So a European immigrant of some undetermined nationality walks into an American hotel and books a room. The bellboy takes him up to his room, drops off the guest's luggage and tells him to have a nice evening.
The foreign hotel guest sees that the bed has been stripped but not remade, and there are no sheets anywhere to be seen in the room. He calls down to the front desk:
"This-a is an out-a-rage. How am I supposed-a to sleep on-a this-a bed?!" he demands. "I have-a to have a SHIT on-a the bed," he adds, angrily.
"I don't know where you are from, Mr.," replies the concierge, but here in the US, you need to do that in the bathroom. Your room comes with a bathroom. You must use the bathroom and not your bed for that, sir!"
The foreign guest hangs up, bewildered.
A while later, he goes to eat dinner at the hotel buffet. He stands in line and when it is his turn at the bread station, he says in his friendliest voice, "I wanna PISS on-a my plate."
The bread server is taken aback. "Whoa, sir! We don't do that kind of thing here at our hotel. If you need to do that here, you have to go to the bathroom."
Again, the foreign guest is confused. He takes his piece of bread, which was what he asked for in the first place, and he sheepishly returns to his table.
When he arrives back at his table, he notices that his fork has somehow gone missing. Perhaps someone else from another table took it while the foreigner was standing in the breadline. He calls the waiter over.
"I need a FUCK on-a the table," he tells the waiter. "I wanna FUCK on-a the table!"
Well, this is too much. At this point, everyone is starting to stare and enough is enough already. The waiter calls the hotel manager over. The hotel manager begins to raise his voice and the foreign guest goes absolutely ballistic.
"What seems to be the problem here, sir?" the hotel manager asks, trying his best not to scream.
"I'll-a tell-a you what is-a the problem here. First, I go to my room and-a the bed, she is-a not made. So I call-a the desk and I tell-a you, 'I need a SHIT on-a the bed.' Instead you bring-a me SHIT, you tell-a me go to the bathroom.
"Then I stand-a in-a the line to get-a some bread. I ask-a for-a the bread. I say, 'I wanna PISS on-a my plate.' Again, this person, he tell-a me go to the bathroom. I no wanna go to the bathroom!
"Finally, I ready to eat-a my dinner. I back to-a the table and the silver, she is-a gone. I ask-a the waiter, 'You bring-a me FUCK. I need a FUCK on-a the table.'"
"I don't understand-a this country. I just trying to enjoy my time-a here."
...
I have probably butchered this joke, because to be honest, I don't remember the punchline or how the joke is supposed to end; I only remember that it was my first excuse circa age 9 or 10 to say piss, shit, and fuck. I think I remember even telling this joke to both of my parents and BOTH sets of grandparents at one of my mom's Jewish Holiday dinners -- and if I remember correctly, the joke killed. It absolutely killed...
So, the point, my friends, is this:
It doesn't matter how well YOU think you are pronouncing Cantonese or Mandarin when speaking with Chinese people; it ONLY matters what they think they have heard you say.
We will talk more about this in the coming weeks and months because THIS is the sole purpose of this blog: To make you aware of how utterly, utterly important proper pronunciation is as a beginner speaker of Cantonese or Mandarin Chinese.
It is not enough to learn the vocabulary and to repeat after the teacher in class. You have to constantly work to refine your pronunciation -- turning every SHIT into SHEET, every PISS into PIECE, and every FUCK into FORK -- until you have eliminated at least 85% of the most common mispronunciations for your chosen language of study. Only then can you begin to feel secure that native speakers will understand what you are really trying to communicate, without you accidentally creating humorous, awkward, or insulting situations.
One last thing to say about this -- one more thing that I can actually promise you, in fact:
If you really pay attention to your pronunciation errors, recognize them, take literal notes on them in a journal that you will keep to chart your language learning progress, and promise yourself that you will fix these errors and not make the same mistakes again going forward, your embarrassment that you will feel while making these errors during your journey towards learning this language will become your favorite memories that you will share with others one day when they ask you how you learned to speak Chinese so well.
THIS will be my topic for my next posts on mispronouncing Cantonese and Mandarin Chinese.
Friday, September 29, 2017
Brendan will substitute teach ALESN Mandarin I, Mandarin II, PLUS the second absolute beginner Mandarin Workshop TOMORROW --Saturday, September 30, 2017!
Just a quick note, because I see that Tony Parisi mentioned my blog in the newsletter that just went out telling our community about tomorrow's Mandarin classes and workshops:
I am SUBSTITUTING for Evan and Arieh for each of their classes tomorrow afternoon. For Evan's students: He will be teaching from the same textbook that I am also using for my Thursday night Mandarin I class (all ALESN Mandarin classes use the same series of textbooks -- Integrated Chinese Third Edition, whatever level is appropriate for whatever Mandarin class you are taking at ALESN). Mandarin I students are welcome to scroll down and find a very detailed blog posting with textbook info and links to purchase your book on Amazon, as well as other hints about getting a copy of the book for use in our classes.
I do not have info on my blog regarding the Mandarin II textbook, but I can tell you that it is Integrated Chinese Level 1 Part 2 TEXTBOOK Third Edition, and it is also available on Amazon as well as online -- if you know where to look. We will not tell you where to look, but if you know where to look, you will find it online.
FOR REGULAR SATURDAY MANDARIN I AND MANDARIN II STUDENTS SIGNED UP FOR EVAN'S AND ARIEH'S CLASSES:
THIS IS MY PERSONAL BLOG ABOUT MY OWN PERSONAL TEACHING STYLE AND PHILOSOPHY FOR ALESN CANTONESE AND MANDARIN.
