Even better web sites for learning 拼音(pin yin)

These two links were provided by Vijay.
http://www.instantspeakchinese.com/pinyin/pinyinInitials.cfm

http://www.instantspeakchinese.com/pinyin/pinyinFinals.cfm

The next link was found from YouTube. It is originally for Chinese children to learn 'pin yin'. The advantage of this link is that it provides four tones. It is fun as well! :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9Ayvjy-DgsDgs

Web site for listening to all Pin Yins

From University of Vermont

http://www.uvm.edu/~chinese/pinyin.htm

Advantages: comprehensive, clear sound files.

Shortcomings: The font too small (use View function from the Internet Explorer to change it). The Interface can be improved. Every time you have to click 'Backspace' to go back the home page.

A website using signs to teach you Chinese

I found this site today. It has different imags, mainly signs in Chinese. In addition to images, it also provides detailed explaination for the characters in images. Although part of the site is still under development, it's a good place to practise your reading skills. You probably only wish that it provided the sound files as well. :)

The link: http://lingua.mtsu.edu/qing/signs/

Mid-Autumn Festival/中秋节

今天是中秋节。 There are different stories about this festival.

中秋节快乐！

Or,

但愿人长久，千里共婵娟-- From a well-known poem written in Song Dynasty.

Pictures from China

David kindly sent me some pictures he took in China. The first picture shows his breakfast in China. I have added Chinese names and pronunciations to them. Their English names are:
A. Dumplings with soup
B. Fried pancakes topped with sesame seeds.
C. Fried dumplings

Here is the question for you. Can you match their Chinese names with their English names (you can leave your answers as comments in this blog)? You can click on the picture to get a bigger version to see more details.

The followings are two beautiful pictures taken in a town called Zhouzhuang.

周庄夜景 (Zhouzhuang at night)

周庄 日出(Zhouzhuang sunrise)

Where is the British Library

Vocabulary/ New words (p12)

Speech Patterns (p13)

Additional vocabulary (p13)

P.S. Don't forget your homework. :)

Buying things & Prices

Vocabulary (Each word/phrase was repeated once. You can find the them on Page 41).

Text (slow speed)

Text (normal speed)

About 'Measure word'/量词 in Chinese

Measure words also exist in English, but are usually used for uncountable nouns such as water or tea. For example, a cup of tea, a glass of water, and a flock of sheep. While measure words are required for most nouns in Chinese, the common used ones are only about 40, many of which are nouns themselves. In addition, they also follow certain general guidelines. This means that the use of the measure words is not as complicated as they may seem to be.

So far, we have learned the following measure words；

个 (gè ): a general measure word (probably the most widely used one)
瓶 （píng) : bottle of; bottle
盒 （hé):　　carton/box/pack of ; carton/box/pack
块 （kuài): block of; block
杯 （bēi):　　cup/glass of; cup/glass
碗 （wan): bowl of; bowl
盘 （pán）： plate/dish of; plate
把 （ba): handful of
斤 （jīn): 500 gram
张 (zhāng): piece of
包 （bāo): bag of; bag

Now, can you give the right measure word(s) to the following nouns?

a. 1 ( ) 报纸
b. 5 ( ) 地图
c. 4 ( ) 口香糖
d. 7 ( ) 牛奶

Could you please leave your answers using the comment function of this blog? I'll reveal the right answer some time later. ：）

Have fun,
Lijing

How much in total -- 'Yi gong duo shao qian'

Hi, everyone

Last week, we learned how to do a bit shopping in Chinese. :)

Please use the following audio files to practice your speaking and listening skills.

1. Text (slow speed)
2. Text (normal speed)
3. Structures for shopping

In the resturant

Hi, everyone,

Last week, we learned how to order food and asking bills in Chinese. I have made 3 audio files for you.

This is the voculary of the text we learned.

This is the text at a slow speed.

This is the text at a normal speed.


I hope you find it's easy to use these files. Any problems or comments, please let me know. :)