Lesson 1, part 2
Surprisingly, since I started doing Chinese, Nathan also becomes more interested in speaking Chinese. This morning he said, “你 好!” to me and his Dad! While I was helping him getting ready for school, which in itself was a lesson in patience on my part, I was wondering out loud how to say “hurry up” in Mandarin. Surprisingly, Nathan came back with, “I know that term. I just learned how to write it yesterday at Chinese school. But I forgot it.” After a few minutes, he remembered that it sounded like, “kuài diǎn ” (快 点). Just now, I verified it from looking up the dictionary and he was right on. I can already see the value of learning Chinese!
I mentioned to him that I am working very hard to learn Chinese while he’s at school in the morning. Nathan became upset because he wanted to learn together. In his mind, he was afraid that I would get too ahead of him, which is impossible. Oh well, it doesn’t hurt to have a little competition going.
Last night, I was browsing around and found another really high quality website for English speaking people like moi. It charges money ($9.99 / month). I did the 30 free trial and really liked it. One cool feature is that it allows you to record your voice so that you can hear yourself. It’s also got a lot fun games for kids. The website is Active Chinese. You can check out some samples of their flash videos on youtube: Active Chinese Videos.
Another day another lesson:
I remember the first time I started looking at this website. I watched the “Situation Videos” and I was totally lost. They were speaking too fast for me to catch the words. Even Nathan was asking me what are they saying Mommy? Listening comprehension is a major part of learning the language.
Today I watched the Vol1, Lesson 1, situation video for listening comprehension. Surprising, I was able to decode most of what they said. This is the transcript of the video as I understand it:
Michael: 我 是 Michael! (wǒ shì Michael! I am Michael!)
Chinese Boy: 我 是 小 海! (wǒ shì Xiǎohǎi! I am Little Sea!)
Michael, 你好 ! (Michael, Nǐ hǎo! Michael, hello!)
Michael 你好 (Nǐ hǎo! Hello!)
Chinese Boy: 爸爸, 他 是! (bàba tā shì Michael – Dad, he’s Mike)
Father: Mike, 你好 (Michael, Nǐ hǎo! Mike, how do you do!)
Similarly, Annie also got the friendly greeting from her friend, 小 红 (Xiǎohóng or Little Red)
小 红 : Annie, 你好 (Annie, Nǐ hǎo)
Annie: 我 很 好。你 好 吗？ (Ｗǒ hěn hǎo。Nǐ hǎo ma？)
小 红: 我 很 好。 妈 妈, 她 是 Annie. (māma, tā shì Annie)
On the Situational Video of Vol 1, Lesson 2, when the kids go to sign up for school, I was able to understand all of the script. The first time was tough to understand but after awhile, it became clear. Here’s the transcript of the video:
Girl : 你好 (Nǐ hǎo – How are you)
Boy : 你好 (Nǐ hǎo – How are you)
Lady: 你好 (Nǐ hǎo – How are you)
Girl : 你好 (Nǐ hǎo – How are you)
Lady: 你叫 什么？ (Nǐ jiào shénme？What’s your name?)
Girl: 我 叫 玛 丽。 (Wǒ jiào Mǎlì. I am called Mary)
Lady: 玛 丽. 玛 丽. (Mǎlì. Mǎlì)
Lady: 你是哪国 人？ (Nǐ shì nǎ guó rén？Which country are you from?)
Girl: 我 是 英国. (Wǒ shì Yīng guó rén. I am from England)
Black Boy: 对不起. (duìbuqǐ – I am sorry)
Black Boy: 我 叫 Tom. (Wǒ jiào Tom. I am Tom)
我是 美 国人. (wǒ shì měi guó rén – I am from America)
Michael: 我 叫 Michael. (Wǒ jiào Michael – I’m Michael)
Chinese Boy: 我 叫 小 海! (Wǒ jiào Xiǎohǎi – I’m Xiǎohǎi)
Lady: 你叫 什么？ (Nǐ jiào shénme？What’s your name?)
Annie: 我 叫 Annie。 (Wǒ jiào Annie. I am called Annie)
Lady: 你是 美 国人? (Nǐ shì měi guó rén? Are you from US?)
Annie: 我 是 美 国人? (wǒ shì měi guó rén – I am from America)
Lady: 你叫 什么？ (Nǐ jiào shénme？What’s your name?)
