Welcome to Chinese School of San Diego!

The Chinese School of San Diego(CSSD) has a history dating back to over 100 years. It is the oldest Chinese school in San Diego, and it is the only Chinese school in San Diego to teach Cantonese.

CSSD teachers provide learning experiences that are appropriate to a student's age. We take student-centered approach to instruction that capitalizes on each student's strengths.

The school fosters a warm, caring learning environment with freedom of expression and respect for others as key elements.

Mission: A Comprehensive Education

We take seriously our mission to foster our student's life long love learning, to encourage the growth of the whole person and to work with our students to help them grow into ethical, compassionate, and responsible members of the local and global community. We prepare them to respect the view of others beliefs and cultures as well as instill community activism.

What We Teach

We offer Mandarin and Cantonese Classes: listening, speaking, reading, writing, evolution of the Chinese writing system, custom, calligraphy, interpretation, translation, history, songs, poetry, crafts, philosophy, useful and practical guides to understanding the language and culture of contemporary and ancient China.

Activities

We provide a wide range of activities including field trips to local, regional and international events.

Our school actively participates in the following community events including the:

• Dragon Boat Race
• Chinese New Year
• Harvest Moon Festival/Lantern Festival
• Ching Ming
• Various field trips

What You'll Learn in CSSD...

Throughout the academic year it is anticipated that the students will become familiar with, taught and put to use the following:

1. Listening with comprehension
2. Recognition of the Chinese characters
3. Read, speak, converse, write Chinese
4. Interpret from English into Chinese/ Chinese to English
5. Translate from English to Chinese/ Chinese into English
6. Chinese crafts
7. Chinese culture and history
8. Chinese festivals
9. Chinese geography
10. Chinese songs
11. Chinese traditions and customs

Why You Should Enroll...

1. A lifetime of bicultural enrichment
2. Be able to communicate with over 2 billion Chinese speaking people all over the world
3. Help your work when dealing with Chinese speakers
4. Improve and pratice Chinese with other like-minded students
5. Learn more about Chinese culture and history

Differences between Mandarin &Cantonese

* Pinyin is a the name for the system used to transliterate Chinese words into the Roman Alphabet.

Mandarin	Cantonese
The official dialect throughout China and Taiwan	The second most influential dialect which is used mostly in Hong Kong and Southern China
Pinyin* is recognized by China government	Many different romanizations
Spoken and written Chinese are the same	Spoken and written Cantonese does not always match
Mandarin has 4 tones	Cantonese has 9 tones

If you speak Cantonese at home, it is easier to learn Cantonese first.
You may later join the Mandarin class and master both dialects.

We encourage students to buy a Chinese-English dictionary and an English-Chinese dictionary.