Courses · Mandarin Chinese · Kindergarten to high school
Mandarin Chinese 中文
The language with more native speakers than any other, written in characters whose history runs back more than three thousand years. Our courses teach it the careful way: the four tones and pinyin first, said aloud every day; then the characters, stroke by stroke, with the pictures and radicals that make them easier to remember; then the grammar of real conversation, until a high-school student can introduce himself, order a meal, give directions, write a short letter and recite John 3:16 in Chinese. Every course uses simplified characters with pinyin, the standard of mainland China and of most Chinese textbooks, and shows the traditional form beside each new word.
Choose a grade · Kindergarten to Grade 8
Ages 5–6
Kindergarten
你好! Hello and thank you, my name, six colors, counting to ten on the fingers, the face and body, and animals from the cat to the panda, with songs and pictures.
Ages 6–7
Grade 1
Polite words, the family from 爸爸 to the grandparents, age and birthdays, asking for food with 我要, and the sun, moon, stars and weather.
Ages 7–8
Grade 2
The classroom, the home and helping, numbers to 100 and the days of the week, clothes and colors, and the four seasons in Chinese paintings.
Ages 8–9
Grade 3
The four tones and pinyin, the first picture-characters, who I am and where I am from, money and dates, measure words, and the food I like.
Ages 9–10
Grade 4
Telling time and the daily routine, places in town and directions, trains, buses and bikes, the animals of China, and hobbies and sports.
Ages 10–11
Grade 5
How characters are built from radicals, weather and seasons, the body and health, clothes and shopping, and the Christmas story and carols.
Ages 11–12
Grade 6
The story of Chinese writing from oracle bones to pinyin, where Mandarin is spoken, the particles 吗, 呢, 吧, the traditional festivals, and Hudson Taylor.
Ages 12–13
Grade 7
Big numbers counted by 万, travel by subway and high-speed train, comparing with 比, experiences and the life of Eric Liddell, and idioms beside Proverbs.
Ages 13–14
Grade 8
The story of the Bible in Chinese, two Tang poems, writing paragraphs and letters, calligraphy and Matteo Ricci and Xu Guangqi, and Psalm 23 as a capstone.
High school · Mandarin I
A full-year course for high-school students beginning Mandarin: 12 units of 3 lessons, one lesson a week for 36 weeks, four sessions of 40–50 minutes, with unit tests, a midterm and a final exam, and separate answer keys for the parent. A student who finished Grade 8 will know the tones, pinyin and many characters already and can move faster through the first units.
Grades 9–12
Mandarin I
A full-year first course in Mandarin: the four tones and pinyin, greetings, family, time, food, school, shopping, directions, weather, free time and health, measure words, 比, 会 and 了, about three hundred characters written stroke by stroke, and the story of Chinese writing and of the gospel in China, with paintings by Zhang Zeduan, Guo Xi, Xu Yang and Su Hanchen.
How every lesson works
Each course from kindergarten to grade 8 is a short course: 5 units of 2 lessons, one lesson a week, about one quarter of the school year, with three sessions a week that grow from 15–20 minutes in the early grades to 30–40 minutes from grade 5 on. Mandarin I is a full high-school year with four longer sessions a week.
- Warm-up. A few minutes of saying Chinese out loud: tones, words and phrases, with a puzzle to think about.
- Watch. A hand-picked YouTube video from an approved teaching channel or a museum, with a note on when to watch it.
- Learn. How Mandarin works, in short sections a parent can read aloud, with pinyin over the characters and a pronunciation guide for every new word.
- Picture study. A Chinese painting in every unit, Zhang Zeduan, Guo Xi, Fan Kuan, Ma Yuan, Xu Yang, to look at closely and talk about.
- Activity. The student makes something every week: character cards, a family tree, a menu, a map, a weather chart, a letter.
- Chinese notebook and flashcards. A notebook of characters written in squares, stroke by stroke, and a flashcard deck that grows every lesson.
- Worked examples and practice. Speaking, reading, writing and translation, easy through challenge, with answers to check.
Every lesson has a Bible verse in the Chinese Union Version of 1919 (和合本), the Bible of Chinese-speaking churches for over a century, printed with pinyin beside the exact words of the King James Version. Chinese festivals and customs are described factually, as history and culture, and the courses carry no political content.
Nothing needs to be bought. Activities use index cards, squared paper, pencil, crayons and things from around the house. Each unit also lists optional books and free resources.
Every course can also be downloaded as one printable PDF, with the video links printed in each lesson. Worksheets come with separate answer keys for the parent.
Videos open on YouTube. Every embedded video comes from a teaching channel or museum approved for School Launch, but YouTube shows its own recommendations and ads around them, so parents should preview the videos and stay nearby.