Contents

Welcome to the Michel Thomas Method 1

About Michel Thomas 3
Index to Foundation Mandarin Chinese 4
Mandarin Chinese–English glossary 13
Learning the tones using hand movements 17
Welcome to the Michel Thomas Method
Congratulations on purchasing a truly remarkable way to learn a language.
With the Michel Thomas Method there’s no reading, no writing and no
homework. Just sit back, absorb, and soon you’ll be speaking another
language with confidence.

The Michel Thomas Method works by breaking a language down into its
component parts and enabling you to reconstruct the language yourself –
to form your own sentences and to say what you want, when you want.
By learning the language in small steps, you can build it up yourself to
produce ever more complicated sentences.

In the French, German, Italian and Spanish Foundation courses, Michel

Thomas himself teaches two students who have no previous knowledge
of the language – or, in the case of the Intermediate courses, students
who know only what they learned in the Foundation courses. You join in
as the third student in Michel’s class, and learn with them. The courses
are unscripted: you hear the students’ progression in the studio from
absolute beginners to confident speakers – including their mistakes and
Michel’s subsequent corrections. The French, German, Italian and Spanish
Vocabulary Courses were devised after Michel’s death by Dr Rose Lee
Hayden, who worked closely with him in his language school in New York.
The methodology is again cumulative, but in these courses the teacher
is assisted by two native speakers in order to advance learners in their
pronunciation as well as their vocabulary.

The Arabic (Egyptian and Modern Standard), Dutch, Greek, Hindi,

Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian and
Swedish Start, Foundation and Intermediate courses were developed by the
team at Hodder that produced Michel’s original French, German, Italian
and Spanish Foundation and Intermediate courses. The teachers, who are
native speakers, or else are assisted by native speakers, similarly teach
students with no previous knowledge of the language and carefully follow
Michel Thomas’s Method. The Egyptian Arabic, Mandarin and Russian
Vocabulary Courses follow the same unscripted format, with the same
teaching teams and students learning in the studio.

1
The key to your success in these all-audio courses is for you to
understand what you learn, and then to internalize it. To do so, you must
take an active part in the process. When the teacher asks, ‘How do you
say …?’, use your pause button to give yourself time to think out your
answer and say it out loud (or in your head). Then release the pause
button, and listen to the answer given on the recording. In this way you
will experience a constant sense of progression, a constant sense of
learning, that you will find exciting, stimulating and self-rewarding.

Perfected over 50 years, the all-audio Michel Thomas Method has been
used by millions of people around the world.

Now it’s your turn.

To get started, simply start the audio!

2
About Michel Thomas
Michel Thomas (1914–2005) was a gifted linguist who mastered more
than ten languages in his lifetime and became famous for teaching much
of Hollywood’s ‘A’ list how to speak a foreign language. Film stars such as
Woody Allen, Emma Thompson and Barbra Streisand paid thousands of
dollars each for face-to-face lessons.

Michel, a Polish Jew, developed his method after discovering the untapped
potential of the human mind during his traumatic wartime experiences.
The only way he survived this period of his life, which included being
captured by the Gestapo, was by concentrating and placing his mind
beyond the physical. Fascinated by this experience, he was determined
that after the war he would devote himself to exploring further the
power of the human mind, and so dedicated his life to education.

In 1947, he moved to Los Angeles and set up the Michel Thomas

Language Centers, from where he taught languages for over fifty years in
New York, Beverly Hills and London.

Michel Thomas died at his home in New York City on Saturday 8th
January 2005. He was 90 years old.

3
Index to Foundation Mandarin Chinese
Note about transliteration
The Mandarin words are transliterated in this track listing using the
pin-yin method of romanization. In this method the tones are represented
by marks on the vowels that look like the hand movements that we’re
using (see pages 17–18):
- flat tone (green thumb out)
´ rising tone (blue finger up)
v falling and rising tone (red ‘V’ for victory)
` falling tone (black finger down)
In addition, two dots are used above the letter ‘u’ (ü). This indicates that
the ‘u’ should be pronounced like the ‘oo’ in ‘moon’, but while you say ‘oo’,
shape your lips towards the ‘i’ sound in ‘sit’.

Hour 1 Track 1
Introduction. How to use this course. Background to Chinese.

Hour 1 Track 2
Tones in Chinese languages.

