The FSI Chinese Biographic Information Module provides you with linguistic and cultural skills needed for a simple conversation typical of a first-meeting situation in China. These skills include those needed at the beginning of a conversation (greetings, introductions, and forms of address), in the middle of a conversation (understanding and answering questions about yourself and your immediate family), and at the end of a conversation (leave taking).
Before starting this module, you must take and pass the ORN Criterion Test. The resource modules Pronunciation and Romanization and Numbers (tapes 1-4) are also prerequisites to the BIO Module. The Criterion Test will focus largely on this module, but material from Module 1 and associated resource modules may also be included.
OBJECTIVES
Upon successful completion of the
FSI Chinese Biographic Information Module, the student should be able to:
1. Pronounce correctly any word from the Target Lists of ORN or BIO, properly distinguishing sounds and tones, using the proper stress and neutral tones, and making the necessary tone changes.
2. Pronounce correctly any sentence from the KO Target Lists, with proper pauses and intonation, that is, without obscuring the tones with English intonation.
3. Use polite formulas in asking and answering questions about identity (name), health, age, and other basic information.
4. Reply to questions with the Chinese equivalents of "yes" and "no."
5. Ask and answer questions about families, including who the members are, how old they are, and where they are.
6. Ask and answer questions about a stay in China, including the date of arrival, location-purpose-duration of stay, previous visits, traveling companions, and date of departure.
7. Ask and answer questions about work or study - identification of occupation, the location, and the duration.
8. Give the English equivalent for any Chinese sentence in the RIO Target Lists.
9. Be able to say any Chinese sentence in the BIO Target Lists when cued with its English equivalent.
10. Take part in a short Chinese conversation, using expressions included in the BI0 Target List sentences.
You can find the other volumes of the FSI Chinese Basic course here:
-
FSI Chinese - Standard Basic Course - Volume 1
-
FSI Chinese - Standard Basic Course - Volume 3
-
FSI Chinese - Standard Basic Course - Volume 4
-
FSI Chinese - Standard Basic Course - Volume 5
-
FSI Chinese - Standard Basic Course - Volume 6
-
FSI Chinese - Standard Basic Course - Volume 7
-
FSI Chinese - Standard Basic Course - Volume 8
-
FSI Chinese - Standard Basic Course - Volume 9
Chinese is a group of related but in many cases mutually unintelligible language varieties, forming a branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family. Chinese is spoken by the Han majority and many other ethnic groups in China. Nearly 1.2 billion people (around 16% of the world's population) speak some form of Chinese as their first language.
The varieties of Chinese are usually described by native speakers as dialects of a single Chinese language, but linguists note that they are as diverse as a language family. The internal diversity of Chinese has been likened to that of the Romance languages, but may be even more varied. There are between 7 and 13 main regional groups of Chinese (depending on classification scheme), of which the most spoken, by far, is Mandarin (about 960 million), followed by Wu (80 million), Yue (70 million) and Min (70 million). Most of these groups are mutually unintelligible, although some, like Xiang and the Southwest Mandarin dialects, may share common terms and some degree of intelligibility. All varieties of Chinese are tonal and analytic.
Chinese Mandarin is spoken in: China
Chinese Mandarin is also called: Beifang Fangyan, Guanhua, Guoyu, Hanyu, Hoton, Huayu, Hui, Hui-Zu, Hytad, Kuoyu, Mandarin, Northern Chinese, Putonghua, Qotong, Standard Chinese, Xui
