Posts tagged first timer

When teaching Mandarin in Beijing I found it always crucial to enhance my students’ motivation for learning Mandarin. Even though the adult students normally chose to learn Mandarin without pressures from other people they may still have the problem of lacking intrinsic motivation. Their motivation to learn Mandarin might be extrinsic motivation, rather than intrinsic motivation. For instance, they may want to learn Mandarin because they need to use it in their business or work, so they are not attracted by the language per se. However, external rewards are not enough to maintain students’ motivation for learning Mandarin, since it is such a long journey that normally demands years of continuous learning and practice. Thus, it is important for Mandarin teachers and students to know some strategies of enhancing intrinsic motivation. The following paragraphs will be devoted to discuss four steps in this aspect and they are dependent on Dornyei’s (2001) research of ‘framework for motivational strategies’. 

(a) Creating the basic motivational conditions

This involves setting the scene for the effective use of motivational strategies’ (Dornyei, 2001). The most essential conditions are as follows: appropriate teacher behaviours and a good relationship (e.g. mutual trust relationship) with the students; a pleasant and supportive atmosphere.

Teachers need to show their own enthusiasm in Mandarin and their job as a Mandarin teacher to students. It is almost impossible for students to be motivated by a teacher who is not motivated in learning, using and teaching Mandarin. In addition, it is always great for teachers and students to have a mutual trust relationship. A safe and supportive atmosphere is of importance in satisfying students’ needs for safety and belongingness, which are essential according to the hierarchy of needs theory. 

(b) Generating student motivation

This includes the following approaches: enhancing the learners’ language-related values and attitudes; increasing the learners’ ‘goal-orientedness’; making the curriculum relevant for the learners; creating realistic learner beliefs (Dornyei, 2001).

Since all the contents that students are learning are designed by others rather than the learners it is understandable that many, if not most, learners are not intrinsically motivated to learn L2 (second language) (Brophy, 1998; Dornyei, 2001). This implies that teachers need to play an active role in generating students’ motivation. In order for an individual to perform a particular behaviour he or she needs to see the value in that behaviour. In doing so teachers are recommended ‘to arouse the students’ curiosity and attention, and to create an attractive image for the course’ (Eccles & Wigfield, 1995). When learners are in a higher level of language skills authentic materials should be considered as well, so that the integrativeness dimension of value could be identified by L2 learners (Eccles & Wigfield, 1995). In terms of increasing the learners’ goal-orientedness, teachers are advised to initiate a discussion with learners so as to set explicit group goals (Dornyei, 2001). It might be beneficial for the learners to have ‘a sense of direction’. When it comes to ‘making the curriculum relevant for the learners’, Dornyei (2001) suggests teachers find out learners’ goals and the topics they want to learn, and build these into the curriculum as much as possible. He points out that ‘students are not motivated to learn unless they regard the material they are taught as worth learning’ (Dornyei, 2001).

(c) Maintaining and protecting motivation

Five approaches are recommended: setting ‘proximal subgoals’; improving the quality of the learning experience; increasing the learner’s self-confidence; creating learner autonomy; promoting self-motivating learner strategies (Dornyei, 2001).

Under the hierarchy of these strategies there are some detailed methods that are of significance in guiding practice. Among them two issues are specially highlighted by Dornyei (2001): increasing the intrinsic enjoyment of participating in learning tasks; and enhancing the learners’ social image. It is important for teachers to know that ‘intrinsic enjoyment’ is not simply equal to ‘interesting activities’. According to previous research many steps could be taken. For instance, Mandarin teachers could try to make tasks different and challenging so as to satisfy the learners’ need for novel elements in tasks. Some teachers argue that it is not proper to make tasks challenging, because they are too worried about disappointing students. However, what really matters is to what extent the tasks should be challenging. As long as tasks are not too challenging or too easy, students would not be disappointed and their motivation would not be undermined. In addition, the social dimension should be considered as a key element in motivating L2 learners. Maintaining face is very crucial not only for school children but also for adult learners. It is suggested that every learner should have opportunities to play a key role in different ways. For example, some tasks could be designed for students to show their specific strengths and expertise. This can be effective because it is helpful in enhancing L2 learners’ self-worth, which is an essential psychological need for human beings. 

According to my own experience, a proper extent of autonomy for adult learners is really essential for the enhancement of intrinsic motivation. Students need to be self-determined in their own learning and sometimes teachers need to change their roles and be a ‘tour guide’ in their students’ journey of exploring the beauty of Mandarin. Teachers just have to find out some useful resources for students and it is the students’ own responsibility to utilise them after class. No teacher could possibly learn the language on behalf of students. When students feel that they have more control on their learning they could become more intrinsically motivated.

(d) Encouraging positive self-evaluation

According to research findings, three approaches are of importance here: promoting attributions to effort rather than to ability; providing motivational feedback; increasing learner satisfaction and offering proper rewards in proper times (Dornyei, 2001).

The strategy of promoting attribution to effort rather than ability was put into use in teaching practice by Spaulding (1992) and Covington and Teel (1996). The strategy has been proved to be successful by these researchers and L2 teachers. Covington and Teel (1996) have differentiated two terms—’ability game’ and ‘equity game’. ‘Ability game’ in the education context has a negative impact on students’ self-evaluation and self-worth, because it makes students perceive learning as an approach to demonstrate their inborn abilities (Covington & Teel, 1996). Very few learners could keep winning all the ‘games’ all the time. That means the ‘ability game’ model makes the majority of learners feel bad about their abilities. Whereas the ‘equity game’ makes learners feel they are successful because it creates opportunities for all students to have their own way of approaching progress. This kind of ‘game’ encourages students to focus on their own efforts to their own goals of success rather than competing against each other (Spaulding, 1992). 

With regard to ‘motivational feedback’, teachers are encouraged to give learners ‘informational feedback which comments on progress and competence’ instead of ‘controlling feedback which judges performance against external standards’ (Brophy & Good, 1986). It is noteworthy that teachers should be cautious about some feedback that looks positive, such as: communicating pity instead of anger after failure; the offering of praise after success in easy tasks; unsolicited offers of help (particularly ‘gratuitous help’ such as supplying answers outright) (Dornyei, 2001).

