Lesson 6 - 她是学生吗？

In today's lesson we put some little things together to create sentences and questions in the positive and negative.

她是学生吗？
不，她不是学生。她是老师。
or.....
是，她是老师。

In English the above sentences are:
Is she a student?
No, she is not a student. She is a teacher.
and then......
Yes, she is a teacher.

We also covered stroke order and names of strokes for writing characters. We are unable to post this on this blog format at this time.

Lesson 5 - 她是谁？

In this lesson we reviewed and added some pinyin sounds. Each sound is below. Please practice the sound as you were taught in class.
di die diao dian
ti tie tiao tian
ni nie niao nian
li lie liao lian

We also went over some simple questions.
Ta1 shi4 shui2?
她是谁？
Who is she?

Ta1 shi4 lao3 shi1 ma1?
她是老师吗？
Is she a teacher?

To answer the question negatively, we would say:

bu4, ta1 bu2 shi4 lao3 shi1.
不，她不是老师。
No, she is not a teacher.

Our vocabulary word for the day was: Xiao4 Zhang3 , which is 校长 or Principal.

To end class we did a short discussion on Chinese policy in Africa. China is being pressed by many countries to use it's economic power and good political standings with Sudan to improve the situation for the people there.

好了。 到下一次见。 bye bye.

Lesson 4 - 你叫什么名字？

Please practice the below pronunciations. These are commonly used sounds at the end of a pinyin.

an ong en ian uan
ang eng in uen
iang uang
ing ueng
iong

In asking someone their name we use the verb "jiao" 叫 which means to be called. We do not use the verb to be, which would translate into, "What is your name?" Instead the translation is more like, "What are you called?"

你叫什么名字？ Ni3 jiao4 shen2 me ming2 zi?

The reply would then be:

我叫Mr. Selbo.

Words that we discussed in order to make sense of this simple dialogue were:
Thank you. 谢谢。 xie4 xie
You're welcome. 不客气 bu2 ke4 qi
What 什么 shen2 me
name 名字 ming2 zi
to call 叫 jiao4

够了吧，课里我们也学了“老师说”。。。

Lesson 3 - 再见！Zaijian

In lesson 3 we discussed some common words used in class as well as sharpening our pronunciation and ability with numbers.

Please practice the sounds below:
ai ao ia
ou ei ie iao iou

To say goodbye to some one, we say the words "zai jian." Both have the sharp descending 4th tone, and the "z" sound is Chinese is very short and sharp. In English it is more pronounced like in zebra. In Chinese it barely sounds like a "z" and a bit more like a "ts". Practice this.

再见老师。goodbye teacher.
再见学生。goodbye student.

明天见！see you tomorrow. (ming2tian1jian4).

We also practiced some listening classes dealing with tone and sound recognition. Practice this with someone. Say a pinyin with a particular tone and then have your partner try to guess the tone and spelling of the pinyin.

Below are the numbers from 11 to 30. Notice how they are just a logical continuation of the numbers 1 through 10.

十一，十二，十三，十四，十五，十六，十七， 十八，十九，二十。

二十一，二十二，二十三，二十四，二十五，二十六，二十七，二十八， 二十九，三十。

This first is shi2yi1, which is 10 and a 1. 12 is a 10 and a 2 and so on to 30 which is 2 10's.

好了我们今天下课。下一次见。

Lesson 2 - 你好！

In this lesson, we also practiced the sounds that we will later make into pinyin and then the actual words that make up the Chinese language. We continued to practice the tones also with sounds similar to those below.

ji qi xi
zi ci si

Saying hello is pronounced Ni3 hao3. 你好！

我叫皓月。
我叫大伟。
我叫王家明。
The above are examples of saying, "I'm called ____." This is pronounced: wo3 jiao4 _____.

A common response after greeting would be:
我很高兴认识你。
wo3hen3gao1xing4ren4shi2ni3.
I'm pleased to meet you.

Other greetings discussed in class were Good Morning and Good Evening.
早上好！ zao3shang4hao3
晚上好！ wan3shang4hao3

Historical point:
China has a history dating back thousands of years. The Emperor Qinshihuang was the first Chinese Emperor to unify China and create the succession of dynasties that lasted for more than 4000 years.
This emperor completed this through the sword. He conquered and destroyed all opposing states through military force.

Lesson 1 - Intro to Chinese

Welcome to Chinese as it is being taught at 21st Century Academy. This website is meant to supplement and reinforce the students in class experience. Please feel free to share.

The Chinese language as it is spoken, is linguistically, a more evolved language than the English language. Sentences for the most part take their meaning via syntax (word order) rather than by modifying words, working agreement or gender. There is very little "grammar" in Chinese.

It is a tonal language. Meaning that each word as it is pronounced has a particular sing-songy tone that accompanies it and gives the word its meaning. As the example was given in class: ma has four or more meanings depending on how one says the word. "Ma" with a level tone (said kind of like one is singing a note in choir) means mother. "Ma" said with a rising tone that to Westerners sounds like a question, means cotton. "Ma" said in the third tone which is said with the tone first descending and then rising, means horse, and the last tone "ma" said with a sharp descending sound means to curse.

There are only 405 different consonant and vowel combinations in Mandarin Chinese versus the many thousands in the English language. These sounds are all put together into the ordinary sounds that we call Pinyin. Pinyin are marked with the tones above the vowel. Practice the sounds below as you remember them in class:

ba pa da fa la ma
diao piao miao liao
ri ti li mi si

Below is an introduction to some simple characters. Notice how, even though these characters have evolved significantly over hundreds of years they still resemble their original pictures, i.e. big looks like someone holding their arms out.

人 口 大 太 好 男 女
ren2 kou3 da4 tai4 hao3 nan2 nu3
person mouth big huge good man woman

Below are the numbers from 1 to 10. Practicing numbers is great for fixing pronunciation as they cover a wide range of sounds and tones.

一二三四五六七八九十
yi1 ,er4 ,san1 ,si4 ,wu3 , liu4 , qi1 , ba1 , jiu3 , shi2