Chinese idioms, also known as chengyu (成语) in Mandarin, are traditional expressions that typically consist of four characters and are used in daily conversations and formal writing. It can sometimes be difficult for a native Mandarin speaker to grasp the essence behind Chinese idioms, because of the long and profound history of Chinese culture behind them. How then, is a foreigner supposed to learn and understand these Chinese idioms?
Fudan’s School of International Cultural Exchange provides the course “Chinese Idioms and Culture” to undergraduate international students at Fudan, offering students a unique gateway to understanding the depth and nuances of Chinese culture through learning idioms.
Professor Wang Jingdan
In response to students’ feedback, Professor Wang Jingdan started the course back in 2003. “There was a survey asking students what kind of classes they’re interested in taking, and many students wanted to learn more about the Chinese culture and Chinese idioms. So, we combined these two aspects and created the ‘Chinese Idioms and Culture’ course.” Professor Wang recalled.
Professor Xu Guoping
“The aim of the course is for students to learn the idioms and be able to apply it to their daily life correctly but that’s also the most difficult part,” stated Professor Xu Guoping, who joined Professor Wang in teaching the course in 2012.
With no previous teaching material to refer to, in the first couple of years, Professor Wang had to prepare course materials out of nothing, “I’d finish one lesson and have no idea what to teach for the following week, so I’d spend the entire week trying to figure out what to teach next.” Oftentimes the class materials didn’t work as well as expected. “Then I’d overthrow everything and start from scratch again.”
Things started to get on track after the first couple of years when Professor Wang published two textbooks on the course and Professor Xu published one textbook for the course which is also available in Korean.
2019 is a milestone year for the course. When Professor Xu became the main coordinator of the course on campus, she proposed the idea of a hybrid teaching model characterized by online exercises and traditional in-person classes. With immense support from Fudan ’s Center for Faculty Development, the course was successfully transformed. In 2020, the course was selected as Fudan University’s featured online course project, which also offered more resources to Professor Wang and Professor Xu to improve the course.
Under the hybrid teaching model, every other week, students meet face to face with Professor Xu where they work on exercises related to the assignments they’ve done on the Chaoxing platform (a web-based service for assignment submission and preview of course materials) before class. Such assignments range from reading and listening to writing and speaking.
While the online exercises are completed individually, the on-site classes are more interactive with group activities and class discussions. To make the in-class activities more engaging, Professor Xu would ask students to read stories from her own WeChat official account Wen Run (文润), and combine them with idioms they are learning in class. This kind of exercise makes it easier for students to understand Chinese culture.
Reading materials on “Wen Run”(文润) , with difficult characters underlined and explained in the bottom of each post
To accommodate different students’ levels, Professor Xu set two writing tasks of different levels for students to do. For students with higher language proficiency, they can write about anything they want to but have to use three to five idioms they have learned from the current unit. For students who don’t know what to write about, Professor Xu provides two writing prompts which students will expand and add in more details. “The only thing I ask from them is to create a passage that sounds reasonable, even if it’s only 100 words, and they must use chengyu,” she said laughing.
Lecturer Zhang Yuan
In 2021, the course was adapted into a MOOC (massive open online course). “Chinese Idioms and Culture” includes all the core knowledge that is taught on campus. The course in MOOC form has a more streamlined design. The exercises are less varied and most are objective questions. Lecturer Zhang Yuan, who is in charge of giving educational support and instruction on the MOOC platform, interacts with attendees in the discussion section on a regular basis. “I try to interact with students as much as possible to increase their interests and participation in the course,” said she.
Learning the stories behind Chinese idioms is many students’ favorite part of the course. Sasha Ariff, a Malaysian exchange student from LSE said, “The stories behind each chengyu are different, so I like learning about them and figuring out how to use them casually in daily life…that’s also what I find the hardest.”
Other students also agree this is the most difficult part of the course. “You understand the meaning of a chengyu, but using it in real life is different and you can’t use all of them (idioms) in the same way,” said Hara Anna, a Japanese student.
“The only way to make it easier is lots of repetitive and interactive practice which is why we make them do so many different exercises independently or together in class,” Professor Xu explained.
Students are more than halfway through the course and have begun to show their understanding of Chinese idioms and connect it to their personal lives. When asked about an idiom that she really likes, Chiara Maligno, an exchange student from LSE answered with Ru Xiang Sui Su (入乡随俗).
“I’ve been saying this a lot because it’s what I’ve been trying to do since I got to Fudan…trying to adapt and blend in with the local culture.” Vietnamese student Minh-Chau Nguyen shared that her favorite term is Shi Quan Shi Mei (十全十美) because she hopes that her life will be “perfect and wonderful”.
After taking the course, students have become better at identifying chengyu in their daily life.
Pictures of chengyu “精工细作”“精益求精”“进宅大吉” “天真烂漫” taken by student Minh-Chau Nguyen
A picture of chengyu “开天辟地” taken by student Chiara Maligno in Shanghai Astronomy Museum
The “Chinese Idioms and Culture” course is listed as a First-Class Undergraduate Course by China’s Ministry of Education in 2023. Professor Wang and Professor Xu hope to keep improving and let more students know about the course, so they are trying to republish a more up-to-date version of the course textbooks. Expanding this one course into a series of courses of different levels is also something that the professors are hoping to work on.
“Currently, only students with HSK 5 or above is allowed to take our course, but we’d like to set up classes for those with lower HSK levels as well,” Professor Wang commented.
The course page on xuetangx.com
The MOOC course is open to everyone interested in learning chengyu. Copy and paste the link below to your browser to start learning.
https://www.xuetangx.com/course/fdu05011006382/16909735?channel=i.area.learn_title
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Presented by Fudan University Media Center
Writer: Liao En Tung
Editor: Li Yijie, Wang Mengqi
Designer: Ling Yiqi