When it comes to ‘learner satisfaction and the question of rewards and grades’, the issue is of controversy. The research on extrinsic and intrinsic motivation indicated that extrinsic rewards often undermine intrinsic motivation and therefore should be avoided. However, according to recent research extrinsic motivation could also be effective as long as it is being ‘sufficiently internalised’ (Deci & Ryan, 2000; Dornyei, 2001). This has been discussed in detail in Chapter 2. It is not the question of whether to use extrinsic rewards or not but the question of contents of the rewards and the way they are given to students. Brophy (1998) asserted that effective rewards should have these characteristics: high salience, that is, they are very attractive and are presented in a highly conspicuous manner; non-contingency, that is, the rewards are given for participating in the activity rather than being contingent on achieving specific goals; unnatural/unusual, that is, the rewards are not natural outcomes of the behaviours but are artificial control devices.

In this article we have briefly discussed some approaches to intrinsically motivate learners of Mandarin Chinese. Of course, these approaches are not exhaustive and other teachers and researchers might have their own effective approaches. All suggestions and discussions on this issue are welcome and appreciated!

References

• Brophy, JE (1998) Motivating students to learn, Boston: McGraw-Hill 
• Brophy, JE & Good, TL (1986) Teacher behaviour and student achievement. In Wittrock MC (ed.) Handbook of research on teaching. 3rd edition. Macmillan, New York pp328–75
• Covington, MV & Teel, KM (1996) Overcoming student failure: changing motives and incentives for learning, Washington: American Psychological Association
• Deci, EL & Ryan, RM (2000) Intrinsic and extrinsic motivations: Classic definitions and new directions, Contemporary Educational Psychology, 25, pp54–67
• Dornyei, Z (2001) Teaching and researching motivation. Harlow: Longman
• Eccles, J. S., & Wigfield, A. (1995) In the mind of the actor: The structure of adolescents’ achievement task values and expectancy-related beliefs. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 21, 215-225.
• Spaulding, CL (1992) Motivation in the classroom. New York: McGraw-Hill

Zeng Bin from ChineseTeachers.com

A. 生词表 / 生詞表　Vocabulary 

1. 几 /  幾　      jǐ                          what, how many
2. 号 / 號　       hào                     date     
3. 月 /月　        yuè                     month, moon
4. 日 /日　        rì                         date/day
5. 星期 /星期   xīng qī                 week
6. 昨天 / 昨天  zuó tiān               yesterday
7. 今天 /今天　jīn tiān                today
8. 明天 / 明天  míng tiān            tomorrow
9. 白天 / 白天   bái tiān               day time
10. 上午/ 上午  shàng wǔ          morning
11. 下午/ 下午  xià wǔ                afternoon
12. 生日 / 生日 shēng rì             birthday
13. 岁 / 歲　     suì                      age
14. 一月 / 一月    yī yuè              January
15. 二月 / 二月　èr yuè              February
16. 三月 / 三月　sān yuè           March
17. 四月 / 四月　sìyuè               April
18. 星期一 / 星期一    xīng qī yī        Monday
19. 星期二 / 星期二　xīng qī èr        Tuesday
20. 星期三 / 星期三    xīng qī sān     Wednesday
21. 星期四 / 星期四    xīng qī sì         Tursday
22. 星期五 / 星期五    xīng qī wǔ       Friday
23. 星期六 / 星期六    xīng qī liù        Saturday
24. 星期日 / 星期日    xīng qī rì          Sunday

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B. 例句 Sample Sentences

1、

• 今天几号？
• 今天幾號？
• jīntiān jǐ hào?
• What date is today?

-

• 今天五号（八号/十号/十五号/二十一号/三十号）。
• 今天五號（八號/十號/十五號/二十一號/三十號）。
• jīntiān wǔ hào (bā hào /shí hào /shíwǔ hǎo /èrshí yī hào /sānshí hào ).
• Today is the 5th (8th/10th/15th/21st/30th)

2、

• 今天几月几号？
• 今天幾月幾號？
• jīntiān jǐ yuè jǐ hào?
• Which month and date is today?

-

• 今天五月一号（五月十号/六月二十五号/十二月三十一号）
• 今天五月一號（五月十號/六月二十五號/十二月三十一號）
• jīntiān wǔyuè yī hào (wǔyuè shí hào /liù yuè èrshíwǔ hào /shíèr yuè sānshíyī hào)
• Today is the 1st of May (10th of May/25th of June/31st of December)

3、

• 今天星期几？
• 今天星期幾？
• jīntiān xīngqī jǐ?
• Which day is today?

-

• 今天星期四（星期一/星期二/星期六/星期日）。
• 今天星期四（星期一/星期二/星期六/星期日）。
• jīntiān xīngqīsì (xīng qī yī /xīng qī èr /xīng qī liù /xīng qī rì).
• Today is Thurdsay (Monday/Tuesday/Saturday/Sunday)

4、

• 你的生日是几月几号？
• 你的生日是幾月幾號？
• nǐ de shēngrì shì jǐ yuè jǐ hào ?
• Your birthday is which date of which month?

-

• 我的生日是十二月一号。
• 我的生日是十二月一號。
• wǒ de shēngrì shì shíèr yuèyī hào.
• My birthday is the 1st of December

5、

• 晚上你做什么？
• 晚上你做什麼？
• wǎnshang nǐ zuò shénme?
• What do you do in the evening?

-

• 我晚上看电视。
• 我晚上看電視。
• wǒ wǎnshang kàn diànshì.
• I watch TV in the evening

6、

• 明天你做什么？
• 明天你做什麼？
• míngtiān nǐ zuò shénme?
• What do you do tomorrow?

-

• 明天我去爬山。
• 明天我去爬山。
• míngtiān wǒ qù páshān.
• Tomorrow I am going hiking

7、

• 星期天你有时间吗？
• 星期天你有時間嗎？
• xīngqītiān nǐ yǒu shíjiān ma?
• Do you have time on Sunday?

-

• 没有时间。明天我有很多工作，很忙。
• 沒有時間。明天我有很多工作，很忙。
• méiyǒu shíjiān. míngtiān wǒ yǒu hěn duōgōng zuò, hěn máng.
• No time. Tomorrow I have a lot of work, very busy.

-

C. 对话练习 /  Dialogue

-

• 玛丽：今天几号？
• 瑪麗：今天幾號？
• Mary: jǐ tiān jǐ hào?
• Mary: What date is today?

-

• 大卫：今天五月五号。
• 大衛：今天五月五號。
• David: jīntiān wǔyuè wǔ hào.
• David: today is the 5th of May

-

• 玛丽：今天星期几？
• 瑪麗：今天星期幾？
• Mary: jīntiān xīngqī jǐ?
• Mary: Which day of the week is today?