The strong opinions in this blog are my own and may OR MAY NOT reflect the approach or teaching style of your actual Mandarin teacher in our program -- Evan or Arieh for the Saturday Mandarin I and II students.
Please do NOT get scared away by my blunt assessments of what is necessary to succeed in learning Chinese in MY classes at ALESN. Please wait for Evan or Arieh to each tell you what THEY will expect of you as students in THEIR classes -- once they both return next week.
Best wishes to All, and see you tomorrow at ALESN.
I am SUBSTITUTING for Evan and Arieh for each of their classes tomorrow afternoon. For Evan's students: He will be teaching from the same textbook that I am also using for my Thursday night Mandarin I class (all ALESN Mandarin classes use the same series of textbooks -- Integrated Chinese Third Edition, whatever level is appropriate for whatever Mandarin class you are taking at ALESN). Mandarin I students are welcome to scroll down and find a very detailed blog posting with textbook info and links to purchase your book on Amazon, as well as other hints about getting a copy of the book for use in our classes.
I do not have info on my blog regarding the Mandarin II textbook, but I can tell you that it is Integrated Chinese Level 1 Part 2 TEXTBOOK Third Edition, and it is also available on Amazon as well as online -- if you know where to look. We will not tell you where to look, but if you know where to look, you will find it online.
FOR REGULAR SATURDAY MANDARIN I AND MANDARIN II STUDENTS SIGNED UP FOR EVAN'S AND ARIEH'S CLASSES:
THIS IS MY PERSONAL BLOG ABOUT MY OWN PERSONAL TEACHING STYLE AND PHILOSOPHY FOR ALESN CANTONESE AND MANDARIN.
The strong opinions in this blog are my own and may OR MAY NOT reflect the approach or teaching style of your actual Mandarin teacher in our program -- Evan or Arieh for the Saturday Mandarin I and II students.
Please do NOT get scared away by my blunt assessments of what is necessary to succeed in learning Chinese in MY classes at ALESN. Please wait for Evan or Arieh to each tell you what THEY will expect of you as students in THEIR classes -- once they both return next week.
Best wishes to All, and see you tomorrow at ALESN.
Recap of our first Mandarin I class of the year at ALESN this past Thursday, September 28, 2017
Hi Everyone!
Welcome to ALESN's Thursday night Mandarin I class for the 2017-2018 academic year. I know that there was some confusion due to a snafu with the initial registration process this year. Some people did not receive an official confirmation email from Tsz Fong, our Assistant Director and the person in charge of the registration process, BUT you may have received a Google Forms confirmation saying that you were accepted to the class. Other people showed up from the waitlist even though they have not officially been accepted into this section of Mandarin I. Still others were walk-ins, not having registered yet.
Everyone was welcome, and I was happy to have everyone there. Thanks for attending. Very sorry for the wacky miscommunication whereby the YMCA folks didn't realize that there were parent-teacher conferences in our regular room, which led to a 20 minute delay while I wandered the building with the janitor looking for an empty classroom. Thanks for everyone's patience while we figured that out!
Now, for a recap of last night's first class of the year:
I introduced myself and a bit about my background and my own reasons for studying Mandarin. I want to stress to all of you that so far, the ONLY place that I have personally ever studied Mandarin Chinese has been at ALESN. I will be studying both Cantonese and Mandarin in Hong Kong next year, but so far, I have only studied Chinese with ALESN at MS 131: 7 years of various level Cantonese classes, plus 4 years of various Mandarin classes. This will be the fifth year that I have taught beginning Cantonese for ALESN and the third year that I have taught beginning Mandarin.
As a Mandarin student at ALESN, I supplemented my classes with intensive self-study of at least several hours per week and sometimes many more hours during certain weeks, if I include time spent watching and rewatching Mandarin language DVDs -- among my favorites the Harry Potter films, as I mentioned. I believe that we discussed a DVD store close to the school where you can purchase Chinese language dubs of many famous American and other Western pop culture films, and I also suggested getting any of the classic Disney animated movies or the more recent Disney Pixar films. If I did not mention this in class, please remind me next week and we will go over this.
In addition to self-study of my ALESN textbooks and handouts plus my time spent watching DVDs over and over again, I spent a fair amount of time attempting to speak broken Mandarin with various Chinese people around town. We will discuss THIS approach or strategy many times throughout the year as one of your best benchmarks during your learning process to gauge how well you are doing, what you ARE doing well, and most importantly WHAT YOU IN PARTICULAR NEED TO WORK ON. This last one will be different for each of you -- which is why is it so important that you really pay attention during your learning process.
I can show you what you need to learn, but only YOU can actually learn it!
I spent a lot of time last night stressing to the class that this year's primary focus will be on accurate pronunciation and tones, and that it would be far better for any of you to learn 100 or fewer vocabulary words with acceptable, comprehensible pronunciation rather than the entire book and have no native speaker know what the hell you are talking about when you speak.
To illustrate this concept, I may have told the basics of a dirty joke that I learned as a 9 or 10 year-old at summer camp. I cannot remember if I told you all this joke, but I know that I shared it with my Monday night Cantonese class. If I did not share this joke, someone please ask about it at the beginning of class next week and we will start with it before jumping into the intro pronunciation stuff.
The crux of the joke was the different meanings of similar sounding pairs of words: sheet vs. shit, piece vs. piss, and fork vs. fuck. To read a version of this joke, please refer to the Mispronouncing Mnndarin section of this blog.
