[華語 Mandarin] 課程 | 零起點的第一堂課- The first Mandarin class for beginners

第一次教零起點的學生，來紀錄第一堂課的心得。

此為一週2小時的家教課，學生為一位長期住在美國的日本人，因為來台灣出差兩個月，同時想學些中文 (好認真的學生呀！)。

一開始我先花了3分鐘左右，以英文與學生溝通學習目標 (例如想著重聽、說能力，希望能應付日常生活對話)。這樣才能在有限的時間內，達到學生對華語課的期待。

第一堂課程流程大致為: 打招呼、自我介紹、漢語拼音、複習句子等。

我覺得零起點最大的幾個難點是:

1. 學生有無漢字背景 (如日、韓)，會影響課程速度和準備的方向。

2. 有疑問時，以英文輔助解釋的多少/時間。

3. 確認有無認字/閱讀需求 (如果是注重聽、說，就不一定要認字)。

4. 學注音或拼音

我發現第一堂課其實很難100%以中文進行。因為學生是零起點，他完全不懂你的指示。
當學生一臉茫然，我以簡單的英文輔助說明，他聽懂了，會比較有動力學下去。

至少在學生的第一堂課，這是最關鍵的一堂，讓他是否有"信心"和"興趣"學中文。

當他滿意你的課，日後上課，雙方建立了規則和信任，當然目標就以全中文教學，

之後要把課程的進度和時間掌握得更好，要加油了！

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Since it's my very first time to teach "beginner-level" students, here I listed some points and notes for reference.

My student is a Japanese who have lived in the United States for 20 years, and he came to Taiwan on a business trip during two months.

The first 3 minutes I communicated with the student regarding his learning objectives, the skills he would like to focus more etc. I think it's important to confirm in the beginning of class, in order to reach his expectations within limited time.

The first class included: greetings, self introduction, pinyin and review.

I found that some difficult points for the beginner-level class:

1. The students who are with or without the background of "Chinese character" (e.g. Japanese, Korean...), it would differ the speed of class and how do you teach.

2. When there are questions - How much English should you use to explain?

3. Confirm that if the students want to learn Chinese characters/reading

4. "Zhuyin" system (used in Taiwan) or "pinyin" system (used in Mainland China)?

It's not easy to proceed the whole class in Mandarin only. For the beginner-level students, they don't understand your sentence and order. I would use a little bit of English to guide/assist them during the class, and the students shall be more motivated when they comprehends.

For their first class - which is surely a key start, to let the students "feel confident" and "be interested" in learning Mandarin. Once the students are satisfied with your class, you can cooperate well based on rules and trust, and I think it will be more feasible to give the lessons in totally Mandarin.