Foreign Language

MODULE 1 – GED0047

What is Chinese? Why learn Mandarin (pŭtōnghuà)

Chinese is a family of related languages, or × Mandarin is going to be the next lingua
dialects, that originated in China. There are franca.
hundreds, and some argue thousands, of × People who can speak Mandarin will have an
different dialects of Chinese. The most edge over others.
important one you should know is Mandarin.
Mandarin English
Mandarin, with about 900,000,000 speakers, is
the official language of China, Taiwan (Republic Nǐ hǎo! Hello!
of China), an official language of Singapore, and Dà jiā hǎo! Hello everybody!
one of six official languages of the United Zhāng Lǎoshī hăo. Hello, Teacher Zhang.
Nations. When people refer to the “Chinese” Teacher Zhang, good
Zhāng Lǎoshī wǔ ān.
language, they are usually referring to afternoon.
Mandarin.

Mandarin 普通话 pŭtōnghuà

× Spoken by 900 million as L1 and by 190 million
as L2
Total: 1,090 million
× The official/main language of China and
Taiwan
× One of the four official languages of
Singapore
× Spoken in Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam,
Hong Kong, South Africa, Macau, Cambodia,
Thailand, Philippines, UK, USA, Brunei, among
others

Why Mandarin?
Do you remember taking standardized tests in
school? Nightmare. Well, we can thank the
emperors of ancient China for beginning this
tradition. “Mandarins” is the name Europeans
gave to government officials in Imperial China.
To serve the court, mandarins had to pass
examinations, the world’s first standardized
tests.
Over time, the term “Mandarin” evolved to refer
to the language that these officials spoke in the
Imperial court and gradually to the main dialect
in use today.
Foreign Language
MODULE 2 – GED0047

Greeting Teacher in Putonghua • As you learn more, you’ll need to have a more
official phonetic system to learn better and
Classroom Expressions / Greetings
faster, that’s when Chinese PinYin comes
Mandarin English
Nǐ hǎo! Hello! handy.
Dà jiā hǎo! Hello everybody!
Three (3) benefits of learning Chinese PinYin
Zhāng Lǎoshī hăo. Hello, Teacher Zhang.
Teacher Zhang, good 1. Get started with Chinese without learning
Zhāng Lǎoshī wǔ ān. Chinese characters.
afternoon.
2. PinYin is a great self-learning tool
Pinyin (Initials) 3. Secret to master Chinese tones.
Pīnyīn is a Romanization system. A Romanization Get started with Chinese without learning
system allows us to change writing from a script Chinese characters
such as Chinese or Russian, into the Latin
If you know PinYin, even though you don’t know
(Roman) script which uses the ABC alphabet that
how to write Chinese characters, you can still
you already know.
write the sound with PinYin, and Chinese will
Chinese has several systems, but in this course, understand what you write and what you mean.
we are going to stick to just one - pīnyīn. We use
张 Zhāng
pīnyīn to convert characters into words we can
read and pronounce more easily. 慧 Huì
媚 Mèi
Pīnyīn is a phonetic system and is formally called
Hànyŭ pīnyīn.
张 Zhāng
This is because Hànyŭ means the language of the 老 Lăo
Han people, China’s largest ethnic group. 师 Shī
Pīnyīn has 3 components:
你 Nĭ
Initials Finals Tones 好 Hăo

One of the most common asked questions when 远 Yuán

it comes to Chinese Mandarin learning.
东 Dōng
Do I have to learn Chinese Pinyin? 大 Dà
The answer is: You don’t have to, but you better! 学 Xué
• You don’t have to learn Chinese PinYin, but it That is a big life saver because you know,
is better for your language learning in the Chinese characters can be very complicated and
long-term process. it is very time consuming to learn.
• As a beginner, you can just mimic the sound
and mark it with similar English sounds to help PinYin is a great self-learning tool
you memorize the sound. You can totally do If you know Chinese PinYin, eventually you can
that when you just start. learn Chinese by yourself. You can look up a
word by PinYin in the dictionary. PinYin will
Foreign Language
MODULE 2 – GED0047

become your tool of self-learning Chinese. It will LIST OF INITIALS

enlarge your vocabulary faster and help yourself b|uo| -
without having a Chinese teacher around you. It d|uh| - (dig/tatay) g|uh| - (gun)
(bath/paano)
is super useful! p|uo| - (puff) t|uh| - (tickle) k|uh| - (king)
m|uo| - (man) n|uh| - (nasty) h|uh|- (huh!)
Secret to master Chinese tones f|uo| - (fun) l|uh| - (large)

PinYin includes Chinese tones, that is one of the bàba (father) Wŏ ài bàba I love father
most difficult parts for foreigners to learn, māo (cat) Wŏ ài māo I love cat
especially English speakers. If you master fó (buddha)
Chinese PinYin, you’ll be able to understand pà (afraid) Wŏ pà nĭ I am afraid of
you
Chinese pronunciations and sounds better and it
dà Dà jiā hăo Hello, everybody
helps you practice it. With that said, you can see
tā (pronoun Tā shì māma She is my
Chinese PinYin is critical for your Chinese he/she/it) mother.
learning! nĭ (you) Nĭ ài wŏ. You love me.

