Learning Chinese opens doors to a booming economy, an exciting culture and over a billion speakers in various countries around the world. It is one of the world’s most widely spoken languages and is extremely useful when it comes to career prospects, trade, cultural exports, tourism, diplomacy and business. 

In Years 8 and 9, students will learn a range of new vocabulary through the various units and will enhance their skills and confidence in the four areas of speaking, listening, reading and writing. We begin the course with an introduction to ‘pinyin’ and the four tones, then move onto the different character strokes and the correct order for writing characters. The students will quickly be able to express themselves and ask questions. Units are carefully sequenced to allow the students to continue to build on their vocabulary and for learning sentences structures. They will become more confident and fluent, and will be able to express themselves in more detail, justifying their opinions and making comparisons.

The students will feel confident having conversations in Chinese and class work will include individual, pair and group work in a range of activities, role plays and games to increase language skills and cultural awareness. The students will also use technology and will learn how to type in Chinese characters. Furthermore, students will learn about China’s fascinating history and culture. Studying Chinese in Years 8 and 9 will lay an excellent foundation for students who wish to continue on to study GCSE Chinese and A level Chinese.