Chinese in Focus

      今年七月，我回到了美国，送了玛丽一本汉语笔记本。玛丽问我，在中国的时候，有没有看到“泰山”和“美兰”？我告诉玛丽，我看到它们在竹林里吃竹叶。玛丽说，她很想它们。

      我还读了一个熊猫和四位姑娘的故事。很久以前，熊猫都是白色的。有一天，熊猫正在吃竹叶，有一只老虎扑向熊猫。四位姑娘救了熊猫。老虎把四位姑娘咬死了。后来，在葬礼上，熊猫们的眼泪把身上的布条都染黑了。为了纪念这四位姑娘，熊猫们保留了身上的黑色。这真是一个有意思的故事。

      朋友们，你们见过熊猫吗？能说一说你见到熊猫的时候，...

Hi there!

This is a great listening practice. 

Go to this page (you'll have to copy this address into a new tab): 

https://soundcloud.com/chineseinfocus/marks-blog-unit-2-pinyin

Now, listen to the syllables and choose the one you hear.

1.   a. fō     b. fó...

I’m sure you remember the time 马克、吴刚、嫦娥 and 小兔子 went shopping to 香港.
 

Watch the video and write the dialogue between 吴刚，小兔子 and the clerk completely in Chinese. Then add a few more sentences from the ones you learned from Living in China to enrich the dialogue.

If you...

Do you remember 嫦娥's story?

Watch the video, then make questions in Chinese and answer your friends' questions using the functions from the list.

If you cannot access youtube, open this link in another window: 

http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNjE1NTA0MjE2.html

1. A...

Hi there. 

This is a self-evaluation.

Here is the list of all the communicative functions that we have studied in Level 2 Living in China.

Go ahead and try to make at least one sentence with each of them.

1.   Asking if someone knows something.

2.  Asking where someone...

As you know, pictophonetics are characters made by combining a component that indicates the meaning (radical) and another component that indicates the pronunciation (phonetic component).

Here we have some common radicals and phonetic components.

Form as many characters...

Do you remember that radicals give you a hint of the meaning of the characters?

Find at least one character with each of the following radicals. Then write the character's pīnyīn (with tones) and meaning in English.

You might need to write a disyllabic word if you can...

I love Chinese characters!

The can be structured in so many ways, but always inside a square shape.

Can you find at least one character for each of these structures?

Hi there!

Let's play a game!

Find the following things in the pictures and write how many of each there are.

Remember to use the correct measure words for each thing.

牛     先生     女士     山     狗  

龙     马     虎     鸡     羊...

As you know, in Chinese many words with different meanings have exactly the same pronunciation, they are called homophones (homo-, same; -phone, sound).

Here are some words and their pīnyīn. Can you find at least one homophone for each of them?

1.    bān 班

2....