Chinese Language Intermediate 1 Lifestyle/Education and Work

Chinese Language Intermediate 1Lifestyle/Education and Work Personal Identification House and Home Environment Free Time

Targets for this section 1. To be able to give information about self 2. To be able to give information about family 3. To be able to describe places in town 4. To be able to describe one’s hobbies 5. To know the appropriate way to present information in a letter in Chinese

Activity 1: Reading comprehension Targets for Activity 1 1. To become familiar with the way personal information, hobbies and fun places in a town are presented in a short piece of writing 2. To be able to use the appropriate way to address different members of a family in Mandarin

Brothers and sisters • In Chinese ‘brother’ can either mean哥哥gēge(elder brother) or弟弟dìdi (younger brother). • ‘Sister’ can either mean姐姐jiějie (elder sister) or妹妹mèi mei(younger sister)

Cousin The one-child policy means Chinese pupils will have lots of cousins. It is important for us to familiarise ourselves with how cousin can be expressed in Chinese. Cousin can mean • 堂兄tángxiōng • 堂弟tángdì • 堂姐tángjiě • 堂妹tángmèi, 表兄biǎoxiōng 表弟biǎodì 表姐biǎojiě 表妹biǎomèi

How do we express “cousin” in Mandarin?

How do we express “cousin” in Mandarin? In general, you can follow these hints: • First decide whether they are on your father’s side or mother’s side. • If they are on your father’s side, use堂táng • If they are on your mother’s side, use表biǎo

How do we express “cousin” in Mandarin? • Second decide whether they are older or younger than you. • If they are older than you, use兄xiōng for male or姐jiěfor female • If they are younger than you, use弟dìfor male or妹mèi for female

Exercise 1.1: Reading comprehension • You are taking part in a summer exchange programme in Beijing which has been organised between Scotland and China. Your exchange partner in China introduces herself by email. 寄件者：　馬麗麗<malili@163.com> 收件人：　林娜<linna@yahoo.co.uk> 日期：2008-11-21 主題：　你的交流夥伴

Exercise 1.1: Reading comprehensionWord list • 交流夥伴Jiāoliú huǒbàn exchange partner • 已經yǐjing already • 表姐biǎojiě cousin; sister-in-law • 表姐妹biǎojiěmèi cousins; sisters-in-law • 天安門tiān ānmén Tiananmen Square • 長城chángchéng the Great Wall of China • 故宮gùgōng the Forbidden City • 天壇tiāntán Temple of Heaven • 希望xīwànghope

Family members • If you have one elder brother and a younger sister, what do you call them in Chinese? • If you have an elder sister, what do you call her in Chinese?

Family members Answers • If you have one elder brother and a younger sister, what do you call them in Chinese? • Answer: • 哥哥 • 妹妹 • If you have an elder sister, what do you call her in Chinese? • Answer: • 姐姐

Difficult “Cousin”! • David has a cousin called Tom. He is David’s father’s brother’s son. He is one year younger than David. What word should David use to address him? • Your father has a younger sister. She has a daughter called Lindsay. She is older than you. What word should you use to address her?

Difficult “Cousin”! Answers • David has a cousin called Tom. He is David’s father’s brother’s son. He is one year younger than David. What word should David use to address him? Answer: • Your father has a younger sister. She has a daughter called Lindsay. She is older than you. What word should you use to address her? • Answer: 堂弟堂姐

Difficult “Cousin”! • John’s mother has a younger sister, Catherine. Catherine has one son who is two years older than John. What word should John use to address him? • Jane’s father has an elder brother. He has a son who is three years younger than Jane. What word should Jane use to address him?

Difficult “Cousin”! Answers • John’s mother has a younger sister, Catherine. Catherine has one son who is two years older than john. What word should John use to address him? • Answer: • Jane’s father has an elder brother. He has a son who is three years younger than Jane. What word should Jane use to address him? • Answer: 表哥堂弟

Activity 2: Language Targets for Activity 2 1. To know how to turn personal pronouns into plural by using們men 2. To know how to use的de to form possessive pronouns

Possessive pronouns

Usage of‘們men’ and‘的de’ 我們的 • When we pluralise personal pronouns such as我wǒ,你nǐ,他tā and她tāin Chinese, we can simply add the suffix word們men. • How can we express ‘my’, ‘your’, ‘his’, ‘her’, ‘our’, ‘your’ and ‘theirs’ in Chinese? In Chinese we can simply add the character的de meaning ‘of’ after personal pronouns such as我wǒ，你nǐ，你們nǐmenetc.

的 • 的de may be omitted before nouns where the possessor has a close relationship with the person or object. • For example,我的媽媽wǒ demāma (my mother) can be writtenas我媽媽wǒ māmaand她的爸爸tā de bàbaas她爸爸tābàba. • However, when there is more than one possessor, one cannot say他們爸爸tāmēnbàba or我們媽媽wǒmēnmāma.

How would you say these phrases in Chinese? my father her mother his mother her older brother our younger sister your son their daughter our sons my elder sisters his younger brothers

How would you say these in English? 我的我們的你的你們的他的他們的她的她們的

Use的deto fill in the blanks where necessary. 1.他_______媽媽 2．爸爸_______房間 3．哥哥_______書桌 4．他們_______姐姐 5．我們_______老師 6．她_______書 7．我_______姐姐_______朋友 8．他_______弟弟_______名字

Decide whether the following phrases are correct. If a sentence is right, draw a smile after the phrase. If it is not correct, draw a cross and correct it. • 我爸爸 • 他們媽媽 3．她的姐姐 4．他的哥哥 5．她們的弟弟 6．她弟弟 7．我哥哥們 8.你爸爸 9．我們姐姐

Activity 3: Writing Targets for Activity 3 1. To be able to write basic personal information 2. To be able to present personal information about your family members 3. To be able to talk about your jobs and hobbies 4. To be able to give information on places in a town

嗎ma • We can add嗎at the end of an affirmative sentence to turn it into a question sentence. • For example,‘他喜歡足球。’means ‘He likes football’. But we can add嗎at the end and turn it into a question sentence:‘你喜歡足球嗎？’, which means ‘Do you like football?’ • To answer a question, we can say: ‘是的’for ‘yes’ or ‘不’for no’.

