Chinese street Street Chinese for a child visiting a friend: hello and goodbye at the gate, the four tones, thank you and sorry, yes and no, names and ages, counting to a hundred and lucky numbers, colours, the family, dinner at a friend's house. The lessons are in English about Chinese words.
The chinese street course of Mova's primary school: 32 lessons, 461 sentences, each sentence with its syntax tree and pragmatics. Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0 (Mova corpus 0.4).
1 Hello and goodbye: the first words at the gate 13 sentences · Your friend Ming speaks Mandarin at home, and you pick it up the way he did as a toddler: by ear, never from… 2 The four tones: same sound, different meaning 14 sentences · In Mandarin the tune of a syllable is part of the word, like a vowel: change the tune and you change the word. 3 Thank you, sorry, excuse me 13 sentences · At Ming's house good manners are a little different from yours: there is a thank-you, a sorry for when you d… 4 Yes and no there is no single word — 13 sentences · English has one handy «yes» and one «no». 5 Names and "how old are you?" 16 sentences · On the first day at the park a girl asks you «nǐ jiào shénme míngzi?» (what's your name?). 6 Counting 1 to 10, on one hand 10 sentences · Ming counts to ten while you hide: yī, èr, sān, sì, wǔ, liù, qī, bā, jiǔ, shí! 7 Counting to 100 and lucky numbers 11 sentences · Big numbers in Mandarin are built like Lego. 8 Colours 11 sentences · Picking crayons with Ming you hear a little «-sè» on the end of every colour: hóngsè, lánsè, huángsè. sè is… 9 Family: mum, dad, brothers and sisters 11 sentences · In English a brother is just a brother. 10 Grandparents, aunties and uncles how families address elders — 17 sentences · When Ming's grandad comes in, Ming's mum whispers «kuài jiào yéye!» (quick, say hello to Grandad!). 11 Dinner at the friend's house 11 sentences · From the kitchen Ming's mum calls «chī fàn le!» (dinner's ready!), literally «eating rice now». 12 Tasty! Spicy! I'm full! 14 sentences · The best two words at Ming's table are hǎo chī! (tasty, literally «good to eat»), said to whoever cooked. 13 In the playground: come on, your turn! 16 sentences · The playground is where you learn fastest, because everyone is shouting. 14 Games: rock-paper-scissors, hide and seek, cheat! 13 sentences · Who goes first? 15 School words 13 sentences · Ming goes to two schools: the normal one all week, and Zhōngwén xuéxiào (Chinese school) on Saturday morning… 16 Happy, angry, bored, scared 17 sentences · Your friend Lín bursts out of school shouting "jīntiān hǎo kāixīn!" — "today was so much fun!" — and you hea… 17 Hungry, tired, shy, excited 18 sentences · You walk into Lín's kitchen after school and say "wǒ è le" — "waw UH luh", I'm hungry — and his mum is delig… 18 The body 16 sentences · At Lín's house you trip over the cat and his mum rushes in: "nǎr téng?" — "where does it hurt?" — and you po… 19 Animals and "what animal are you?" 18 sentences · Lín asks "nǐ shǔ shénme?" — "nee SHOO SHUN-muh", literally "what do you belong to?" — and he means your zodi… 20 Weather and what Granny says to wear 15 sentences · Lín's granny is on a video call with China and asks "tiānqì zěnmeyàng?" — what's the weather like? — and Lín… 21 Today, tomorrow, now, later 17 sentences · Time words are built like Lego from "tiān", day: jīntiān (now-day) is today, míngtiān (bright-day) is tomorr… 22 Days of the week, the clock, birthdays 17 sentences · The Chinese week is a number game: xīngqī means week, and Monday is "week-one", xīngqīyī, Tuesday week-two,… 23 Friendly teasing when it's fun and when it stings — 16 sentences · Lín trips over the football and his mate grins "bèndàn!" — "BUN-DAHN", literally "stupid egg" — and Lín grin… 24 Words that hurt what they mean, never to be said — 16 sentences · In every language there are words that are not teasing but punches; you learn what they mean so you know whe… 25 Spring Festival Chinese New Year — 13 sentences · The night before, chúxī, New Year's Eve, is the big one: the whole family folds dumplings together (bāo jiǎo… 26 Red envelopes and New Year wishes 12 sentences · At New Year Lín's aunties hand out hóngbāo — red envelopes with money inside — and every child in the room s… 27 Lanterns, dragon boats, mooncakes and birthdays 16 sentences · In early summer comes Duānwǔ jié, the Dragon Boat Festival, with races to a drumbeat and sticky rice parcels… 28 At the friend's home: what to say to the parents 13 sentences · The door opens and there are Ming's mum and dad. 29 Talking to the friend's grandparents 15 sentences · Ming's yéye and nǎinai (grandad and granny) live with his family, and to them you are a guest child to be fu… 30 Street chatter: wow, really?, cool! 16 sentences · Most of what you hear from Ming and his friends isn't sentences at all — it's little noises and quick words:… 31 Olympiad: tone detectives and number puzzles ★★★ 15 sentences · This olympiad mixes the whole course into puzzles: tones that change words, tones that quietly change inside… 32 Olympiad: measure words and characters as pictures ★★★ 15 sentences · ge is the everyday all-rounder, but long bendy things take tiáo, flat things take zhāng, books take běn and… ← previous Chemistrynext → English↑ back to the school This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/