General description

This course is designed for staff of the Judge Business School at Cambridge University, who have no prior or have little knowledge of Mandarin Chinese but wish to learn to communicate with native Chinese speakers in business settings.

For the language elements, the course is focused on key business communications in four areas: Present yourself and your business; establish business relations; business work and travel; and promote your business.

Another element of the course is to equip students to communicate effectively in the Chinese business context, through gaining a good understanding of Chinese company culture through industry case studies.

Methodology

Groups of up to 12 students and each course offers 20 sessions (2x50minutes per session) in and around Michaelmas and Lent terms. To those who wish to continue, a follow-up course (10 sessions) will be offered at Easter term.

The teaching methodology is learner-centred, the 'social environment' of the classroom is exploited to maximise the opportunities for learners to practise and improve real-time, face-to-face communication skills.

The course will follow the textbook (provided) ‘Business Chinese 20 Essential Topics’ and features a strong presence of multimedia digital materials which are accessible online in a flexible manner.

We hope to be able to deliver these courses in a classroom, face-to-face setting using a blended-learning mode. Should there be another lockdown, the courses will move to remote, online Zoom-based delivery.

Assessment

Students will be assessed based on a learning portfolio that consists of:

• A mark for attendance and participation: 10%
• 3 online multimedia interactive tests (15/20 min each): 3 x 10%
• 2 in-class, supervised tests: 2 x 10%
• A final oral and visual group presentation and conversation:  40%

Qualifications framework

Working towards the Chinese Proficiency Test Business Chinese Test (BCT) level A or HSK 2.

https://www.hsk.hk/Hanyu-Shuiping-Kaoshi

Please find more details about the Chinese language proficiency tests and framework here:
https://www.chinesetest.cn/gosign.do?id=1&lid=0#

Tutor: 老师/老師 (Lǎoshī) Hazel Zheng  

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