CHINESE LANGUAGE 3 MOD.2

This course, dedicated to students specialising in humanities in the BA in Languages, Societies and Cultures of Asia and North Africa (China currriculum), aims at developing students' linguistic skills and knowledge, both in terms of grammar structures and lexicon.
The aims of the course are the following: a) improve students' comprehension of Chinese written texts of average difficulty, enhancing their ability to recognize Chinese characters and their graphical and semantic value. Besides, it should improve students' knowledge and understanding of syntactic structures; b) develop students' translation skills both from Chinese into Italian and from Italian into Chinese; c) achieve a good level in listening and speaking Chinese.
The course will focus on a variety of issues connected to Chinese culture and history, providing Chinese-Italian translation practice and developing students' speaking ability.

The aim of the course is to achieve a level of language proficiency equivalent to level B2- of the CEFR (Common European framework of reference for language proficiency). In particular:
1. Knowledge and understanding
• Know the key sentences necessary to interact in cultural communication contexts.
• Know a lexicon of about 1300 characters and 1850 words, regarding historical, cultural and artistic contexts (active competence).
• Have a solid knowledge of the grammatical system of modern Chinese, with particular attention to the syntax of written Chinese.
2. Ability to apply knowledge and understanding
• correctly use the key sentences necessary to interact in cultural communication contexts.
• understand intermediate written texts on socio-cultural topics, modern and contemporary Chinese literature, art and society, recognizing characters and understanding the sentence structure.
• analyse and translate correctly into Italian intermediate texts on Chinese historical and cultural topics (translation from Chinese).
• write using a lexicon of about 1300 characters and 1850 words, including terms belonging to the cultural, literary and artistic fields.
• analyse and translate correctly into Chinese sentences including relatively complex grammatical structures (translation into Chinese).
3. Judgement capacity
• assess the level of one’s language knowledge, skills and abilities.
4. Communication skills
• express the specificities of linguistic and textual analysis using proper terminology.
5. Learning skills
• connect different fields of study and apply your knowledge and skills for personal and professional growth.

Students attending this course should have already passed the exam of Chinese Language 2. They should be able to look up new characters in traditional dictionaries.

Students will be trained in reading at first sight and translating a range of Chinese texts of intermediate level, taken from books, magazines and websites particularly focusing on modern and contemporary Chinese culture.
Moreover, they will be introduced to some specific structures of written Chinese.
All texts to be translated and excercises on modern written Chinese will be uploaded in the Moodle platform.

Practice A: Chinese conversation on cultural topics (60 hours: Lin Yumei).
Practice B: translation into Chinese (60 hours: Liu Ying; Niu Guoqiang).
Practice C: conversation in small groups (Lin Yumei).

TEXT READING AND CHINESE-ITALIAN TRANSLATION (Nicoletta Pesaro)
Teacher will provide texts to be translated in photocopy. An electronic copy will also be provided online (MOODLE platform).

DICTIONARIES AND TRANSLATION TOOLS:
1. Casacchia, Giorgio, Bai, Yukun, 《Dizionario Cinese-Italiano》, Venezia, Cafoscarina, 2013. [Recommended]
2. Wu Guanghua (editor), 《Han-ying da cidian - Chinese-English Dictionary》, Shanghai jiaodong Daxue chubanshe, Shanghai 1993.
3. 《Xinhua zidian》, Shangwu yinshuguan, Beijing, 1971 e succ. [Recommended]
4. 《Dizionario italiano-cinese - Yi-han cidian》, Shangwu yinshuguan, Beijing, 1985.
5. Wenlin Software for Learning Chinese, Wenlin Institute (www.wenlin.com), 1997-2012 (last release: 4.1.1, available for Windows and Mac) [Recommended]
6. Zhao Xiuying, 《Il dizionario di Cinese. Dizionario Cinese-Italiano, Italiano-Cinese》, Zanichelli, Bologna 2013.

CONVERSATION IN CHINESE
Ma Jianfei; Chen Ruojun; Mao Yue, 《Short-term Spoken Chinese: Intermediate》. 2nd Edition. Beijing: Beijing Language and Culture University Press, 2007.

TRANSLATION INTO CHINESE
Niu Guoqiang, 《Yi-Han fanyi jiaocheng》, Venezia, Cafoscarina, 2005.

Recommended dictionaries:
Casacchia G., Bai Yukun, Dizionario Cinese-Italiano, Cafoscarina, Venezia 2013,
/ Wu Guanghua (a cura di), Han-ying da cidian - Chinese-English Dictionary, Shanghai jiaodong Daxue chubanshe, Shanghai 1993, 2 voll./ New Age Chinese-English Dictionary, Beijing, The Commercial Press, 2001.

Wenlin Software for Learning Chinese, Wenlin Institute (www.wenlin.com), 1997-2012 (last release: 4.1.1).(Windows and Macintosh) / Pleco Chinese Dictionary for iOS and Android

The exam is divided into three parts, including a) a conversation in Chinese; b) the translation of a short text from Chinese into Italian; c) the translation of a number of sentences from Italian into Chinese. In order to pass the exam students will have to score a minimum of 6 points out of 10 for each of the three parts. Any change in the exam modalities will be communicated through the website.

Please note that during the course a strong focus will be put on the use of traditional dictionaries (although electronic ones and other tools such as Pleco will be used as well) in order to fully achieve the aims of the course. Therefore, during the exams, only traditional dictionaries will be allowed.

Teaching is organized in:
a) lectures;
b) writing and conversation practice with mother-tongue teachers aimed at building and consolidating the knowledge, skills and competences necessary to meet the goals of the course;
c) tutoring aimed at discussing and clarifying specific language problems emerging during classes.

written and oral