Chinese Language Classes
Pasadena Language Center offers Chinese lessons for adults and children at all levels: beginner, intermediate, advanced and conversation. Learn Chinese in a comfortable, casual environment and make it a fun, enriching experience! We serve the areas of Pasadena, South Pasadena, San Marino, Arcadia, Alhambra, San Gabriel, South Arroyo, Altadena, Monrovia, Sierra Madre, Glendale, Burbank, Eagle Rock, Los Angeles, La Cañada, Montrose, La Crescenta & Sun Valley.
About the Chinese Language
Chinese is part of a Sino-Tibetan family and is spoken by more people than any other language in the world. It is the official language of the People’s Republic of China. Mandarin (Beijing dialect) is used as standard form and it is spoken by three fourths of Chinese speakers in China, that is over a billion people. Chinese is one of the official languages of the United Nations since the foundation of this organization in 1945.
Curriculum and Structure
The Chinese weekly are structured into three levels: beginner, intermediate, advanced. Each level is divided into four sub-levels: A, B, C, and D.
For all levels we use "New Practical Chinese Reader" by Beijing Language and Culture University Press.
Beginning A (lesson 1-4)
Topics: Greetings, asking what someone wants, identifying people, asking someone's nationality, asking for permission, asking someone's name, introducing oneself
Grammar: pronunciation - initials and finals, tones, spelling rules, word order in Chinese sentences, basic strokes of Chinese characters and rules of stroke order, sentences with an adjectival predicate, "yes-no" questions, sentences with "shì", etc.
Beginning B (lesson 5-8)
Topics: looking for someone, saying goodbye, asking for directions, expressing thanks, making comments, making suggestions, asking someone to repeat something, refusing and declining politely, meeting someone for the first time, talking about one's major, talking about one's family, asking about someone's occupation, talking about one's university
Grammar: pronunciation rules - initials and finals, retroflex ending, questions with an interrogative pronoun, combined character strokes, sentences with a verbal predicate, interjections, conjunctions, nouns directly used as attributives, attributives expressing possession, V/A-not-V/A questions, abbreviated questions, position of adverbs, modal particles, adverbs, numbers from 11 to 100, numeral-measure words as attributives, etc.
Beginning C (lesson 9-12)
Topics: making an appointment, asking about someone's age and birthplace, celebrating someone's birthday, expressing the date and days of the week, likes, and dislikes, shopping, asking about time, telling time, talking about one's health, expressing one's desire, expressing need or necessity, etc.
Grammar: adverbs, verb and verbal phrases as objects, words expressing time as adverbials, sentences with a nominal predicate, structure of Chinese characters, demonstrative pronouns, verb construction to ask how one should do something, prepositional phrase, sentences with double objects, sentences with an adjectival predicate, expressing the continuation of a state or action, optative verbs, sentences with serial verb phrases, asking about the cause of something, prepositions, adverbial modifiers, sentences with subject-predicate structure as predicate, alternative questions, etc.
Beginning D (lesson 13-16)
Topics: renting a house, asking for suggestions, making a phone call, invitations, making a complaint or an apology, passing on someone's regards, expressing holiday greetings, confirming that something has happened, changing money at the bank, describing a place one has visited, filling out forms, borrowing and returning books, making new friends, etc.
Grammar: adjectives as attributives, indicating location, verbs and verbal phrases as attributives, particles, pivotal sentences, optative verbs, subject-predicate structures as attributives, four kinds of simple sentences, six main question types, prepositions, adverbs, the complement of state, reduplication of the verb, numeration for numbers from 100 to 10,000, the simple directional complement, the time-measure complement, methods of constructing Chinese characters, etc.
