Mandarin Chinese
| Course Code | CHIN | |
| Levels Offered | 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th year | Full course list * |
| Minor Available | Yes | More details |
| Placement Test | Required for students with previous knowledge | More details |
| * Not all courses are offered every term, please check Carleton Central and/or the Public Class Schedule for course availability. | ||
Updates:
- CHIN 3015: Mandarin Chinese for Heritage Speakers (NEW!) offered Fall 2013.
- CHIN 4380, Topics in Chinese Culture and Society (taught in English). Fall 2013 option will focus on business and economy. Winter 2014 option will focus on culture and politics.
- Be sure to check out the Confucius Institute website for non-credit offerings.
About the Language
Mandarin is the official language of China and is spoken by approximately 1.2 billion people world-wide.
- It is an ideographic language based on a large set of characters (approximately 60,000) developed about 5,000 years ago.
- Syntactically, Mandarin is a relatively uncomplicated language.
- Unlike the English inflection system, Mandarin largely uses particles and word order to present ideas.
- Mandarin is a tonal language in which each syllable has a significant contrastive pitch, with up to four pitches; different tones change the meaning of a word.
Registration Information
Space in language courses is limited. Register as early as possible. If the course is full when you attempt to register, please submit a Course Registration Override Request or, if applicable, add your name to a waitlist on Carleton Central. Click here to learn more about how waitlisting works.
Course Previews
If you want to learn more about the requirements of each course, look over the course previews in the drop-down list below.
IMPORTANT: These previews will give you an idea of the types of assignments, readings, and instructor expectations you may encounter in the course. However, please be aware that these documents are NOT OFFICIAL COURSE OUTLINES. The actual courses you take may differ considerably from the descriptions provided in the previews.
Please be aware that list is currently under development with previews being added over time. If your course preview is not yet available, please check back later.
* Also, please note that starting 2009-10, our previous Modern Language course codes changed. Click here for a summary of these changes.