-

• 大卫：今天星期四。
• 大衛：今天星期四。
• David: jīntiān xīngqīsì.
• David: Today is Thusday

-

• 玛丽：晚上你做什么？
• 瑪麗：晚上你做什麼？
• Mary: wǎnshang nǐ zuò shénme?
• Mary: What do you do in the evening?

-

• 大卫：晚上我学中文。你呢？
• 大衛：晚上我學中文。你呢？
• David: wǎnshang wǒ xué zhōngwén. nǐ ne?
• David: In the evening I study Chinese, you?

-

• 玛丽：我看电视。
• 瑪麗：我看電視。
• Mary: wǒ  kàn diànshì.
• Mary: I watch TV.

-

Dan from ChineseTeachers.com

Study Tips for Learning Chinese

Even if you have a great teacher, much of your learning potential depends on you and your dedication to learning Chinese efficiently and successfully. There’s only so much that can be taught in the classroom during relatively short time periods. This means that it’s up to you to keep your study habits consistent and effective outside of the classroom, which will enable you to internalize material from class with increased speed and accuracy. To learn how you can facilitate better learning for yourself, try reading through the following tips on studying Chinese.

Understand Your Advantages

If your background is in English, romance, or other Western languages, you’re probably concerned about learning Chinese because of the many differences between it and your native tongue. But despite these differences, there are some aspects of Chinese that might come easily to students who speak romance languages. For example, Chinese grammar is fairly basic: subject + verb + object. What makes this even better for students who are used to romance language verbs is that there are no conjugations in Chinese. There are also no gendered or plural nouns, so the main factors that can make Spanish or French so frustrating to learn are absent from the Chinese language. Sure, there will be other difficult things to focus on, but you won’t have to worry about many of the problems you’re used to encountering with language study.

Understand Your Challenges

In addition to its difficult written characters, Chinese is a tonal language, so simply changing the shape of your vowels in a syllable can generate several different words and meanings. If your first language is a Western or romantic tongue, you’ll probably have difficulty with the idea that tones can change meaning. To help prevent this potential problem, make sure that you’re well grounded in the four tones and can reproduce them with accuracy and versatility. If this seems overwhelming, don’t give up yet – the rising and falling tones of English correspond roughly to the second and fourth tones of Mandarin Chinese, so that leaves you only two unfamiliar tones to contend with. Of course, this doesn’t mean that you can just ignore the second and fourth tones in your studies, but it should give you a boost in confidence to help you through your practice.

Know Your Learning Style

As you’re probably aware, there are three main types of learning styles: visual, auditory, and kinesthetic. You can take a short online quiz to find out which type of learner you are, then use these tips to help you study in the way that’s best for you.

·       Visual: Textbooks, flashcards, notes, lists, diagrams, colored highlighters to identify language functions, and videos in Mandarin can help you learn efficiently. Writing characters repetitively until you remember them correctly is a great way for you to drill written Chinese.

·       Auditory: Listening to MP3 files, CDs, recordings of classroom lectures, Mandarin radio, and Mandarin video will be helpful for you. You can also do yourself a favor by reading your notes aloud, recording them, and then listening to them as a review activity.

·       Kinesthetic: Find a partner and drill with flashcards, use interactive software or online games, play role-playing games with a partner, engage in dialogue, and study with others consistently. These study methods will allow you to get the interactive practice you need to complement your learning style.

Participate in Immersion and Interaction

No matter what type of learner you are, it’s important to keep the Chinese language in your mind all day – especially outside of the classroom. To give yourself reminders to practice Chinese and to keep it prominent in your environment, try some of the following ideas.

·        Actively watch TV or movies in Chinese. If you need subtitles, use them until you can understand what’s being said without looking at them. Leaving the radio on a Chinese station or playing Chinese songs on your MP3 player can also help you keep the language in your ears and mind.

·        Make labels for everything in your house or apartment. Include traditional and simplified characters, pinyin as a pronunciation guide, and tones to help you practice every aspect of the vocabulary words you’re learning.

·        Teach what you learn, and you’ll be able to remember and implement it more efficiently. Try finding a friend who’s interested in learning Chinese or even someone who will just listen to you for a while. The main concern is that you’re able to communicate what you’ve learned in class in simple, practical steps. If you can do this, you’ll be surprised at how well you’ll be able to think on your feet when you speak Chinese.

Bio: Maria Rainier is a freelance writer and blog junkie. She is currently a resident blogger at First in Education, researching various online degree programs and blogging about student life. In her spare time, she enjoys square-foot gardening, swimming, and avoiding her laptop.

A. 生词表/生詞表 Vocabulary

1. 【爸爸/妈妈】【爸爸/媽媽】bàba/ māma - father/mother
2. 【爷爷/奶奶】【爺爺/奶奶】yéye/ nǎinai - grandfather/grandmother(father side)
3. 【姥姥/姥爷】lǎolǎo/ lǎo yé 【外婆/外公】wàipó wàigōng - grandpa/grandma(mother side) 
4. 【哥哥/嫂子】【哥哥/嫂子】gēgē /sǎo zǐ - older brother/older brother’s wife 
5. 【姐姐/姐夫】【姐姐/姐夫】jiějiě/ jiěfū - older sister/oldersister’s husband
6. 【弟弟/弟妹】【弟弟/弟妹】dìdì/ dì mèi - younger brother/younger brother’s wife 
7. 【妹妹/妹夫】【妹妹/妹夫】mèimei /mèifū - younger sister/younger sister’s husband
8. 【姑姑/姑父】【姑姑/姑父】gūgu /gūfu - father’s sister/father sister’s husband
9. 【姨/姨夫】yí/ yífu【阿姨/姨夫】āyí/ yífu - mother’s sister/mother’s sister’s husband 
10. 【舅舅/舅妈】【舅舅/舅媽】iùjiù/ jiùmā - mother’s brother/mother’s brother’s wife
11. 【叔叔/ 婶婶】【叔叔/嬸嬸】shū shū /shěn shěn - father’s younger brother/father’s younger brother’s wife
12. 【兄弟/姐妹】【兄弟/姐妹】xiōngdì/ jiěmèi - brother/sister
13. 【亲戚】【親戚】qīnqi - relatives
14. 【孩子】【孩子】háizi - child
15. 【妻子/丈夫】【妻子/丈夫】qīzi/ zhàngfu - wife/husband
16. 【结婚】【結婚】jiéhūn - marry
17. 【健在】【健在】jiàn zài - be still living and in good health
18. 【身体】【身體】shēntǐ - the body,health
19. 【工程师】【工程師】gōngchéngshī - engineer
20. 【一家人/家人】【一家人/家人】yī jiārén/ jiārén - of one family/family member

B. 例句/例句 Sample Sentences

例句1 / Sentence 1

• 【你有兄弟姐妹吗？】
• 【你有兄弟姐妹嗎?】
• nǐ yǒu xiōngdì jiěmèi ma
• Do you have any brothers or sisters?

