BEGINNING CHINESE I初级汉语 （上）

你们好 (Nǐmen hǎo) HELLO Y’ALL!

Today’s Agenda

Survey Form

Course overview and syllabus

Pinyin primer

Useful expressions (Yes! You are speaking Chinese today!)

Characters primer

Homework assignment

1. Survey Form

Please fill out the form and return it to your

lǎoshī (teacher).

Nǐ hǎo

Nǐmen hǎo

Lǎoshī hǎo

Lǎoshī nín hǎo

Greetings

2. Course Overview

Course Materials:

Liu, Yuehua, et al. (2009) Integrated Chinese: Level 1 Part 1 Textbook (Simplified Characters), 3rd Edition, Boston: Cheng & Tsui Company, Inc.

Integrated Chinese Character Workbook

Integrated Chinese Level 1 Part 1 Online Workbook powered by Quia Books.

No food in class. Only drinks with a secure lid are allowed.

No chewing gum or mint.

Good posture, no slouching or putting feet on chair/desk

Do NOT use laptop computers.

Do NOT use your iPads or other tablets.

Take corrections positively.

No talking on the side. (Pay attention to the instructor and other students when they are speaking.)

Silence your cell phone. NO texting.

Speak Chinese whenever you can.

When you hand in something to the teacher, please use both hands.

Always address your teacher by “nín” (the polite form of “you”)

2. Course Overview (Class Etiquettes )

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY: We take it VERY seriously.

Don’t get answers to your homework questions from anyone.

Don’t share any work of your own with anyone. If you give your homework to anyone for them to copy, you are against the codes of academic integrity.

2. Course Overview (policy/rules)

Are you ready for the challenge?

Let’s begin from today!

3. Pīnyīn Primer I

Tones (Shēngdiào) 4+1

mā má mǎ mà (Mother) (hemp) (horse) (scold)

tāng

táng

tǎng

tàngsoupsoup

candy

lying

hothot

kànshū kǎnshù

Syllable structure

hǎo (adj. good)

Initial (optional)

Final (ao)

Tone

Tip!

Whenever you memorize/learn a new word in Chinese, you have to memorize/include the tone mark as an integral part of the pīnyīn

What is Pinyin anyway?

Well, first let me say what Pinyin is NOT:No Chinese people write in Pinyin. One is either able to write in

CHARACTERS or otherwise ILLITERATE.

So Pinyin is NOT the writing system for Chinese

But we have to use Pinyin to help you with your pronunciation when you first start to learn the language.

Pinyin is also the easiest way of typing Chinese on a computer.

So study pinyin carefully to get the sounds right, but write only characters.

Simple Initials

The easier ones (similar to English):The easier ones (similar to English):

b p m f

d t n l

g k h

Simple Initials

The difficult ones:The difficult ones:

j q x

z c s

zh ch sh r

Simple finals

a o e i u ü

Can you put them together?

b p m f d t n l g k h

a ba pa ma fa da ta na la ga ka ha

o bo po mo fo

e de te ne le ge ke he

i bi pi mi di ti ni li

u bu pu mu fu du tu nu lu gu ku Hu

ü nü lü

…and this times 4 tones, theoretically,

and that would be … how

many?

z, c, s za zu ze

ca cu ce

sa su se

zh, ch, sh, r

zha zhu zhe

cha chu che

sha shu she

ru re

e

le te ne he

zhe ge ke de

re se ce che

she ze

ü

lü nü

Compound finals (part 1)

1. pai pei pao ou

2. an en ang eng ong

AI

Tai kai pai lai

Zai cai sai

Zhai chai shai

EI

Bei lei nei mei

Zhei shei zei

AO

Bao nao lao hao kao

Zao cao sao

Zhao chao shao rao

OU

Dou lou tou kou mou

Zou cou sou

Zhou chou shou rou

AN

Dan gan man nan lan han

Zan can san

Zhan chan shan ran

ANG

Dang gang mang nang hang

Zang cang sang

Zhang chang shang rang

AN vs ANG

Dan dang

Zhan zhang

Lan lang

Can cang

Han hang

San sang

Ran rang

EN

Ben gen men hen

Zen cen sen

Zhen chen shen ren

ENG

Beng geng meng heng

Zeng ceng seng

Zheng cheng sheng reng

ONG

dong gong long hong

Zong cong song

Zhong chong rong

EN vs ENG vs ONG

Gen geng gong

(N/A) deng dong

Zhen zheng zhong

Cen ceng cong

Ben beng (N/A)

You may notice some UNAVAILABLE combinations, i.e. some combinations are not a Mandarin Chinese sound, e.g. den, bong

Tone Marks Tone marks should be placed on the main vowel, and the

tip of the tone mark should point to center of the top of the letter.

You CANNOT put the tone mark vaguely above the syllable.

Can you put tones on the following syllables?

1. bai bei bao dou

2. zhan cen fang teng gong

MORE FOR TOMORROWWhat is this? Zhè shì shénme?

I don’t understand. Wǒ bù dǒng.

How do you say ”…. (e.g. Student Zhōngwén zěnme shuō ?

student)” in Chinese?

Please say it one more time? Qǐng zài shuō yí biàn.

What does “…e.g. lǎoshī”mean? “Lǎoshī” shì shénme yìsi?

Please give/tell me… Qǐng gěi / gàosu wǒ …

May I ask… Qǐng wèn…

Thank you/You’re welcome.A: Xièxie! B: bié kèqi (bú kèqi, bú xiè)!

Sorry./It’s all right. A: Duì buqǐ! B: Méi guānxi!

Character Primer I

Debunking some of the common myths about Chinese characters:

1. Chinese characters are NOT pictures. So you write a character, instead of drawing one.

2. Chinese characters are learnable, as long as you break each of them into REUSABLE components.

Character Primer I

What are radicals (bùshǒu )?Characters are built with smaller building blocks

Some of the most common ones are bùshǒu

Many radicals have a pictorial origin, but the absolute majority of Chinese characters (some say about 70%) do not have a pictorial origin at all.

10 useful bùshǒu

人 or 亻 rén

口 kǒu

日 rì

月 yuè

山 shān

水 or氵 shuǐ

弓 gōng

木 mù

田 tián

雨 yǔ

Useful expressions

hǎo

好

zàijiàn 再见！