Mandarin (Online)

How to learn Mandarin at the Language Centre including pathways, timetables and fees.

To ensure that we have time to set you up with access to our Virtual Learning Environment (Canvas) and therefore access to the first live session, please make sure you have paid no later than five working days before your course starts. 

Michaelmas Term Course Timetable 2021

Courses start in the week commencing 18 October. Enrolment will open on 21 September 2021. Please join our mailing list to be kept informed about when timetables are published and enrolment goes live.

Information for non-members of the University is here.

Course Pathway

*Stage

Part

Duration

 **Day and time of live sessions        

Date of first live session

 Date of final live session  
  Information to follow            

Enrolment will close at 9am on Friday 15 October. Early booking is recommended as some courses are expected to fill early.

MT = Michaelmas Term (October - December); HT = Hilary Term (January - March); TT = Trinity Term (April - June)
*A Stage is made up of three Parts, usually Part 1 is Michaelmas term, Part 2 is Hilary term and Part 3 is Trinity term. However, in some instances we will run another Part 1 in Hilary term due to popularity, please check the timetable carefully. Please note, complete beginners (Stage 1) cannot join Parts 2 or 3 if they have not completed Part 1.
**Learners will be divided into two groups by the tutor, so that one group has their live session for the first 30 minutes, and the second group has their live session for the second 30 minutes. 

Fees, funding, enrolment and mode of delivery

If the course on which you would like to enrol is fully booked, please check the timetable to see if the same course is being offered at a different time (many of our courses have several iterations, each with a different day/time for the ‘live session’). In addition, we operate a first-come, first-served waiting list, simply click on the Join the Waiting List button alongside the course of your choice and we will email you if a space becomes available. 

VIEW THE COURSE FEES

Priority funding for Trinity term Intensive courses is now open.

If you need to learn a language to support your studies, you can ask your college, department or faculty to sponsor you via our Priority Funding scheme. You'll need to seek permission from your tutor/supervisor, obtain the email address of the financial signatory in your college/department/faculty, and click on the link to the Priority Funding Application Form below.

Please do not enrol yourself on the course prior to your application being approved. When the Language Centre receives confirmation of approval from your college/department, we will enrol you onto the course and email you to confirm.

Deadline to apply is 12 noon on Tuesday, 8 June 2021 (Week 7).  Priority Funding is not available for Fast Track courses. See our course handbook for more information.

PRIORITY APPLICATION FORM

Colleges will consider refunding students up to half the Fast Track course fees on completion of the course at the end of Trinity term. Please contact your college to find out more about their arrangements before you start your course. A form to record the agreement between a student and their college of their eligibility for the reimbursement scheme is available for students to download below: it should not be returned to the Language Centre. 

Fast track college reimbursement form

For Learners with an Oxford University SSO (Single Sign-On) simply click on the enrol button next to the class that you wish to join. 

For Learners without an Oxford University SSO, or who are not members of the University, please email admin@lang.ox.ac.uk with the following details:

  • Full name
  • Email address and phone number
  • The name of the course you wish to study (including Stage and Part)
  • The start date and time of the course
  • Your connection to Oxford University, if any (to determine course fee)

We will then provisionally enrol you onto the course and send you a link to the Oxford University Online Store for payment. Once payment is received we will confirm your place on the course. 

What happens after I enrol?

After enrolment you will receive an automated booking email to confirm your payment. From Week 1 you will be added to the course on Canvas (Oxford University's Virtual Learning Environment). You will receive an invitation to join Canvas, please accept it and follow the instructions for your course and make sure to go through your learning pathway before your first live session with your tutor. Course materials will be available a week before each live session. Please make sure that you read the course handbook for the course you wish to take with us as this contains more detailed information.  

We will be starting all our courses for 2020-21 through a flexible and inclusive mode of delivery, which will all be online. This will include small group live online conversation classes every week and online learning pathways for preparatory taught content, activities, and feedback - all using the University's Virtual Learning Environment, Canvas.

Having had the opportunity to learn from the experience and feedback from our learners and tutors in Trinity 2020, we are confident that this mode of delivery works well for our community of learners. It enables you to work at your own pace, have access to a complete set of learning materials beyond the life of the course to master and review - it also facilitates high quality feedback both of a generic and individual nature.

