S: 大家好！Is everybody ok? Dajia hao. Huanying, Welcome to LCN. Wo shi S., I’m S, and …..
M: Wo shi ML.
S: Are all our listeners repeating all the Chinese, ML?
M: I’m sure they are.
S: 那好。That’s good. Nà hǎo. Nà hǎo. Two questions, ML, what will we learn today, and where are we?
M: We’ll learn one way of ASKING A QUESTION; how to say VERY, and NOT, as in not good. We’ll also learn to say WE or US, YOU (plural), and HE or SHE, and THEY, or THEM. And where are we? We are still at the airport.
S: Been here for days! ML asks me a question. Try to guess the meaning.
M: Stuart, 你累吗？nǐ lèi ma?
S: 是的，我很累. Shi de, wǒ lèi.
M: Guessed the meaning? Listen to how TIRED Stuart is. 你累吗?
S: 是的，我很累.
M: Nǐ, You. Lèi LEI lèi. lei, of course means tired. Ni lei, you tired. Put a little ma MA ma on the end, and you have a question. 你累吗?
S: shi de, wo hen lei! Shi de, wo hen lei.
M: shide, shide, at the beginning of a sentence, means right or yes. wǒWO wǒ, wǒ means I, or me. Wǒ. Wǒ hěn lèi. I’m very tired. Wǒ hěn lèi. Wǒ hěn lèi. Hěn HEN hěn, means very. Like in hěn hao, very good. Wo hen lei. I’m very tired.
M: Stuart, ni lei ma?
S: 是的，我很累。
M: And now we’re both tired.
S/M 我们很累。
M: Say it, everybody. Wǒ men hěn lèi. Wǒ men hěn lèi.
S: So we need a few seconds break.
S: Ok, we’ve recovered. We’re not tired now.
M: 我们不累。We are not tired. Say it everybody. Wǒ men bú lèi.
S: Bù BU bù, means not, bú lèi. Not tired.
M: Stuart, and you people at home, say, bu4 lei4. Both words in the 4th tone. Bù lèi
S: Ok. Bù lèi.
M: Notice anything?
S: Kind of difficult to pronounce. Bú lèi, bú lei, 2nd tone then 4th tone is much easier.
M: You’re right. The BU sound bu , meaning not, is really a 4th tone word. But when it’s in front of another 4th tone word, it changes to the 2nd tone.
S: Agreed. Listen to the difference between Not Tired, and Not Good. Don’t forget to repeat them.
M: Bú lèi, bú lèi. Bù hǎo, bù hǎo.
S: Get it? 很好。Very good. Actually, a change of tone to make something easier to pronounce is quite common in Chinese. It comes naturally. For example, 你 ni， ‘you’ is third tone. But I bet none of you have been saying nǐ hǎo. It’s awkward. Like us, you’ve been saying nǐhǎo – the nǐ changes to 2nd tone. As I said, changes like this come naturally. Just mimic us, and you’ll do fine.
M: 对 duì, correct. But now maybe you at home are tired. I’ll ask you: Nǐ lèi ma? Nǐ lèi ma?
S: I heard, ‘wǒ hěn lèi. wo hen lei’.
M: So did I. So let’s call it a day.
S: 我不同意！wǒ bù tóng yì! I disagree! Wǒ bù tóng yì!
M: Nǐ bù tong yì?! Wǒ hěn shēng qì! I’m very angry! 我很生气！
S: Tian na! Ta hen sheng qi. Hǎo, wǒ tong yì. Ok, I agree.
M: So, till the next lesson, zaijian.
S: zaijian.
Category: Teaching & Examination
Lesson 004 Revision of Basic Knowledge of Chinese
M: 大家好！Is everybody ok? Dajia hao. Huanying, Welcome to LCN. Wo shi ML, I’m ML, wo shi ML.
S: Wo shi Stuart. OK, today’s revision time.
M: We’ll go over what we learned in the past week
S: Standard Chinese, or Putonghua. Has four tones, different tone, different meaning. They are…
M: 1,2,3,4.
S: Flat, up, down and up, down.
M: And lots of compound words, like electric shadow 电影, meaning movie, or electric vehicle 电车, meaning tramcar or trolleybus.
S: We write the sounds in pinyin. XIAO, for example, is how we write the sound xiao. The X is pronounced 西. And don’t forget, repeat EVERYTHING we say in Chinese. Try to say it with us.
M: And use active listening and speaking – imagine what’s happening. For example, Angry! 生气, be angry when you say it. I’m very angry 我很生气!
S: Or 我很累。Wo hen lei. I’m very tired.
M: Ok, that’s a quick recovery, Stuart. What else did we learn?
S: 你好! How are you？ 欢迎你到中国来, welcome to China. And 谢谢. Thanks.
