Ottawa Mandarin SchoolAdult Class 2012-13Instructor: Daniel C. LeeWeek 01: September 15, 20121. Four Tones in Mandarin2. Icebreaker What, Where, When, Why, How

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IntroductionInstructor: About DanielTextbook: Speak Mandarin in 500 wordsPlease fill out your contact informationCourse material can be downloaded from:http://maltzchineseclass.blogspot.ca/Backbone of course materialFood, clothing, living, transportation, education, entertainmentWhat would you like to learn?New Year Performance

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Tones The greatest obstacle in learning Chinese for an adult student is to master tones. Because we have passed the age to get rid of the accentsEach Chinese word has a pronunciation and a tone.Pronunciation has to be precise. Tone has limited degree of freedom. Chinese do not vary tones as English speakers do (hence the famous Chinglish accent.)Getting the tone wrong is like pronouncing the word wrong.Luckily, there are only 4 tones in Mandarinplus a light tone that usually carries insignificant meaning*

Four Tones (-) #1: high pitch and flat() #2: starts middle, going up() #3: low, goes down then up() #4: starts middle, going down( ) Light tone: starts middle, slightly going down*

*Tone #1pitchtimeMandarinCantoneseTone #1Tone #3Tone #6Tone #4If keyword

*Tone #2pitchtimeIf keyword

*Tone #3pitchtimeIf keywordIn theoryIn reality

One important exceptionWhen two 3rd tones are back to back, the first one changes to 2nd tone33 becomes 23When multiple 3rd tones are together, there can be multiple solutions as long as the 3rd tones are broken up. The last 3rd tone must remain.333 becomes 323 or 2233333 becomes 2323, 3223, or 2223

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*Tone #4pitchtimeIf keywordLight Tone

ExercisePronounce 1, 2, 3, 4 in tones12344321111 (bold = keyword)111111111111222222222323232344444

*31313131313131242424232143213412341143214312341233213131

WHAT Chinese grammar is straight forward and easy!What, When, How, etc. directly replace the subject in question.

What is your name?My name is Daniel.

Q1. ? (Your name is what?)

A1.Daniel

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name (given name or full name)surname

YouIHeShe

am, are, is

Note: The BE verb is often omitted in Chinese.Example: I am learning Chinese.

(I learning Chinese.)

Example:

(I am Canadian.)

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WHAT What is your favorite food?

Q2. ? (You favorite eat what?)

the mostlike

eatdrink

A2. *

WHAT What is your favorite food?

Q3. ?

A3. ______*

WHERE (what place)Q4. ? (You are living at what place?)

or ? (You are living at where?)

liveplace

A4. _____________

OttawaCanadaChina*

WHERE (what place)Q5. ? (You born at where?)

or ?

()be born

A5. _____________

USA UK France Russia

Taiwan Hong Kong Mainland China*

WHEN (what time)Q6. ?

(You when start learning Chinese?)startlearnChinese

A6. _____________

one year ago2005year 2005

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10*

WHYQ7. (You why come to class?)

comeattend class

A7. (Because)*

HOW Q8. (You how come to attend class?)

A8. _________

walktake bus

drive a car*

ReviewWHAT

WHERE

WHEN

WHY

HOW

*Next week: Pronunciation (Pinyin)

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