Mandarin Express Basic Level B focuses on speaking and listening, further improves students’ overall Chinese comprehension, and sheds lights on some Chinese cultural practices and beliefs. The learning medium is pinyin. As the sentence structures are kept simple during this course and vocabularies relatively small, pinyin continues to be a viable alternative to Chinese characters.
Centring around ten important topics, including brands, description of places, age group and sports, this course expands the scope of what students have already learned, and helps them speak with confidence.
Interviews and experience sharing are at the heart of class activities. There are also fascinating short stories that improve students’ overall Chinese comprehension and provide great topics for discussions.
Listening skill is particularly emphasised in this course, that 60% of the exercises are tightly controlled listening exercises, of which many feature longer Chinese texts at a natural speed of native Mandarin speakers. These highly targeted listening exercises are challenging and rewarding, producing lasting learning results and benefiting students’ future Chinese studies immensely.
On completing the course, students will be reaching a milestone on their learning path, able to communicate well in Mandarin in a consistent and natural manner.