So, it is a good idea to learn Chinese PinYin, if it Qĭng tīng Please listen
is too much as a total beginner, you can Qĭng shuō. Please say.
postpone it, but keep it in your mind, it is a great Qĭng kàn. Please look.
tool and it’s definitely worth the effort for your
Chinese study! LIST OF INITIALS
j|ee| - (jeans) zh|r| - (germ) z|ds| - (reads)
× PinYin is easy! Keep this in mind.
q|ee| - (cheek) ch|r| - (chirp) c|ts| - (cats)
× You should not pronounce as if it were x|ee| - (sheep) sh|r| - (shirt) s|i| - (silk)
English. r - (run)

jī (chicken) qī (seven) xī (west)

Nĭ chī le ma? (Have
zhīdào (to know) chī (to eat)
you eaten yet?)
rì bén rì bén rén
shí (ten)
(Japan) (Japanese)
Hàn zì
zì (character) (Chinese cài (cuisine)
character)
Zhōngguó cài
sì (four)
(Chinese cuisine)

Huān Yǐng! Welcome!

Zài shuō yí biàn. Say it again.
Dà jiā zhù yi Everyone pay attention.
Fēi cháng hăo Very good.
Qĭng gēn wŏ dŭ. Please read after me.
Foreign Language
MODULE 3 – GED0047
Zhāng Lǎoshī hăo. Hello, Teacher Zhang.
PinYin (Finals) Teacher Zhang, good
Zhāng Lǎoshī wǔ ān.
List of Initials afternoon.

j|ee| - (jeans) zh|r| - (germ) z|ds| - (reads) Qĭng tīng Please listen
q|ee| - (cheek) ch|r| - (chirp) c|ts| - (cats) Qĭng shuō. Please say.
x|ee| - (sheep) sh|r| - (shirt) s|i| - (silk) Qĭng kàn. Please look.
r - (run)
Huān Yǐng! Welcome!
b|uo| -
d|uh| - (dig/tatay) g|uh| - (gun) Zài shuō yí biàn. Say it again.
(bath/paano)
Dà jiā zhù yi Everyone pay attention.
p|uo| - (puff) t|uh| - (tickle) k|uh| - (king)
m|uo| - (man) n|uh| - (nasty) h|uh|- (huh!) Fēi cháng hăo Very good.
f|uo| - (fun) l|uh| - (large) Qĭng gēn wŏ dŭ. Please read after me.
Zăo ān Good morning.
Classroom Expressions / Greetings Wǔ ān Good afternoon.
Huān Yǐng! Welcome!
Zài shuō yí biàn. Say it again. Finals: Third Set
Dà jiā zhù yi Everyone pay attention. -ia |ya| -ie |ye| -iou |you| -iao |yao|
(yonder) (yeah) (yogurt) (yowl)
Finals: First Set -ian |yan| -in |yin| -ing |ying|
(yen) (bean) (ring)
Single Double Triple
-a -u -an -ang Finals: Fourth Set
-ai (eye)
(father) (food) (fun) (mongrel)
-ü -en -eng -ua |wa| -uai |wai| (why)
-o (low) -ei (heyy!) -uo |wo| (woah!)
(beauty) (under) (hung) (wobble)
-e (up) -ao (cow) -uan |wan| -un |wen| (go an’
-ui |wei| (way)
-i (wander) look)
-ou (blow)
(teeth)
Patterns
Finals: Second Set The letter i and u combine with first set finals to
-er (are) form the third and fourth sets. If a particular final
does not require an initial and thus can stand by
Patterns itself, a y or w must replace the i or u (as you can
see in the previous slide).
Initials and finals combine to make words. Look at
these sets of combinations. • Pattern 1: i + 1st set final = 3rd set final (-i + y)
• ba pa / bo po • Pattern 2: u + 1st set final = 4rd set final (-u +
• le re / ge ke w)
• fan fang / men meng / san can • Examples:
• cai chai / sai shai o i + ao = io / yao
• tao tou / gu ku / chu qu o u + a - ua / wa

Classroom Expressions / Greetings Finals: Fifth Set

Mandarin English -iang |yang| (young) -ün |yun| (united)
Nǐ hǎo! Hello! -uang |wang| (wonky) -iong |yong| (yoong)
Dà jiā hǎo! Hello everybody! -ong |weng| (oong)
Foreign Language
MODULE 3 – GED0047
-üe |yue| (you ate)
-üan |yuan| (between you
enjoy and you anger)

Patterns
Like third and fourth sets, some fifth set finals add
i or u to another final you already know, but note
that most combine ü with a first or third set final.
× Pattern 1: i + 1st set final = 5th set finals
× Pattern 2: u + 1st set final = 5th set final
× Pattern 3: ü + 1st/3rd set final = 5th set final
× Examples:
› i + ang = -iang
› u + eng = ong
› ü + an = üan
Foreign Language
MODULE 4 – GED0047

TONES
Facts about Tones
× Chinese is a tonal language with many
syllables and words with the same sounds.
Speakers must change vocal pitch (tone) to
indicate the word they want to say.
× Remember mā (mom/mum) and mǎ (horse)?
It’s not cool to call your mom a horse
× “English doesn’t have tones.”
× There are English equivalents for all Chinese
tones!
× There are four main tones: first, second,
third, fourth. There is also a neutral tone.
Neutral tones don’t have marks. Some words
have the same tone but different meaning.

× Each time you think about a tone in Chinese,

first think about the associated English word
with it.
Foreign Language
MODULE 4 – GED0047

× Remember: Always keep the associated

English word in your mind.

bā bá bă bà
nē né nĕ nè
pī pí pĭ pì
zhī zhí zhĭ zhì
tōng tóng tŏng tòng
kāi kái kăi kài
chōng chóng chŏng chòng