I mentioned how I plan to split up the class into 2 sections for the first half hour so that I can work with those students with pronunciation issues while my teaching assistant works with those students who are making steady progress in a way that their Mandarin is understandable when they speak. For more information on my plan for how I mean to divide class time going forward, please find the older blog entry below in this category specifically discussing how I plan to organize your classes each week.
I mentioned various ground rules, such as the official school rule about no eating or drinking in class, but our recognition that all of you might need to eat a snack or have a bottle of water or soda during class, since class is held around dinner time. If you do decide to eat or drink while in class, you must be tidy, and you must take your food trash with you when you leave.
After many minutes discussing my expectations for my students this year, we finally spent the last 25 minutes of class going over some very basic sounds of Mandarin Chinese.
We covered the most basic vowel sounds: a, e, i, o, u, and ü.
We went over these sounds and spent a few extra minutes discussing the last one, which does not exist in English. Remember the "triple secret handshake hint" that I gave you all, which is this: the ü sound of Mandarin Chinese is easily achieved with perfect pronunciation by saying "ee" as in the English word "me" but making your lips round as you would to make the "u" vowel sound, as in the English word "food." Don't worry -- we will go over this again, as many times as it takes for the rest of the year until you either get this sound or you quit my class out of frustration.
😒
Though we didn't have much time to begin making these sounds in class, we discussed them briefly. We also discussed the 4 tones of Mandarin Chinese for the final 5 minutes of class, which is where we will pick up next time, before returning to syllable pronunciation.
So...
YOUR HOMEWORK FOR THIS WEEK is to get a copy of the textbook (see my previous post in below under the Mandarin I category) and to read from the very beginning of the book (including all of the preface and intro pages explaining the layout of the book) up to page 8.
Now, obviously, you will have absolutely no idea what any of the stuff from pages 2-8 mean, but that is ok; I just want everyone to see what we will be covering beginning next Thursday, and I want you to be prepared in your mind to come to class and give your best effort to begin to learn to pronounce the sounds of Mandarin Chinese.
IN ADDITION TO GETTING A COPY OF THE TEXTBOOK (either purchasing a copy or finding one online...), YOU MUST EITHER GET A COPY OF THE MP3S OR CDS DESIGNED TO GO WITH YOUR TEXTBOOK (see below in my previous blog post about your textbook for info on the CDs/mp3s) OR YOU MUST RESEARCH ON YOUTUBE AND FIND AT LEAST 1 ABSOLUTE BEGINNER MANDARIN PRONUNCIATION VIDEO THAT TEACHES WHAT IS CALLED "BO PO MO FO."
You can actually type this into the search bar in Youtube and hundreds of videos should come up. I recommend the most juvenile, babyish, pink colored, Strawberry Shortcake cartoon-looking video you can find with annoying kids' voices pronouncing all of the basic syllables of Mandarin Chinese using the "bo po mo fo" pronunciation method.
YOU MUST EITHER LISTEN TO THE PRONUNCIATION PORTION OF THE TEXTBOOK CDS OR MP3S OR WATCH THIS YOUTUBE VIDEO AT LEAST 5-10 TIMES A WEEK FOR THE NEXT 1-2 MONTHS UNTIL YOU CAN ACCURATELY PRODUCE THE BASIC SOUNDS OF SPOKEN MANDARIN CHINESE.
You must do this -- and if you wind up having crappy pronunciation in class over the first few months, you must make even more time each week to listen to these mp3s or to watch this video EVEN MORE OFTEN!!!
If you cannot do this, you will need to quit my class. I am telling you this now so that there are no surprises for any of my students this year. If you make time EACH WEEK to listen to recordings and to watch videos over and over again of real native speakers pronouncing accurate beginner level Mandarin, you will set yourself up to succeed in this class and with any future Mandarin Chinese studies that you might want to pursue. If you don't set aside this time in your schedule right now, you are fooling yourself and you might as well not return to class next week.
We will review the 6 basic vowels and begin to cover this "bo po mo fo" stuff next week, focusing specifically on the sounds of the syllables. We will also again discuss the basics of TONES as a concept -- though most likely, the "meat" of that topic will be left for the third week of classes.
The bad news about tones is that they be very challenging for brand new learners of Mandarin; they will most likely be the hardest single factor that you will encounter as you figure out over a period of time whether you are willing to stick with this language and put in the amount of effort necessary over a period or months or years to be able to understand and speak it at the most basic level of effectiveness. In fact, because I have been studying Cantonese for twice as long as I have studied Mandarin, I still make errors with my Mandarin tones every single time I speak. That is ok, though, because I am a work in progress and I am comfortable making mistakes on a regular basis as I work to improve my Chinese.
The good news is that I am here to help you, AND I WILL HELP YOU ALL YEAR -- if you are willing to put in the time and effort to help yourselves.
See you all next week.
Welcome to ALESN's Thursday night Mandarin I class for the 2017-2018 academic year. I know that there was some confusion due to a snafu with the initial registration process this year. Some people did not receive an official confirmation email from Tsz Fong, our Assistant Director and the person in charge of the registration process, BUT you may have received a Google Forms confirmation saying that you were accepted to the class. Other people showed up from the waitlist even though they have not officially been accepted into this section of Mandarin I. Still others were walk-ins, not having registered yet.