例句2 / Sentence 2

• 【我有一个哥哥和两个姐姐】
• 【我有一個哥哥和兩個姐姐】
• wǒ yǒu yī gè gēgē hé liǎng gè jiějiě
• I have one brother and two sisters

例句3 / Sentence 3

• 【你的妻子（丈夫）最近好吗？】
• 【你的妻子（丈夫）最近好嗎?】
• nǐde qīzi （zhàngfu） zuì jìn hǎo ma？
• how is your wife(husband)（ lately）?

例句4 / Sentence 4

• 【他（她）很好】
• 【他（她）很好】
• tā hěn hǎo 
• she(he) is very good

例句5/ Sentence5

• 【你的爷爷奶奶和姥姥姥爷还都健在吗？】
• 【你的爺爺奶奶和外婆外公還都健在嗎?】
• nǐde yéye nǎinai hé lǎolǎo lǎo yé（wàipó wàigōng） hái dōu jiàn zài ma？
• Is your grandparents still live?

例句6/ Sentence 6

• 【是的，他们的身体都很好】
• 【是的，他們的身體都很好】
• shìde tāmende shēntǐ dōu hěn hǎo 
• yes, all of them are very healthy

例句7 / Sentence 7

• 【我的嫂子是一个很善良的人】
• 【我的嫂子是一個很善良的人】
• wǒde sǎo zǐ shì yī gè hěn shànliáng de rén
• my sister in law is a very kind person

例句8 / Sentence 8

• 【我的叔叔是个工程师】
• 【我的叔叔是個工程師】
• wǒde shū shū shì gè gōngchéngshī
• My uncle is a engineer

例句9 / Sentence 9

• 【我有很多亲戚】
• 【我有很多親戚】
• wǒ yǒu hěnduō qīnqi
• I have many relatives

例句10 / Sentence 10

• 【我的弟妹刚刚生了一个孩子，我的弟弟非常高兴】
• 【我的弟妹剛剛生了一個孩子，我的弟弟非常高興】
• wǒde dì mèi gānggāng shēng le yī gè háizi， wǒde dìdì fēicháng gāoxìng
• My sister in law just gave birth to a child,my brother is very happy

例句11/ Sentence11

• 【我和他是一家人】
• 【我和他是一家人】
• wǒ hé tā shì yī jiārén
• Me and him are family

C. 对话练习/對話練習 Dialogue

Kate:

• 【好久不见，你最近去哪里了？】
• 【好久不見，你最近去哪裡了?】
• hǎo jiǔ bú jiàn nǐ zuì jìn qù nǎ li le？
• long time no see.where have you been?

Lee:

• 【我们一家人去国外旅游了】
• 【我們一家人去國外旅遊了】
• wǒmen yī jiārén qù guówài lǚyóu le
• Me and my family travelled to abroad

kate:

• 【是和你的妻子和孩子一起去的吗？】
• 【是和你的妻子和孩子一起去的嗎?】
• shì hé nǐde qīzi hé hái zi yī qǐ qù de ma？
• Did you go there with your wife and your child?

Lee:

• 【不是，还有我的爸爸妈妈和妹妹】
• 【不是，還有我的爸爸媽媽和妹妹】
• búshì ，háiyǒu wǒde bàba māma hé mèimei
• No,My father,mother and younger sister also went with us.

Kate:

• 【我听说你的妹妹去年结婚了，你的妹夫是做什么的？】
• 【我聽說你的妹妹去年結婚了，你的妹妹是做什麼的?】
• wǒ tīngshuō nǐde mèimei qùnián jiéhūn le， nǐde mèifū shì zuò shénme de？
• I heard you sister get married last year,what does her husband do?

Lee:

• 【他是个工程师。kate你的家人都好吗？】
• 【他是個工程師。Kate你的家人都好嗎?】
• tā shì gè gōng chéngshī,kate nǐde jiārén dōu hǎo ma
• he is an engineer.kate,how is your family?

Kate:

• 【他们都很好，谢谢】
• 【他們都很好，謝謝】
• tāmen dōu hěn hǎo , xièxiè
• They are fine,thanks

Lee:

• 【明天是我的孩子的生日，我想邀请你和你的丈夫晚上六点半来我家吃饭】
• 【明天是我的孩子生日，我想邀請你和你的丈夫晚上六點半來我家吃飯】
• míng tiān shì wǒde háizi de shēng rì, wǒ xiǎng yāoqǐng nǐ hé nǐde zhàngfu wǎnshàng liù diǎn bàn lái wǒ jiā chī fàn
• tomorrow is my child’s birthday,i would like to invite you and your husband come to my house for dinner at 6 o’clock 

Kate:

• 【谢谢你的邀请，我们一定会准时到的】
• 【謝謝你的邀請，我們一定會準時到的】
• xièxiè nǐde yāoqǐng, wǒmen yīdìng huì zhǔnshí dào de 
• Thanks for your invitation,we will go there on time.

Lee:

• 【就这么说定了，我们明天见】
• 【就這麼說定了，我們明天見】
• jiù zhème shuōdìng le, wǒmen míngtiān jiàn
• That’s it,deal,we will see you tomorrow

Kate:

• 【好的，明天见】
• 【好的，明天見】
• hǎo de ,míngtiān jiàn
• ok,see you tomorrow

D. How to call “Husband” and “Wife” in Chinese?

1) Husband

Women usually call their husbands as “老公/ 老公(lăogōng)” and “孩子他/孩子他/她爸 /她爸(háizi tā/tā bà).” These two terms are quite informal and colloquial. “老公/ 老公 (lăogōng)” refers to the man with whom a woman will live a long time together (i.e., get old together). In this term, “老/老 (lăo)” means “old” and “公 /公(gōng)” refers to male. “孩子他/孩子他/她爸 /她爸(háizi tā/tā bà)” directly means “my kids’ father,” “他/他 (tā)” is the equivalent word of “he,” and “她/她 (tā)” means “she.” “先生/先生 (xiānsheng)” also means “husband” and is very formal. Actually, besides the meaning of “husband,” this term has broad usages. The male teachers have also been called “先生/先生 (xiānsheng).” People entitle these distinguished and honorable person as “先生/先生 (xiānsheng),” such as accomplished scientists, politics and literary greats.

