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Both the traditional and simplified Chinese characters are taught at Penn State (using the Pinyin romanziation system) with an emphasis on the characteristics of the culture and societies of "Cultural China" that consists of mainland China, Taiwan (a former Japanese, Portuguese, and Dutch colony), Hong Kong (a former British colony), Singapore, Macau (a former Portuguese colony), and the diasporic Chinese communities around the world, especially in North America.

Students of Chinese should be familiarized with the Chinese culture in its present formations and pre-modern traditions. Our program emphasizes communication-oriented teaching and learning, so that students can develop balanced competence in listening, speaking, reading, and writing and can use Chinese in the real world. To achieve these goals, we have recently adopted new textbooks and modified the curriculum. We will continue to update our course offerings.

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As a student-oriented program, we adopt an effective multiple-skill approach and the immersion method. All of our language courses are multimedia-enhanced and proficiency-oriented courses. Since learning a language resembles the process of putting on a live performance, priority is given to student participation. Field trips and enrichment activities are incorporated into the learning experience. Students are encouraged to take advantage of the resources available at Penn State to improve their proficiency, including the Chinese peer-tutoring and conversation partner program. In addition to our professional and dedicated teaching team, a team of undergraduate interns in the program provides students the opportunity to speak more Chinese outside the classroom.

A typical class day involves watching video clips of TV series, films, and commercials from China, Hong Kong, or Taiwan, multimedia-enhanced interactive activities, exercises involving authentical materials (Chinese ads, signs, newspapers, artifacts, or websites), pronunciation and grammar clinic, writing workshop, and skit performance or dialogue memorization.

For example, students can use the China Guide to discover China interactively (with 360° panoramas, original Chinese music, audio of Chinese phrases, video, photography and humor). Find out how to ride a bike with the masses, navigate the subway system, take a taxi without speaking Chinese and find your way to the (correct) toilet.

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Click on the images below to see some of the textbooks and films used in our language courses.

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We adhere to the College of Liberal Arts Foreign Language Placement Policy. If you have studied Chinese before or have acquired knowledge of Mandarin Chinese through family background or other methods, you are not eligible to receive credits for beginning Chinese. These learners with prior background are called "heritage speakers" and are defined as:

1. Students who were born in a non-Chinese speaking country, but was raised in a home where Mandarin or another Chinese dialect was spoken (e.g. Cantonese or Taiwanese), who speaks or merely understands the dialect, and who is to some degree bilingual in English and Chinese.

2. Students who were born in a Chinese speaking country whose first language was Chinese, and who have received some, but incomplete formal education in that country up to 8th grade.

According to the established definition of heritage speakers by the National Foreign Language Center (NFLC, Johns Hopkins University) and National Foreign Language Resource Center (Ohio State University, funded through Title VI by the US Government), the prior backgrond of these learners take a number of different forms. Most commonly, these learners are Chinese-Americans who spent part of their childhood in a Chinese-speaking country, were exposed to Chinese at home in the US (so-called "home learners"), and/or studied Chinese in a Chinese heritage community language school in the US. We follow the NFLC Guide for Basic Chinese Language Programs. When there is any doubt about the tentative placement after the initial interview, it is generally preferable to place students higher than lower, because 1. it is desirable to keep students challenged and performing at their maximum level of ability and 2. students who are above the level of a class in speaking ability but below it in reading may nonetheless be able to keep up, if they have sufficient time to devote to remedial work.

If you have studied Chinese using other romanization systems, you can easily master the pinyin system using this Pinyin-to-Wade Giles-to-Zhuyin conversion chart. Click here to make your computer Chinese-savvy. Click here for help with using the Chinese language on Apple Macintosh computers.

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Research, teaching and learning of Chinese language and culture have been supported by a number of units on campus including the Chinese Program, Department of Comparative Literature, East Asian Studies, CALPER: Center for Advanced Language Proficiency and Research (Project: Teaching Advanced Chinese with Authentic Materials), Colloquy on Asia in the Era of Globalization (CAEG), Penn State Libraries Asian Collection (especially Chinese films), Center for Language Acquisition (CLA), International Programs Office, University Learning Centers, Schreyer Institute for Teaching Excellence, Faculty Multimedia Center (FMC), Teaching & Learning with Technology and Media and Technology Support Services.

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