Everyone was welcome, and I was happy to have everyone there. Thanks for attending. Very sorry for the wacky miscommunication whereby the YMCA folks didn't realize that there were parent-teacher conferences in our regular room, which led to a 20 minute delay while I wandered the building with the janitor looking for an empty classroom. Thanks for everyone's patience while we figured that out!
Now, for a recap of last night's first class of the year:
I introduced myself and a bit about my background and my own reasons for studying Mandarin. I want to stress to all of you that so far, the ONLY place that I have personally ever studied Mandarin Chinese has been at ALESN. I will be studying both Cantonese and Mandarin in Hong Kong next year, but so far, I have only studied Chinese with ALESN at MS 131: 7 years of various level Cantonese classes, plus 4 years of various Mandarin classes. This will be the fifth year that I have taught beginning Cantonese for ALESN and the third year that I have taught beginning Mandarin.
As a Mandarin student at ALESN, I supplemented my classes with intensive self-study of at least several hours per week and sometimes many more hours during certain weeks, if I include time spent watching and rewatching Mandarin language DVDs -- among my favorites the Harry Potter films, as I mentioned. I believe that we discussed a DVD store close to the school where you can purchase Chinese language dubs of many famous American and other Western pop culture films, and I also suggested getting any of the classic Disney animated movies or the more recent Disney Pixar films. If I did not mention this in class, please remind me next week and we will go over this.
In addition to self-study of my ALESN textbooks and handouts plus my time spent watching DVDs over and over again, I spent a fair amount of time attempting to speak broken Mandarin with various Chinese people around town. We will discuss THIS approach or strategy many times throughout the year as one of your best benchmarks during your learning process to gauge how well you are doing, what you ARE doing well, and most importantly WHAT YOU IN PARTICULAR NEED TO WORK ON. This last one will be different for each of you -- which is why is it so important that you really pay attention during your learning process.
I can show you what you need to learn, but only YOU can actually learn it!
I spent a lot of time last night stressing to the class that this year's primary focus will be on accurate pronunciation and tones, and that it would be far better for any of you to learn 100 or fewer vocabulary words with acceptable, comprehensible pronunciation rather than the entire book and have no native speaker know what the hell you are talking about when you speak.
To illustrate this concept, I may have told the basics of a dirty joke that I learned as a 9 or 10 year-old at summer camp. I cannot remember if I told you all this joke, but I know that I shared it with my Monday night Cantonese class. If I did not share this joke, someone please ask about it at the beginning of class next week and we will start with it before jumping into the intro pronunciation stuff.
The crux of the joke was the different meanings of similar sounding pairs of words: sheet vs. shit, piece vs. piss, and fork vs. fuck. To read a version of this joke, please refer to the Mispronouncing Mnndarin section of this blog.
I mentioned how I plan to split up the class into 2 sections for the first half hour so that I can work with those students with pronunciation issues while my teaching assistant works with those students who are making steady progress in a way that their Mandarin is understandable when they speak. For more information on my plan for how I mean to divide class time going forward, please find the older blog entry below in this category specifically discussing how I plan to organize your classes each week.
I mentioned various ground rules, such as the official school rule about no eating or drinking in class, but our recognition that all of you might need to eat a snack or have a bottle of water or soda during class, since class is held around dinner time. If you do decide to eat or drink while in class, you must be tidy, and you must take your food trash with you when you leave.
After many minutes discussing my expectations for my students this year, we finally spent the last 25 minutes of class going over some very basic sounds of Mandarin Chinese.
We covered the most basic vowel sounds: a, e, i, o, u, and ü.
We went over these sounds and spent a few extra minutes discussing the last one, which does not exist in English. Remember the "triple secret handshake hint" that I gave you all, which is this: the ü sound of Mandarin Chinese is easily achieved with perfect pronunciation by saying "ee" as in the English word "me" but making your lips round as you would to make the "u" vowel sound, as in the English word "food." Don't worry -- we will go over this again, as many times as it takes for the rest of the year until you either get this sound or you quit my class out of frustration.
😒
Though we didn't have much time to begin making these sounds in class, we discussed them briefly. We also discussed the 4 tones of Mandarin Chinese for the final 5 minutes of class, which is where we will pick up next time, before returning to syllable pronunciation.
So...
YOUR HOMEWORK FOR THIS WEEK is to get a copy of the textbook (see my previous post in below under the Mandarin I category) and to read from the very beginning of the book (including all of the preface and intro pages explaining the layout of the book) up to page 8.
Now, obviously, you will have absolutely no idea what any of the stuff from pages 2-8 mean, but that is ok; I just want everyone to see what we will be covering beginning next Thursday, and I want you to be prepared in your mind to come to class and give your best effort to begin to learn to pronounce the sounds of Mandarin Chinese.
IN ADDITION TO GETTING A COPY OF THE TEXTBOOK (either purchasing a copy or finding one online...), YOU MUST EITHER GET A COPY OF THE MP3S OR CDS DESIGNED TO GO WITH YOUR TEXTBOOK (see below in my previous blog post about your textbook for info on the CDs/mp3s) OR YOU MUST RESEARCH ON YOUTUBE AND FIND AT LEAST 1 ABSOLUTE BEGINNER MANDARIN PRONUNCIATION VIDEO THAT TEACHES WHAT IS CALLED "BO PO MO FO."
You can actually type this into the search bar in Youtube and hundreds of videos should come up. I recommend the most juvenile, babyish, pink colored, Strawberry Shortcake cartoon-looking video you can find with annoying kids' voices pronouncing all of the basic syllables of Mandarin Chinese using the "bo po mo fo" pronunciation method.
