CHINESE 1

中文一级
Seminar 1 Week 1
Tracy Hong
欢迎大家
huān yíng dà jiā
About Chinese……
How about you? 你呢？
◦ Your name?
◦ Major？
◦ Interest?
◦ Which year?
◦ Cultural background?
◦ Why do you learn Chinese?
自我介绍(名字，学习专业,兴趣爱好,
年级，文化背景，为什么学习中文?)
Characters…
广
-- Characters may be
formed by different parts

木 摩 林
or by different
characters.

（15 strokes） -- A good way to study

characters is to know
how characters are
structured, rather than

手 trying to memorise them

stroke by stroke.
Sentence structures -- Grammar

Subject + verb + object

English e.g. I study Chinese.

Subject + object + different prop + verb + polite ending

Japanese e.g. I Chinese prep. study polite-ending.

Subject + verb + object

Chinese e.g. I study Chinese.
 English
e.g. I go to school.

Japanese
e.g. I school prep. go polite-ending.

Chinese Chinese is more

e.g. I go to school. rule-governed
and easier to
learn.
Chinese One Overview

•Seminar 1 (New words, Grammar points,

I sentence structures, text study) --- Tracy

•Seminar 2 (Hands-on exercises – focus on reading &

II writing; Listening & Speaking practice) --- Jin Laoshi
Attentions

◦ Video cameras – ON

◦ No Screen-shot

◦ Mobile Mute.

◦ Absent- minded? too long?

Why do we learn PINYIN ?
PINYIN, a great tool…

Typing into Chinese

characters

Helping us to learn/pronounce
unlearned characters

Helping us to pronounce characters

Week 1
Initials
(consonants)

Pinyin
Finals
(Vowels
Vowel + …)
 b p m f d t n l g k h
Initials
j q x
(21)

y w zh ch sh r z c s
 Single Final a o e i u ü
a Family ai ao an ang

o Family ou ong

e Family ei en eng er (special final – by itself)

Finals i Family ia iao ian iang ie iu
in ing iong

u Family ua uai uan uang

uo ui un

ü Family üe üan ün
 Challenging Sounds
zh ch sh r

z c s

ü üe ün üan
 zh: ch : sh : r：similar
similar as similar as similar as as /ʒ/
/dʒ/ /t∫/ /∫/
 Group 1
Initials tips Pinyin Meaning

zh ds (curl your tongue) zhe this

ch ts (curl your tongue) che car

sh sh (curl your tongue) shi be

r r (curl your tongue) ri day

 Group 2
Initials tips Pinyin Meaning

ü ee +oo yu fish

üe ü+ e yue moon

ün ü+ n yun cloud

üan üe + n yuan dollar

xiě zì

写 字
 4th tone is similar to the

Pinyin Tones pitch in “No” when your

younger brother
accidentally stained your
homework with orange juice.

1st tone is similar to the

pitch in both “mum”
and “home” when you
say “Mum! I’m home.”
2nd tone is similar to the
pitch in “yes” and “there”
when you say “yes” to 3rd tone is similar to the
“Are you there?” to pitch in “Why?”. Mum was
resume a conversation on going shopping and said
the phone. she didn’t want you to go.
So you ask “Why?”
Where to mark tones?
1. For single finals, tones are always on vowels
2. For compound finals, tones are always on the main vowels
The only one exception…
Let’s do some PINYIN drills…
 nà
In that case…; Well then… (conj.)
 cù
vinegar (n.)
 yú
fish (n.)
tāng
soup (n.)
mǎi
buy (v.)
 Nín
you (honorific form) (pron.)
 hǎo
good, well, fine (adj.)
 wǒ
I, me (pron.)
 rén
people, person (n.)
mā
mum (n.)
 bù
no, not (adv.)
tóngxué
classmate (n.)
lǎoshī
teacher (n.)
míngzi
name (n.)
 1. pá pào piāo pán
听听看…
2. mǎ mén mǐ mèng
Listen and 3. fēi fán fàng féng
choose… 4. tī tíng tiě tiān
5. kàn kāi kǒng kū
6. sǎ sàng sòng suàn
7. shān shāng shū shuō
8. hēi hú huá huáng
9. yǎo yóu yáng yīng
10. wǎ wù wáng wǒ
Challenge…
Tongue Twister sì shì sì
四 是 四
shí shì shí
十 是 十
shí sì shì shí sì
十 四 是 十 四
sì shí shì sì shí
四 十 是 四 十
Best practice AT HOME

https://chinese.yabla.com/chinese-pinyin-chart.php