Mandarin Option subject Why Mandarin?
Learning Mandarin is a fascinating journey of discovery into one of the world’s oldest and richest cultures. It is also the language of the future – as one of the UN’s six official languages and the lingua franca of many of the world’s economic powerhouses. And yet, despite being a truly global language, it is not as widely studied as other languages in the UK. As a result, candidates with Mandarin on their CV tend to stand out from the crowd in academic and work settings. It will significantly enhance your career prospects, giving you an edge in fields such as global business and international relations. Secondary benefits to learning Mandarin are connected to the intellectual challenge of learning a tonal language with a logographic writing system. Studies suggest that this learning process enhances cognitive skills and improves your memory. What will you study? You will learn to read and write 500 of the most used characters in Chinese. This provides an excellent foundation for literacy in Chinese and is more than enough for day-to-day purposes in a Chinese-speaking country. In addition to this, you will learn how to understand spoken Mandarin, pronounce Chinese words accurately and converse on a range of topics. Please note this option is only available for students who have studied Mandarin in Year 9 or who are native speakers.
Exam board
AQA
Examinations
Speaking (25%) Listening paper (45 mins)
Reading paper (1h) Writing paper (1h)
38
Made with FlippingBook flipbook maker