Hour 1 Track 3
Flat tone (green thumb out); zho-ng ‘middle’

Hour 1 Track 4
Rising tone (blue finger up); rén ‘person’

Hour 1 Track 5
Falling and rising tone (red ‘V’ for victory); wǒ ‘I, me’

Hour 1 Track 6
Falling tone (black finger down); shì ‘to be’

Hour 1 Track 7
The form of the verb ‘to be’ in Chinese doesn’t change: shì (‘to be’) also
means ‘am, are, is’; wǒ shì ‘I am’

4
Hour 1 Track 8
nı̌ ‘you’; nı̌ shì ‘you are’; the forms of Chinese verbs never change.
No word for ‘a’ or ‘an’: wǒ shì rén ‘I am a person’

Hour 1 Track 9
guó ‘kingdom, nation’; zho-ng guó ‘middle kingdom’ = China; zho-ng guó rén
‘middle kingdom person’ = Chinese (person)

Hour 1 Track 10
ta- ‘he, him, she, her, it’; do-u ‘both, all’; hé ‘and’; position of do-u ‘both, all’ in
Mandarin sentences: ‘You and he both are Chinese’, not ‘are both’, as in
English

Hour 1 Track 11
měi ‘beautiful’; měi guó ‘America’; měi guó rén ‘American’; yı-ng ‘brave’; yı-ng
guó ‘England, Britain’; yı-ng guó rén ‘English’

Hour 1 Track 12
men = plural form of individual, single form; wǒ men ‘we, us’; nı̌ men ‘you’;
ta- men ‘they, them’; kě shì ‘but’

Hour 1 Track 13
ma = question marker, to change a statement into a question; shì ‘is’ can
be used to mean ‘yes’

Hour 1 Track 14
nı̌ ne ‘how about you?’; ta- men ne ‘how about them?’

Hour 1 Track 15
máng ‘busy’; also means ‘to be busy’

Hour 1 Track 16
bù ‘no, not’

Hour 2 Tracks 1 and 2

hěn ‘very’, also fulfils the two-syllable meter rule: a dummy word to go
with an adjective; bù máng ‘not busy’

5
Hour 2 Tracks 3 and 4
nı̌ hǎo ‘hello’; hǎo ‘good, to be good, do well’; nı̌ hǎo ma ‘you good? you
doing well?’ = ‘how are you?’

Hour 2 Track 5
In Chinese the character/word has the same form for both individual and
plural form; word order determines meaning

Hour 2 Track 6
yě ‘also, too’; bù hěn hǎo ‘not very good, well’

Hour 2 Track 7
bú shì ‘not is’ (‘trampoline’ rule)

Hour 2 Track 8
A question with a question word, such as wèi shén me ‘why’. All Chinese
languages use the same characters to mean the same thing, but their
pronunciation differs.

Hour 2 Track 9
kàn ‘to look, see’; shu- ‘book’; kàn shu- ‘to read book’; saying ‘yes’ by
repeating verb

Hour 2 Track 10
xiàn zài ‘now’; zài ‘at’ emphasizes ‘at this very moment’

Hour 2 Track 11
Word order in Chinese: who–when–what is happening

Hour 2 Track 12
xiǎng ‘would like to’

Hour 2 Track 13
jiàn ‘to get together, see somebody, meet’; bù xiǎng ‘would not like to’

6
Hour 2 Track 14
tài ‘too’; néng ‘can’; bù néng ‘cannot’; tai … bù néng ‘too … no can’ = ‘too
… to’

Hour 3 Track 1
yı-n wei ‘because’

Hour 3 Track 2
-de indicates possession: wǒ de ‘my, mine’; nı̌ de ‘your, yours’; ta- de ‘his, her,
hers, its’; wǒ men de ‘our, ours’; nı̌ men de ‘your, yours’; ta- men de ‘their,
theirs’; péng yǒu ‘friend’

Hour 3 Track 3
lǎo shı- ‘teacher’

Hour 3 Track 4
wén ‘literature, culture’; zho-ng wén ‘Chinese language’; yı-ng wén ‘English
language’; xiǎng (‘would like to’) in Chinese can only be followed by a
verb

Hour 3 Track 5
kàn diàn shì ‘to watch TV’; diàn ‘electrical’; shì ‘vision’; zài ‘at’ represents
doing something at this moment; word order in Chinese: who–when–
how–what is happening

Hour 3 Track 6
zhè ‘this’; nı̌(de) hé wǒ de ‘your and my’: you can omit the first de
(possessive marker) after nı̌ ‘you’ when you have both nı̌ de ‘your’ and wǒ
de ‘my’

