请帮我当汉语老师

[teachinator]

I'm not really going to teach Chinese, fortunately! But after studying for three months in China last year, I have arranged to give a short workshop for some of my fellow ESL (English as a Second Language) teachers about my experiences, from the standpoints both of intercultural issues and of being a language student in a foreign country.

I thought it would be interesting to spend the first five or ten minutes pretending to be a teacher with a first-year Chinese class, immersing my "students" in the bewildering experience of being completely surrounded by a foreign language. I think I have enough Chinese to fake it (I have more background than just last year's three months of study), but I would like to get things right to the greatest extent possible.

So with that long-winded explanation, could I ask some kind, more fluent soul to check and correct the following, and perhaps suggest other things a Chinese teacher might want to say to beginning students? I don't need really simple things like 请进and 清坐, but ideas to expand on the theme be great. It takes more talking than one realizes to fill up five minutes.

Below I've written some of what I plan to say and/or write on the board; I would appreciate it if you would look at my translations and tell me if I can do better. (I'm not trying to achieve literal translation but rather equivalent social expressions.)

学生们，你门好！欢迎我们的汉语课。 Hello and welcome to our Chinese class!

我是老师，我教科苏珊。 I'm your teacher, and my name is .

我的姓名在黑板上。My name is (written) on the blackboard.

今天是我们课的地一天。Today is our first day of class.

今天是二月八号，星期六, 二零零七。 Today is Thursday, February 8.

I'd also like to give them a little "pre-test," so I need to say, "We are going to have a short test." What would be the best way to say that? This:

现在有一点小考试

can't be anywhere near right.

And, on the test itself, I want to avoid any English, so how would I write in Chinese, "Draw lines to connect the characters to the matching pictures?" I came up with:

画线连接下列词语和画

Well, if I don't get any responses, I will do my best to fake it and hopefully won't embarrass myself too much, but help would be very much apprecicated!

[Aweni]

hello.teachinator,

学生们，你门好！欢迎我们的汉语课。 Hello and welcome to our Chinese class!

you can say:同学们，你们好，欢迎大家上我们的汉语课!

我是老师，我教科苏珊。 I'm your teacher, and my name is .

you can say:我是你们的老师，我叫科苏珊

我的姓名在黑板上。My name is (written) on the blackboard

you can say: 我的名字在黑板上

今天是我们课的地一天。Today is our first day of class

you can say: 今天是我们第一天上课 or 今天是我们第一天的课

今天是二月八号，星期六, 二零零七。 Today is Thursday, February 8.

you can say: 今天是二零零七年二月八号星期六

现在有一点小考试。We are going to have a short test

you can say: 现在我们来(做)一个小测验

画线连接下列词语和画。Draw lines to connect the characters to the matching pictures

you can say: 把下面与画面相符的词语用线连起来

[-葛亚辉-]

我是老师，我教科苏珊。 I'm your teacher, and my name is .

我的姓名在黑板上。My name is (written) on the blackboard.

I'm just a beginning chinese student myself but two things I noticed.

1) That is the wrong jiao. You mean 叫。

2) For the second sentence, I think that “黑板上写着我的名字”would be better/"比较 chinese" as my teachers would say. but I may be wrong about that.

[teachinator]

Oh no, I had the wrong 叫 and the wrong 第！ How careless I am!

葛亚辉, you caught one of my character mistakes - thank you! And Aweni, thank you for greatly improving my Chinese throughout!

[teachinator]

I would like to put up a sign that says "Chinese only!" in the classroom for my fake Chinese class, the same way ESL teachers usually put up some version of an "Engish only!" sign in an English classroom. What would be the typical way to word that? I can only come up with something like "只要说汉语' but I'm sure that isn't even in the ballpark.

If I also wanted to put up a "No English!" sign, would that be 请勿说英语?

Do you have suggestions for any other good "elementary Chinese" classroom signs I might consider for the classroom? I don't want to get too elaborate, but it might be nice to have a few things around for effect.

Thanks again!

[Aweni]

hello,teachinator

只要说汉语,i think "只说汉语" is better.it is more close to "Chinese only"

"请勿说英语" i think it is correct.

and i have two "elementary Chinese" :

大家有疑问吗？ is there any question?

今天我们到此为止(when you finish the class you may say this)

i just thought of these words,not much,see if other friends could post some "elementary Chinese" for classroom here.

[teachinator]

Thank you again, Aweni! You're a great help!

[L-F-J]

禁止用英文

只允许中文

[Gulao]

Aweni, where are you from? Because one or two of the words you suggest (I noticed 测验 and 疑问), while they work, seem unnatural and/or non-standard to me. Especially since most sources I've learned from invariably use 考试 and 问题 respectively. Personally, I think these words should be used. For instance, "现在我们来做一个小考试" or "有没有问题？"

[skylee]

IMO, exam = 考試 , test = 測驗 .

And both 疑問 and 問題 are ok here.

Talking about being natural and standard ...

[Aweni]

hello.gulao.

i agree with skylee

i think your opinion is ok, that is the same meaning . it is just different expression.

i live in China, and the chinese teachers often ask the students which i suggested in the class.at least my teacher asked like this.

[Koneko]

Colloquially, we also use 大考 for exam; 小考 for test.

And when you flunk the exam or test, just say 烤焦了。

K.