Lesson 11 - 中秋节快乐。

It's that time of year again.... we're nearing the 15th day of the 8th lunar month (this year the full moon falls on Sept. 26th). This day in China is a popular holiday called: Mid-Autumn's Festival. It is a time of reunion and a night of moon gazing and munching on moon cakes. In Chinese we say:

中秋节快乐！ zhong1 qiu1 jie2 kuai4 le4.
Happy Mid-Autumn Festival!

There is a famous legend of Chang e. The Earth had 10 suns in ancient times and Chang e's husband was a famous archer who shot down 9 in one shot, thus saving the people from famine. A goddess gave him an elixir, but Chang e drank it when he was out one day. She began to float up to the moon with only her rabbit for company. To this day the full moon, Chang e and rabbits are all associated in Chinese folklore.

Happy Festival! Eat lots of moon cakes.

Lesson 10 - 两个苹果。

This lesson expored measure words. These are particles in a sentence that are similar to the English remnents: bottles, loaves, pairs... They are something we put before a noun to distinguish its number. ( Ex: I have 2 pairs of pants.)

我有三个好朋友。 wo3 you3 san1 ge hao3peng2you3.
I have 3 good friends.
他有两个书包。 Ta1 you3 liang3 ge shu1 bao1.
He has 2 bookbags.

There are other measure words besides 个. They include but are not limited to 杯，瓶， 碗， 座， 只，个 and many more. Some examples follow.

我有一杯水。 wo3 you3 yi1 bei1 shui3.
I have 1 glass of water.

他有六瓶可乐。ta1 you3 liu4 ping2 ke3le4.
He has 6 bottles of Cola.

Until next time. Peace.

Lesson 9 - 你们都学汉语吗？

In today's lesson, we covered the use of ye3 也 and dou1 都。 These characters are used right after the subject in a sentence. We used them with questions for practice:

你们都没有纸吗？ Don't you all have paper?
他们也学汉语吗？ Do they all study Chinese?

For review before the exam please practice the below relationship related words.

哥哥 ge1ge Older Brother
弟弟 di4di Younger Brother
妈妈 Ma1ma Mother
爸爸 Ba4ba Father
爷爷 Ye2ye Grandfather
奶奶 Nai3nai Grandmother

Also for the exam you should be able to write the numbers from 1 to 100, recognize the characters we've discussed and all of their meanings and how to use them in a sentence.

要努力学习！

Lesson 8 - 他们是我的朋友。

Today we put some of our previous lessons together to create full sentences. We used the plural by adding the character 们 and we created some possessives by using 的 both in the same sentence. Example:
They are my friends.
他们是我的朋友。
ta1 men2 shi4 wo3 de peng2 you3.

She is their teacher.
她是他们的老师。
ta1 shi4 ta1men2 de lao3shi1.

We also explored some of the websites listed on the left.

For my students convenience I have listed the past homeworks that should have been completed and handed in. If you were absent or need to turn in late work, please refer to the below list and get them to me AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!

Assignment Characters
1.) 你好叫我。
2。） 我叫王家明。
3。） 老师学生。
4。） 他她你我是。
5。） Chinese News Articles
6。） 明名小校。
7。） 朋友的书。
8。） 学校校长。
9。） 玉龙中国。
10。） 不也大网。
11。） 教练汉语。
12。） 高中同学。
13。） 妈爸打球。
14。） 心的爱，请。
15。） Philosophy Papers - China
16。） Numbers from 1 to 100 in Chinese.
16。） 我有一个朋友。
17。） 他没有妹妹。

Lesson 7 - 他们的朋友。

今天我们学会了用“们”还有“的”。
Today we learned to use 们 men2 to make nouns plural. Just add the character 们 after a noun and it changes from singular to plural. Example:
我 becomes 我们
I becomes We

他 becomes 他们
He becomes They

We also learned to make write in the possesive. In English we add 's to the end of a noun to make it show ownership. In Chinese we add the character 的 de. Examples:
我 becomes 我的
I becomes my, mine

你 becomes 你的
You becomes Your

Putting the to things we learned together we can make a sentence like, "We are your students."
我们是你的学生。
wo3 men2 shi4 ni3 de xue2 sheng1.

Have fun with this. The Chinese language is really quite simple. Eventually, you'll wish you had learned it instead of English as a child.
好好玩！再见！