Hour 3 Track 7
nà ‘that’; shì ‘is’: can be used to answer ‘yes’ to a question without using
the verb in the question; bù ‘not’: can be used to answer ‘no’ to a question
without using the verb

Hour 3 Track 8
tài tai ‘wife’; tài … bù néng ‘too … no can’ = ‘too … to’

7
Hour 3 Track 9
shén me ‘what’; zhè shì shén me ‘what is this?’; nà shì shén me ‘what is
that?’; word order in questions and answers

Hour 3 Track 10
shuo- ‘to speak, say’; shuo- yı-ng wén ‘speak English’; shuo- zho-ng wén ‘speak
Chinese’

Hour 4 Track 1
huì ‘to be able to’ (involves ability); bú huì ‘not able to’; huì shuo- ‘able to
speak’; wǒ huì ‘I am able to’

Hour 4 Track 2
yì diǎnr ‘a little bit of’

Hour 4 Track 3
da- ng rán ‘of course’

Hour 4 Track 4
shéi ‘who’

Hour 4 Track 5
xué she- ng ‘student’; hé (‘and’) cannot be used to connect sentences or
phrases

Hour 4 Track 6
zhe- n de ‘really’; zhe- n de ma ‘really?’ (as a question); ma- ma ‘mother, Mum’

Hour 4 Track 7
ge = classifier; zhè ge shu- ‘this book’; nà ge rén ‘that man’; nà ge péng yǒu
¨ˇ ‘female’
‘that friend’; nu

Hour 4 Tracks 8 and 9

yí ge ‘a, an, one’; yí ge xué she- ng ‘a student’; yí ge hǎo lǎo shı- ‘a good
teacher’; yí ge shu- ‘a book’

8
Hour 4 Track 10
jia- ‘home’; zài jia- ‘to be at home’; zài in Chinese can be used as and
functions as a verb (‘to be at …’)

Hour 5 Track 1
nǎr ‘where’; zài nǎr ‘at where’

Hour 5 Track 2
yuǎn ‘far’

Hour 5 Track 3
dà gài ‘maybe’; běi jı-ng ‘Beijing’ (‘northern capital’)

Hour 5 Track 4
zhù (zài) ‘to live, stay’; shàng hǎi ‘Shanghai’ (‘on the sea’); shàng
‘on’; hǎi ‘sea’

Hour 5 Track 5
yǒu ‘to have’

Hour 5 Tracks 6 and 7

nán ‘male’; word order: who–when–what is happening

Hour 5 Track 8
cè suǒ ‘toilet’

Hour 5 Track 9
méi yǒu ‘not have’

Hour 5 Track 10
nà me ‘well, in that case’; yǒu ge (from yǒu yı- ge) ‘have a’; shì ge
(from shì yı- ge) ‘be a’

Hour 5 Track 11
More practice with yǒu ‘have’ and zhù ‘live’.

9
Hour 5 Track 12
tài hǎo le ‘wonderful’

Hour 5 Track 13
zài jia- ‘to be at home / in the house’; zài jia- lı̌ ‘inside the house’; zài
[possessive] jia- lı̌ ‘in [someone’s] house’

Hour 6 Track 1
zhuo- zi ‘table’

Hour 6 Track 2
lı̌ not used with geographical location; lún du- n ‘London’

Hour 6 Tracks 3 and 4

yào ‘to want’; bú yào ‘not want’

Hour 6 Track 5
hěn duo- ‘a lot of’; wǒ yào zhè ge / nà ge ‘I want this one / that one’

Hour 6 Track 6
qù ‘to go to’

Hour 6 Track 7
rèn shi ‘to meet, to be acquainted with’

Hour 6 Track 8
jı-n tia- n ‘today’; jı-n ‘current’; tia- n ‘day’

Hour 6 Track 9
qı̌ng wèn ‘excuse me’; qı̌ng ‘please’; wèn ‘to ask’; aiya ‘too bad, very bad,
my God’

Hour 6 Track 10
shàng ‘to be on’; zài … shàng ‘on …’

Hour 6 Track 11
kàn jiàn ‘to notice, see’

10
Hour 7 Track 1
zài … xià ‘to be under…’

Hour 7 Track 2
dà ‘big’; bú dà ‘not big’

Hour 7 Track 3
yǒu ‘there is, there are’; méi yǒu ‘there is not’; zài nǎr yǒu shu- ? ‘where is
there a book?’; omitting zài ‘to be at’ with yǒu ‘there is’ and méi yǒu ‘there
is not’