Pathways

Choose the pathway that works best for you by consulting our handbooks (see right hand column) or watching the "How to Choose your Pathway" video via the link below. 

 VIDEO: HOW TO CHOOSE YOUR PATHWAY

GENERAL PATHWAY
  • Focus on communication and use of all four skills (reading, writing, listening and speaking)
  • Term by term commitment 
  • Entry: first-come, first-served 
  • Fully funded option available with Priority funding scheme 
  • Certificates of attendance and completion available 
  • Taught in weeks 2-7 every term (part 1 in Michaelmas, part 2 in Hilary and part 3 in Trinity)
  • Number of live online sessions per week: 1 
  • Length of live online session: 30 minutes
  • Learning pathway including language instruction and guided learning: 1.5 - 2 hours per week 
  • Recommended self-study and practice time: 2 hours per week 
FAST TRACK PATHWAY
  • Focus on communication and use of all four skills (reading, writing, listening and speaking)
  • Yearly commitment with possible entry point in Hilary term
  • Entry: first-come, first-served 
  • Fully funded (and contributory) options available with some programmes of Study from selected Faculties / departments (Mathematical Institute, Material Sciences, Physics and Chemistry) see appendix 3 in the Fast Track handbook for further information 
  • Part funding reimbursed by Colleges upon completion of course and assessments 
  • Certificates of attendance and completion available 
  • Number of live online sessions per week: 1 (or possibly 2 for Stages 1+2)
  • Length of live online session: 1 hour (or possibly 2 x 30 minutes for Stages 1+2)
  • 2 learning pathways per week: 3 to 4 hours including language instruction videos and guided learning activities, communicative tasks and feedback 
  • Recommended additional self-study and practice time: 1 to 2 hours per week 
INTENSIVE PATHWAY

Whether you have been short of time or found it difficult to keep up with your course, or if you prefer learning in a more intensive and focussed manner, we run a selection of our most popular General and Academic courses in an Online Intensive format during Weeks 8, 9 and 10 at the end of each term. Enrolments for these courses will normally open in Week 6 . 

  • Limited variety of Stages available, mostly beginner and advanced 

  • Term by term commitment 

  • Taught in Weeks 8, 9 and 10 every term (part 1 in Michaelmas, part 2 in Hilary and part 3 in Trinity) – Options for Advanced courses also available pre-term in September

  • Number of live online sessions per week: 2

  • Length of live online session: 2 x 30 minutes

  • Expected hours of self-guided study learning outside the classroom (supported by Canvas, the University’s new Virtual Learning Environment): 12

  • Entry: first-come, first-served

  • Fully-funded Priority places available for students sponsored by their college/department (see Priority Funding box on this page for further information)

  • Certificates of course completion and attendance are available, please see the course handbook for conditions 

 

Don't miss out

Join our newsletter to receive notification of the courses we will be offering as Online Intensives this year!

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Further resources

Library shelfmark: CH

At Oxford

General

  • Chinasoft Publisher of the Ni Hao series of Chinese learning materials.
  • Chinese Language Information Page contains an excellent range of links and resources
  • FSI language course from Foreign Service Institute, U.S.A.
  • Peking University free online courses
  • Real Chinese is a course for beginners on video and on line, from the BBC. Video segments available for viewing in the Language Centre Library. Study the text and listen to dialogues
    on the web. Click on the topics in order to see the slideshow and hear the language, including useful phrases, tips on pronunciation and grammar, cultural notes and short quizzes to check what you've learnt. At the end of each slideshow there's
    a chance to watch a short (approx. 1 min) videoclip taken from the TV series
  • Remembr.it Chinese a series of free-online lessons based from the FSI, with also dictionaries
  • UK Database of Chinese Research Materials Records from the British Library, Cambridge, Durham, Edinburgh, Leeds, Oxford and SOAS
  • XuetangX China's biggest MOOC provider

Dictionaries

The Language Centre Library wishes to thank Yi Wu, Library Assistant, for offering many useful weblinks.

Culture

Media

If you can't find the media you want, try our multilingual page

The Library Netvibes page offers you the latest news

 

Study

Course fees

 
 
 

Useful links

 

Course textbooks

Information about course textbooks can be found in the course handbooks above.

 

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MODERN LANGUAGES

ACADEMIC ENGLISH