Skip to main content

Chinese Course -
Chinese Reading and Writing 1

Course Aims

  • Understand strokes and stroke orders of Chinese characters
  • Learn 70 most frequently used Chinese characters and their combinations
  • Build up initial ability in reading and writing short Chinese texts

Course Description

Start with strokes and stroke orders, Chinese Reading and Writing 1 teaches 70 Chinese characters and how to use them in combinations, sentences and conversations. It is a wonderful opportunity for students to understand the uniqueness of the Chinese writing system.

Course Materials

Course Duration

15 class hours

How Does It Work

This is a beginner’s Chinese reading and writing course, designed for non-Chinese speakers to begin learning the Chinese writing system. It is also a viable choice for heritage learners, who have conversational abilities in Mandarin, but can not recognise any Chinese characters. 

Learning Chinese characters is a must. Although pinyin is a great tool to learn listening and speaking, pinyin as the only means of learning Chinese can not be sustained. 

Chinese Reading and Writing 1 starts with strokes and stroke orders, which help students start writing Chinese characters in an approachable way. However, throughout the entire course, the focus is always on practicing writing meaningful texts. Whether or not students follow any particular stroke orders is not considered essential in this course.

This course presents 70 most frequently used Chinese characters and their combinations, and teaches students how to read and write sentences, short conversations and paragraphs written with these 70 characters. 

Additional worksheets are provided for students to further practice Chinese reading and writing.

Chinese Learning Pen is an audio tool which allow students to play any part of the texts in the book. It is instrumental in accelerating their character recognition process and improving their pronunciations. 

On completing this course, students will understand the potentiality of individual Chinese characters, the difference between characters and words, and enjoy a sense of achievement that only reading and writing Chinese can bring.

Evaluation of Progress

A review chapter is in place at the end of the book. This is where learnings are consolidated and assessed. How well students complete the exercises in the review chapter demonstrates their progress.

Study Modes


Other Related Chinese Courses


Chinese writing course

Chinese Reading and Writing 2

Mandarin course

Mandarin Express Intro Level B

intensive Mandarin

Intensive Mandarin Program