Mandarin/Mandarin One

Nǐ hǎo! Welcome to Mandarin One! This self-paced course will help introduce students to the basic spoken Mandarin and written Chinese language as learned in a first semester college course. This is for people studying for a test, like HSK, or while refreshing their knowledge before taking a more advanced course. At the same time it is meant to be as practical as possible for the person that simply wants to pick up some Chinese before their next trip.

• Those wishing to learn the Traditional Character set can do so by using the new Simplified Chinese to Traditional Chinese translation tool on Google while studying these lessons.

Course Outline

Lesson One 第一课

• Chapter One - Pronouncing Single Syllables
• The four tones and Hanyu Pinyin.
• Finals and Initials
• Chapter One Quiz

Lesson Two 第二课

• Chapter Two - Pronouncing Syllables in Combination
• Numbers 1-10
• Brief Chinese History
• Chapter Two Quiz

Lesson Three 第三课

This Lesson introduces the vocabulary for an introductory conversation. This section also contains a brief introduction to Chinese names. The method for counting from 11 to 99 will be introduced.

• Chapter Three Vocabulary - 生字
• Chinese Names - 名字
• Dialogue - 对话
• Introductions - 介绍
• Activity - What is your name? (你的名字是什么？)
• Numbers 11-99 - 号码 十一到九十九
• Asking for Help - 问题
• Chapter Three Quiz - 第三课 小考
• Chapters One - Three Test 第一章 第三棵 考试

Lesson Four 第四课

• Chapter Four Vocabulary - Hěn gāoxìng rènshì nín. (Glad to meet you.)
• Introduction to Chinese Writing
• Grammer - Pronouns
• Numbers 100-300

Lesson Five 第五课

• Chapter Four Quiz

Lesson Six 第六课

• Chapter Five Vocabulary - Nǐ yǒu méiyǒu xiōngdì jiěmèi? (Do you have brothers or sisters?)
• Family

Lesson Seven 第七课

• Celebrations and Festivals
• Chapter Five Quiz

Lesson Eight 第八课

• Chapter Six Vocabulary - Nǐ xiànzài yǒu méiyǒu shì? (Is there anything you have to do now?)
• Writing Chinese Characters

Lesson Nine 第九课

• Chapter Six Quiz
• Chapters Four-Six Test

Lesson Ten 第十课

• Chapter Seven Vocabulary - Nàme, nǐmen mài shénme? (Well, then what do you sell?)
• Shopping, How Much?

Lesson Eleven 第十一课

• Chapter Seven Quiz

Lesson Twelve 第十二课

• Chapter Eight Vocabulary - Nǐmen yǒu fàngjiān ma? (Do you have any rooms?)

Lesson Thirteen 第十三课

• Chapter Eight Quiz

Lesson Fourteen 第十四课

• Chapter Nine Vocabulary - Nǐmen dǎsuàn zhù duōjiǔ? (How long do you plan to stay?)

Lesson Fifteen 第十五课

• Chapter Nine Quiz
• Final Exam

Materials Needed for Mandarin One

Required Texts

• Williams, P.F.C., & Wu, Y.(1999). Chinese: The Easy Way. New York: Barron's Educational Series, Inc.
• Chinese Wikibook

Required Free Software

• Dim Sum: Chinese Reading Assistant and Dictionary
• Shared Talk Language Exchange Network - for email and chatting with fluent speakers
• Lab Recording: Mandarin syllables recorded on the Mandarin_sounds.zip file from chinese-lessons.com (same as the recordings used in the Dim Sum program).

Supplemental Materials

• A comprehensive Chinese (Pinyin) - English Dictionary
• Tao, S.(2005). Chinese Learning Cards for HSK Beijing: Morning Glory Publishers
• Lafayette De Mente, B.(1995). Chinese in Plain English Chicago: Passport Books

Online Reference

• Nciku online interactive dictionary - Dictionary, Pronunciation, Dialogues, Character Writing
• Yellow Bridge online vocabulary resource - Dictionary, Flashcards, Character Writing
• Google Translate basic online translation for web pages and text - Rudimentary translation