M: Huanying HUANYING，is welcome. Huanying ni，welcome you. Huanying ni dao zhongguo lai. DAO Dào , to arrive, or reach.
S: And 中国, zhong ZHONG zhong is middle. guó GUO Guó, is country, or kingdom, so zhongguo, Middle Kingdom, China.
M: And lái LAI lái, to come. Welcome to China 欢迎你到中国来. Say it everybody. Huanying ni dao zhongguo lai. Huanying ni dao zhongguo lai.
S: And 谢谢。xiexie XIEXIE, which means thanks. Say xiexie, everybody. Xiexie.
M: 很好。Very good. Hen hao.
M: 欢迎，welcome, back to LCN.
S: Now ML will welcome me to some different cities. Try to pick out the city, and repeat everything.
M: 欢迎你到 (pause) 北京 来. Huanying ni dao Beijing lai.
S: Got it? Right. Northern capital, Beijing. Another.
M: 欢迎你到 南京 来, huanying ni dao nanjing lai.
S: Good. Nanjing, southern capital. Nanjing.
M: One more. 欢迎你到 西安 来. Huanying ni dao xi’an lai.
S: Welcome to Xian, where the terracotta army is.
M: Still one more. 欢迎你到 广州 来. Hear it? Guangzhou, the capital city of Guangdong province, once known as Canton.
S: And time’s almost up, so let’s finish with a little tone practice. You guys at home, mimic us out loud. Louder the better. Let’s try ai AI AI ai. ML?
M: āi ái ǎi ài. Again, āi ái ǎi ài. 很好，very good. 很好。
S: Now for hao, HAO, hāo, háo, hǎo, hào.
M: Everyone. hāo, háo, hǎo, hào.
S: hen hao. And remember, distinguishing between similar sounds in a language is important. So try to hear the difference between JIN and JING. ML, over to you.
M: Ok. JIN, jin, and JING, jing. First JIN, then JING. Jin, jing. Again. Jin, jing. Hear it? The ING is nasal, not ‘in’ but ‘ing’. Everyone try it. jin, jing.
S: jin, jing. Ah, that’s the difference between Tianjin and Beijing.
M: 非常好。Very very good. Just the way to end our lesson. So, until next time, zaijian.
S: Zai jian.
Lesson 003 Welcome to China
M: Huanying ni dao zhongguo lai. Welcome to China. Huanying ni dao zhongguo lai.
Huanying HUAN YING. huan, HUAN 1st tone. Yíng YING yíng, 2nd tone. Huanying means Welcome. Huanying ni, huanying ni, welcome you, or simply welcome.
S: Huanying ni dao zhongguo lai. Dao4 DAO dào here means to arrive, or reach. Dào, 4th tone, dào to arrive or reach.
M: And zhong ZHONG zhong, 1st tone means middle. Guó GUO guó, second tone, is country, or kingdom, so zhongguo, Middle Kingdom, or China.
S: And lái LAI lái is to come. 欢迎你到中国来 welcome to China. Say it everybody.
M: Huanying ni dao zhongguo lai, huanying ni dao zhongguo lai.
S: And xiè XIE XIE, xiè, meaning thanks, and always said twice. Xiexie, thanks.
(break)
M: Now for the short dialogue again, at natural speed. Stuart, 你好!
S: ni hao！
M: 欢迎你到中国来
S: 谢谢
M: 很好，very good. Now listen to and try to mimic this:. 欢迎你到 (pause) 北京 来. Huanying ni dao Beijing lai. No prizes for guessing what Beijing means. Běi BEI běi, 3rd tone, is north. Jīng JING jīng, hear the tone? 1st tone. Jīng. Remind our listeners of the tones again, Stuart.
S: 没问题，mei wenti, no problem! Mei wenti. Ready? Flat, rising, down and up, down!
M: So, jing1, right. 1st tone. And here jing means capital. Beijing – northern capital, referring to the capital of China, and where Stuart and I am right now. Now, let’s pretend we’re in another city. 欢迎你到 南京 来, huanying ni dao nanjing lai.
S: Nanjing. Nán NAN nán means south. Jing is capital. So, southern capital. Nanjing, another famous city in China.
M: But we don’t have time for all the cities in China. Time’s up.
S: We’ll finish by welcoming you all to China.
S/M: Huanying dao zhongguo lai! Zai jian.
Lesson 002 The Tones of Chinese Language
M: Welcome 欢迎to LCN. 我是ML I'm ML, woshi ML.
S: 欢迎大家, woshi S. Let's quickly revise what we did in lesson 1.
M: Well, first, Chinese has four tones. Stuart?
