IB Mandarin Chinese SL will prepare the student to communicate competently in the skill areas of reading, writing, speaking, and listening. The IB student is mature, self-motivated, linguistically competent, and studious. In IB Mandarin Chinese SL, students and teachers will be communicating almost exclusively in Chinese and the IB level students will be able to utilize conversational Chinese to function in the class without the use of English. Students in their first year (SL) of IB Mandarin Chinese have the option of sitting for the Standard Level exam in May, though sitting for IB exams or being an IB diploma student is not a course requirement. Though this course prepares students for success in the IB exams, any student who wishes to develop their Mandarin language skills at an advanced level is encouraged to enroll.