Hour 7 Track 4
xué xiào ‘school’

Hour 7 Track 5
zhèr ‘here’; zài zhèr ‘to be here’; nàr ‘there’

Hour 7 Track 6
měi ‘every’; měi tia- n ‘every day’

Hour 7 Track 7
yǒu de ‘(there is / are) some’; zài ‘to be at’ can be omitted with yǒu ‘there
is’ and méi yǒu ‘there is not’ when there is no ambiguity as to who is
doing the action; jia- ‘family’; měi jia- ‘every family’

Hour 7 Track 8
duì ‘correct’; bú cuò ‘not bad’; cuò ‘bad’; three ways to say ‘yes’: repeat the
verb, shì ‘is’, duì ‘correct’; yě ‘either / too’

Hour 7 Track 9
bú duì ‘not correct’

Hour 7 Tracks 10 and 11

zài jia- ‘to be at home’; zài jia- lı̌ ‘at [somebody’s] home’

Hour 8 Track 1
qı̌ng wèn ‘excuse me’; two-syllable meter rule

11
Hour 8 Track 2
bà ba ‘father, Dad’; zhı- dào ‘to know’

Hour 8 Track 3
yào shuo- ‘want to speak’; néng shuo- ‘can speak’

Hour 8 Track 4
xia- nsheng (or she-ng) ‘Mister, husband’; xia- n ‘first, before’; wáng xia- nsheng
‘Mr. Wang’

Hour 8 Track 5
hěn duo- ‘very many, many’

Hour 8 Track 6
xiè xie ‘Thank you, thanks’; bú xiè ‘no thanks, you are welcome’; when to
say xiè xie

Hour 8 Track 7
zài jiàn ‘Good bye, see you again’; zài ‘again’; jiàn ‘to see someone / to
meet’; lái ‘to come’; bù néng lái ‘cannot come’

Hour 8 Track 8
duì(ma)? ‘right?’

Hour 8 Track 9
mǎi ‘to buy’; bú yào ‘not want’

Hour 8 Track 10
do-ng xi ‘a thing, things’

Hour 8 Track 11
kàn kan ‘to take a look’

12
Mandarin Chinese–English glossary
This glossary contains vocabulary from Michel Thomas Method Foundation
and Intermediate Mandarin Chinese as well as the Mandarin Chinese
Vocabulary Course.
ba indicates suggestion of dǎ ‘hit’
agreement dà jiā ‘everyone, all’
bā ‘eight’ dà jiā haǒ ‘Hello, everyone.’
bǎi ‘hundred’ (a way to say ‘Hello’ to or begin
bǎi wàn ‘million’ speaking to any group’)
bàn ‘half’ dào ‘to, toward’
bàn ‘to solve a problem’ dān wèi ‘company, workgroup’,
bàn fǎ ‘method, way of doing ‘workpace’
something’ dāng rán ‘of course’
bāng to do something ‘to help děng ‘to wait’
to do something’ diǎn ‘o’clock’
bāng someone máng ‘to help diàn huà ‘telephone (electrical
someone out’ speech)’
bào ‘newspaper’ diàn t ı̄ ‘lift, elevator = electric stairs’
bēi ‘cup’ dōng ‘east’
běi ‘north’ dǒng ‘to comprehend, understand’
bié de ‘other, different’ duì bu qıˇ ‘sorry’
bú kè qi ‘don’t be polite’, ‘don’t duō ‘more’
mention it’ dòu fu ‘tofu’
bú xiè ‘don’t thank me’ duō jiǔ le ‘how long have…?’
bú yào qián ‘free’ duō shǎo ‘how much?, how many?’
bù yí yàng ‘different’ (referring to any number,
especially a larger number)
cài ‘food, dish’
cān guǎn ‘restaurant’ è ‘hungry’
cì ‘times’ (one time, two times, the èr ‘two’
first time, an occasion)
chá ‘tea’
fàn diàn ‘hotel’
chà bù dūo ‘about the same’
fáng jiān ‘room’
chē ‘vehicle’
fēi j ı̄ı ‘airplane = fly machine’
chı̄ fàn ‘to eat’
chuáng ‘bed’ fēi j ı̄ı chǎng ‘airport’
cóng ‘from’ fù qián ‘to pay money’