S: 1,2,3,4. You say it at home. 1,2,3,4. Remember, flat, rising, down and up, and down. And remember, different tone, different meaning
M: And Chinese has many classifiers, like tiao for long, thin things. So, for example, it's one tiao snake, two tiao snakes etc., or one ge person, three ge people.
S: There are lots of compound words, like fire chicken 火鸡 turkey, and fire mountain 火山volcano. And we use pinyin to write down the sounds with the abc.
M: One thing about writing Pinyin. To show what tone a word is, we put a small horizontal dash over the vowel part to show it's 1st tone, a small line going up 45 degrees from left to right for the second, one going down and then up for the 3rd, and one going down from left to right for the fourth.
S: Some sounds don't always have a tone. They are pronounced lightly, with no particular stress, like 了 or 吗.
M: Welcome back. Got a pencil and notebook ready? Write what you learn down – helps you to remember. Now for a quick tone practice, and we'll learn a bit of pinyin, don't worry about the meaning. First, your ears must get used to the sounds of Chinese.
S: Guess how XI is pronounced? XI. It's xi. So the X is not pronounced X, it's more like "she". Now for XI in the four tones. Don't forget, you must try to repeat everything we say in Chinese.
M: Xī xí xǐ xì. Again, all together. Xī xí xǐ xì.
S: Hear the difference? One more. XIAO. So it's XI, with AO on the end. The AO is pronounced /au/, so XIAO is pronounced xiao. In the four tones:
M: xiāo xiáo xiǎo xiào. All together now, xiāo xiáo xiǎo xiào , Again，xiāo xiáo xiǎo xiào. Very good, 很好。
S: As we said, it's important to hear the difference between the tones, so we'll practice a few more. Don't worry about meaning. Get used to the sounds of Chinese first. And you MUST repeat them with us. How about the sound /a:/, easy pinyin, it's spelt A. Ok, a in the four tones.
M: ā á ǎ à. All together, ā á ǎ à. Again, ā á ǎ à. Very good, hen hao.
S: And another sound. The pinyin is AO, and, remember, it's pronounced ao. So, here we go.
M: āo áo ǎo ào. All together. āo áo ǎo ào. ɑ
. Again āo áo ǎo ào.
S: 很好 very good finish to the lesson. We'll see you next time. Until then, 再见.
M: Zai jian.
Lesson 001 the Features of Chinese Language
S: Brand new series, starting from scratch. Mostly myself, Stuart, and …
M: Me, ML.
S: Yes. First, a bit about learning a foreign language. Practice every day. Active listening and speaking – imagine what's happening. Eg, Angry!
No complicated grammatical explanations: learn good grammar by hearing and imitating good Chinese.
M: And try to record the programs, so you can listen to them at will. And write them down in pinyin. Pinyin is how we represent Chinese words using the English alphabet. You can also hear the lessons on CRI's website.
S: Now for a basic introduction to the features of Chinese. First, it's a tonal language. Standard Chinese, or Putonghua, has four tones – 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th.
M: For example, the sound ma , very easy pinyin, it's simply a MA. Now "ma" in the four tones: mā má mǎ mà. Now everyone say it, including you, Stuart. mā, má, mǎ, mà.
M: And we must point out that: different tone, different meaning. For example, 妈, first tone, ma1 means "mother", while 马, third tone, mǎ means horse. You don't want to call your mum a horse, so tones are quite important.
S: Actually another way to help you remember which tone is which is by listening to this: 1 2 3 4. It's not Chinese, but you try it ML.
M: 1234. Hmmm, never tried that before, but it should help beginners. Now everyone try it, including you guys at home.
S: 1234. Hear the difference? Starting with the first, they are flat, rising, down and up, and down.
M: Good. That's enough on tones for now. We'll practice them quite a lot.
M: Another feature of Putonghua is that we use a lot of compound words.
S: Right. What is one word in English, might be two, or even three or four words in Chinese. For example, fire vehicle, huoche, is a train. Guess what a fire mountain, huoshan is? Right, volcano. Here's one I really like – fire chicken huoji is a turkey. A couple more: steam vehicle chiche is motor car; electric vehicle dianche is trolleybus. Get the idea?
M: Another feature is that Chinese nouns have classifiers in front of them. Similar to head of cattle in English, where head is the classifier. But Chinese has many more of them. The commonest is "ge". We don't say ‘one person', we say ‘one ge person', or ‘two ge people'. Another is Tiao, used as the classifier of long thin things. So we say ‘one tiao snake, 2 tiao snakes, or one tiao road, or avenue'.
S: By the way, the classifier for cattle is the same as it is in English. Tou, meaning head. So we say, for example, ‘three tou cattle'. Well, that almost bring us to the end of our first lesson. We'll see you next time.
M: 再见！
S: 再见!
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