Short-Term Spoken Chinese Threshold is designed for absolute beginners who want to start speaking Chinese quickly and effectively. The course focuses on practical communication through real-life situations and high-frequency expressions. Students will develop essential listening and speaking skills while learning to handle everyday conversations such as greetings, self-introductions, shopping, dining, and asking for directions. Emphasis is placed on pronunciation, tones, and communicative competence, enabling learners to speak Chinese naturally and confidently in real contexts.

The Short-Term Spoken Chinese Threshold course focuses on practical communication and helps learners build a solid foundation for real-life Chinese conversation. The lessons progress from simple to complex, combining vocabulary, sentence patterns, grammar, and pronunciation in meaningful contexts.

Main topics include:

Daily Communication: greetings, farewells, self-introduction, thanking, and apologizing;

Campus & Everyday Life: classroom interaction, telling time, numbers, and dates;

Travel & Shopping: asking for directions, taking transport, shopping, bargaining;

Food & Leisure: ordering dishes, eating out, inviting friends, talking about hobbies;

Family & Friends: introducing family members, describing people, expressing emotions;

Basic Grammar & Sentence Patterns:

“是 (to be)”, “有 (to have)”, “在 (to be at)” structures;

simple combinations of nouns, verbs, and adjectives;

basic question forms, negation, and imperative sentences;

Pronunciation & Tones: mastering pinyin, initials and finals, and the four tones;

Communicative Functions: making requests, expressing wishes, asking for information, and giving short descriptions.