Welcome to Lesson 1
Press "play" to begin.
Listen carefully
to the Chinese audio.
Repeat all of the
Chinese words that
you see on the screen.
Listen to this conversation:
In the next few minutes, you will learn all of the Chinese language skills needed to understand this conversation.
First, imagine that a Chinese man is meeting an American woman. He wants to begin a conversation so he says, “hello”.
The Chinese speaker is going to repeat this word part by part starting from the end. Please repeat each part out loud and try to make your pronunciation sound as much like the native speaker’s as you can.
How do you say, “hello” in Mandarin?
The man now wants to tell the girl his name, and ask her for hers in return. Here is how to say “name” in Mandarin. Listen and repeat.
How do you say, “name” in Mandarin?
And how do you say “hello”?
Now say, “name”.
Remember to repeat after the speaker and try to make your pronunciation sound as close as possible.
Now, to introduce himself, the man uses a Chinese word meaning “named” or “called”. Listen and repeat.
Say, “called”
Here is the word for “I”. Listen and repeat.
And, here is how to say, I am called. Listen and repeat.
Notice how simple the grammar is here. You simply put the word for “I”…
… next to the word for “called”
Say again, I am called.
Which part of that phrase means, “I”?
In this instance Chinese grammar is simpler than that of English because we can change the subject of this sentence without making any alterations to the verb. For example, here is the Chinese word for “you”:
And if you want to say “you are called”, you can simply say:
Notice that the word “called”,
…doesn’t change.
Say again, “you are called”
You’ve probably noticed that some words are pronounced with a rising or falling tone and that some are pronounced in a higher pitch than others. In Chinese, the tone is an important part of the pronunciation of the word and different tones indicate different meanings. You should imitate the speakers and try to make your pronunciation sound like theirs, paying careful attention to the intonation.
The Chinese man in our dialog is named Li Ming.
Try to say “I am called Li Ming”.
Of course, we can put other names after
For instance, the young lady in our dialog is named Annie
So how can we say “I am called Annie” ?
Now, before we go on, do you remember how to say, “name”?
Excellent. Now, if you are going to ask someone their name, you will need to know the word for “what”. Listen and repeat.
How do you say “what” in Mandarin?
Usually, in Chinese, this word is used in a question. Here is how to say “what name” in Mandarin. Listen and repeat.
And do you remember how to say “you are called”?
To ask someone their name, you must combine all of these words to say something like “You are called what name?” Listen and repeat
Say again, “what is your name?”
Which part of that means, “you”?
And which part of that means, “what”?
Which part of that means, “name”?
Say again, “what is your name?”
Now Li Ming asks Annie what her nationality is, and she states that she is “an American” .
Please repeat this word, part by part, and try to make your pronunciation sound exactly like the native speaker’s. Be sure to repeat aloud.
How do you say, “an American” in Mandarin?
Do you remember how to say “I”?
Here is how to say “am”. Listen and repeat.
How do you say “am”?
Now she wants to say “I am an American”. Listen and repeat.
How do you say “I am an American”?
Can you guess which part of that means “person”
You can combine this word with the name of any other country to say that country’s nationality. For instance, here is how to say “a Chinese person”.
Listen and repeat.
How do you say “a Chinese person”?
Now Li Ming wants to tell Annie that he is Chinese. Do you remember how to say “am”?
In Chinese, this word is used for the English word “am”, but it is also used for the words “is”, “are”, “be”, and even the past tense words “was” and “were”.
Now, do you remember how to say “I”?
Okay, here is how to say “I am Chinese” or, more literally “I am a Chinese person.” Listen and repeat.
| 中国人 |
| zhōngguórén |
| -- |
| 是 | 中国人 |
| shì | zhōngguórén |
| -- | -- |
| 是 | 中国人 |
| shì | zhōngguórén |
| -- | -- |
Which part of that means, “Chinese”?
And, which part means, “am”?
Do you remember how to say the word for, “an American”?
Now say, “I am an American.”
Say, “I am Chinese”.
Now if you want to ask someone what their nationality is, you can change the name of the country used in this sentence to a Chinese word that means “which” or “what”:
Here is how you say “which nationality”
Listen and repeat.
How do you say “which nationality”?
Do you still remember how to say “you” in Mandarin?
Do you still remember how to say “is” or “am” in Mandarin?
Here is how to say “What is your nationality?” – or, more literally “You are which nationality?” Listen and repeat.
How do you say “What is your nationality?”
If someone has just asked you your nationality, you can find out theirs by simply asking “How about you?” Listen and repeat.
How do you say “How about you?” in Mandarin?
Now it’s time to go through the conversation again. Try to see if you can say the target language before we give the answer.
Now, Li Ming has just met Annie. He starts by saying “hello”.
…to which she responds:
Now he tells her that his name is Li Ming.
…and he asks her what her name is.
She tells him her name is Annie.
Next he asks her what her nationality is.
She says “I am an American.”
To which he responds, “I am Chinese.”
Excellent, you’ve just taken your first step into a larger world. This is the end of Lesson 1. If you feel comfortable with most of the material presented in this lesson, feel free to go on to Lesson 2.
