The method of holding a debating competition in class is really helpful to practice the spoken Chinese language. At the beginning of the class, the teachers should first introduce some basic information for the students to prepare for the debating. For instance, the living styles of Chinese women and Japanese women. Then, the students who learn Mandarin in China will think about the differences between them. There might be different ideas about this topic. But teachers can do some proper supplements and ask students which living styles they agree or prefer.

If the numbers of the students who agree with the two models are almost the same, teachers can divide them into two groups. If there is big difference between it, teachers should do some adjustment to group them. When the group work is done, the students have ten minutes to prepare with the topic of “which style of living model between Chinese women and Japanese women is happier?”.

After discussion, every team chooses four representatives to debate and the rest can give some hints or clues. But one point that the teachers in Chinese learning programs should pay attention to is that such kind of debating should be processed for the students of the advanced level. If necessary, the teachers should arrange it before beginning the debating so that to achieve better result. Teachers should encourage the teamers to prepare and refuel for their teams. What’s more, the topic chosen should be those that the foreign students are familiar with.

It is essential for the foreigners to know clearly the titles for Chinese people often used in society when they are learning Mandarin Chinese, which will gain better understanding to Chinese culture. In order to teach in this way, the teachers should prepare several name cards in advance or just make up some. Teachers can provide names and places of work but disorder the titles and students are supposed to find out the proper titles that fit the working places and jobs.

Here are some examples, the titles for 张开智——北京大学 and 周海——中华医学会 and 谢飞——东方汽车公司are probably  校长、会长 and 总经理. If course, there might be different answers but it is good as long as in makes sense. The answer for the first one may be 教授 and 讲师.