My Chinese Class - Current Lesson: Week 8

[gummylick]

I'm going to include my weekly community Chinese class for those who want to follow along. We're a sort of laid back class, but very excited about learning about the Chinese language and culture. Here's this week's lesson:

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We began class with a prep quiz for next week:

Write the 13 compound finals.

Write the 16 finals with nasal endings.

Write the 21 initials and the 6 simple finals.

Write the following syllables according to the rules of spelling:

i - ___

uai - ___

ian - ___

jü - ___

l + iou - ___

ü - ___

ün - ___

h + uei ___

ie + ___

uo + ___

(Listening portion)

Write the Chinese translation of these in Pin Yin:

How do you do?

Hello, teacher!

See you tomorrow.

Please come in.

Sorry.

What's your name?

Thanks.

We then corrected our answer as well as went over the spelling rules (week 2 & 3) and practiced tones.

We covered a bit of directional words:

above/after – shàng

below/before – xià

left – zǔo (side - biānr)

right – yòu (side - biānr)

north – běi

south – nán

east – dōng

west – xī

Our weekly assignment is to practice pronunciation on the following sentences:

Let’s start class now. Xiànzài shàngkè.

Class is over. Xiànzài xiàkè.

Please pay attention. Qǐng zhùyì.

Attention, everyone. Dàjiā zhùyì.

Listen to me. Tīng wǒ shuō.

Say after me. Gēn wǒ shuō.

Say together. Dàjiā shuō.

All the boys. Nánshēng shuō.

All the girls. Nǔshēng shuō.

Please answer the question. Qǐng huídá wètí.

Please ask a question. Qǐng wèn wèntí.

Stand up. Zhàn qǐlái.

Sit down. Zuò xià.

Sit in a circle. Zuòchéng yí ge quānr.

Come up in front of the class. Dào qínmiàn lái.

Go back to your seat. Qǐng huí qù.

Put away your book. Bǎ shū shōu qǐlái.

Open you book. Bǎ shū dǎ kāi.

Turn to page X. Fāndào dì X yè.

Look at page X. Kàn dì X yè.

Next we’ll practice dialogue. Xiàmiàn wǒ men yào liàn xí duìhuà.

Next we’ll practice vocabulary. Xiàmiàn wǒ men yào liàn xí shēngcí.

Next we’ll practice sentence patterns. Xiàmiàn wǒ men yào liàn xí jùxíng.

Next we’ll practice characters. Xiàmiàn wǒ men yáo liàn xí hànzì.

Next we’ll do team work. Xiàmiàn wǒ men yào fēnzǔ liàn xí.

Let’s start the test. Wǒ men kāishǐ kǎoshì.

Lets start the dictation. Wǒmen kāishǐ tīngxiě.

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For the previous week's lessons, please visit my website.

[bossidy]

I find this very valuable, so thanks for posting it.

[HashiriKata]

...the third tone isn't showing properly on this site. You can see the rest on my site.

Does anyone know why this happens? Because of the software a particular site uses?

(I've got a temporary cure for it though: just copy & paste it somewhere, you'll see the letters with the 3rd tone again)

[roddy]

I haven't noticed this myself. The third tones in what remains of the original post are showing fine. Can anyone who is having problems let me know exactly where they are having problems (ie, is it with all third tones or just those on certain letters) and which browser / OS they are on.

Roddy

[HashiriKata]

My computers have problems with the 3rd tone with certain websites (This site and Xiaoma Cidian, for example). Any vowel with a 3rd tone mark on it will appear as an empty square (like the character for mouth). In the above post, I can't get the following properly:

left – zǔo

Qǐng zhùyì

(No problems with Chinese charaters, only with Pinyin)

I've also seen this problem mentioned on this site somewhere. My OS is English XP with SP2, IE 6, MS Chinese capability enabled.

[roddy]

What sites do you NOT have problems with? I'll see if I can compare them and track down the problem.

I do remember someone having this problem before now you mention it - however, if it's only one some sites, then there should be something I can do about it.