13
gào sù ‘to tell, inform, let know’ kě xıı̄ ‘it’s a pity’
gěi ‘to give’ kě yı̌ ‘may’
gěi somebody kàn ‘to show kǒng pà ‘afraid that..., perhaps...’
to somebody’ kuài ‘about to, almost’
gōng gōng qì chē ‘bus = shared kuài ‘unit of currency’
vapour vehicle’ (colloquial term)
guì ‘expensive’ kuài ‘fast’
guò ‘cross, pass time’
lǎo ‘elder’
hái shì ‘or’ (used in question lǎo bǎn ‘boss, person in charge’
sentences) le sentence + le represents
hái zi ‘children’ something changes
hǎo ‘OK’ lèi ‘tired’
hào ‘number’ (telephone number) lı̌ mian ‘inside’
hǎo bu hǎo ‘OK?, is that OK?’ liǎng ‘pair of’
hǎo chıı̄ ‘delicious, tasty (good eat)’ líng ‘zero’
hǎo kàn ‘pretty (good look)’ liù ‘six’
hé someone shuō huà ‘to speak
with someone’
mài ‘to sell’
hē ‘to drink’
mǎi dōng xi ‘to buy something
hù zhào ‘passport’
(go shopping)’
huà ‘spoken language’
màn ‘slow’
huài ‘broken, bad’
méi shén me ‘don’t worry,
huǒ chē ‘train = fire vehicle’
it’s nothing’
huò zhě ‘or’ (in positive sentence)
méi (yǒu) bàn fǎ ‘there’s nothing
to be done about it’
jı̌ ‘how many?’ (referring to a méi yǒu rén ‘no one’
relatively small quantity) méi guān xi ‘never mind,
jiào ‘to be called’ does not matter’
jiǔ ‘nine’ méi wèn tí ‘no problem’
jiǔ ‘wine’ méi yǒu ‘did not (do something
jiǔ ‘passage of time, a long time in the past)’
passed’ míng tiān ‘tomorrow’
jué de ‘to feel, think’ míng zi ‘name’

kā fēi ‘coffee’ ná ‘to take something’

kā fēi guǎn ‘coffee shop’ nǎ ‘which?’
kāi chē ‘to drive a car’ nǎ ge ‘which one?’
kàn de dǒng ‘to understand nǎ li response to a compliment to
by seeing’ express politeness

14
nǎ xiē ‘which of these?’ shuì (jiào) ‘to sleep’
nán ‘south’ sì ‘four’ (unlucky number: same
nán hái zi ‘boy = male child’ sound as sı̌ ‘death’,
nián ‘year’ different tone)
niǔ yuē ‘NewYork’
nǚ hái zi ‘girl = female child’
tı̌ng de dǒng ‘to understand
from hearing’
pí jiǔ ‘beer’ t ı̄ı ng shuoō ‘heard’
piào ‘ticket’
wài ‘out’
q ı̄ı ‘seven’ wài guó ‘foreign’
qì chē ‘car = vapour vehicle’ wài mian ‘outside’
qián ‘money’ waˇn ‘late’
qiān ‘thousand’ wàn ‘ten thousand’
qı̌ng ‘please’ waˇn fàn ‘evening food, supper’
waˇn shàng ‘evening’
wèn tí ‘problem, question’
rán hòu ‘then’ (after some time
wuˇ ‘five’
has passed)
rì ‘sun’
x ı̄ı ‘west’
xı̌ huan ‘to like to do something’
sān ‘three’ xià ge ‘next’
shàng ge ‘last’ xià wǔ ‘afternoon, p.m.’
shàng wǔ ‘a.m., morning’ xiāng gǎng ‘Hong Kong’
shǎo ‘few, less’ xiǎo ‘little’
shéi de ‘whose?’ xiǎo shí ‘hour’
shén me de ‘so on, etc.’ xiē plural marker instead of ge (zhè
shén me dōu ‘everything’ xiē rén ‘these men’)
(non-specific) x ı̄ı ng q ı̄ ‘week’
shén me something dōu x ı̄ng q ı̄ı èr ‘Tuesday’
‘every specific thing’ x ı̄ı ng q ı̄ liù ‘Saturday’
shén me shí hòu ‘when?, x ı̄ng q ı̄ı rì/tiān ‘Sunday’
what time?’ x ı̄ı ng q ı̄ sa¯n ‘Wednesday’
shén me yàng de x ı̄ı ng q ı̄ sì ‘Thursday’
‘what kind of...?’ x ı̄ng q ı̄ı y ı̄ı ‘Monday’
shí ‘ten’ x ı̄ı ng q ı̄ı wǔ ‘Friday’
shí hòu ‘time’ xiū xi ‘to rest’
sh ı̄ı fu ‘mate, buddy’ xué xí ‘to study, learn’