“丈夫 /丈夫(zhàngfu)” is a widely used term referring to “husband” (formal). The general meaning of “夫 /夫 (fū)” means “male.” “爱人/愛人 (àiren)” also means “husband.” “爱/愛 (ài)” means “love,” and “人/人 (rén)” means “person.” The combination of “爱 /愛(ài)” and “人/人 (rén)” literally means “the person you love.” And it can also refer to “wife.” So the introduction “这是我的爱人/這是我的愛人 (Zhè shì wŏ de àiren) This is my husband/wife” can be used both by wives and husbands.

2) Wife

“老婆/老婆 (lăopo)” refers to the woman with whom a man will live a long time together (i.e., get old together). “孩子她/孩子她/他妈/他媽 (háizi tā/tā mā)” is the equivalent term as “孩子他/孩子他/她爸 /她爸(háizi tā/tā bà),” and the meaning is “my kids’ mom.” That is, my kids’ mom is my wife.Tese three terms “妻子/妻子, 夫人/夫人, 太太/太太 (qīzi, fūrén, tàitai)” are used to address married women in formal situations. “妻子/妻子 (qīzi)” is generally used along with “丈夫/丈夫 (zhàngfu).” “夫人/夫人 (fūrén)” and “太太/太太 (tàitai)” show more respect to the married women than do other terms.

Alisa from ChineseTeachers.com

When I was living in Beijing, I used to take private lessons with a teacher. Thanks to her help, I quickly got by in Chinese, but after a while, my teacher alone was not enough to progress, because I was not getting the best out of classes.

In this article I’ll explain how you can use immersion and homework to improve the efficiency of your lessons.

A lesson with a qualified teacher is the best value you can add to your language learning. Don’t waste that precious time with low value questions! E.g. after a few weeks, I kept asking my teacher for vocabulary. I could have searched all that in a dictionary, and use all that time to get some chengyu explained (idiomatic proverbs). My advice is: don’t ask you teacher for anything you can get by any other means, just ask him about complex points that need a live explanation. If what you need is a dictionary, no need to hire a teacher!

You don’t learn Chinese to speak with your teacher. You learn it because you need to speak Chinese with other people.

Talking to other people will teach you more than your classes. And seriously, that’s the fun part of learning a language. Ideally, your teacher should just help you with problems you noticed during the week, talking with other people. If you want to learn for real, immerse yourself. A friend of mine began dating his Chinese girlfriend one year ago, and hanging out with her Chinese friends, and now they live together. He has been exposed to the chinese language 24/7 for one year. Now he’s fluent. End of story. I’m not telling you to get a girlfriend, or to do all chinese all the time, but to experience Chinese under real conditions. A little chit chat every morning with your Chinese colleagues is enough to get started.

Especially in Chinese, there are some steps in the language learning where no teacher can help you. What you learn in a class is one thing, what you remember is another. In Chinese, memorizing the characters, their meaning and their pronunciation is even more important than in other languages. Review characters at home. Do your homework. Write characters lines or used a spaced repetition software to memorize them. Play memory games with your friends. If you don’t do the memorization homework by yourself, no one will do it for you, and it’s going to slow your learning.

William develops B-Speak, a tool to help students to memorize chinese characters.

There are so many Chinese books on the market emphasizing an easy way of learning either through songs, stories, pictures, games, and more to attract learners to learn what most people believe to be a difficult language. These methods seem to focus more on the way of how students learn than on the material itself. They should be described as the “fun way of learning” rather than the “easy way of learning.” Not only do instructors, parents, and learners make mistakes in differentiating the two, but book authors sometimes also confuse the concepts of learning Chinese the easy way versus the fun way. After years of learning, do the learners learn all that they are expected to learn? Do they fulfill the objectives indicated in the book? I have heard of parents who have spent thousands of dollars on lessons and in the end, their child only learned 6 words. I have tutored students who had previously learned Chinese for a couple of years and can’t remember what they have learned. When I showed them Chinese characters, they would say that they looked familiar, but they would not be able to pronounce them or they did not know what they are.

A well-designed book will not only attract people to learn but will also enable the learners to retain what they have learned. The process of learning should include reading, writing, speaking, and listening. Students learn better by learning these four ways of reinforcing the Chinese language at once with constant repetition than learning without any one of them. There are teachers that skip the writing process just to make teaching easier and to ease the burden on students while learning.

However, the way to make the learning process easier for students is not to avoid teaching the difficult parts but to change the teaching methodology altogether. Unfortunately those teachers or authors who eliminate the writing aspect are not aware of this.

In order to make Chinese learning easier, the four steps have to be very clear. Usually, it is a good idea start with listening and speaking, followed by reading and writing. I often emphasize the importance of following stroke orders (See “Daily Chinese” workbook) and remind students that writing characters is not drawing; following stroke orders could prevent mistakes and help with the learning of future characters as well. The objectives have to be clear in each unit so that the teachers are able to use it as a guideline to help students comprehend the content and to teach in a manner that makes the learning more flexible. There should be only one key concept in each chapter, each of which should clearly define what language aspects the learners are expected to achieve. If the chapter is about greetings, it should not be mixed with nationality or professional titles. If the topic is about the family, it shouldn’t involve concepts regarding school. Since they are major topics, they should be introduced in separate chapters. Mixed topics are pointless, hard to focus on, frustrate the learners and reduce the chance of retaining the material.

The learning process should consist of a constant building up upon previous learned concepts so that it’s synonymous to a rolling snowball. Making learning easy is not just about making the material interesting or changing the way it is presented, but more importantly, it is about how the material is organized and introduced to students.

Wendy Lin from Practical Chinese

Wendy Lin is a high school Chinese teacher and the author of 

• “Daily Chinese”
• “Practical Chinese”
• “Chinese for Children”
• “Games for Learning Chinese”
• “Chinese Learning Games 10 in 1”
• Articles regarding overseas Chinese learning
• Plus Chinese curriculum for several school districts

Wendy Lin has published more than 20 Chinese learning materials.  She has helped the Woodbridge school district successfully build and expand their Chinese program to four full time Chinese teachers in three years.  She constantly writes articles for the local newspaper and gives workshops for the Chinese teachers.

Abstract

Mandarin Chinese is notoriously one of the hardest languages to learn.  Yet, with a well-designed textbook and appropriate teaching strategies, learning a difficult language can be fun, easy, and sustainable.  