YOU MUST EITHER LISTEN TO THE PRONUNCIATION PORTION OF THE TEXTBOOK CDS OR MP3S OR WATCH THIS YOUTUBE VIDEO AT LEAST 5-10 TIMES A WEEK FOR THE NEXT 1-2 MONTHS UNTIL YOU CAN ACCURATELY PRODUCE THE BASIC SOUNDS OF SPOKEN MANDARIN CHINESE.
You must do this -- and if you wind up having crappy pronunciation in class over the first few months, you must make even more time each week to listen to these mp3s or to watch this video EVEN MORE OFTEN!!!
If you cannot do this, you will need to quit my class. I am telling you this now so that there are no surprises for any of my students this year. If you make time EACH WEEK to listen to recordings and to watch videos over and over again of real native speakers pronouncing accurate beginner level Mandarin, you will set yourself up to succeed in this class and with any future Mandarin Chinese studies that you might want to pursue. If you don't set aside this time in your schedule right now, you are fooling yourself and you might as well not return to class next week.
We will review the 6 basic vowels and begin to cover this "bo po mo fo" stuff next week, focusing specifically on the sounds of the syllables. We will also again discuss the basics of TONES as a concept -- though most likely, the "meat" of that topic will be left for the third week of classes.
The bad news about tones is that they be very challenging for brand new learners of Mandarin; they will most likely be the hardest single factor that you will encounter as you figure out over a period of time whether you are willing to stick with this language and put in the amount of effort necessary over a period or months or years to be able to understand and speak it at the most basic level of effectiveness. In fact, because I have been studying Cantonese for twice as long as I have studied Mandarin, I still make errors with my Mandarin tones every single time I speak. That is ok, though, because I am a work in progress and I am comfortable making mistakes on a regular basis as I work to improve my Chinese.
The good news is that I am here to help you, AND I WILL HELP YOU ALL YEAR -- if you are willing to put in the time and effort to help yourselves.
See you all next week.
Recap of our first Cantonese I class of the year at ALESN this past Monday, September 25, 2017
Hi Everyone!
Welcome to ALESN's Monday night Cantonese I class for the 2017-2018 academic year. I know that there was some confusion due to a snafu with the initial registration process this year. Some people did not receive an official confirmation email from Tsz Fong, our Assistant Director and the person in charge of the registration process, BUT you may have received a Google Forms confirmation saying that you were accepted to the class. From what I understand, THIS was the symptom of a registration malfunction last week that necessitated a completely separate, second round of registration. Luckily for most of you, this did not impact your ability to be in my Cantonese class, because most newcomers to ALESN want to study Mandarin with us.
Anyway, all of this aside, welcome!
This past Monday, I introduced myself and a bit about my background and my own reasons for studying Cantonese. I want to stress to all of you that so far, the ONLY place that I have personally ever studied Cantonese has been at ALESN or with ALESN teachers. I will be studying in Hong Kong next year, hopefully, but so far, I have only studied with ALESN teachers in ALESN classes.: 2 years with our co-founder Tony Parisi; 1 year with our other co-founder Kam Yau; 2 years with former teacher Ana Chiu; 2 years with former Cantonese III teacher Daniel (a high school student at the time that he taught for our program); and.3 years with current ALESN teacher Hung Choi (at Saturday ALESN classes and over past summers at his church with a small group of ALESN students).
All of the classes just mentioned overlapped and made up the first 3 years of my Cantonese studies from 2009-2012 -- with the sole exception of my studies with Hung, which occurred between 2013 and 2016.
I supplemented these classes with intensive self-study of at least 5 hours per week on average, and over 10 hours per week many weeks, if I include time spent watching and rewatching Cantonese language DVDs -- among my favorites the Harry Potter films, as I mentioned. We discussed a DVD store close to the school where you can purchase Chinese language dubs of many famous American and other Western pop culture films, and I also suggested getting any of the classic Disney animated movies or the more recent Disney Pixar films. I mentioned Frozen in particular as truly excellent in Cantonese with English subtitles. I think I got my copy for $5.99 or $6.99 from the store that I mentioned near the school.
In addition to self-study of my ALESN textbooks and handouts at the time plus my time spent watching DVDs over and over again, I spent A LOT of time attempting to speak broken Cantonese with anyone and everyone who looked even remotely Chinese. We will discuss THIS approach or strategy many times throughout the year as one of your best benchmarks during your learning process to gauge how well you are doing, what you ARE doing well, and most importantly WHAT YOU IN PARTICULAR NEED TO WORK ON. This last one will be different for each of you -- which is why is it so important that you really pay attention during your learning process.
I can show you what you need to learn, but only YOU can actually learn it!
I spent a lot of time this last Monday stressing to the class that this year's primary focus will be on accurate pronunciation and tones, and that it would be far better for any of you to learn 100 or fewer vocabulary words with acceptable, comprehensible pronunciation rather than the entire book and have no native speaker know what the hell you are talking about when you speak.
To illustrate this concept, I told the basics of a dirty joke that I learned as a 9 or 10 year-old at summer camp. The crux of the joke was the different meanings of similar sounding pairs of words: sheet vs. shit, piece vs. piss, and fork vs. fuck. To read a version of this joke, please refer to the Mispronouncing Cantonese section of this blog.
