Happy Chinese快乐学中文

The Uighurs live in Xinjiang in the west of China. They are a Turkic people, culturally quite distinct from the Han Chinese. Most Uighurs are followers of the Islamic faith. The Mongolians live on the plains of Inner Mongolia. They are mainly a pastoral people and excellent horseriders. Many Mongolians live in the traditional yurt and some are still nomadic. The Tibetans live in the high mountainous Qinghai- Tibetan plateau, the traditional home of Lama Buddhism. An animal commonly associated with Tibet is Yakin, which is used as a draught animal, for transport in the highlands, and whose milk products form a staple of Tibetan diet. The Zhuang are one of China‟s largest nimiority nationalities (altogether about 10 million people). They live in Guangxi in subtropical southern China. The Zhuang, like the Han, are principally an agricultural people.
Happy Chinese
快乐中文
Lesson 1: Zhōngguó 中国




China is a vast land, third largest in area after Russia and Canada and possessing the largest population of any country in the world. The civilization of China is one of the world‟s oldest living civilizations. Its written language, existing records of which date back to over 3000 years ago, has a far longer history than any other written system in use today. In traditional times, the Chinese believed their country was a unique land of civilization surrounded on all sides by „barbarians‟ . Therefore, their country became known as Zhōngguó 中国，literally „The Central Kingdom‟. What is usually referred to as Chinese is, in fact, the language of China‟s largest nationality, the Han. (Hànyǔ 汉语）literally means „ the language of the Han‟) In the past, the people of „The Central Kingdom‟ were known as „ the people of Han‟ and this was the name given to one of China‟s earliest and greatest dynasties, the Han Dynasty, which lasted from 206 BC to AD 220. Today, the people of the Han nationality make up over 92 percent of China‟s total population. Apart from the Han, there are over fifty other nationalities in China. These minority nationalities constitute only 6.7 percent of the total population, but they occupy about 60 percent of China‟s total land area, much of it in the western regions of china and China‟s borderlands. Minority nationalities possess their own distinct culture, their own language and often their own writing system.
Lesson 3: Eight basic strokes in Chinese Character
dot, dash, perpendicular downstroke,
downstroke to the left, wavelike stroke, hook, upstroke to the right and bend. The eight basic strokes, like notes in music, can be developed into many "tunes" and "movements", or schools of Chinese calligraphy.
Class work
1. read aloud by yourself mō mó mǒ mò mī mí mǐ mì bā bá bǎ bà fū fú fǔ fù lā lá lǎ là gē gé gě gè hū hú hǔ hù jū qú xǔ xù
2. How to pronunciate well? 1st tone- just as when you see a doctor, you open your mouth, say “ a-----” 2nd tone- when you have a question 3rd tone- just as when you say “well” 4th tone方案1： 打印汉语课本28-34 或扫描 方案2：国际日的PPT
What do you know about China?
1. the largest city in China is a) Shanghai b) Beijing, c) Guangzhou. 2.The largest nationality in China is a) Mongolian, b) Zhuang, c) Han. 3.China‟s population is a) about 10 million, b) about 100 million, c) over 1000 million. 4.China‟s longest border is with a) Korean, b) Kazakhstan, c) Vietnam, d) Mongolia, e) Russia. 5. China is a) much larger than Australia, b) much smaller than Australia, c) about the same size as Australia. 6) Which animal is not found in China? A) tiger, b) panda, c) giraffe.
Tones are important!
Just as you have to sing each note in a song at its pitch for other people to know what song it is, you have to pronounce Chinese words with the correct tones for people to understand what you are saying. Also, when you are uttering a syllable, a change in tone could change its meaning! Take the syllable ma for instance.
Phonetic alphabet

zh ch sh r z c s y w a o e ai ei ao ou an en ang bpmfdtnlgkhjqx eng ong i ia ie iao iou ian in iang iong u ua uai uan uen uang ueng ü üe üan ün zhi chi shi ri zi ci si yi wu yu ye yue yuan yin yun ying
Lesson 2:

Pinyin
Leabharlann Baidu
Pinyin is the Chinese pronunciation system. Most syllables are made up of two components, which are called the initial and the final, e.g Syllable= Initial + final mā m ā nǐ n ǐ hǎo h ǎo When uttering a syllable in Chinese, apart from pronouncing the initial and final in the right way, you must use the correct tone( i.e. the correct pitch). Chinese is thus a tonal language. There are 4 basic tones in Chinese. These are called the 1st tone, 2nd tone, 3rd tone and 4th tone, and are indicated by the use of marks placed above the vowel in the final of the syllable, e.g. 1st tone 2nd tone 3rd tone 4th tone mā má mǎ mà mother to feel numb horse to scold The 1st tone may be described as a rather long high pitch, the 2nd tone as a long rising pitch, the 3rd tone a low dipping and then rising pitch, and the 4th tone a rather abrupt falling pitch.