The Chinese language is known by most westerners as a difficult language to learn.  In order to attract more learners, many educators tend to use various cultural activities to initiate the program.  Especially for younger learners, cultural introduction often becomes the core curriculum.   Usually the older the learner, the more the language is emphasized in the curriculum. It is when they go back to learn the reading, writing, and speaking that various problems start to show.  It either ends up being that the learning does not sustain, or the students feel frustrated and lose interest.  When the purpose of learning the language is to be able to use it, there should be more focus on the language rather than the culture in the beginning - not to mention the younger the learner, the more benefit there is to learn a foreign language.  Whether or not the learning is interesting depends on how the teacher teaches it.  There are so many games or activities that are fun, easy, and effective (See “Games for Learning Chinese” /practicalchinese.com).  Emphasis on the culture will sometimes become an obstacle to the learning process.  

The Chinese language is like any other foreign language. It has an easy and a challenging component.  Chinese people have said, “Knowing yourself and your opponents well before the battle is the key to win.”  

How Chinese is easier than other languages

1. Verbs do not have different tenses: e.g. Chinese people would say “I go to China last year.”, “I go to China next year.”   
2. Nouns are neither singular nor plural: e.g. “one book”, “ten book” are both correct.
3. Genders do not exist orally as they would in English, French, or many other western languages.  
4. One means many.  One character could cover several English words.  For example, the Chinese Zodiac only has one character to represent each of the twelve animals, but in English, there are several different translations for one animal.  Therefore you might have seen several editions for the Chinese Zodiac signs.
5. Numbers, months, dates, and weekdays are easy to learn: You only need to learn the numbers from 1 through 10, and you will be able to count from 1 through 99, since the numbers between 11 and 99 are a combination of numbers 1 through 10.  In addition, you only add an additional character “month” 月plus the numbers 1 to 12, and you will be able to name all 12 months of a year.  It is the same for dates and weekdays; add the character “day” or “weekday” followed by a number (See Daily Chinese/practicalchinese.com).
6. The structure of questions and statements is the same but the question word is used.  Following are just some examples of how question words are used.  
   a. The use of the question word “嗎／  吗 Ma”: The question word “Ma” is used when the response “yes or no” is expected, and it is placed at the end of a statement. When it does, it will convert a statement into a question.  
   b. The use of the question word “幾／ 几  ji”: 幾／ 几 is a question word for numbers.  When it replaces all the numbers in a question, it converts the statement into a question. 
   c. By applying the formula, “Positive Word + Negative Word = Question Word”, students can flexibly come up with a question word and conduct a dialogue.  This avoids the learners having to deal with the complicated grammar structures and makes the learning more flexible.

There are more question words, such as “Who”, “When”, “Where”, etc. that are used to replace key words as the example “ji” shows above.

Expanding drill makes the learning easy and sustain: 

The learning process is as building up a pyramid – the Chinese language has the advantage of applying this teaching strategy since it is based on characters, starting from the individual words, to sentences, and then paragraphs.

For example:

• Cafeteria  
• One cafeteria
• Has one cafeteria
• Upstairs has one cafeteria
• Down stairs also has one cafeteria
• Downstairs, upstairs both have one cafeteria

Through this learning process, the new words will have been repeated several times along with the structure.  Reinforcement can be done through various activities in reading, writing, and speaking.  

Repetition by including contents based on the previously learned materials will make the learning process like a snowball rolling, by increasing vocabulary as well as sentence structure.  

Following are some typical situations that cause frustration in learning.  In order to make Chinese language easy to learn, they should be avoided.

One of the major things that confuses or frustrates students’ learning is the ambiguity of the objective in terms of content as well as the teaching process:

There shouldn’t be more than one major concept in the same chapter, and the topic itself should be clearly explained.

For example, “Greetings” should not include nationality or occupations in the chapter contents.  As a matter of fact, the difference between formal and informal occasions based on Chinese culture should be explained clearly.  Or “Family members”; the complexity of titles in Chinese family relationships is more detailed than in Western culture.  One chapter can be based on relationships from a student’s position (father, mother, elder or younger brother and sisters etc.) and the other will be based on the parent’s position (son, daughter, child, children, etc.).  They should not be combined in the same chapter, or partially covered in one chapter.  Other topics such as “Date and time” should be introduced in a separate chapter because some of the words lack proper connection.  (Please refer to the “Daily Chinese” textbook for details.)

Another major confusion is the learning process regarding reading, writing, and speaking.

Chinese is not phonetic, as are all romance languages.  The whole process of learning a new word takes about triple the effort as learning English.  In order to make Chinese learning less frustrating and easy to adopt, all the listening, speaking, reading, and writing should be introduced step by step.  It makes the learning objectives clearer as well.

Suggested exercises:

• Listening ~ The teacher says the new word in Chinese and students guess the meaning through all the clues the teacher provides (Teacher pointes to pictures or objects, etc.).
• Speaking ~ The teacher gives a word in English and have students say it in Chinese.
• Reading ~ The teacher writes the symbol on the board and says the word in Chinese, so students will connect the sound and meaning with the symbol.
• Writing ~ Introduce the stroke orders for each new character.  (See “Daily Chinese” workbook)

The character, the basic unit of the Chinese language, is so much more different from the words of romance languages that make many people think that Chinese is very difficult to learn.  In order to build up a good foundation and prevent repeated mistakes in writing characters, the stroke order should be carefully introduced.  Moreover many characters share the same components.  Once students are familiar with the strokes, it will help them write a new character that contains the same components without help.  Counting the number of strokes will also help students to look up a character in a dictionary.  Conventionally, the Chinese dictionary arranges the characters by the number of strokes in the character.

There are other difficult aspects of learning Chinese other than writing characters:

Sentence structure is another challenge to a non-Chinese speaker.  There might be several ways to express one situation, for example, “I have learned Chinese for two years” is the same as “I Chinese have learned for two years”, and “Chinese I have learned for two years”.  Another example, “What is your name?” in English could be “Your name is called what?” or “ You are called what name?”.  In some cases, some words can be omitted and the meaning remains the same. 

Measure words are another obstacle even to native speakers.  The major words usually changed with the objects and there are more than one hundred measure words in Chinese language.  For native speakers, measure words were introduced to children at a young age.  Since sentence structure is not a major problem to them as it is to the second language learners, they are able to concentrate on distinguishing the different usages of different measure words.  However, it is quite confusing to non-Chinese speaking learners. To prevent from frustration or confusion, it is suggested that no more than three major words to be introduced to the first year non-native speakers especially the young learners.  