I mentioned how I plan to split up the class into 2 sections for the first half hour so that I can work with those students with pronunciation issues while my teaching assistant works with those students who are making steady progress in a way that their Cantonese is understandable when they speak. For more information on my plan for how I mean to divide class time going forward, please find the older blog entry below in this category specifically discussing how I plan to organize your classes each week.
I mentioned various ground rules, such as the official school rule about no eating or drinking in class, but our recognition that all of you might need to eat a snack or have a bottle of water or soda during class, since class is held around dinner time. If you do decide to eat or drink while in class, you must be tidy, and you must take your food trash with you when you leave.
After many minutes discussing my expectations for my students this year, we finally spent the last 12 minutes of class going over the sounds involved in the words used in lesson 1's dialogue in your textbook. For textbook information, please see the previous blog entry below in this category, which will give you all of the details about our book, where to get it, etc.
Though we didn't have much time to begin making these sounds in Cantonese, we discussed them briefly, and it is here that we will pick up next time. So...
YOUR HOMEWORK FOR THIS WEEKEND is to download the textbook and audio, skim through the introduction of the book as well as the first lesson up to page 12. AND, listen to the entire mp3 audio designed to go with lesson 1. Listen at least once, preferably multiple times.
You MUST listen to this first mp3 at least 3-4 times during the next several weeks as we cover the first lesson in class. It will set the groundwork in your brain to start recognizing the sounds and tones of Cantonese when you are not in class with a teacher in front of you to guide you -- and it will help you to create a good beginning study habit for yourself with this language.
You must do this -- and if you wind up having crappy pronunciation in class over the first few months, you must make even more time each week to listen to these mp3s EVEN MORE OFTEN!!!
If you cannot do this, you will need to quit my class. I am telling you this now so that there are no surprises for any of my students this year. If you make time EACH WEEK to listen to recordings and to watch videos over and over again of real native speakers pronouncing accurate beginner level Cantonese, you will set yourself up to succeed in this class and with any future Cantonese (or Mandarin) studies that you might want to pursue. If you don't set aside this time in your schedule right now, you are fooling yourself and you might as well not return to class next week.
We will begin to cover the lesson 1 material next Monday, starting with a recap of the dialogue and vocabulary involved, focusing specifically on the sounds of the syllables -- followed by an introduction to TONES.
Ah, yes -- TONES.
Well, the bad news is that tones can be very challenging for brand new learners of Cantonese; they will most likely be the hardest single factor that you will encounter as you figure out over a period of time whether you are willing to stick with this language and put in the amount of effort necessary over a period or months or years to be able to understand and speak it at the most basic level of effectiveness.
The good news is that I am here to help you, AND I WILL HELP YOU -- if you are willing to put in the time and effort.
See you all next Monday night.
Welcome to ALESN's Monday night Cantonese I class for the 2017-2018 academic year. I know that there was some confusion due to a snafu with the initial registration process this year. Some people did not receive an official confirmation email from Tsz Fong, our Assistant Director and the person in charge of the registration process, BUT you may have received a Google Forms confirmation saying that you were accepted to the class. From what I understand, THIS was the symptom of a registration malfunction last week that necessitated a completely separate, second round of registration. Luckily for most of you, this did not impact your ability to be in my Cantonese class, because most newcomers to ALESN want to study Mandarin with us.
Anyway, all of this aside, welcome!
This past Monday, I introduced myself and a bit about my background and my own reasons for studying Cantonese. I want to stress to all of you that so far, the ONLY place that I have personally ever studied Cantonese has been at ALESN or with ALESN teachers. I will be studying in Hong Kong next year, hopefully, but so far, I have only studied with ALESN teachers in ALESN classes.: 2 years with our co-founder Tony Parisi; 1 year with our other co-founder Kam Yau; 2 years with former teacher Ana Chiu; 2 years with former Cantonese III teacher Daniel (a high school student at the time that he taught for our program); and.3 years with current ALESN teacher Hung Choi (at Saturday ALESN classes and over past summers at his church with a small group of ALESN students).
All of the classes just mentioned overlapped and made up the first 3 years of my Cantonese studies from 2009-2012 -- with the sole exception of my studies with Hung, which occurred between 2013 and 2016.
I supplemented these classes with intensive self-study of at least 5 hours per week on average, and over 10 hours per week many weeks, if I include time spent watching and rewatching Cantonese language DVDs -- among my favorites the Harry Potter films, as I mentioned. We discussed a DVD store close to the school where you can purchase Chinese language dubs of many famous American and other Western pop culture films, and I also suggested getting any of the classic Disney animated movies or the more recent Disney Pixar films. I mentioned Frozen in particular as truly excellent in Cantonese with English subtitles. I think I got my copy for $5.99 or $6.99 from the store that I mentioned near the school.
In addition to self-study of my ALESN textbooks and handouts at the time plus my time spent watching DVDs over and over again, I spent A LOT of time attempting to speak broken Cantonese with anyone and everyone who looked even remotely Chinese. We will discuss THIS approach or strategy many times throughout the year as one of your best benchmarks during your learning process to gauge how well you are doing, what you ARE doing well, and most importantly WHAT YOU IN PARTICULAR NEED TO WORK ON. This last one will be different for each of you -- which is why is it so important that you really pay attention during your learning process.
I can show you what you need to learn, but only YOU can actually learn it!
I spent a lot of time this last Monday stressing to the class that this year's primary focus will be on accurate pronunciation and tones, and that it would be far better for any of you to learn 100 or fewer vocabulary words with acceptable, comprehensible pronunciation rather than the entire book and have no native speaker know what the hell you are talking about when you speak.
