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.

Course Description
Students in Beginning A/B will learn the following subjects (minor variability to teacher’s teaching materials):
1. Student’s Personal and School Information
2. Numbers, Colors and Shapes
3. Ways of Addressing and Greeting People
4. My Family
5. Time, Seasons and Weather
6. Festivals
7. Food
8. Clothing, Furniture & Appliance
9. Birds & Animals
10. Communication
11. Chinese History, Culture & Festivals
12. In addition to the above topics, grammar and sentence structure are part of the lessons. (e.g. such as phrase making, opposites, radicals, stroke orders, punctuation's, verbs and nouns, reading comprehension, connecting words with radicals to form new words, translations and sentences making.)
13. Class instruction, quizzes and exams are based upon students’ listening speaking, reading, writing and translating skills. Exercises on Chinese grammar are done in the students’ workbooks and supplementary exercises. Students also practice the stroke order of each new Chinese character they learn. Following each lesson, students have quizzes to help to promote memorization.