Intermediate A (lesson 17-20)
Topics: describing and comparing things, buying clothes, at the post office, taking the bus, talking about hobbies, exchanging greetings, asking for reasons, hurrying somebody up, New Year's greetings
Grammar: comparison using prepositions, the complement of quantity, prepositions, pronouns, the resultative complement, making comparisons, the time-measuring complement, sentences with serial verb phrases: means or manner, elliptical questions, the six basic functional components of a Chinese sentence, sentences with a verbal predicate, methods of constructing Chinese characters, etc.
Intermediate B (lesson 21-24)
Topics: talking about direction and location, asking about direction, talking about sports matches, talking about a past experience, looking for a job, making an appointment or a date with someone, making comments, talking about plans, making suggestions, talking about the weather, purchasing plane tickets, going to a restaurant, talking about changes, talking about living conditions, picking someone up and seeing someone off
Grammar: modal particles, location words, sentences indicating existence, demonstrative pronouns, past experience, the action-measure complement, exclamatory construction, the appositive phrases, an action that is going to take place in a short time, the complex directional complement, notional passive sentences, changed circumstances, the progressive aspect of an action, methods of constructing Chinese characters, etc.
Intermediate C (lesson 25-28)
Topics: talking about an incident, visiting a patient, making complaints, recalling past events, talking about language studies, expressing one's opinion, giving an example, comparing, presenting and appreciating a gift, asking in retort, worrying about something
Grammar: the continuous aspect of an action or a state, the resultative complements, the conditional construction, sentences with a verbal predicate, the aspects of an action, various kinds of complements, adverbs used to express comparisons, separable disyllabic verbs, verb used to express comparisons, the rhetorical question, sentences containing a series of verbs, etc.
Intermediate D (lesson 29-32)
Topics: describing things, emphasizing an affirmation, expressing modesty, indicating a change, making a summary, giving encouragement, asking about something, making someone's acquaintance, making a guess, giving a vague response, explaining
Grammar: sentences indicating existence or emergence, the reduplication of adjectives, structural particles, the complement of state, enumeration of the numbers over 10,000, approximate numbers, pivotal sentences, grammar review.
The Chinese intensive classes are structured intro three levels: beginner, intermediate and advanced. Each level is divided into 2 sub-levels: low and high. The program includes 2 hours of grammar and 90 minutes of conversation. We use the same textbook as for the weekly classes.
The Chinese conversation classes cover different topics: news, economy, science, health, politics, entertainment, culture, travel, sports. The students are asked to prepare a newspaper or internet article on a topic of their choice. They will present it in front of the class, providing the list of new vocabulary words found in the article. The discussion will then follow and each student will take a turn on presenting an article.
For private class availability, please contact us.
For all levels we use "New Practical Chinese Reader" by Beijing Language and Culture University Press.
Beginning A (lesson 1-4)
Topics: Greetings, asking what someone wants, identifying people, asking someone's nationality, asking for permission, asking someone's name, introducing oneself
Grammar: pronunciation - initials and finals, tones, spelling rules, word order in Chinese sentences, basic strokes of Chinese characters and rules of stroke order, sentences with an adjectival predicate, "yes-no" questions, sentences with "shì", etc.
Beginning B (lesson 5-8)
Topics: looking for someone, saying goodbye, asking for directions, expressing thanks, making comments, making suggestions, asking someone to repeat something, refusing and declining politely, meeting someone for the first time, talking about one's major, talking about one's family, asking about someone's occupation, talking about one's university
Grammar: pronunciation rules - initials and finals, retroflex ending, questions with an interrogative pronoun, combined character strokes, sentences with a verbal predicate, interjections, conjunctions, nouns directly used as attributives, attributives expressing possession, V/A-not-V/A questions, abbreviated questions, position of adverbs, modal particles, adverbs, numbers from 11 to 100, numeral-measure words as attributives, etc.
Beginning C (lesson 9-12)
Topics: making an appointment, asking about someone's age and birthplace, celebrating someone's birthday, expressing the date and days of the week, likes, and dislikes, shopping, asking about time, telling time, talking about one's health, expressing one's desire, expressing need or necessity, etc.
