Mandarin Chinese is spoken in China, Taiwan, Singapore and by many overseas Chinese communities in other areas of the world. It is also one of the six official languages of the United Nations. The Chinese language is rooted in its 5000-year cultural heritage. In the past, the Chinese culture and language heavily influenced its neighbouring countries such as Japan and Korea. Nowadays, China is one of the fastest growing economies in the world and few would doubt the importance of its global power in the twenty-first century.
This introductory course, L197, covers a wide range of practical situations such as socialising, shopping and getting around. No previous knowledge of Chinese is required to study the course.
The Open University maintains a very high standard of teaching quality and more than 95% of respondents to a survey in 2011/12 expressed satisfaction with this course.
One student who completed the course in 2011 described the course as follows, “The course was of the familiar very high OU standard, giving the disciplined and proper, structured language learning I needed. But it is a modern course in style and character, with much learning by doing/speaking, where the grammar and syntax are the choreographers of language learning that enable the depth of understanding that lets you actually speak the language. …The assignments were fair and manageable. Above all, the course was just so very interesting. Indeed, 18 months after finishing the course I have recently started teaching business English at a university in central China as an active retirement; L197 was the catalyst for this fantastic experience."
More details about the structure and fees for Beginners' Chinese, as well as taster materials, can be found at http://www3.open.ac.uk/study/undergraduate/course/l107.htm
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