不bù • When expressing dislikes, we can add不in front of the verb to turn an affirmative sentence into a negative sentence. Thus, if we want to say ‘I do not like football’ we can say:‘我不喜歡足球。’.

Exercise 3.1 • Are you familiar with the way information such as personal information and places in a town are presented and what people do in their free time? Before you write, check whether you can say the following in Chinese. You can make notes in the space provided.

Example:

Exercise 3.2 Now compare your notes of Exercise 3.1 with the answers below. English Mandarin How to present your personal information: 我叫、、、。我、、、歲。我的生日是、、、月、、、日。我住在、、、。 • How to present personal information: • your name • your age • your birthday • where you live

Exercise 3.2 Now compare your notes of Exercise 3.1 with the answers below. English Mandarin How to present professions and information family members: 我媽媽、、、歲。她是、、、。 Example: 我媽媽是售貨員。爸爸是工程師。 • How to present professions and information family members: • My mother is … (age). • She is … (profession) • Example: • My mother is a sales assistant. My dad is an engineer.

Exercise 3.2 Now compare your notes of Exercise 3.1 with the answers below. English Mandarin How to express your hobbies using‘喜欢’(like) and‘不喜欢’(dislike) Example: 我喜歡打籃球。我不喜歡打羽毛球。 • How to express your hobbies using‘喜欢’(like) and‘不喜欢’(dislike) • Example: • I like playing basketball. • I don’t like playing badminton.

Exercise 3.2 Now compare your notes of Exercise 3.1 with the answers below. English Mandarin How to express places for fun in a town by using有yǒu (have, has) and去qù (go to) Example: 愛丁堡有很多好玩的地方。你可以去海邊 • How to express places for fun in a town by using有yǒu (have, has) and去qù (go to) • Example: • There are lots of fun places in Edinburgh. • You can go to the seaside.

Exercise 3.2 Now compare your notes of Exercise 3.1 with the answers below. English Mandarin How to ask people for personal information. Example: 你多少歲？你的生日是幾月幾日？你的愛好是什麼？ • How to ask people for personal information. • Example: • How old are you? • When is your birthday? • What are your hobbies?

Some words for Exercise 3.2 Mandarin English have/has be; like like go (to) go (to) at/be/in used at the end of a question • 有　　　yǒu • 是shì • 喜歡xǐhuān • 去qù • 到dào • 在zài • 嗎ma

Exercise 3.3How would you say these in Chinese? Write down your answers. • Hello. My Chinese name is Liu Yun. I am 10. I have one sister, who is 6. • Liu Yun:劉雲

Exercise 3.3How would you say these in Chinese? Write down your answers. • My Chinese name is Wang Xingli. I am 12. I like dancing. • Wang Xingli:王興麗

Exercise 3.3How would you say these in Chinese? Write down your answers. • Hello. I am Paul. I am 11. I have a brother, 13 and a sister, 9. • Paul:保羅

Exercise 3.3How would you say these in Chinese? Write down your answers. • My name is Jane. I am 14. I have a good friend. Her name is Hannah. She is 15. We like going on walks. • Jane簡[Jiǎn] • Hannah漢娜[Hànnà]

Chinese script for Exercise 3.3 • 你好!我的中文名字叫劉雲。我十歲。我有一個妹妹，她六歲。 • 我的中文名字叫王興麗。我十二歲。我喜歡跳舞。 • 你好！我叫保羅。我十一歲。我有一個哥哥和一個妹妹。哥哥十三歲，妹妹九歲。 • 我叫簡。我十四歲。我有一個好朋友，她叫漢娜，她十五歲。我們喜歡散步。

Exercise 3.4 Put the following sentences into English. • 我爸爸五十歲。他是工程師。 • 她媽媽和我媽媽是好朋友。 • 哥哥二十五歲。他是老師。 • 我的妹妹十二歲。她是中學生。 • 他的弟弟十三歲。他喜歡踢足球。

Answers to Exercise 3.4 • My father is 50. He is an engineer. • Her mother and my mother are good friends. • My brother is 25. He is a teacher. • My younger sister is 12. She is a secondary school student. • His younger brother is 13. He likes playing football.

Exercise 3.5 • Which word to use? Fill in the blanks with the appropriate verbs.

_______足球 • _______電視節目 • _______體操比賽 • _______網球 • _______高爾夫球 • _______音樂 • _______電子遊戲 • _______電腦 • _______音樂會 • _______表演 • _______羽毛球 • _______騎馬比賽 • _______籃球 • _______書 • _______網

Exercise 3.6 Use your answers for Exercise 3.5. Practise saying these phrases with your teacher or someone in your class. Try to use the following sentence pattern and ask them what their favourite sports are.

Exercise 3.7Are there any interesting places in your town? How would you say the following sentences in Chinese? Choose at least five sentences and practise with your teacher or someone in the class. Refer to Exercise 3.1 and the vocabulary list if you need help.

There are a lot of shops and supermarkets in the city. There is a big museum in the city centre. The beach is on the edge of town. The zoo is in the suburbs.

There are a lot of shopping centres, supermarkets and bookshops. You can go to the beach. You may go shopping. There are a lot of parks in the city.

Vocabulary: Places in town

Chinese Language Intermediate 1 Lifestyle/Education and Work