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Introducing Chinese Language and Culture

Overview of Course Structure and Enrolment Procedure

Chinese is one of the largest language programs at Monash University and is taught on the Clayton campus. Several entry points are available to meet the specific needs of different students, ranging from introductory to advanced proficiency levels.

In addition to core language units, elective units are available including Chinese Media Studies, Understanding Modern and Contemporary China, Chinese Professional Language Internship, Chinese Translation. Core language units are also offered during summer semester through an intensive Chinese Language In-country program.

These units can be variously combined to form either a one-year sequence, a two-year sequence (a minor) or a three-year sequence (a major).

Chinese language studies are strongly supported by units on Chinese culture, society and politics available both within the School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics and in other schools of the Faculty of Arts. Some examples are: Understanding Asia, Understanding Modern and Contemporary China, Chinese Literature and Modernity, and Borderless Media in East Asia.

In addition to an extensive Chinese language program, research on China and Chinese issues is a very important aspect of work within Chinese Studies. The research interests of staff and postgraduate students in the Chinese program cover a great range of political, cultural, historical, social and intellectual issues, such as western development in China, Internet development and its impact on the Chinese social, political and legal systems, contemporary Chinese intellectual development and Chinese children's literature.

Furthermore there is ongoing research on new technologies for language teaching and learning. Substantial work has been carried out in new fields such as Internet based teaching and computer-assisted language learning. These new techniques are currently being used in the teaching of several Chinese language units. The Chinese program has also begun work on producing an online Chinese language course.

Compulsory language units

Once a student's place is determined, he or she will progress through the language units in a designated stream. At each level, students have the alternative to enrol in an intensive in-country program as part of their stream component (see 'Intensive In-Country Chinese Program' below).

In addition to the compulsory language units, students may also enrol in a number of electives, including Chinese Media Studies, Chinese Professional Language Internship, Understanding Modern and Contemporary China, and Chinese Translationas part of their major in Chinese.

Further information about compulsory and elective units that can count towards a Chinese langauge sequence can be found in the Chinese language handbook entry.

Intensive In-Country Chinese Program

Summer semester

The Chinese Studies Program runs an intensive, in-country, fee-paying Chinese language study program at our two Chinese host universities in Shanghai and Beijing.

Students can choose from either a three-week or a six-week program and may be eligible to apply for Monash International Study Abroad Grants.

The program offers formal language classes in addition to immersing students in Chinese culture and society. In-country units can be taken as part of any stream within the Chinese studies program, or as an elective for students from other schools or faculties.

Students should consult the Chinese Incountry Program web page for detailed information and must consult with the Chinese Studies Program before making application.

What is Chinese?

Chinese is a member of the Sino-Tibetan family of languages. It is estimated that over one thousand million, or about one quarter of the earth's population are speakers of some form of Chinese. It is a tonal language with its own unique writing system.

"Mandarin" is the major language (dialect) of China spoken as a mother tongue by about 70 per cent of the total Chinese population. Spoken primarily in northern, central and western China, Mandarin is important both for its number of speakers and for its political importance, having traditionally been the language of government, and because modern written Chinese is closer to Mandarin than to any other "dialect".

Based on “Mandarin”, Modern Standard Chinese is the official language of China (where it is called putonghua or "common speech") and Taiwan (where it is referred to as guoyu or "the national language"). Thus, even among those who speak other "dialects" as their mother tongue, standard Chinese is universally understood and spoken as a second language by people who have had at least a basic education in China or Taiwan. Wherever you travel in China, you will be able to use Standard Chinese. It is also an official language of the United Nations and is one of the four official languages of Singapore.

Other important "dialects" of Chinese include: the Wu dialects spoken around the Lower Yangtze River incorporating China's largest city, Shanghai; the Min dialects (often referred to in English as Hokkien), spoken in Taiwan and Fujian province and by many Chinese speakers in Singapore; and the Yue dialects, including Cantonese, spoken in Guangdong province, Hong Kong and by many overseas Chinese in Australia, the United States, Europe and Southeast Asia.

In recent years, because of the difficulty in communicating between these many "dialects" in the overseas Chinese communities of Southeast Asia and elsewhere, Modern Standard Chinese has become the lingua franca and language of education among these communities.

Is Chinese Difficult to Learn?

Contrary to popular belief, Chinese is no more difficult to learn than any other foreign language. Indeed, once the pronunciation has been mastered, its grammar and syntax are remarkably simple in comparison to many European languages.

Chinese is a language without inflectional word-endings to express person, tense, number, gender and case. Thus there are no verb conjugations or case endings to be learned! Grammatical relationships are determined by context and word order, which is remarkably similar to English.

After two years of study at the introductory level you will have mastered the basic grammatical structures of Chinese and will be able to communicate in a wide range of everyday situations. In your third year you will begin to read graded newspaper articles and other original texts.

There are many misconceptions about Chinese characters. While the Chinese writing system is not alphabetic and basic literacy requires the mastery of some 3,000 characters, the characters are themselves formed from a much smaller number of component parts. Once you have learned the most important characters, the subsequent acquisition of characters becomes progressively easier. The study of characters is itself one of the joys of learning Chinese.

As a system of writing, Chinese characters have been in use in their present form for two thousand years, providing a continuous historical and cultural link with China's past. Through borrowing, Chinese characters also form part of the Japanese writing system. Aesthetically they are unique among the world's scripts, giving rise to a highly developed calligraphic art form. Chinese calligraphy not only provides an added visual dimension to Chinese poetry, it adorns traditional Chinese painting in the form of poetic inscriptions which accompany the painting.

Why Study Chinese?

The study of any foreign language is a wonderful means of expanding your cultural horizons and disciplining your mind. In the case of Asian languages, there is the added stimulus of learning about unfamiliar structures, completely different writing systems, and fascinating new ways of life and thinking.

Chinese, as the official language of China and Taiwan which is also widely spoken throughout Southeast Asia, is useful as a means of communication with our nearest neighbours. Knowledge of the written language opens up the culture of one of the world's oldest civilisations.

Australians also have the opportunity to practise the language and having mastered it to put it to practical use among Australia's growing Mandarin-speaking community. The national policy of multi-culturalism is based on the idea that Australian culture can be enriched by contributions from the ethnic communities. The contributions by the Chinese community in such areas as cuisine, music, art and festivals give us a great opportunity to widen our experience and aesthetic appreciation. Such enrichment is naturally enhanced by a knowledge of the language.

Graduates proficient in an Asian language such as Chinese are in demand both in government departments and in the business world. Certain career paths are observable:

But proficiency in language alone is not enough. The best strategy is to combine the study of Chinese with an appropriate discipline. For government service, for example, the study of history, politics or economics would complement language study well; economics or law would be an asset in the business sphere; while for teaching at tertiary level, language study marries well with studies in such disciplines as linguistics, history, politics, anthropology or comparative literature.

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