Chinese for Beginners (A1/HSK1)

初级汉语

Lecture 1 第一堂Instructor: Ya Ping Hsiao

萧雅萍老师

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Mandarin Chinese

What does Mandarin mean? In the Chinese Empire, mandarin refers to a

member of any of the nine ranks of public officials.

Most Chinese speak Mandarin. 875 million people in China and 6.8 million

outside China speak Mandarin as their first language.

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Brief History

In 1932, the Chinese Republic made Mandarin the national language and named it Guóyǔ. Mandarin, the dialect of Peking, became the official form of pronunciation.

In 1949, the People’s Republic changed the name of Guóyǔ to Pǔtōnghuà, which means “the common language.”

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A Chinese syllable

• Generally speaking, the pronunciation of one

Chinese character is one syllable. One Chinese

syllable is composed of one consonant, one

vowel and one tone (except that several syllables

without consonants).

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Structure of one Chinese syllable

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Syllable (lettergreep): mā

the first tone: -

consonant(medeklinker)

vowel(klinker)

m a

character: 妈

The tones of Mandarin

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Source:

Wiedenhof, J. (2006). De uitspraak van het Mandarijn in 101 oefeningen (met cd). Amsterdam: Bulaaq.

Say these words with tonesfirst tone(high level)

second tone(rising)

third tone(falling rising)

fourth tone(falling)

fifth tone(short)

1 wǒ wó wǒ wò wo

2 nī ní nǐ nì ni

3 hāo háo hǎo hào hao

4 mā má mǎ mà ma

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Four language groups

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Source: How Hard is Chinese? Retrieved 25 January, 2009, from William Baxter’s homepage. Website: http://www-personal.umich.edu/~wbaxter/howhard.html

Why is Chinese the most difficult language in the world?

• Chinese is a tone language.

• Chinese shares very little vocabulary with

European languages.

• The writing system is definitely hard to learn.

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References: (Baxter, 2006; Wiedenhof, 2006)

Chinese loan words in DutchDutch Chinese Pinyin In Mǐn dialect (listen to Amy)

mie 面 miàn

thee 茶 chá

taugé 豆芽 dòuyá

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Loan words

• Chinese Loan Words in the English Language• http://www.yellowbridge.com/chinese/chineseloan.php

• English Loan Words in the Chinese Language• http://www.yellowbridge.com/chinese/englishloan.php

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Feature of this course: ICT-based learning

Important installation for Learning Chinese

(after this lecture)

• Chinese computing help desk:

http://www.pinyinjoe.com/

• Pinyinput: Type Pinyin with tone marks

http://pinyinput.sourceforge.net/

• In case you cannot install Pinyinput, you can type Pinyin with tone markers

by using Pinyin Editor on Chinese-Tools.com:

http://www.chinese-tools.com/tools/pinyin-editor.html

• Or use Macro in Word: Type Pinyin with tone markers

http://www.csulb.edu/~txie/PINYIN/pinyin.htm

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Feature of this course: ICT-based learning

Important installation for Learning Chinese

(later in this semester)

• Asian and Extended Language Font Packs for Adobe Reader

http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/product.jsp?platform=windows&product=10

• Free Chinese Fonts

http://www.clearchinese.com/resources/fonts.htm

• Handleiding ZDT

http://www.chinees-leren.nl/online-cursus-chinees/beginnen-met-chinese-les/handleiding-zdt

• Getting started with ZDT

http://zdt.sourceforge.net/main/getting_started/

• Writing Chinese on the Windows Platformhttp://newton.uor.edu/Departments&Programs/AsianStudiesDept/Language/chinese_write.htm

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Traditional Characters(Taiwan & Hong Kong)

SimplifiedCharacters (China)

Pinyin Definitions

1 好 好 hǎo /good/well/2 你 你 nǐ /you/3 嗎 吗 ma /(question tag)/

4 呢 呢 ne /(question particle)/

5 很 很 hěn /very/extremely/6 也 也 yě /also/too/7 我 我 wǒ /I/me/myself/8 她 她 tā /she/9 他們 他们 tāmen /they/

10 我們 我们 wǒmen /we/us/ourselves/

11 你們 你们 nǐmen /you (plural)/12 小姐 小姐 xiǎojiě /young lady/miss/

13 太太 太太 tàitai/married woman/Mrs./Madam/wife/

14 先生 先生 xiānsheng/sir/mister/teacher/(title of respect)/

Traditional Characters(Taiwan & Hong Kong)

SimplifiedCharacters (China)

Pinyin Definitions

15 他 他 tā /he/him/

16 普通話 普通话 Pǔtōnghuà /mandarin/

17 中文 中文 Zhōngwén /Chinese/

18 漢語 汉语 Hànyǔ /Chinese language/

19 一 一 yī /one/

20 二 二 èr /two/

21 四 四 sì /four/4/

22 三 三 sān /three/

23 聲 声 shēng/sound/voice/tone/noise/classifier for sounds/

24 給 给 gěi/to/for/for the benefit of/to give/to allow/to do sth (for sb)/(passive particle)/

25 謝謝 谢谢 xièxie /to thank/thanks/

26 不客氣 不客气 bú kèqi/you're welcome/impolite/rude/blunt/don't mention it/

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Lesson 1 Text 1 课文

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Lesson 1 Text 2 课文

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Pinyin table (NPCR p.82-83)

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Place your tongue forth and back

Front Back

z zh

c ch

s sh

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Initials

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b p m f

d t n l

g k h

zh ch sh r

z c s

j q x