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8.1: Lesson 7 Dialogue 1- Learning Chinese is cool

  • Page ID
    187662
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    17

    Narration:

    我喜欢学中文,觉得学中文是一个很酷的事儿,而且我的老师教中文教得真不错,所以我觉得中文很容易学。
    平常我的学习习惯很好,天天预习和复习功课。我的中文常常考得很好。所以老师常夸我,说我的中文学得不错。
    但是我不喜欢写汉字,因为写汉字有点儿难,而且我写得很慢。我的老师常常要我们听写汉字。怎么听写?就是老师说生词,我们写。明天我们上第八课,有一个听写考试,我得去准备一下,练习一下写汉字。

    An interactive H5P element has been excluded from this version of the text. You can view it online here:
    https://openbooks.lib.msu.edu/chs101/?p=240#h5p-28

    Vocabulary:

    Chinese Pinyin English
    adj., cool
    平常 píng cháng adv., usually
    习惯 xí guàn n., habit
    de particle, see grammar notes below
    prefix for ordinal numbers, see grammar notes
    天天 tiān tiān time word, every day
    功课 gōng kè n., lesson, assignment
    nán adj., difficult
    容易 róng yì adj., easy
    有点儿 yǒu diǎn ér adv., a little bit, somewhat, rather
    复习 fù xí v., to review
    预习 yù xí v., to preview
    xiě v., to write
    汉字 hàn zì n., Chinese characters
    kuā v., praise, brag, boast
    而且 ér qiě conj., moreover, in addition
    听写 tīng xiě n., dictation; v., to dictate
    生词 shēng cí n., new words
    zhēn adv., really
    màn adj., slow
    怎么 zěn me question word, how

    An interactive H5P element has been excluded from this version of the text. You can view it online here:
    https://openbooks.lib.msu.edu/chs101/?p=240#h5p-27

    Grammar Notes:

    1. Descriptive complement:
      The particle is often used after a verb or an adjective to describe the verb before it, as in the structure: Verb / Adj. + + Descriptive complement. For example, 我写得慢。In this sentence, 得慢 is the descriptive complement, used to describe the verb . It is similar to the English word “slowly”.
    2. The adverb (zhēn):
      It is used only in exclamatory sentences and comes before an adjective. For example, 你真好! (“you are truly nice”). In this sentence, is used to modify .
    3. Ordinal numbers:
      Chinese ordinal numbers are formed by adding the prefix () before cardinal numbers, which you can see from 第一 (the first) and 第二 (the second). Note that when adding a noun after a Chinese ordinal numbers, we must add a measure word in between, as in the structure “ + Number + Measure Word + Noun“. For instance, 第一个学生 (the first student).
    4. The phrase 有一点儿:
      This phrase can be shortened as 有点 or 有一点. Northern Chinese would prefer to add -er sound after the phrase, so they would say 有点儿 or 有一点儿. It is used before an adjective, used to express a tone of complaint by the speaker, or some other form of negative impression. It doesn’t just mean “a bit,” but rather “a bit too” from the speaker’s perspective. For example, 中文有点儿难。This sentence indicates that the speaker is complaining that Chinese is a bit too difficult.

    Culture Notes:

    Chinese characters have two versions: traditional and simplified Chinese. Traditional Chinese was originally the standard written system in all Chinese-speaking regions. In the 1950s and 1960s, the simplified characters used today were developed and implemented by the government of the People’s Republic of China to help improve China’s literacy rates. As its name suggests, simplified characters contain fewer strokes and look much simpler than traditional characters, which makes writing Chinese much easier. For example, compare 說話 (traditional) with 说话 (simplified), as well as (traditional) and (simplified).

    Note that not all Chinese characters have been simplified because some are already so simple that there is no need to change them. There are many such characters, including: 上、下、 我,好,人.

    Today, simplified Chinese is officially used in mainland China, Singapore, and Malaysia. Traditional Chinese is still used in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau.


    This page titled 8.1: Lesson 7 Dialogue 1- Learning Chinese is cool was last modified on Sun, 19 Nov 2023 10:35:48 GMT and is shared under a CC BY-NC 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Wenying Zhou via source content that was edited to the style and standards of the LibreTexts platform.

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