CHIN 152(F) Basic Taiwanese*
An introduction to Taiwanese, the majority language of Taiwan. Different varieties of this language, which is also known as Amoy, Southern Min, Hokkien, and Fukienese, are spoken by over 60 million people in Taiwan, southern Fujian, the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore. Suppressed by the Japanese from 1895-1945 and by the KMT Chinese government from 1945 through the 1970s, Taiwanese-in both its spoken and written forms-has been experiencing a fascinating revival in recent years. This language, which is the most divergent of all the major Chinese "dialects," is of special linguistic interest because it has preserved a number of features of Old Chinese. Our focus will be on developing basic listening and speaking skills, though we will also study some of the special characters used to write Taiwanese. Since students in the course will ordinarily possess prior proficiency in Mandarin, a related language, we should be able to cover in one semester about as much as is covered in the first two semesters of Mandarin.
Evaluation will be based on classroom performance, tests, and a final exam.
Prerequisites: Chinese 202 or permission of instructor. Enrollment limit: 12 (expected: 8).
Hour: KUBLER