To illustrate this concept, I told the basics of a dirty joke that I learned as a 9 or 10 year-old at summer camp. The crux of the joke was the different meanings of similar sounding pairs of words: sheet vs. shit, piece vs. piss, and fork vs. fuck. To read a version of this joke, please refer to the Mispronouncing Cantonese section of this blog.
I mentioned how I plan to split up the class into 2 sections for the first half hour so that I can work with those students with pronunciation issues while my teaching assistant works with those students who are making steady progress in a way that their Cantonese is understandable when they speak. For more information on my plan for how I mean to divide class time going forward, please find the older blog entry below in this category specifically discussing how I plan to organize your classes each week.
I mentioned various ground rules, such as the official school rule about no eating or drinking in class, but our recognition that all of you might need to eat a snack or have a bottle of water or soda during class, since class is held around dinner time. If you do decide to eat or drink while in class, you must be tidy, and you must take your food trash with you when you leave.
After many minutes discussing my expectations for my students this year, we finally spent the last 12 minutes of class going over the sounds involved in the words used in lesson 1's dialogue in your textbook. For textbook information, please see the previous blog entry below in this category, which will give you all of the details about our book, where to get it, etc.
Though we didn't have much time to begin making these sounds in Cantonese, we discussed them briefly, and it is here that we will pick up next time. So...
YOUR HOMEWORK FOR THIS WEEKEND is to download the textbook and audio, skim through the introduction of the book as well as the first lesson up to page 12. AND, listen to the entire mp3 audio designed to go with lesson 1. Listen at least once, preferably multiple times.
You MUST listen to this first mp3 at least 3-4 times during the next several weeks as we cover the first lesson in class. It will set the groundwork in your brain to start recognizing the sounds and tones of Cantonese when you are not in class with a teacher in front of you to guide you -- and it will help you to create a good beginning study habit for yourself with this language.
You must do this -- and if you wind up having crappy pronunciation in class over the first few months, you must make even more time each week to listen to these mp3s EVEN MORE OFTEN!!!
If you cannot do this, you will need to quit my class. I am telling you this now so that there are no surprises for any of my students this year. If you make time EACH WEEK to listen to recordings and to watch videos over and over again of real native speakers pronouncing accurate beginner level Cantonese, you will set yourself up to succeed in this class and with any future Cantonese (or Mandarin) studies that you might want to pursue. If you don't set aside this time in your schedule right now, you are fooling yourself and you might as well not return to class next week.
We will begin to cover the lesson 1 material next Monday, starting with a recap of the dialogue and vocabulary involved, focusing specifically on the sounds of the syllables -- followed by an introduction to TONES.
Ah, yes -- TONES.
Well, the bad news is that tones can be very challenging for brand new learners of Cantonese; they will most likely be the hardest single factor that you will encounter as you figure out over a period of time whether you are willing to stick with this language and put in the amount of effort necessary over a period or months or years to be able to understand and speak it at the most basic level of effectiveness.
The good news is that I am here to help you, AND I WILL HELP YOU -- if you are willing to put in the time and effort.
See you all next Monday night.
Working on getting the menu tabs in the navigation bar larger...
Hey Everyone!
I am not a programmer and have no previous experience building a website. I am learning as I go, from scratch, using a Blogger template and Googling how to tweak whatever I need to tweak when an issue arises.
For whatever reason, the default setup for this template is not allowing me to wrap my navigation bar buttons to a second line, even though my www.speakmanylanguages.com blog from 2014 has obviously wrapped perfectly to a second line for the menu bar. This appears to be some kind of code issue for the particular Blogger template I have chosen for Say It Right Chinese, and I cannot figure it out.
On my enormous 24"+ monitor at home, the menu tabs for Say It Right Chinese were large and fine and functional. On my 12" older Vista laptop, the rightmost button went away and the new rightmost "Mispronouncing Mandarin" tab lost partial "clickability" functionality depending on where the mouse was positioned.
I know that this is an issue and I know exactly what is happening on the screen with this issue, but I don't know what this issue is called in technical jargon or language, nor what is causing it on a programming level, so I don't know what to Google to find a hack to fix this.
Does anyone know the HTML code hack that I can substitute or add (and where AND HOW to do the substitution or addition) to force the navigation bar tabs to scroll to a second line for this default Blogger template? My hypothesis is that the area physically underneath the current menu bar is part of a different section of the blog and is covering up any menu bar items that probably are actually wrapping to the next line, but for this reason, I am not seeing them because they are hidden.
The work-around so far has been for me to simply decrease the font size of the menu tabs so that all 8 navigation bar links now appear on one continuous line on my 12" laptop screen with full clickability function of all tabs. I can make the tabs significantly larger font-wise and still have them all on the same line on this 12" screen, but above the current font size, the rightmost CONTACTS tab loses clickability function and becomes a dead tab.
Thanks in advance to anyone who can guide me through how to edit (the dimensions of?) the space physically below my current navigation bar to make room for a second row of menu tabs to appear on the screen...
I am not a programmer and have no previous experience building a website. I am learning as I go, from scratch, using a Blogger template and Googling how to tweak whatever I need to tweak when an issue arises.
For whatever reason, the default setup for this template is not allowing me to wrap my navigation bar buttons to a second line, even though my www.speakmanylanguages.com blog from 2014 has obviously wrapped perfectly to a second line for the menu bar. This appears to be some kind of code issue for the particular Blogger template I have chosen for Say It Right Chinese, and I cannot figure it out.
