[for intensive summer courses in Mandarin at the Institute, click here]
You will find this program unlike others you have seen at other universities. There are no beginning language classes, nor is there any study of literature for its own sake. If you plan to study Chinese at MIIS, you need to complete, at least, two years of college-level Chinese. We have one main Chinese professor, who has a combined academic background in language pedagogy and social science. You will find course content related to your graduate studies, such as business, economy, and social policies.
“Monterey Model” courses that are offered to Chinese students (taught in more than one language and coming together in international meeting simulations) include: Challenges of Globalization and Current Issues in Nonproliferation.
Special courses may also be offered for the Teaching of Chinese when numbers of students mandate it.
The Chinese Program offers the following courses. Every semester, one or two 300-level course(s) and one or two 400-level course(s) are offered. For information on current offerings contact Dr. Jin huei Dai, jinhuei.dai@miis.edu.
CS310 Conversation on Contemporary China
Develops oral skills through dialogues and discussions. Commonly used vocabulary and idioms of spoken Chinese are introduced and practiced.Designed to build business and economic vocabulary in Mandarin Chinese up to a level necessary for business professionals in corporate and diplomatic settings. Focuses on drills, exercises and tasks to strengthen four skills in business Chinese, such as conducting a business encounter, composing resume, developing interview skills, writing a project proposal, briefing, authentic business news, and fieldwork interview experiences, etc. Introduces components pertinent to issues of business, financial and economic news in China and Taiwan: business culture, business case studies, booming green business, information industry, stock exchange, and local enterprises etc. The primary goals of this course include: developing four skills, practicing business and economic vocabulary, increasing awareness of grammar, developing habits of reading and listening to business and financial news in Chinese, and conducting tasks for working professionals. This course also has a hybrid online component. Prerequisite: Intermediate or above language proficiency level as determined by placement and oral exams.
CS320 Texts on a Changing China
Texts and writing modern Chinese. Emphasizes comprehension of texts and correct usage of vocabulary and sentence structures. Uses traditional and simplified character texts.
CS325 Modern Chinese
Modern Chinese expository prose. Further development of sentence structure and vocabulary in the social and political sciences.
CS360 Journalistic Chinese
Modern Chinese newspaper headlines and news items. Emphasizes comprehension and vocabulary development of special terms and current expressions used in the news.
CS410 Chinese Business Culture
Chinese Business Culture is a CBI course that integrates authentic materials in a language-driven content-based class. The class will meet once a week for 2 hours, and 50-minute individualization or pair-up hour. The content covers traditional Chinese culture versus Chinese Business culture, cultural taboos, concepts of "renqing" and "time", business etiquettes, case studies, military and business strategies, food culture and entertainment culture, relationship between Go Game and Chinese thinking, etc. The final project could be a 15+ individual research paper or group projects on "101 Chinese Business Culture brochures" that covers the semester long content.
CS440 Thought and Society
Explores the development of Chinese intellectual thought in the 20th century and its impact on modern Chinese society. Emphasizes understanding and presenting abstract topics.
CS345 Modern Chinese II - News and Media
This course integrates edited news in the textbook and updated authentic materials that correspond to the theme discussed. It also incorpoates listening components of Chinese commercials, movies, and news excerpts. Students will be able to conduct news report, professional presentations, and narrate the global events. The course also adds an one-on-one 20-minute individual session every Tuesday and as a result the course will only last for 10-11 weeks.
CS475 Challenges of Globalization
A Monterey Model course that focuses on improving students’ reading, writing, and public speaking ability through learning tasks and projects, and expanding students’ content knowledge on globalization and localization.
CS480 Business Chinese
Studies business terminology, structure of trade organizations, and documents on economic policies.
CS 484 Human Right and Human Trafficking in China
An advanced level course for professional students who wish to focus on content-based language instruction that incorporates the Monterey Way. This course aims to develop awareness and conventions of language use on issues of human right and human trafficking in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, and further building relevant vocabulary and grammar development in the field. Assignments include writing weekly essay and grammar exercises, compiling monthly newsletter (group work), professional oral presentations, conducting fieldwork interview and writing a 12-15 page of analytic research paper in Chinese. Prerequisite: CS 345 or above language proficiency level as determined by placement written exam and oral interview. This course also has an accompanied online site.
CS488 China and the World Economy
A course that examines the impact of China’s development on the world economy.
CS490 Chinese Grammar Pedagogy
Chinese Grammar Pedagogy is designed to integrate theoretical theories into hands-on practice.  The primary goals of this course include gaining insights from readings of Chinese pedagogical grammar articles, some congitive linguistics papers in both English and Chinese, discussing grammar teachability issues from elementary to advanced levels, writing reaction journals, writing refelction via blogging, training grammar ellicitation techniques, and compiling Chinese grammar from authentic content-based matierals.
CS49X Special Topics on China’s Political, Economic, and Social Development
These are content-based language courses that focus on improving students’ language skills through learning tasks and projects, and expanding students’ content knowledge on China’s political, economic, and social policies and developments.
CS499 Current Issues in Nonproliferation
A Monterey Model course that focuses on improving students’ reading, writing, and public speaking ability through learning tasks and projects, and expanding students’ content knowledge on nonproliferation.
CS510 Cognition in Chinese Language and Culture
You say "GREAT WALL", I say "LONG"! This course is designed to explore the dimensions of worldview, human categorization, conceptualization patterns, metaphor and cognition in Chinese language and culture. Focuses on why such conceptual arrangements differ in forming classifier systems, syntactic structures, semantic differences, pragmatic applications in Chinese and other languages. It will introduce concepts pertinent to cognitive linguistics, such as schemata, viewing/ conceptual arrangement, perspective, trajectory and landmark, target and source, etc. The primary goals of this course include: training learners to observe conceptual differences in human categorization in different aspects, integrate learning into teaching Chinese as a foreign language, conducting tasks in fieldworks, collecting data from different genres of authentic materials. The course will embrace the Monterey Way, is conducted using content-based instruction, be taught in Chinese and use reading materials in English and Chinese. All the assignments except final project will be written in Chinese; non-native speakers of Chinese will turn in their final project (16-20 pages) in Chinese, while native speakers of Chinese will turn in their final projects (20-25 pages) in English.