Learning through grammar is not as effective or easier as learning through rules or patterns.  Rules do not involve many linguistics terms as grammar does.  When learning through grammar they are required to be able to distinguish the linguistic terms, however, rules do not.  Moreover, there is no existing Chinese grammar system that has been adopted and commonly used regularly by schools.  

Repetition is such an important factor that will make the learning easier not only for the sentence structures but also for the character itself.  If the contents are not closely related, it might not be able to provide enough chances for students to review the learned material.  Since Chinese language is not phonetic neither alphabetic, repetition plays even more important role especially in reading and writing.  Every character is the combination of different strokes.  Even with the same strokes, a different length or position will make a totally different character (Please refer to “Daily Chinese” workbook for examples.).  Through constant writing exercises, enhance students’ ability to write and to recognize characters.  However, moderate writing exercises are necessary.  Repeatedly coping characters usually shut off students learning interest, which should be avoided.  A good writing exercise should give different aspects of writing practice.  

Regarding the assessment

To ensure maximum learning and minimum frustration, students should build a strong foundation before moving on to the next chapter.  The assessment should be done in two aspects - vocabulary and chapter wrap-up tests that cover overall chapter contents.

Conclusion

What has been mentioned above are some of the typical misconducts in teaching Chinese as a second language that make Chinese a difficult language to learn.  To make the learning fun, easy, and more effective, the difficult parts especially should not be imposed on beginners; instead, teachers should emphasize the easy aspects of the language.  In terms of writing exercises, mindless copying of the characters should also be avoided.

Various learning activities such as BINGO, “Simon (Teacher) says”, puppet shows, etc. should be used instead.  Constantly practice and creating authentic environment are always helpful.  

References

• Lin, Wendy. Practical Chinese. New Jersey: Creative World Ent., 2000. Print.
• Lin, Wendy. Daily Chinese. New Jersey: Creative World Ent., 2008. Print.

Wendy Lin from Practical Chinese

I once walked into the local grocery store to find a big commotion surrounding my friend Chester from America. About four or five Chinese employees were gathered around him craning their necks to see a piece of paper on the counter near the cash register. I asked him what was going on.

“They wanted to know where John went, so I tried to tell them he’s working in another college now but they didn’t understand. So I wrote it out for them.”

I spoke Mandarin to the shop employees and they confirmed, with huge smiles on their faces, that they couldn’t understand a word of what Chester was saying, but his written characters were very beautiful. They understood from the written message that John went to another college.

What Happened?

Here was an example of a guy who had spent all of his Mandarin-learning energy on the written hanzi characters. He could understand books, street sights, menus, you name it. He could also understand a fair amount of what Chinese people said to him in Mandarin. But when it came to speaking, he couldn’t even put together, “He’s working at another college.”

I have taken the opposite approach. All I want to do is be able to understand and speak to people. I’ve always had a great ability to shock Chinese people by the number of hanzi I don’t know. (Once when Chester and I were talking about our respective language abilities to another friend Chester said, “Put the two of us together and we’d make a really great Chinese six-year-old.”)

Choose Your Battle

My experience with learning Chinese has been that you don’t “just pick it up.” It’s so different and so far removed from English (linguistically and culturally) that anyone who wants to reach even a basic level in Chinese needs to put effort into it.

So you get to choose whether you want to be like Chester or me. Since I’m the one writing the article, I’ll tell you why I chose the listening/speaking route rather than the reading/writing route.

Pinyin Takes Only a Few Hours to Learn

Because pinyin is an alphabet similar to our own English alphabet, you’ve really only got to learn the differences between pinyin and English. For example, “ba” in pinyin sounds like the “bah” in “bah humbug!” rather than the “ba” of “bat.”

Once you’ve got a good sense of pinyin, you can write down and pronounce everything in the Chinese language.

You’ve got to learn some kind of writing system so you can take notes on your new vocabulary and look things up in the dictionary. Pinyin is just fine for that. It’s much better to learn the 26 letters in the pinyin alphabet (all the same ones in English except there’s a “ü” instead of a “v”) and start learning how to speak to people than to try to learn hundreds of characters you need to communicate the basic necessities of life.

Speaking is More Useful than Writing

If you live in China (as I do), it’s much better to be able to speak to people than write to them. In my sixth month in China I was already translating for people who’d studied Chinese for several years in school. But because their studies had emphasized reading and writing hanzi they were unable to communicate with the reception desk at the hotel we were all staying at. I guess they would have resorted to the “Chester Method” and just written down what they wanted to say if I hadn’t been there. But that’s assuming they knew enough hanzi to communicate what they needed.

People Can Read to You

But what about ordering food off a menu? What about street signs and train time tables?

Just ask people to read the street sign aloud to you. You could employ the age-old trick all illiterate adults use to conceal their illiteracy: “I forgot my glasses. Can you please tell me what this says?”

Or, if you don’t care what people think, you can just say, ““Qǐng wèn, zhège zěnme dú?” (Excuse me, how do you pronounce this?).

In about my fourth month in China, I was out and about and needed to find sugar-free peanut butter for a friend who couldn’t eat sugar. There was no time to learn the character for sugar, and even if I had tried, look at how complicated it is: 糖. But I knew it was pronounced “táng.” It was very important that I avoid sugary peanut butter so I just explained what I wanted in Chinese to the shop worker. He immediately picked up a jar and pointed to some characters on the label that looked like this: 无糖. I asked him to read them to me and he said “wú táng.” I knew that “wú” (with a second tone) meant “un-“ or “non-“ so I figured that must be “sugar-free.”

Buckle Up

Believe me, if you choose to let your speaking/listening ability surpass your hanzi you’d better get ready for some raised eyebrows, shocked faces, and a lot of laughter. When I point to hanzi and ask strangers to read it aloud to me, it’s a real shock to them. “How come you’re speaking Chinese right now but you can’t read this?!”

I have to remind them that when they were young they too could speak fluent Chinese but they couldn’t read anything. It was only because they spent hours and hours in school that they learned all the characters. “Just think of me like a child,” I tell them. That seems to set their minds at ease.

Besides, all that time I spend explaining why my speaking and listening is better than my reading and writing just gives me more chances to practice my speaking.

Guest post by Albert Wolfe author of LaowaiChinese.net and Chinese 24/7: Everyday Strategies for Speaking and Understanding Chinese. 

First, there is no shortcut to learn Chinese well in a short time. Practice more is the better way to learn it well. In fact, there are some ways to learn Chinese well because of the internet now.

