BEGINNING CHINESE I
初级汉语 （上）
你们好(Nǐmen hǎo)
HELLO Y’ALL!
Today’s Agenda

Survey Form

Course overview and syllabus

Pinyin primer

Useful expressions (Yes! You are speaking Chinese today!)

Characters primer

Homework assignment
1. S URVEY F ORM

Please fill out the form and return it to your
lǎoshī
(teacher).
Greetings
Nǐ hǎo
Nǐmen hǎo
Lǎoshī hǎo
Lǎoshī nín hǎo
2. C OURSE O VERVIEW
Course Materials:

Liu, Yuehua, et al. (2009) Integrated Chinese:
Level 1 Part 1 Textbook (Simplified Characters),
3rd Edition, Boston: Cheng & Tsui Company, Inc.

Integrated Chinese Character Workbook

Integrated Chinese Level 1 Part 1 Online
Workbook powered by Quia Books.
2. C OURSE O VERVIEW (C LASS E TIQUETTES )
 No food in class. Only drinks with a secure lid are allowed.
 No chewing gum or mint.
 Good posture, no slouching or putting feet on chair/desk

Do NOT use laptop computers.

Do NOT use your iPads or other tablets.
 Take corrections positively.
 No talking on the side. (Pay attention to the instructor and other students
when they are speaking.)

Silence your cell phone. NO texting.

Speak Chinese whenever you can.

When you hand in something to the teacher, please use both hands.

Always address your teacher by “nín” (the polite form of “you”)
2. C OURSE O VERVIEW ( POLICY / RULES )
ACADEMIC INTEGRITY: We take it VERY seriously.
Don’t get answers to your homework questions from anyone.
Don’t share any work of your own with anyone. If you give your
homework to anyone for them to copy, you are against the codes
of academic integrity.
Are you ready for the challenge?
Let’s begin from today!
3. Pīnyīn Primer I
Tones (Shēngdiào) 4+1
mā
má
mǎ
mà
(Mother)
(hemp)
(horse)
(scold)
tāng
táng
tǎng
soup
candy
tàng
lying
hot
kǎnshù
kànshū
Syllable structure
Tone
hǎo (adj. good)
Initial
(optional)
Final
(ao)
Tip!
Whenever you memorize/learn a
new word in Chinese, you have
to memorize/include the tone
mark as an integral part of the
pīnyīn
W HAT
IS
P INYIN
ANYWAY ?
Well, first let me say what Pinyin is NOT:
No Chinese people write in Pinyin. One is either able to write in
CHARACTERS or otherwise ILLITERATE.
So Pinyin is NOT the writing system for Chinese

But we have to use Pinyin to help you with your pronunciation
when you first start to learn the language.

Pinyin is also the easiest way of typing Chinese on a computer.

So study pinyin carefully to get the sounds right, but write only
characters.
Simple Initials
The easier ones (similar to English):
b
p
m
f
d
t
n
l
g
k
h
Simple Initials
The difficult ones:
j
q
x
z
c
s
zh
ch
sh r
Simple finals
a o e i u ü
Can you put them together?
…and this
times 4 tones,
theoretically,
and that would
be … how
many?
b
p
m
f
a
ba
pa
ma fa
o
bo po mo fo
e
i
bi
u
bu pu mu fu
ü
pi
mi
d
t
n
l
g
k
h
da
ta
na
la
ga
ka
ha
de
te
ne
le
ge
ke
he
di
ti
ni
li
gu
ku
Hu
du tu
nu lu
nü lü
Z, C, S
za
zu
ze
ca
cu
ce
sa
su
se
ZH , CH , SH , R
zha
zhu
zhe
cha
chu
che
sha
shu
she
ru
re
E
le
te
ne
he
zhe
ge
ke
de
re
se
ce
che
she
ze
ü
lü
nü
C OMPOUND FINALS ( PART 1)
1. pai pei pao ou
2. an en ang eng ong
AI
Tai kai pai
lai
Zai cai sai
Zhai
chai
shai
EI
Bei lei nei
mei
Zhei
zei
shei
AO
Bao
nao
lao
Zao
cao
sao
Zhao
chao
shao
hao
rao
kao
OU
Dou
lou
tou
Zou cou sou
Zhou chou shou rou
kou
mou
AN
Dan
gan
man
Zan
can
san
Zhan
chan
shan
nan
ran
lan
han
ANG
Dang
Zang
gang
mang
cang
Zhang chang shang rang
nang
sang
hang
AN VS ANG
Dan
dang
Zhan
zhang
Lan
lang
Can
cang
Han
hang
San
sang
Ran
rang
EN
Ben
gen
men
Zen
cen
sen
Zhen
chen
shen
hen
ren
ENG
Beng
Zeng
geng
meng heng
ceng
Zheng cheng sheng reng
seng
ONG
dong
Zong
gong
long
cong
Zhong chong rong
hong
song
EN VS ENG VS ONG
Gen
geng
gong
(N/A)
deng
dong
Zhen
zheng zhong
Cen
ceng
cong
Ben
beng
(N/A)
You may notice some UNAVAILABLE combinations, i.e.
some combinations are not a Mandarin Chinese
sound, e.g. den, bong
TONE M ARKS

Tone marks should be placed on the main vowel, and
the tip of the tone mark should point to center of the
top of the letter.

You CANNOT put the tone mark vaguely above the
syllable.

Can you put tones on the following syllables?
1. bai bei bao dou
2. zhan cen fang teng gong
MORE FOR TOMORROW
What is this?
Zhè shì shénme?
I don’t understand.
Wǒ bù dǒng.
How do you say ”…. (e.g.
Student Zhōngwén zěnme shuō ?
student)” in Chinese?
Please say it one more time?
Qǐng zài shuō yí biàn.
What does “…e.g. lǎoshī”mean? “Lǎoshī” shì shénme yìsi?
Please give/tell me…
Qǐng gěi / gàosu wǒ …
May I ask…
Qǐng wèn…
Thank you/You’re welcome.
A: Xièxie!
Sorry./It’s all right.
A: Duì buqǐ!
B: bié kèqi (bú kèqi, bú xiè)!
B: Méi guānxi!
C HARACTER P RIMER I
Debunking some of the common myths
about Chinese characters:
1. Chinese characters are NOT pictures. So
you write a character, instead of drawing
one.
2. Chinese characters are learnable, as long
as you break each of them into
REUSABLE components.
C HARACTER P RIMER I
What are radicals (bùshǒu )?
Characters are built with smaller building blocks
Some of the most common ones are bùshǒu
Many radicals have a pictorial origin, but the absolute majority of Chinese
characters (some say about 70%) do not have a pictorial origin at all.
10 useful bùshǒu
人or亻 rén
口kǒu
日rì
月yuè
山shān
水 氵shuǐ
or
弓gōng
木mù
田tián
雨yǔ
Useful expressions
hǎo
好
zàijiàn 再见！