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Welcoming you to the course

We welcome you to this course! This video introduces you to the course contents.

Welcome to our “Introduction to Chinese: Pronunciation and Tone” course!

The course educators Zhang Yanli and Zhu Xuan are both Chinese teachers from Shanghai International Studies University.

In this course we will introduce you Chinese Pinyin or Phonetics which is the first step in developing your communicative Chinese skills.

Over the next three weeks, we will focus on:

  1. Key elements of Chinese phonetics: initials, finals and tones
  2. Core rules of spelling and tone marking
  3. Distinguishing of similar sounds
  4. Simple daily language skills such as greetings, self-introduction, expressing thanks, love and apology.

By the end of the three weeks, you will be able to pronounce Chinese sounds accurately and speak some simple Chinese. We hope you will enjoy our course to improve your Chinese reading and oral skills and have fun along the way!

The tutorial file for Week 1 is attached (refer to ‘Downloads’) in which you may find the common questions and answers, learning tips as well as some difficulties you will meet in your study. Please come to us at any time you need!

Don’t forget that you can upgrade this course. You can get extra benefits by upgrading, including:

  • Unlimited access to the course: go at your own pace with unlimited access to the course for as long as it exists on FutureLearn.
  • A Certificate of Achievement to help you demonstrate your learning. We’ll send you a Certificate of Achievement or Statement of Participation when you become eligible. Find out more to upgrade the course
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Learn Chinese: Introduction to Chinese Pronunciation and Tone

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