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________________________________________________________________________________________________________320 Stanley Avenue Greenwood, SC 29649-2099 (864) 388-8426 Fax (864) 388-8189 sgrund@lander.edu

LANDER UNIVERSITY

Office of Continuing Education

Conversational ChineseMondays & Wednesdays, 6:00-7:30 p.m.

September 19-October 12, 2011

Fee: $50Conversational Chinese for beginners is designed for beginners to improve

their oral Chinese as well as writing and reading skills. It consists of two parts:

highly useful conversational Chinese at the beginning of each class; basic

written Chinese which emphasizes the basic strokes and rules of thumb for

writing the Chinese simplified characters. Instructor: Chen Xiaohong, visiting

scholar from Shanghai, China. (Female, last name Chen)

TO REGISTER: Call (864) 388-8426

BACKGROUND:The earliest form of Written Chinese was recorded over an unbelievable 6000 years ago when figures and symbols were

used instead of the characteristic strokes modern Chinese language is known for these days. Since then, the early Chinese

language has evolved several times in its history. The earliest known form of patterned stroked Chinese language has

origins dating back 1120BC, over 3000 years ago, when bronze artifacts in the Zhou Dynasty was discovered with

inscriptions. Further evolution has since taken place, over almost twenty dynasties later, the Chinese language have

evolved, branched off and now the spoken Chinese language has over 13 sub-languages and dialect, making it the most in

the world.

With over one billion people in the world speaking some form of Chinese, spoken Chinese is by far the most used language

in the world. Most countries in the Asian world uses some form of the Chinese language so practicing the language would

definitely benefit those living, visiting or doing business in the Asian world. Currently, two systems are being used forChinese characters; the traditional Chinese (used widely in Macau and Hong Kong) and simplified Chinese (practiced in

Singapore and Malaysia). These two systems co-relate with each other and mostly differ only in the number of characters.

With China quickly becoming an economic powerhouse and countries like Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore having a

growing economy, learning the Chinese language would definitely be beneficial in the modern business world. It is well

known that locals are more open to those who have embraced the language and culture and with your knowledge of the

Chinese language; even basic conversational words will give you the added advantage if you wish to strike up a business

deal with an Asian Chinese speaking partner. Learning the language will benefit any business minded individual as most

business dealings are headed east, where production costs are cheaper and production rate goes at an outstanding speed.

Learning the Chinese language will serve to benefit those with an avid interest in one of the oldest cultures known to

mankind; the Chinese culture. With its colorful past of the era of the Chinese Dynasties, the art of Chinese calligraphy, the

beautiful water color paintings, the practices of the Chinese society and how China has revolutionized to cope and takeadvantage of the current world, linguistics and culturists will definitely learn to appreciate the many facets of the culture by

first picking up the language.

Most who have been in contact with the Chinese Language but not picked it up generally assume that there are millions of

Chinese characters to learn, this is one of the misconceptions that throws people off from learning the Chinese language. In

actual fact, the language only has over 20,000 characters and most get by with only 6000 characters and 400 spoken

monosyllables. While some may argue that the number is still considerably larger than the English language, as a business

trader or a traveler, one can get by with the most basic conversational Chinese.