Our online high school Mandarin Chinese courses feature a variety of activities.  Each unit introduces a vocabulary theme and grammar concept.  Activities to practice the material learned include reading, writing, listening, and speaking, and games.  Every unit also includes a lesson on Chinese culture.  Assessments (quizzes and exams) include set answer questions (i.e. multiple choice), writing portions, and speaking portions. 

 

The courses have been carefully aligned to national standards as set forth by ACTFL (the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages).  Listed below are some examples of what is specifically covered in each high school course.  The lists of topics and grammar points are not complete lists, but give substantial examples of what is covered.

 

Topics in the first semester online high school Mandarin I course include greetings, numbers, months and days, colors, rooms and household items, and illnesses.

 

Grammar covered includes measure words, plurals, asking questions, adjectives and opposites, describing differences, possessives, and describing where things are.

 

Students are introduced to pinyin and tone marks immediately, and later in the semester are introduced to Chinese characters.

 

Activities in first semester Mandarin I include creating your own story and writing a song or poem. 

 

Topics in the second semester online high school Mandarin I course include addresses, family, school, food, recipes, eating utensils, clothing, going to a movie, animals, drawing words, nature, going on a trip, and directions (getting around town).

 

Grammar covered includes repeating words, when/while/during, describing things, comparisons, time placement, near and far, directions.

 

Topics in the first semester online high school Mandarin II course include sports, seasons and activities, feelings and emotions, Internet/TV/gaming, places and things to do in a city, hobbies, weather, professions, transportation, and international cities.

 

Grammar covered includes ordinal numbers, choosing the right verb for the right sport, how to express feelings, expressing arriving with dao, using different buts, measure words, using if, when and superlatives.

 

Topics in the second semester online high school Mandarin II course include music and instruments, holidays, Chinese cooking, a Chinese love story, marriage, extended family, dialects, idioms, and philosophy.

 

Grammar covered includes: How to express spending time, expressing understanding, expressing what you can do, compliments, before/after, the phrase "and with me go," using fillers, using verbs, passives, cognates, metaphors, "this way…that way…", the many meanings of xiang, and giving advice.

 

Part of the final exam in Mandarin II B requires the student to write ten sentences on a topic using Chinese characters.

 

With the fast pace of globalization in today’s world, Mandarin Chinese is becoming one of the most important languages in fields such as business, politics, travel, and many others.

Mandarin is spoken by at least 1.2 billion people around the world. Speaking Mandarin opens the doors of communication with China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Macau, Tibet, Singapore, and Malaysia.  There is also a very large population of Mandarin-speaking people in the United States. Business partnerships are growing between the two cultures. If our students prepare themselves by becoming bilingual, they will have a great advantage in the workforce in the future.

At Sterling Academy, we give students the opportunity to learn the language and be able to use it in real-life situations. 

Mandarin Chinese is a major world language for the 21st century -- be prepared for your century by studying Mandarin Chinese at Sterling Academy. Come register for a great and valuable learning experience!  

 

 

There are two different ways to write Mandarin Chinese:

(1)  Simplified Chinese: the written form of Mandarin used mostly in mainland China, Singapore, Malaysia and Tibet; and  (2)  Traditional Chinese: the written form of Mandarin used mostly in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, Philippines and in most overseas Chinese communities outside of Southeast Asia, including Chinese American communities in the US.

If you want to study Traditional Characters, it's a good idea to learn the pronunciation system known as Zhuyin 注音, also known as bopomofo and tone marks. This was the pronunciation system used to learn Chinese before Pinyin, and it's still used in Taiwan. 

There are only a few thousand Chinese characters simplified in the 1950s.  There is no difference in the spoken language of Mandarin Chinese, just a few thousand traditional characters simplified, but grammar patterns are still the same.

 

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