Clearwater Chinese School Conversation

About the Class

• Text Books

  Barron's Learn Chinese The fast and Fun Way by Lifei Ji

  Please Order the Edition with Tape Cassette Here
  

  Here is a sample (tones omitted):

  Mary: Women jinwan qu kan dianying ba. Let's go to the movies tonight.

  In class we go over the translation and sentence structure, thus:

  Wo(3)-men means "we or us"
  jin(1)-wan(3) means "this evening"
  qu(4) means "go out"
  kan(4) means "see or watch"
  dian(4)-ying(3) means "movie"
  ba is a particle added to the end to ask "how 'bout it"
  

  Once you get the basic words and structure, you can put your own sentences together and make conversation. Writing down the pinyin is a little easier than speaking. It is a step on the road to becoming fluent in conversation, good practice.

• Learning Helpers
  1. Friendly Chinese Community, Parties, Friends to Make
     
  2. Active Web Site Dedicated to Discussion and Learning
     
  3. Computer Savy Teaching Assistants to Help You

• Participation
  1. In Classs Discussions in Chinese
     
  2. Learn Chinese Culture Xuexi Zhongguo wen(2)-hua(4)
     
  3. Explore the Internet and Help Build Our Web Site

• Gong(1)-ke(4) Homework

  1. Easy Excercises
     
  2. Fun Learning on Our Web Site
     
  3. IRC chat assignments (example conversation on IRC #CHINA)

     Tom: ni hao
     Lemon: hello
     Tom: I am trying to learn Chinese
     Lemon: u r not a Chinese, are u
     Tom: wo shi mei guo ren
     Lemon: From US? cool
     Lemon: i'm in Canada now
     Tom: wo zai Florida
     Lemon: florida, cool
     Tom: can you do some pin yin?
     Lemon: ke yi
     Tom: wo xuexi zhongwen zai Qing Shui Zhongwen Xuexiao
     Lemon: wo ming bai la
     Tom: wo de laoshi de mingzi shi David
     Tom: gramar dui bu dui
     Lemon: dui, ta shi zhongguo ren ma?
     Tom: dui, ta cong de shanghai
     Lemon: shi ta gao su ni zhe ge mIRC server de ma?
     Tom: bu
     Lemon: we usually say "bu shi" not only "bu"
     Tom: dui, bu shi
     Lemon: your chinese is very good
     Tom: xie xie nin
     Tom: wo xuexi zhongwen wu nian
     Lemon: hen chang de shi jian
     Lemon: suo yi jiang de zhe mo hao
     Lemon: it was very nice meeting u
     Lemon: but i've to leave now
     Lemon: hope to meet u next time
     Tom: hao
     Lemon: bye
     Tom: zai jian

     Join our class. You can learn to chat in pin yin too!