Conversational Mandarin
Develop your speaking and listening skills with our Conversational Mandarin courses.
This series is designed to fit around a busy schedule with two-hour classes running once a week on Tuesday evenings. It is the perfect way to learn some survival Chinese for a trip to China or to dip your toe in the water before learning to write Chinese characters.
We recommend two hours of self-study per week to ensure learners can keep up with the pace of the course.
Once learners complete the Beginner Conversational series, they can deepen their knowledge by progressing to Comprehensive Mandarin Level 2, which will focus on writing as well as reading and listening skills.
Once you’ve read the course descriptions, find out how to enrol. If you're unsure which level is right for you, email confucius@manchester.ac.uk to arrange a free consultation.
Beginner conversational Mandarin 1
- Weekday evenings - Wednesday 17 April - 19 June, 6-8pm
- £170 full price
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A beginners' course which focuses on developing the skills of listening and speaking in Mandarin Chinese. The course aims to equip the students with useful words and phrases for practical use, and covers greetings, making an acquaintance, making an enquiry (time/ directions/ reservations), and fulfilling daily needs (purchasing items/catching buses/ordering food, etc).
- Acquire the confidence and ability to have basic exchanges with native speakers to facilitate travel in China.
- Establish a core vocabulary of 150 Chinese words used in everyday contexts.
All teaching materials have been specifically developed by our teachers using a variety of sources and so all learning materials will be provided throughout the course.
| Lesson | Topics | Including |
|---|---|---|
| Lesson 1 | Greetings | Numbers, useful phrases |
| Lesson 2 | Self-introduction | Age, family, job |
| Lesson 3 | Where are you going? | Locations |
| Lesson 4 | Booking a hotel | Date |
| Lesson 5 | Buying tickets | Time |
| Lesson 6 | Having a meal | Food, price |
| Lesson 7 | Making an appointment | Making enquiries |
| Lesson 8 | How to get to... | Directions |
| Lesson 9 | Seeing a doctor | Symptoms |
| Lesson 10 | Do you speak Mandarin? | Giving/accepting compliments. Review of the whole course |
For an example of the course content view our course extract.
Beginner Conversational Mandarin 2
- Weekday evenings - Tuesday 16 April - 18 June, 6-8pm
- £170 full price
- Completion of Conversational Mandarin 1 or 20 hours intensive Mandarin
A beginners' course which focuses on developing the skills of listening and speaking in Mandarin Chinese. The student will also learn to recognise some basic characters.
The course aims to equip students with useful words and phrases for practical use, and covers making requests in a cafe, enquiring about someone's nationality, making a request for help, asking for directions and places, discussing the menu and ordering dishes in a restaurant, making an appointment, asking for help in a shop, proposing a toast and giving a compliment.
- Acquire the confidence and ability to have simple conversations with native speakers to facilitate travel and study in China.
- Have established a core vocabulary of 300 Chinese words used in everyday contexts.
All teaching materials have been specifically developed by our teachers using a variety of sources and so all learning materials will be provided throughout the course.
For an example of the course content view our course extract.
Please note: You can progress to Comprehensive 2 after completing Beginner Conversational Mandarin 1-2.