Not offered 2007-2008
CHIN 131 Basic Cantonese *
An introduction to Standard Cantonese, a major regional language of southern China which is spoken by over 50 million people in Hong Kong, Macao, Guangdong, and Guangxi as
well as by many overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia, Hawaii, and North America. Due to
the pervasive influence of Hong Kong as well as the economic transformation of
Guangdong Province, the prestige of Cantonese within China has been rising steadily over
the past few decades. Our focus in this course will be on developing basic listening and
speaking skills, though we will also study some of the special characters which have been
used for centuries to write colloquial Cantonese. Since students will ordinarily possess prior
proficiency in Mandarin, a closely related language, we should be able to cover in one
semester about as much as is covered in the first two to three semesters of Mandarin.
Evaluation will be based on classroom performance, quizzes, tests, and a final exam.
Prerequisites: Chinese 202 or permission of instructor. Enrollment limit: 12 (expected: 8).
KUBLER