Chinese Linguistics: the Structure of Chinese Characters
Course code
CIC6129.CI
old course code
Course title in Estonian
Hiina keele lingvistika: hiina kirja struktuur
Course title in English
Chinese Linguistics: the Structure of Chinese Characters
ECTS credits
3.0
Assessment form
assessment
lecturer of 2024/2025 Spring semester
Not opened for teaching. Click the study programme link below to see the nominal division schedule.
lecturer of 2025/2026 Autumn semester
Not opened for teaching. Click the study programme link below to see the nominal division schedule.
Course aims
The course teaches basic Chinese characters to beginners who are not from the Chinese character culture circle. It includes basic knowledge such as Chinese character strokes, stroke order, radicals, the structure and writing of Chinese characters, some phrases and sentences, etc. The focus is to help learners build a clear cognitive structure that is compatible with Chinese characters.
Brief description of the course
This course is a supplementary course for the A1 comprehensive course and the listening and speaking course. It is mainly designed to help Chinese beginners strengthen their basic knowledge of Chinese characters and enhance their ability to read and write Chinese characters. This lesson aims to help students master the basic rules of Chinese character formation by explaining the basic strokes and structures of Chinese characters. This course hopes to enable students to skillfully use the basic strokes of Chinese characters, and master approximately 25 radicals and 360 Chinese characters.
Learning outcomes in the course
Upon completing the course the student:
- is able to master the basic strokes and writing order (such as the horizontal stroke, the vertical stroke, the left-falling stroke, the right-falling stroke etc.), and write them in a standardized manner;
- know simple radicals and understand their role in character construction and meaning;
- understand the structure of basic Chinese characters, including Pictographic Characters, Self-explanatory Characters, Associative Characters, Pictophonetic Characters and other basic character creation methods;
- can read and write basic Chinese characters and vocabulary commonly used in daily life.
- is able to master the basic strokes and writing order (such as the horizontal stroke, the vertical stroke, the left-falling stroke, the right-falling stroke etc.), and write them in a standardized manner;
- know simple radicals and understand their role in character construction and meaning;
- understand the structure of basic Chinese characters, including Pictographic Characters, Self-explanatory Characters, Associative Characters, Pictophonetic Characters and other basic character creation methods;
- can read and write basic Chinese characters and vocabulary commonly used in daily life.
Teacher
Additional information
The volume of the individual work is 4 hours a week. Total for the semester is 60 hours.
1) Students are required to memorise new characters and new words and finish all the homework that teacher gives in class.
2) Students can form different words based on the Chinese characters they have learned.
3) Students complete a certain number of reading tasks based on the Chinese characters they have learned.
4) For memorisation of the Chinese characters, students are required to write them repeatedly in their own workbook.
1) Students are required to memorise new characters and new words and finish all the homework that teacher gives in class.
2) Students can form different words based on the Chinese characters they have learned.
3) Students complete a certain number of reading tasks based on the Chinese characters they have learned.
4) For memorisation of the Chinese characters, students are required to write them repeatedly in their own workbook.