15
yào ‘will, shall’ zěn me ‘how?’
yào bù rán ‘otherwise’ zěn me bàn? ‘what’s to be done?’
yì bēi chá ‘a cup of tea’ zěn me yàng ‘how is it going?,
yí dìng ‘definitely, certainly’ what do you think of…?,
yı̌ hòu ‘after, behind’ how about…?’
yı̌ j ı̄ı ng ‘already’ zhàn ‘stop, station’
yı̌ qián ‘before’ zhǎo ‘to seek, look for’
yí yàng ‘the same, just like’ zhı̌ ‘only’
yín háng ‘bank (silver money firm)’ zì ‘word’
y ı̄ı ng gāi ‘should’ zǒu ‘to walk, go, depart’
yǒu méi yǒu ‘is there…?, zuì ‘most’
do you have…?’ zuì haǒ ‘very best’
yǒu qián ‘rich’ zuò ‘to do’
yǒu yì si ‘interesting’ zuò ‘by means of’ (different
yǒu yòng ‘useful’ character from zuò ‘to do’)
yòng ‘to use’ zuó tiān ‘yesterday’
yú ‘fish’ zùo ‘to sit down’
yuè ‘month’

16
Learning the tones using hand movements
Mandarin has four tones, plus a neutral non-tone, which are critical for
communication. While there is considerable leeway for differences in
pronunciation (many Chinese learn Mandarin as a second language) there
is very little for tones. If your tone is off you won’t be understood. Tones,
when made user-friendly, are actually quite simple to grasp and integrate
into your learning.

The method for learning the tones* which you will experience in this
course is specifically designed to address all styles of language learning. It
will permit your central nervous system to permanently create pathways
that reflect your personal learning style (visual, kinaesthetic, auditory, etc.)
and support you in effortless recall and usage of the correct tone at the
proper moment in your communication. It works on a subconscious level.
You will very quickly find that you are using the movements as a natural
part of your learning. These movements work. They have been tested
and refined on students without any previous knowledge of Mandarin
from many different backgrounds and age levels (teens to the elderly). I
encourage you to allow your hands to move with the movements. For
some of you that will be essential. For others, this will be less essential.
Trust whatever helps you. It will work for you as you permit it to do so.

In this method of teaching tones, each movement is linked to a tone and

colour. Romanized Mandarin (pin-yin) is written with four distinct tones,
which are shown with marks over the affected vowel. These marks are
shown in brackets below. The tones are generally listed in the following
order when taught and when words are listed in a dictionary.

*patent pending

17
First tone: ( ¯ ) long, steady tone.
Colour: Green.
Movement: Thumb out to side with closed fist.
Example: zho-ng (‘middle’).

Second tone: ( ´ ) rising tone.

Colour: Blue.
Movement: Index finger pointing up.
Example: rén (‘person’).

Third tone: ( ˇ ) falling–rising tone. This tone

actually resembles a tick mark (UK) or check mark
(US) (3). It starts rather low, goes down a bit and
then rises up to the level of the green tone.
Please pay close attention to the Chinese native
speaker’s demonstration of this tone.
Colour: Red.
Movement: Closed fist with index and middle
fingers forming a V and pointing up.
Example: wǒ (‘I, me’).

Fourth tone: ( ` ) falling tone. Colour: Black.

Movement: Index finger pointing down.
Example: shì (‘to be, am, is, are’).

Neutral non-tone: toneless.

Colour: None.
Movement: Closed fist.
Example: ma (question marker).

18
For more information or to place an order, please visit our website:
www.michelthomas.com

You can email or write to us at:

mtenquiries@hodder.co.uk
Michel Thomas Method, Hodder & Stoughton, Carmelite House, 50 Victoria Embankment,
London EC4Y 0DZ

Unauthorized copying of this booklet or the accompanying audio material is prohibited, and may
amount to a criminal offence punishable by a fine and/or imprisonment.

First published in 2007 by Hodder Education, an Hachette UK company.

Foundation Mandarin Chinese Copyright © 2007, 2011, 2016, 2018 in the methodology, Thomas Keymaster Languages
LLC, all rights reserved; in the content, Harold Goodman.

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Typeset by Integra, India.

Impression 1
Year 2018
Foundation Mandarin Chinese ISBN   978 1529 31883 8