1. Looking for a good text book or material is important, such as “40 Lessons for Basic Chinese Course” 基础汉语40课, you can learn it more effectively with less time and more convenience. You can have a brief look at it: http://read.fanshu.com/ReadBook.aspx?metaId=7-5617-3103-5&page=7
   
2. You can use the media such as radio, TV and Internet to help. For example, in the internet you can find many good places to learn. Like www.chinadaily.com  where you can read the news, there are some lessons for learning Chinese. You can watch CCTV-4, there is a program: “Happy Chinese” 快乐汉语. In the net you also can find it at http://space.tv.cctv.com/podcast/klhy.
3. You can use some chatrooms to try to chat with native Chinese, such as http://english.bliao.com. There are many Chinese people that want to learn English, and will help you learn Chinese there; they are really friendly.
4. There are many Confucius colleges (孔子学院) now outside China, so if there is one around you, you can register to learn. You also can go to the web: http://college.chinese.cn/
   
5. If you want to learn more actively, you’d better come to the special Chinese learning web, such as www.chineseteachers.com. You can make conversation with teachers and learn with good structure.
6. You can try your best to practice with them after you learned some Chinese.
7. Read some short stories or some jokes, learn to sing some Chinese songs, play some games. I think they are also good way to learn Chinese.
8. You’d better remember words or recite some good articles as much as possible. In China, the children will recite many poems and proverbs etc.

How do you think ?

I hope it can help you.

Juven from ChineseTeachers.com

Perhaps the third tone in spoken Chinese is the most unique tone. Also it could be the most difficulty thing for spoken Chinese learners, especially when you try to read out many words that are a combination of two third-tone characters.

There are many examples, such as 你好(hello)，软体/軟體(software)，许可/許可( allow, license)，允许/允許(allow, permission)，领导/領導(leader)，左手(left hand)，网友/網友(cyberspace or web friends) ，统领/統領( command, to lead) 舞蹈(dance)，虎口(jaws of death)，美好(nice, nicety)，古老(old antiquity). Yes, there are many more words like these.

And you will feel they are quite awkward-sounding or hard to pronounce. Do not worry, this is not your fault. Like many other things, Chinese is not a perfect language. And I can tell you the truth, it is quite difficult even for many Chinese who speaks some kind of ‘patois’, or not the standard Chinese accent. Here, I don’t want talk more about how to read out single Chinese character exactly in third tone, because in most cases we are speaking in words and sentences. 

Actually, this is an interesting thing that I have found out but I was not conscious about it before. Even for me or others who speaks Chinese as a native language, when we read out these words that are combined with two third-tone characters. If we pronounced the first character with exactly third tone, that will sound quite unnatural or awkward. Or sounds like a bookish. So in real life, in most of the time, we change the first character tone from the third to to the second tone. For those samples the previous examples are spoken out like following: 

• 你好(hello) is pronounced “ní hǎo” instead of “nǐ hǎo”
• 软体/軟體(software) is pronounced “ruán tǐ” instead of “ruǎn tǐ”
• 许可/許可(allow) is pronounced “xú kě” instead of “xǔ kě”
• 允许/允許(permission) is pronounced “yún xǔ” instead of “yǔn xǔ”
• 领导/領導(leader) is pronounced “líng dǎo” instead of “lǐng dǎo”
• 左手(left hand) is pronounced “zuó shǒu” instead of “zuǒ shǒu”
• 网友/網友(friend on web) is pronounced “wáng yǒu” instead of “wǎng yǒu”
• 统领/統領(command, to lead) is pronounced “tóng lǐng” instead of “tǒng lǐng”
• 舞蹈(dance) is pronounced “wú dǎo” instead of “wǔ dǎo”
• 虎口(jaws of death) is pronounced “hú kǒu” instead of “hǔ kǒu”
• 美好(nice, nicety) is pronounced “méi hǎo” instead of “měi hǎo”
• 古老(old, antiquity) is pronounced “gú lǎo” instead of “gǔ lǎo”

Please note that the first character in every word is spoken out as a second tone, instead of its original, regular third tone.

Practice reading out these words and you will start to feel it comes more smoothly, easier and natural. Believe me, Chinese language and culture are not perfect. One of the tips is not to exhaust yourself with the details. You will discover more along with your own learning progress. Sometimes it is good, but sometimes it is bad. That is it. 

I hope this message could be helpful. Have fun, see you later.  :-)

Yifan from ChineseTeachers.com

Many people who are interested in learning Chinese will feel some kind of difficulty with four tones in Chinese characters pronunciation, because there are rarely four tones in other languages. For example, in English there are only two tones, rising and falling. So if your native language is English, you will spend more time to handle the four tones when you want to learn spoken Chinese. Here, I would like to talk about some similarities between spoken English and Chinese in tone. I hope it could be helpful for you. 

Yes, really there are some similarities between English and Chinese in tone.

Both have the same tone called “light tone”, and it is quite easy to understand and handle it.

Apart from the light tone, if you listen carefully, you can find that the rising and falling tone in English vowel sounds are almost same as the second and fourth tone in many Chinese characters. For instance, “yes” in rising tone is same as Chinese character 爷 / 爺 (yé) (grandpa). And the “yes” in falling tone is same as Chinese character 夜 (yè) (night)，页/頁(yè) (a page) in fourth tone. So, for people whose native language is English, when you want to read out many Chinese characters, just read them in the way same as you read out vowel sounds in many English words.

Here are some more examples: 

• 油 (yóu) (oil)，游 (yóu) (swimming)，由 (yóu) are same as “you” in rising tone，”you” in falling tone is same as 又 (yòu) (again)，右 (yòu) (right)，幼 (yòu)
• 薄 (bó) (thin) is same as “Bob” vowel sounds in rising tone，bob in falling tone is same as 抱(bào) (huge)，报(bào)，暴(bào)
• 娃 (wá) (baby) is same as “What” vowel sounds in rising tone，”what” in falling tone is same as 哇(wà)，袜 / 襪 (wà) (socks)
• 胡 (hú)，湖 (hú) (lake)，狐(fox) are same as “Who” in rising tone，”who” in falling tone is same as 户(hù)，互(hù)
• 豪 (háo) is same as “house” vowel sounds in rising tone，”house” in falling tone is same as 号 / 號( hào)，好(hào)，耗 （hào）

Next time, I will talk about the third tone that you can find in many Chinese characters. Maybe that is one of the most difficult in Chinese pronunciation. Especially, when you read a Chinese word that is a combination of two third tone Chinese characters. That could be very hard to read out it correctly and accurately. Actually, there is some trick. See you next time. :-)

Yifan from ChineseTeachers.com