Chinese

Discovering the language

The Chinese taught at Inalco is the modern standard language, based on Beijing Mandarin. This language, which has the status of a national language in People's China, Taiwan, and Singapore, is spoken by more than a fifth of the world's population; Chinese is also one of the six official languages used at the UN.

Studying Chinese at Inalco

Chinese language courses at Inalco enable students to learn both the spoken and written language (reading and writing Chinese characters), and thus provide access to the contemporary Chinese world. Chinese language courses are accompanied by civilization courses (geography, history, literary and artistic studies, philosophy, sociology, anthropology...).
From the second year onwards, the bachelor's degree curriculum also includes training in classical Chinese (in Chinese wényán), a literary language inherited from antiquity, whose written use endured in administration, belles lettres, historical, philosophical and scientific texts until the early 20th century, and whose basic knowledge is indispensable for understanding the contemporary sustained language (in Chinese shūmiànyǔ).

An introduction to cantonais is offered as an option in the third year of the degree.