CHIN 131 - Basic Cantonese

Institution:

Williams College

Subject:

Chinese

Description:

An introduction to Standard Cantonese, a major regional language of southern China which is spoken by over 70 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 some attention will also be paid to written Cantonese, including 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.

Credits:

3.00

Credit Hours:

Prerequisites:

Chinese 202 or permission of instructor

Corequisites:

Exclusions:

Level:

Instructional Type:

Lecture

Notes:

Additional Information:

Historical Version(s):

Institution Website:

www.williams.edu

Phone Number:

(413) 597-3131

Regional Accreditation:

New England Association of Schools and Colleges

Calendar System:

Four-one-four plan

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