Xiǎohóng: 我 叫 Xiǎohóng. 我 叫 Li Xiǎohóng. (Wǒ jiào …)
The Situational Video of Vol 1, Lesson 3 is about “where is your home?” This is the transcript that I can decode from listening:
Girl : 你好 (Nǐ hǎo – How are you)
Michael : 你好 (Nǐ hǎo – How are you)
Girl: 你家在哪儿？ (Nǐ jiā zài nǎr ？Where is your home?)
Michael: 我 家 在 这儿. (Wǒ jiā zài zhèr. My home is here!)
Girl: 我 是 老 处? (Nǐ shì lǎo chǔ? Your old home place?)
Michael: 我 家 在 英 国. (Wǒ jiā zài Yīng guó. I am from England)
Girl: 英 国? 英 国 在 哪儿? (England? Where is England?)
Michael: 你家在哪儿？ (Nǐ jiā zài nǎr ？Where is your home?)
Girl: 我 家 在 哪 儿. (Wǒ jiā zài nà. My home is over there)
Chinese Boy: Michael, 走 (zǒu … let’s go)
Michael: 再见 (zàijiàn – see you)
Lesson 1
Today begins my first step in that thousand miles journey! I am impatient to start off on the right foot after my Kauile Hanyu books arrived. With the help of the Confucious Chinese Institute website, I started on Vol. 1, Lesson 1. I listened to the video/sound clip many times to get the right tone and pronunciation. I discovered that with practice and repetitions, my pronunciation improves (not perfect, but understandable).
This lesson is equivalent to the “Hello World” of the programming world. I can quickly see that even the first “Hello!”, or “你 好!” (Nǐ hǎo) requires a deeper understanding of the Chinese culture and language. This term literally means “you good”. When saying it alone, it means “Hello”. But if you put it in a question format, “你 好 吗?” (Nǐ hǎo ma？), it means “How are you?” and requires an answer, “我 很 好。” (Ｗǒ hěn hǎo。), or “I am fine”. The 吗 (ma) attached to the end of a sentence asks the question.
Another problem with learning Mandarin is the tone. Once you can nail this down, you’ve got it made (well not exactly because I found that the initials pronunciation is even more difficult). Even though Vietnamese is a tonal language, I am still trying really hard to get use to Mandarin tones. Nathan has a tough time learning tones. We found that doing the hand motion when pronouncing the word helps. For example, if the tone is flat, move your hand horizontally. If it’s the third tone, follow through the fall and rise. Here is a the web page to learn tones: Learn the Tones!
Another idiosyncrasy of the language is the changing of tone. By themselves, nǐ and hǎo are both 3rd tone. But when put together, a tone change rule needs to be observed: “If a 3rd tone is followed by a 3rd tone, the first 3rd tone becomes second tone.”
Another important rule concerning the 3rd tone: ” If a 3rd tone is followed by any tone other than the 3rd tone (covered by rule 1) the 3rd tone changes to a “half 3rd tone.” A “half 3rd tone” is one that falls, but does not rise.” What this cryptic rule means is that instead of following through the whole 3rd tone, stop in the middle. For example in, 你叫 (Nǐ jiào), only the falling part of (Nǐ) is pronounced. Listen to these sounds to get used to the tone changes: Lesson 1 sentences.
Learning Chinese for us older kids require learning the pinyin. There are sounds that are so tough for us foreigners. Learning how to pronounce the initials and the vowels is the toughest thing! If this is mastered, you really got it made. This is a wonderful page that give hints to how to pronounce the initials in Chinese: Pinyin Pronunciation. I can already tell that I need to visit this page very often to learn the sounds, especially, the exceptions.
So to sum up this lesson, I scripted a conversation that Nathan and I practiced at home. My goal is being able to speak and read Chinese. Writing is for another life time.
Nathan: 你 好! 我 叫 Nathan! 你 叫什么?
Christina: 你 好, Nathan! 我 叫 Christina.
Nathan: 你 是 哪 国 人？
Christina: 我 是, 中 国 人. 你 是 哪 国 人?
Nathan: 我 是 美 国 人. 你 家 在 哪 儿？
Christina: 我 家 在 北 京.