Courses

This course is designed to consolidate students’ grasp of the language through the use of films, TV programs, videos on social media, and authentic written materials. Activities include presentations, group discussions, written assignments, and projects. Open to heritage learners with intermediate to advanced oral proficiency and intermediate-low reading and writing proficiency. 

Fourth level of the standard foundational sequence of modern Chinese, with study in speaking, listening, reading, and writing. Readings in a wide range of subjects form the basis of discussion and other activities. Students consolidate their skills, especially speaking proficiency, at an advanced level. Materials use both simplified and traditional characters.

This course is intended for both heritage and non heritage learners with advanced proficiency. Students develop sophisticated language skills through working with authentic written materials, images, and videos concerning historical events, historical figures, artists, writers, and philosophers. Activities include working with translation tools, discussions, debates, presentations, oral and written exercises on platforms such as Playposit and Perusall, and collaborative projects. 

Selected readings in Chinese fiction of the 1980s and 1990s for the purpose of developing advanced language skills in reading, speaking, and writing.

Advanced language course with a focus on speaking and writing in formal styles. Current affairs are used as a vehicle to help students learn advanced vocabulary, idiomatic expressions, complex sentence structures, news writing styles and formal stylistic register. Materials include texts and videos selected from news media worldwide to improve students’ language proficiency for sophisticated communications on a wide range of topics. 

Advanced language course with a focus on Chinese business terminology and discourse. Discussion of China’s economic and management reforms, marketing, economic laws, business culture and customs, and economic relations with other countries. Case studies from international enterprises that have successfully entered the Chinese market.

Reading and interpretation of texts in various styles of literary Chinese (wenyan), with attention to basic problems of syntax and literary style.

This course aims to prepare students for the language requirements of advanced research or employment in a variety of China-related fields. Materials include readings on contemporary social, cultural, and political issues, which are written by prominent scholars in related fields. This level is suitable for students who have had four years of college Chinese or who have taken three years of an accelerated program for heritage speakers.

Reading and interpretation of texts in various styles of literary Chinese (wenyan), with attention to basic problems of syntax and literary style.

We read together in translation the entirety of the 120-chapter novel, arguably the most celebrated fiction in Chinese. Students learn about the novel's eighteenth-century context and its publication history. We visit the Yale University Art Gallery to look at and handle objects much like those described in the novel. We also visit the Beinecke to see early copies of the novel. This class is an introduction to Chinese and literary studies.

This first-year seminar in the Six Global Perspectives series offers an introduction to college-level Humanities courses. We read six poems that are considered among the greatest in their very different cultural traditions. By filling in how each of these traditions understood the art of poetry, we consider the ways that verse, across cultures and historical eras, has allowed authors to navigate the challenging relationship between the universal and the particular. We make extensive use of Yale’s rich manuscript archives, historical object collections, and art galleries, and we devote sustained attention to improving academic writing skills. Friday lab sessions alternate between writing workshops and field trips to Yale collections. 

An introduction to the literature, culture, and thought of premodern China, from the beginnings of the written record to the turn of the twentieth century. Close study of textual and visual primary sources, with attention to their historical and cultural backdrops.