Roddy

[HashiriKata]

Hi Roddy,

I normally don't notice the problem because it affects only Pinyin with tone marks on it. So off my head, MDBG Online Dictionary (and as Gummylick pointed out) 52zhongwen.com are not affected. It seems Gummylick would be a good contact if you're concerned about the problem. Also, if you put up a notice/thread with its own heading, you may get better response.

(If anyone else has this problem with Xiaoma Cidian, you can choose to have pinyin tone-marked by number. Xiaoma was aware of the problem and gave us this option to bypass it.)

(Edit: Roddy, just got your email message now. I'll reply soon)

Cheers,

HK

[HashiriKata]

Just to mention that with Roddy's suggestion I'm now free of the problem. He also said he's on the way to changing something so that we all should be free of this problem.

Thanks again, Roddy!

[roddy]

Internet Explorer 6 or 5 - Click on Tools > Internet Options > General > Fonts and choose a different font (eg Times New Roman) as the web page font. To make sure that other people's web pages display in your chosen font, you then need to click the Accessibility button and check the 'Ignore font styles specified on Web pages' box.

and set the font to Arial or Time New Roman, and that should sort it out (NB this only applies to people who are using Internet Explorer (why ) and can't see the third tones. ). It should work for other websites with the same problem, and may make all websites use different fonts.

from

http://www.durham.gov.uk/durhamcc/usp.nsf/pws/Main+-+Fonts

Will make a small change in the forums which should solve this in the next day or two. The above will help for now.

Roddy

[beirne]

The week 7 lesson brings up something I've wondered about. What is the point of memorizing the finals, initials, etc.? I sort of understand why the concept is taught, because it is used to explain the pronunciation of characters by using rhymes, but it seems like the time spent memorizing all of them could be used better, especially in a laid-back class.

[gummylick]

I agree that we are spending lots of time on the initials and finals and are getting itchy for conversation. I've started to supplement my weekly class with other texts to keep me motivated.

[roddy]

RE: third tones

http://www.chinese-forums.com/viewtopic.php?p=25339#25339

Roddy

[gummylick]

We took the same quiz as I mentioned (Week 7). I have the hardest time remembering the compound and nasal finals! If I see them, I can pronounce them.. but memorizing them in a table seems weird.

We spent the rest of class practicing and pronouncing the sentences from Week 7. I took a few notes from that:

bù is used before words with 1st, 2nd, and 3rd tone

bú is used before words with 4th

"e" in "en" like "hen" sounds like the "e" in the number 10.

"e" at the end of a word like "de" sounds like the "u" in pizza "hut"

méi used with yǒu to indicate negative

I still don't know in what other situations you would use me2i in, and I had difficulty expressing that question to my professor .

Our homework is to learn the vocabulary used in the Week 7 sentences and learn to pronouce the following sentences:

There will be a quiz tomorrow. Míng tiān yǒu xiǎokǎo.

There will be an exam next week. Xià xīngqī yǒu dàkǎo.

Please turn in your homework. Qǐng jiāo zuòy4.

Please turn in your test. Qǐng jiāo juàn zi.

Do you understand? Míng bái ma? Dǒng ma? Dǒng budǒng?

Do you have any questions? Yǒu méiyǒu wèntí?

Is this clear? Qīng chǔ buqīng chǔ?

Are you ready? Hǎo le méi yǒu?

What is he/she saying? Tā shuō shén me?

Right. Duì.

Incorrect. Bú duì.

Very good. Féicháng hǎo. Hěn hǎo.

Good/O.K. Hǎo.

O.K./Not Bad Búcuò.

Madame Nü3shì

Miss Xiǎo jiě

Mr., Sir. Xiān shēng

Mrs. Tài tài

Professor Jiàoshòu

Student Xuéshēng

Teacher Lǎoshì

Teaching Assistant Zhùjiào

Blackboard hēibǎn

Cassette tape lùyīndài

Cassete tape recorder lùyīnjī

Computer diànnǎo

Extension cord yánchǎngxiàn

Overhead projector tóuyǐngjī

Video cassette recorder lùxiàngjī

Video tape lùxiàngdài