A bit of this course…
This course is a continuation of Beginning Chinese Conversation.
In this class, students will practice using more complex sentence structures to express preferences and offer more detailed comments on everyday topics such as travel plans, work, and their hometowns.
The instructor will provide study materials and adjust the curriculum to meet individual needs and support the development of fluency while maintaining attention to accuracy through structured scaffolding.
Your instructor
Chien Tsai has extensive experience teaching Mandarin Chinese to adult learners. His academic background and research span comparative literature and Chinese as well as Sinophone cinema, and his teaching favors clarity, accessibility, and a sharp eye for cultural nuance. These days, he is digging into the rich fault line between the Homeric epics and ancient Chinese philosophy, examining how each tradition imagines what we loosely call “the soul.”
Selected Publications: Book Review, A Passage to China, Sinophone Studies