Ottawa Mandarin School

Adult Class 2012-13Instructor: Daniel C. Lee

Week 01: September 15, 20121. Four Tones in Mandarin2. Icebreaker – What, Where, When, Why, How

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Introduction 介紹

• Instructor: About Daniel• Textbook: Speak Mandarin in 500 words• Please fill out your contact information• Course material can be downloaded from:• http://maltzchineseclass.blogspot.ca/

• Backbone of course material– Food, clothing, living, transportation, education, entertainment

• What would you like to learn?• New Year Performance

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Tones 聲調

• 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 accents

• Each 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 Mandarin– plus a light tone that usually carries insignificant meaning

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Four Tones 四聲

(-) #1: high pitch and flat( ) ˊ ˊ #2: starts middle, going up(ˇ) ˇ #3: low, goes down then up(ˋ) ˋ #4: starts middle, going down( ) · Light tone: starts middle, slightly going

down

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Tone #1pitch

time

Mandarin CantoneseTone #1

Tone #3

Tone #6

Tone #4

If keyword

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Tone #2pitch

time

If keyword

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Tone #3pitch

time

If keyword

In theory In reality

One important exception

• When two 3rd tones are back to back, the first one changes to 2nd tone– 33 becomes 23

• When 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 223– 3333 becomes 2323, 3223, or 2223

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Tone #4pitch

time

If keyword

Light Tone

ExercisePronounce 1, 2, 3, 4 in tones

• 1234• 4321• 111 (bold = keyword)

• 11111

• 1111111

• 222

• 222222• 3232323• 44444

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• 3131313• 1313131• 2424242• 3214321• 3412341• 1432143• 1234123• 3213131

WHAT 什麼• 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. 你的名字是什麼 ? (Your name is what?)

A1. 我的名字是 Daniel 。

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名字 name (given name or full name) 姓 surname

你 You 我 I 他 He 她 She

是 am, are, is

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

我在學中文。 (I learning Chinese.)

Example:

我是加拿大人。 (I am Canadian.)

= 我加拿大人。12

WHAT 什麼What is your favorite food?

Q2. 你最喜歡吃什麼 ? (You favorite eat what?)

最 the most 喜歡 like

吃eat 喝 drink

A2. 我最喜歡吃…

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WHAT 什麼What is your favorite food?

Q3. 你最喜歡什麼顏色的衣服 ?

A3. 我最喜歡 ______ 色的衣服。

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WHERE 什麼地方 (what place)

Q4. 你住在什麼地方 ? (You are living at what place?)

or 你住在哪裡 ? (You are living at where?)

住 live 地方 place

A4. 我住在 _____________ 。

渥太華 Ottawa 加拿大 Canada 中國 China

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WHERE 什麼地方 (what place)

Q5. 你生在哪裡 ? (You born at where?)

or 你出生在什麼地方 ?

( 出 ) 生 be born

A5. 我生在 _____________ 。

美國 USA 英國 UK 法國 France 俄國 Russia

台灣 Taiwan 香港 Hong Kong 大陸 Mainland China16

WHEN 什麼時候 (what time)

Q6. 你什麼時候開始學中文 ?

(You when start learning Chinese?)

開始 start 學 learn 中文 Chinese

A6. 我 _____________ 開始學中文。

一年以前 one year ago 2005 年 year 2005

一二三四五六七八九十 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

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WHY 為什麼

Q7. 你為什麼來上課？ (You why come to class?)

來 come 上課 attend class

A7. 因為… (Because…)

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HOW 怎麼

Q8. 你怎麼來上課？ (You how come to attend class?)

A8. 我 _________ 來上課。

走路 walk 坐公車 take bus

開車 drive a car

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Review

WHAT 什麼

WHERE什麼地方 哪裡

WHEN 什麼時候

WHY 為什麼

HOW 怎麼

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Next week: Pronunciation (Pinyin)

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