Business Chinese Advanced Course

New edition Business Chinese Advanced 2024

Starting from Saturday, March 2nd, 2024, the Confucius Institute of the University of Bologna organizes a course of commercial Chinese, dedicated to those who have already acquired a high knowledge of the Chinese language (HSK5 level) and, for work and/or business needs, need a practical cutting course mainly focused on the commercial sector. The course aims to deepen the communication skills in the Chinese language in the business environment: students will acquire a specialized and updated vocabulary, learn useful and widespread expressions in business activities, through dialogues that follow authentic situations, typical of everyday working life. The course will also provide students with adequate preparation for cultural aspects and customs relevant to business/business.

Participation requirements

The course is dedicated to people who have already acquired at least the HSK5 (Language Proficiency Test) or have been studying Chinese for at least 4 or 5 years. 

General info

  • Pre-registration: up to February 16, 2024
  • Course: from March 2nd to May 25, 2024
  • Supply method: exclusively online, on the ZOOM platform.
  • Timetable: the course will last a total of 30 hours, divided into 2.5 hours per week (one lesson per week), for a total of 12 lessons which will take place on Saturday morning from h. 9.30 to 12.00, following the lesson schedule shown below on this page.
  • Duration: 30 hours
  • Registration fees: € 380.00
  • Course language: English 
  • Number of participants: the Institute reserves the right not to activate the course if the minimum number of 5 students is not reached.

Educational objectives & course program

The course aims to help students improving their language skills with particular regard to the business / entrepreneurial context, and to develop their understanding of the environment and corporate culture in China. The course is also designed to offer students the opportunity to deal with a wide variety of topics and topics in the sectoral Chinese language.

At the end of the course the student will be able to:

  • express themselves profitably in Chinese in business contexts;
  • keep business correspondence (deal with requests, quotes, negotiations, complaints, etc.);
  • produce formal or informal reports;
  •  make business presentations;
  • effectively understand corporate documents of various types;

Lessons will be held by a chinese native teacher, language professor from People's University in Beijing, specialized in teaching Chinese to foreigners. 

It is specified that the course language is English.

For this semester, participants in our Business Chinese courses will have the opportunity to take part in an 8-hour series of in-depth seminars on legal and economic matters titled "Doing Business in China in the Digital Era." For more information on registration procedures, please visit the dedicated page.

Teaching Program

The course will treat the following topics.

  • 市场调查Market Research
  • 产品介绍Introduction of products
  • 市场营销Marketing management
  • 售后服务After-sales Service
  • 展会Exhibition
  • 商务考察Business Tour
  • 商业信函Business letter
  • 包装、物流和加盟Packaging, logistics and franchising
  • 谈判Negotiation
  • 文化差异Cultural Differences

Lessons schedule

  • March: 2-9-16-23
  • April: 6-13-20-27
  • May: 4-11-18-25

Missed lessons CANNOT be recovered.

Any changes to the days and / or hours of lessons due to causes / impediments which have arisen, however independent of the will of the Institute, will be promptly communicated to students directly by the teacher and / or via email.

How to enroll

To enroll in the course you will need to choose the course by consulting the link Corsi di business chinese (Febbraio-Maggio 2024) (fondazionealmamater.it) and send us a confirmation email with name and surname + level of the Chinese Business course for which you intend to pre-register.  Pre-registration is without obligation. Upon reaching the minimum number of students required for the activation of the course you will receive a confirmation email and all the information to proceed with the payment and then the final registration.

But do not worry: before you make the final registration (and then pay the required fee) you will have time to attend a lesson and assess whether the course actually meets your needs. For this reason, the payment of the course can only be made from March 4 onwards, after the test week.

Please note that the Institute reserves the right not to activate the course if the minimum number of 5 students is not reached.

In addition, all interested parties are requested to read the specific Information on the processing of personal data, (available for download on our website) in order to knowingly give or deny their consent to the processing of personal data, also for the optional purposes indicated on the form.

Please note that the tuition fee paid cannot be refunded in any case if the student decides to enroll without having used the trial period. In addition, the registration fee will NOT be refunded in any case if the student, after regular registration, does not frequent classes.

Missed lessons cannot be recovered.

Lessons in online mode

The Confucius Institute will continue to deliver the Business Chinese courses exclusively in online mode, on the Zoom platform (downloadable for free).

After the confirmation of the course activation and close to the start of the lessons, pre-enrolled students will receive via email the meeting link and the credentials (Meeting ID and Password) necessary to proceed to attend the online trial lesson.

Meeting links and final credentials for the attendance of the course will be communicated at a later time only to those students who will proceed with the final enrollment, together with the confirmation of enrollment.

We remind all students that the teachers will provide all the information relating to the functioning of the system, and that they will always remain at your disposal to provide further information. For any need regarding the use of the Zoom platform, it will always be possible to contact your teacher.

Teaching materials

  1. Textbook《新丝路高级速成商务汉语 II》 New Silk Road Business 2

2. Additional materials, which will be provided by the teacher.

3. Multimedia materials, which will be communicated before each lesson. Multimedia materials will be provided to students by e-mail.

Please, note that all the didactic material will be provided exclusively in digital format (in pdf version)
Please note that the paper version of the textbooks is NOT included in the cost of the course. 
In order to improve the service offered, we remind all students that, in association with the on-line lessons, the teachers will deliver the video recording of the lesson itself and any additional material to serve as support. For this sending, the teachers will use the "WeTransfer" program, as it does not require any registration or installation by users, who can download the materials directly on their PCs / devices.