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Grammatically speaking English and Chinese are very different languages. There is no rule that verbs, nouns, and adjectives must agree with one another in Chinese writing. There is no such thing as singular or plural in the Chinese language. Often a number or word will be added to the sentence to account for plurality. There are no verb tenses in the Chinese writing. Additional words are used to clarify the past and future tenses. These words are usually placed at the beginning of the phase to help indicate time. In a medical setting, it is important to pay particular attention to time indicators. For example: if a provider asks, " Have you been vomiting?" the Chinese patient may answer " No". Actually the patient may mean "not now, but two days ago I did." In this case, the provider is not getting the correct information. It would be clearer to ask the patient a question with a time indicator such as "Have you vomited in the last week?"

Mandarin or Putonghua is the most common dialect used in China and has been adopted as a second language by those who speak other Chinese dialects. The official language of China, Mandarin is the dialect taught in Chinese schools. It is the universal language used throughout the northern, central, and southwestern provinces of China. Mandarin is also spoken in Taiwan, where it is referred to as Chinese rather than "Putonghua." Often, Mandarin is used in local TV and radio media. Next to Cantonese, it is the most common Chinese language spoken in the Northwest. The Chinese newspaper, "World Journal" is distributed in the States and is published for Mandarin speaking Chinese. Primarily Chinese in China uses simplified characters. It is taught in Mandarin-Chinese classes internationally as well. These characters are simpler, i.e., have less pen-strokes, than traditional Chinese characters. Simplified characters have existed for hundreds of years, but only became officially acceptable in formal writing after the founding of the People's Republic of China in an attempt to improve literacy among Chinese in China, during the 1950's.

  • Advanced East Asian language course on the world wide web ?????????? . By University of Hawaii. The course is available to students and individuals as well as to institutions and businesses. Learn and earn credits. Date: Accessed 2004
  • Beijing Language University ???? . By ??????. Date: Accessed 2004
  • Beijing Language University ???? . By ??????. Mirror site in the U.S. Date: Accessed 2004
  • Chinese Horizon . By Chinese Horizon. Online Chinese school with multimedia lessons: Daily Chinese, Introduction to Chinese, Travel Chinese and Olympic Chinese. Free trial and free placement test. Date: 2005
  • Chinese Pronunciation Guide . By Harvard University. One of the first sites introducing Pinyin system. Sound and exercises are available. Date: 1997
  • Chinese, Mandarin Language Programs in USA, Schools & Colleges . By Learn4good.com. Find the programs which offer Chinese courses in the United States. Date: 2005
  • Chineseon.net ???? . By ChineseOn.net, Inc.. An online Chinese language school. Date: 2001
  • Courses in Chinese . By Fairfield Language Technologies. Chinese courses level I and II and course for travelers. Either online or on CD for Windows and Mac. Subscription required. Demo is not provided. Free trial online only. Date: 2002
  • EBLCU ???? . By Beijing Language and Culture University ??????. EBLCU is an online language institute that offers degree and non-degree courses and awards certificates.  Date: 2004
  • Home Page . By University of Oxford, Centre for Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language. Portal to all online materials created by the Centre for Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language, University of Oxford Date: None
  • International Online Language Learning Center . By Fairfield Language Technologies. An online learning center. In addition to Chinese, other languages are taught. This company is the developer of Rosetta Stone, a foreign language learning software company. Date: 2002
  • Internet Based Chinese Teaching and Learning . By La Trobe University. Developed and offered by the La Trobe University, Bendigo, Australia. This is one of first online Chinese courses offered by university. Date: Updated 2004
  • Learn Chinese . By Chinese Horizon. An online school to learn Mandarin Chinese. Provides online or onsite . Byeijing) language teaching. An online placement test is available. Date: 2004-2005
  • New Concept Mandarin . By New Concept Mandarin Limited, Hong Kong, China. An online Chinese language school. Well designed with flash animation. Native English speakers conduct class. Date: 2003
  • Online Chinese Courses and Tutorials . By Fairfield Language Technologies. A collection of online Chinese courses including the company's courses Date: 2002
  • Online Chinese Courses and Tutorials . By WorlWideLearn. A web directory with many links to online Chinese courses. Date: 1999-2005
  • Online College of Chinese Language ?????? . By ???????????????????????? ????????. An online Chinese language school. Date: 2001
  • Rosetta Stone . By Fairfield Language Technologies. Commercial multimedia software for language learning. It is one of the earliest computer programs for language learners. The same learning materials, mostly words and sentences are translated into many languages. Date: 1991