversational abilities (pronunciation, fundamental grammatical patterns, common vocabulary, and standard usage); (b) basic reading skills (in both the traditional character set and the simplified); (c) an understanding of the way the Chinese writing system is structured, and the ability to copy and write characters; and (d) a sense of what learning a language like Chinese entails, and the sort of learning processes that it involves, so students are able to continue studying effectively on their own.

The main text is Wheatley, J. K. Learning Chinese: A Foundation Course in Mandarin. Part I. (unpublished, but available online). (Part II of the book forms the basis of 21F.102 / 152, which is also published on OpenCourseWare.)

This subject is the first semester of two that form an introduction to modern standard Chinese, commonly called Mandarin. Though not everyone taking this course will be an absolute beginner, the course presupposes no prior background in the language. The purpose of this course is to develop: Basic conversational abilities (pronunciation, fundamental grammatical patterns, common vocabulary, and standard usage); Basic reading and writing skills (in both the traditional character set and the simplified); and An understanding of the language learning process so that you are able to continue studying effectively on your own.

The main text is Wheatley, J. K. Learning Chinese: A Foundation Course in Mandarin. Part I. (unpublished, but available online). (Part II of the book forms the basis of 21F.102 / 152, which is also published on OpenCourseWare.)

This is the continuing instruction in spoken and written Chinese, with particular emphasis on consolidating basic conversational skills and improving reading confidence and depth. Upon completion of the course, students should be able to speak Chinese with some fluency on basic conversational topics, achieve a basic level of reading competence within simplified and traditional characters learned plus common compounds, and be able to write short compositions.

This is the last of the four courses (Chinese I through IV) that make up the foundation level (four semesters over two years in the normal curriculum) of MIT's regular (non-streamlined) Chinese program. Chinese IV is designed to consolidate conversational usage and grammatical and cultural knowledge encountered in the earlier courses, and to expand reading and listening abilities. It integrates the last part of Learning Chinese (two units designed primarily for review of grammatical concepts and vocabulary growth) with material from Madeline Spring's Making Connections, designed to bolster listening skills, and Linda Hsai and Roger Yue's Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio, a collection of traditional stories that has been a favorite of students of Chinese for many decades and is used here to focus on reading. Reading for this course is primarily, but not exclusively, in the simplified character set that is the standard on the Mainland; readings in the traditional set that is standard in Taiwan are also assigned. Students who have advanced through Chinese I, II, and III to reach this level, as well as those entering at Chinese IV, should review at least the late material in Chinese III before proceeding.

This is the second semester of the intermediate level sequence intended for students whose conversational ability exceeds their reading and writing skills. Focus is on reading and writing, as well as broadening conversational skills and control of standard pronunciation, for students with background in conversational Chinese. Lab work is required. On completing this course, students should be able to speak the language with standard pronunciation, to converse with some fluency on everyday topics, as well as on some specialized topics, to read edited, as well as authentic texts, in simplified or traditional characters with suitable fluency, and to be able to write composition on certain topics. The class consists of a combination of practice, reading, discussion, dictation, composition and feedback, net exploration via the web, and presentation. This course is conducted in Mandarin.

This course is the continuation of 21F105. It is designed to further help students develop sophisticated conversational, reading and writing skills by combining traditional textbook material with their own explorations of Chinese speaking societies, using the human, literary, and electronic resources available at MIT and in the Boston area. Some special features of Chinese society, its culture, its customs and habits, its history, and the psychology of its people are introduced. The class consists of reading, discussion, composition, network exploration, and conversational practice. The course is conducted in Mandarin.

This course is a sequel to 21F.113 Chinese V (Streamlined). It is designed to further help students develop sophisticated conversational, reading and writing skills by combining authentic reading and audio-visual material with their own explorations of Chinese speaking societies, using the human, literary, and electronic resources available at MIT, in the Boston area and on the web. Some special features of Chinese societies, cultures and customs will be introduced. The class consists of readings, discussion, student presentations and network exploration. The course is conducted in Mandarin.

Students develop more sophisticated conversational and reading skills by combining traditional textbook material with their own explorations of Chinese speaking societies, using the human, literary, and electronic resources available at MIT and in the Boston area. This course is the continuation of 21F104/108. It is designed to further help students develop sophisticated conversational, reading and writing skills by combining traditional textbook material with their own explorations of Chinese speaking societies, using the human, literary, and electronic resources available at in the Boston area. Some of special features of Chinese society, its culture, its customs and habits, its history, and the psychology of its people are be introduced. The class consists of reading, discussion, composition, network exploration, and conversational practice. The course is conducted in Mandarin.

This online textbook represents materials that were used in the first four semesters (two years) of the Mandarin program at MIT. They eventually formed the basis of a print textbook of the same name, published by Yale University Press; information and supplemental materials for the Yale edition are available at the companion website. The OCW course materials were extensively revised, and at times reordered, before publication, but the general principles of the original remain: to provide a comprehensive resource for the foundation levels of Chinese language that separates the learning of oral skills from literary (the former being transcribed in pinyin, and the latter in characters). This resource contains the complete online version of the text and accompanying audio recordings.