Date

nián yuè rì
____ 年 ____ 月 ____ 日
year month day
 Lesson Focus
• Meeting and greeting people in Chinese.
• Introducing yourself and saying ‘thank you’.
• An introduction to the structure of Chinese language and syllables (basic
vowel and consonant sounds) in Chinese.
 Welcome to Mandarin Class!
Meet the Li family!

Lǐ Nà Lǐ Lónɡ Wánɡ Fānɡ Lǐ Pínɡ

李 娜 李 龙 王 芳 李 萍

Standard Mandarin, also known as Putonghua, is the official national

language of China.
 Welcome to Mandarin Class!
Meet the Li family!

Lǐ Mínɡ Lǐ Yuè Lǐ Xīnɡ

李 明 李 月 李 星

In Chinese, you take the last character of a person’s name and repeat it for their
nickname. Yuè’s nickname would be Yuèyue.
What Do You Know about China?

Language Festivals
Population

Location

Traditions Native
Animals

Food
 Five Fun Facts about China
In the Chinese zodiac, every year is represented by one of 12 different
1 animals. Some people believe that the animal of the year that you were
born in might affect your personality.
 Five Fun Facts about China
Giant pandas only live in a single place on Earth – the mountains of
2 Central China. They can usually be found in
thick bamboo forests.
 Five Fun Facts about China
Red is seen as a lucky colour. During the Chinese New Year, people
3 give each other gifts of money in red envelopes as a way to send
good wishes.
 Five Fun Facts about China
The Terracotta Army is a collection of more than 8,000 clay
4 sculptures that depicts the armies of Qin Shi Huang, the first
Emperor of China. The soldiers were built more than 2,000 years
ago to protect the Emperor’s tomb.
 Five Fun Facts about China

5 The Great Wall of China is over 13,000 miles long.

The mortar used to bind the stones was made with sticky rice!
 Did You Know?
Chinese is one of the most widely spoken languages in the world.
One in six people in the world speak Mandarin Chinese!

Mandarin Chinese Other world languages

 hànyǔ
汉语 Mandarin Chinese

shān rén
The Chinese language uses
characters for reading and writing.
山 人
Some Chinese characters come from
pictures that show their meanings.

‘Pinyin’ means ‘spelled-out sounds’.

Pinyin shows you how to pronounce the

mountain person
Chinese characters.
hànyǔ
汉语 Mandarin Chinese

yǔ sǎn zhú

雨 伞 竹

rain umbrella bamboo

pīnyīn
拼音
Chinese Syllable Structure

shēnɡdiào
A Chinese syllable has three parts:
initial (consonant sound), 声调
final (vowel sound) and tone. ˇ tones

nǐ = n + i

shēnɡmǔ yùnmǔ
声母 韵母
你 initials finals

you
shēnɡmǔ
声母
Chinese Syllable Structure

b p m
f
d t n l
g k h
j q x

zh ch sh r
z c s
 yùnmǔ
韵母
Finals
i

ia ie iao iou iou

ian
(ya) (ye) (yao) (yan) (yan)
a ai ao an ang
in iang ing iong

(yin) (yang) (ying) (yong)

o ou ong u ua uo uai uei

(wa) (wo) (wai) (wei)

e ei en eng er uan uen uang ueng

(wan) (wen) (wang) (weng)

ü üe üan ün
(yue) (yuan) (yun)
shēnɡdiào
声调
Tones
First Second Third Tone Fourth
Tone Tone Tone

ˉ ˊ ˇ ˋ
The Chinese language uses four different tones.
Each tone is pronounced differently.

5
4
3
2
1
mā má mǎ mà
妈 麻 马 骂
shēnɡdiào
声调
Tones

ā
The first tone is high and flat.

It is an even sound and can be longer than the other three tones.
shēnɡdiào
声调
Tones

á
The second tone is a rising sound.

You can hear this tone when you ask these questions in English:

Yes? Right? Do I?
shēnɡdiào
声调
Tones

ǎ
The third tone falls and rises.

You can hear this tone when you say the English phrase: Do you know?
shēnɡdiào
声调
Tones

à
The fourth tone is a falling tone.

It starts high and drops sharply.

You can hear this tone in these responses: Sure! Of course!

 Tongue Twister

Who can say this tongue twister the fastest?

Māmɑ qí mǎ, mǎ màn, māmɑ mà mǎ

妈妈 骑 马， 马 慢， 妈妈 骂 马。
Mother is riding a horse. The horse is moving slowly. Mother scolds the horse.
 Greetings

Nǐ hǎo Nǐ hǎo
你好! 你好!
Hello! Hello!

Vocabulary Box

nǐ you

你 (singular)
hǎo
good
好
 Greetings

Nǐ hǎo
Lǎoshī hǎo
你好!
Hello! 老师 好 !
Hello, teacher!

Vocabulary Box

lǎoshī
teacher
老师
 Asking Names

Vocabulary Box
Nǐ jiào shénme
jiào 你 叫 什么 ?
be called
叫 What’s your name?

shénme
what
什么
wǒ
I, me
我 Wǒ jiào Yuèyue
Yuèyue
a female
我 叫 月月 。
given name My name is Yueyue.
月月
 Asking Names

Vocabulary Box
Nǐ jiào shénme
jiào
你 叫 什么 ?
be called
叫 What’s your name?

shénme
what
什么 Wǒ jiào Xīnɡxinɡ
wǒ 我 叫 星星 。
I, me
我 My name is Xingxing.

Xīnɡxinɡ
a male
星星 given name
 Greetings

Vocabulary Box
Hěn ɡāoxìnɡ rènshi nǐ
hěn 很 高兴 认识 你。
very
很 Nice to meet you.

ɡāoxìnɡ
happy
高兴
rènshi Activity
know Shake hands with
认识 the person next to
nǐ you and say ‘nice to
you meet you’ in
你 (singular) Chinese.
 Saying Thank You

Xièxie
谢谢 !
Thank you!

Vocabulary Box

xièxie
thank,
谢谢 thank you
 Saying Goodbye

Zàijiàn
再见 ! Zàijiàn
Goodbye! 再见 !
Goodbye!

Vocabulary Box

zàijiàn
goodbye
再见
Useful Classroom Language

tīnɡ shuō
听 说
listen speak

dú kàn
读 看
read look
 Let’s Listen!
Listen carefully and match the words or phrases to the correct picture.

A B C D E

1 E 2 D 3 C 4 B 5 A
 Find Your Matching Zodiac Animal
Vocabulary Box Imagine that you are the zodiac animal on your card.
Introduce yourself to everyone else in Chinese until
Nǐhǎo you find someone with the same animal as you. Use
this sentence structure:
你好 ! Hello!
Nǐ jiào shénme
Nǐ jiào shénme 你 叫 什么？
What’s Wǒ jiào
你 叫 什么 ? your name?
我 叫 + tiger
Wǒ jiào
My
我 叫… name is…

Zàijiàn
Goodbye!
再见！
 Find Your Matching Zodiac Animal

The 12 Zodiac Animals

rat ox tiger rabbit dragon snake

horse goat monkey rooster dog pig

 Lesson Review
• I can meet and greet people in Chinese.
• I can say ‘thank you’ in Chinese.
• I can introduce myself and ask ‘What’s your name?’ in Chinese.
• I know the basic structure of a Chinese Pinyin syllable (initial, final and tone).

How do you feel about your work today?

I can I’m getting I need help!

do this! there…