Chinese Language Facts:

• Chinese is the most widely spoken language in the world, with 1.4 billion native speakers
• All Chinese dialects share one writing system of about 40,000 symbols which are 'universally' comprehensible. Different varieties of spoken Chinese often are mutually incomprehensible.
• Mandarin is the most widely spoken form of Chinese. It is the official language in People's Republic of China, Hong Kong (which is now once more part of the PRC), and Taiwan. Other important dialect groups are Wu, Xiang, Cantonese, Min, Hakka and Gan. Due to historic reasons, most Chinese-speaking people in the United States speak Cantonese.
• Written Chinese was developed about 4,000 years ago. It consists of more than 40.000 logographic symbols, meaning that a symbol represents one syllable or concept rather than a sound. Chinese writing has influenced many languages of East Asia, including Japanese. It has remained immensely stable over the millennia. Only recently has the PRC attempted to simplify it and to institute a romanized version called Pinyin, representing the sounds.
• Originally, Chinese was written from right to left in vertical columns. Taiwan has retained this vertical writing, but in the PRC the writing was changed to rows from left to right as in European languages.

Learning Chinese

Explore the world of languages and cultures in the Middlebury-Monterey Chinese camp with experienced and enthusiastic teachers.

You will be immersed in Chinese language and culture—both one of the world's oldest continuous civilizations and one of the most rapidly changing regions today—investigating a different part of Chinese life every day.

At MMLA, we address the two most challenging aspects of learning Chinese: characters and tones. We begin slowly with pinyin and basic character strokes and stroke orders. Soon we are creating an on-line wiki about Chinese camp!

Having Fun with Chinese

Communicating in Chinese opens up an exciting new world of possibilities—playing Chinese games, singing Chinese pop songs, practicing martial arts, learning brush calligraphy, making your own jiaozi (Chinese dumplings), and even performing skits based on popular Chinese dramas. Along with your camp family (headed by Chinese faculty/staff), you will enjoy the interactive environment surrounding you at the camp. Have fun and make progress with your Chinese every day!

Which Level?

We will conduct a language evaluation at the beginning of camp so that all campers are placed at the appropriate, challenging level. Generally, student campers with sporadic or no study of Chinese will be placed in the beginner group.

Student campers who have some of the following skills in speaking, listening, reading, and writing (either simplified or traditional characters) will be placed in the novice group, and those who have most of these skills will be in the intermediate group.
• Pronounce the sound of Mandarin with reasonable accuracy
• Greet and respond to greetings
• Introduce themselves and their families and respond to introductions
• Exchange and request information regarding their immediate physical environment (their family, friends, school and daily routine)
• Express likes and dislikes
• Express basic needs and emotions
• Describe people, places, and things
• Follow simple directions
• Read and interpret simple signs or short narratives on familiar ideas and details
• Write lists, short notes, or pen pal letters

Student campers can readily shift levels as their facility with the language grows and, in most of the camp’s activities—from meals to hiking and games to evening movies—all the Chinese campers will be together, interacting and building on each other's skills.

Some Chinese Resources

Websites

http://www.mandarintools.com/ (dictionary, pinyin tools, culture…)

http://www.csulb.edu/~txie/online.htm (lists of on-line Chinese learning websites)

http://www.zhongwen.com/(online dictionary, pinyin chatting)

http://chinesepod.com/ (podcast of Chinese lessons)

http://www.chinese-tools.com/ (some on-line Chinese lessons)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/chinese/real_chinese/ (BBC’s program of learning Chinese)

http://www.chinaontv.com/ (video clips on China, and language learning video clips)

http://www.elanguage.cn/ (courseware with cartoons and language exercises for Chinese learners)

Texts

Instructional Materials

Huanying: An Invitation to Chinese.
By Jiaying Howard and Lanting Xu (in press). Boston, MA: Cheng & Tsui.

Other materials for secondary schools:

Learn Chinese with Me.
Beijing: People’s Education Press, 2004.

Hanyu Beginning Student Book.
By Peter Chang, Alice Mackerras, Yu-Hsiu Ching. Boston, MA: Cheng & Tsui, 1992-99.

Ni Hao!
By Shumang Fredlein, and Paul Fredlein. Boston, MA: Cheng & Tsui, 2002.

Widely used for university elementary-intermediate students: 

Integrated Chinese Level 1, Part 1 and 2.
By Tao-chung Yao and Yuehua Liu. Boston, MA: Cheng & Tsui, 2005.

Chinese Link: Zhongwen Tiandi Simplified Character Version.
By Sue-mei Wu, Yueming Yu, Yanhui Zhang, and Weizhong Tian. Publisher: Prentice Hall, 2006

New Practical Chinese Reader, Book 1.
Liu Xun (Ed.), Beijing: Beijing Language & Culture University Press, 2004