Grammar: adverbs, verb and verbal phrases as objects, words expressing time as adverbials, sentences with a nominal predicate, structure of Chinese characters, demonstrative pronouns, verb construction to ask how one should do something, prepositional phrase, sentences with double objects, sentences with an adjectival predicate, expressing the continuation of a state or action, optative verbs, sentences with serial verb phrases, asking about the cause of something, prepositions, adverbial modifiers, sentences with subject-predicate structure as predicate, alternative questions, etc.
Beginning D (lesson 13-16)
Topics: renting a house, asking for suggestions, making a phone call, invitations, making a complaint or an apology, passing on someone's regards, expressing holiday greetings, confirming that something has happened, changing money at the bank, describing a place one has visited, filling out forms, borrowing and returning books, making new friends, etc.
Grammar: adjectives as attributives, indicating location, verbs and verbal phrases as attributives, particles, pivotal sentences, optative verbs, subject-predicate structures as attributives, four kinds of simple sentences, six main question types, prepositions, adverbs, the complement of state, reduplication of the verb, numeration for numbers from 100 to 10,000, the simple directional complement, the time-measure complement, methods of constructing Chinese characters, etc.
Intermediate A (lesson 17-20)
Topics: describing and comparing things, buying clothes, at the post office, taking the bus, talking about hobbies, exchanging greetings, asking for reasons, hurrying somebody up, New Year's greetings
Grammar: comparison using prepositions, the complement of quantity, prepositions, pronouns, the resultative complement, making comparisons, the time-measuring complement, sentences with serial verb phrases: means or manner, elliptical questions, the six basic functional components of a Chinese sentence, sentences with a verbal predicate, methods of constructing Chinese characters, etc.
Intermediate B (lesson 21-24)
Topics: talking about direction and location, asking about direction, talking about sports matches, talking about a past experience, looking for a job, making an appointment or a date with someone, making comments, talking about plans, making suggestions, talking about the weather, purchasing plane tickets, going to a restaurant, talking about changes, talking about living conditions, picking someone up and seeing someone off
Grammar: modal particles, location words, sentences indicating existence, demonstrative pronouns, past experience, the action-measure complement, exclamatory construction, the appositive phrases, an action that is going to take place in a short time, the complex directional complement, notional passive sentences, changed circumstances, the progressive aspect of an action, methods of constructing Chinese characters, etc.
Intermediate C (lesson 25-28)
Topics: talking about an incident, visiting a patient, making complaints, recalling past events, talking about language studies, expressing one's opinion, giving an example, comparing, presenting and appreciating a gift, asking in retort, worrying about something
Grammar: the continuous aspect of an action or a state, the resultative complements, the conditional construction, sentences with a verbal predicate, the aspects of an action, various kinds of complements, adverbs used to express comparisons, separable disyllabic verbs, verb used to express comparisons, the rhetorical question, sentences containing a series of verbs, etc.
Intermediate D (lesson 29-32)
Topics: describing things, emphasizing an affirmation, expressing modesty, indicating a change, making a summary, giving encouragement, asking about something, making someone's acquaintance, making a guess, giving a vague response, explaining
Grammar: sentences indicating existence or emergence, the reduplication of adjectives, structural particles, the complement of state, enumeration of the numbers over 10,000, approximate numbers, pivotal sentences, grammar review.
The Chinese intensive classes are structured intro three levels: beginner, intermediate and advanced. Each level is divided into 2 sub-levels: low and high. The program includes 2 hours of grammar and 90 minutes of conversation. We use the same textbook as for the weekly classes.
The Chinese conversation classes cover different topics: news, economy, science, health, politics, entertainment, culture, travel, sports. The students are asked to prepare a newspaper or internet article on a topic of their choice. They will present it in front of the class, providing the list of new vocabulary words found in the article. The discussion will then follow and each student will take a turn on presenting an article.
For private class availability, please contact us.