On my enormous 24"+ monitor at home, the menu tabs for Say It Right Chinese were large and fine and functional. On my 12" older Vista laptop, the rightmost button went away and the new rightmost "Mispronouncing Mandarin" tab lost partial "clickability" functionality depending on where the mouse was positioned.
I know that this is an issue and I know exactly what is happening on the screen with this issue, but I don't know what this issue is called in technical jargon or language, nor what is causing it on a programming level, so I don't know what to Google to find a hack to fix this.
Does anyone know the HTML code hack that I can substitute or add (and where AND HOW to do the substitution or addition) to force the navigation bar tabs to scroll to a second line for this default Blogger template? My hypothesis is that the area physically underneath the current menu bar is part of a different section of the blog and is covering up any menu bar items that probably are actually wrapping to the next line, but for this reason, I am not seeing them because they are hidden.
The work-around so far has been for me to simply decrease the font size of the menu tabs so that all 8 navigation bar links now appear on one continuous line on my 12" laptop screen with full clickability function of all tabs. I can make the tabs significantly larger font-wise and still have them all on the same line on this 12" screen, but above the current font size, the rightmost CONTACTS tab loses clickability function and becomes a dead tab.
Thanks in advance to anyone who can guide me through how to edit (the dimensions of?) the space physically below my current navigation bar to make room for a second row of menu tabs to appear on the screen...
Wednesday, September 27, 2017
Contact Information
To contact me privately about any of my posts on this blog, or to inquire about in-person tutoring in NYC or via Skype, please email:
Brendan Davies
almostjune@gmail.com
Check out www.alesn.org for a schedule of all classes and workshops in New York City*.
*NOTE FEB 2019: Because the ALESN website hasn't been updated for the current 2018-2019 academic year (?!), if you are interested in ALESN's current course and seminar offerings, please go to the website, click the button to subscribe to the newsletter, and then you will start receiving weekly HTML emails that look like a webpage with all kinds of up to the minute info regarding class schedules and any last minute additions or cancellations for that week.
All classes are *FREE* and, with the exception of our registration crunch period each fall from September to the end of October, all classes are usually open to the general public, no need to RSVP. If you are new to ALESN, however, you will need to fill out guest paperwork with the YMCA the first time you show up to attend a class. Please ask the security guards in the lobby of the school when you show up for the very first time, and they will direct you to the YMCA office in the basement. Once you fill out the YMCA paperwork, you will be given a colored "ID card," which you will need to then show the lobby security guards during any future visits.
Brendan Davies
almostjune@gmail.com
Check out www.alesn.org for a schedule of all classes and workshops in New York City*.
*NOTE FEB 2019: Because the ALESN website hasn't been updated for the current 2018-2019 academic year (?!), if you are interested in ALESN's current course and seminar offerings, please go to the website, click the button to subscribe to the newsletter, and then you will start receiving weekly HTML emails that look like a webpage with all kinds of up to the minute info regarding class schedules and any last minute additions or cancellations for that week.
All classes are *FREE* and, with the exception of our registration crunch period each fall from September to the end of October, all classes are usually open to the general public, no need to RSVP. If you are new to ALESN, however, you will need to fill out guest paperwork with the YMCA the first time you show up to attend a class. Please ask the security guards in the lobby of the school when you show up for the very first time, and they will direct you to the YMCA office in the basement. Once you fill out the YMCA paperwork, you will be given a colored "ID card," which you will need to then show the lobby security guards during any future visits.
Textbook information for Saturday ALESN Cantonese II Workshop / Potential Year-Long Class (depending on interest)
Hi Everyone,
For this class, which I have not taught before, I will be using one of my favorite advanced beginner / low intermediate level textbooks. Like the Cantonese I textbook that I am using this year, this one is public domain, which means that it is available as a legitimate, FREE download. You are also welcome to purchase an actual physical book on Amazon, though this title has been out of print for many years and used copies might be expensive. Perhaps it is best to wait and see if this will become an actual class or if it will be relegated to "4 week-long workshop" status.
Here is a download link for the textbook that I will be using for this class. This resource includes a PDF of the textbook (which you may download to a laptop, tablet, or phone, or print and put in a binder) as well as maybe 20-30 HOURS of mp3 audio to accompany all of the lessons:
https://www.livelingua.com/course/fsi/Cantonese_-_Basic_Course_-_Volume_2
Download links and instructions are AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PAGE.
Do not be fooled into downloading the "free" software offered on this page above where the ebook displays on your screen and again right above the file download links at the bottom of the page. This is advertising and may include spyware. It has nothing to do with downloading this ebook or its mp3s.
The free PDF and audio mp3 downloads are clean and all you need to do is scroll to the bottom of the page, right click each item and save them to your computer. There are also instructions on how to do this right next to the files that you will right click.
You must plan to set aside time for the duration of this course to listen to these mp3s MULTIPLE TIMES EACH WEEK! The only way you can improve at speaking a foreign language with pronunciation very different from your first language is to hear that language over and over again, and to try to replicate the sounds of the new language over and over again -- each time getting closer, eventually "getting it right."
If you are ethnically Chinese and have been speaking with your family for some number of years, you can most likely disregard the previous paragraph.
Thanks for reading and see you all in class!
For this class, which I have not taught before, I will be using one of my favorite advanced beginner / low intermediate level textbooks. Like the Cantonese I textbook that I am using this year, this one is public domain, which means that it is available as a legitimate, FREE download. You are also welcome to purchase an actual physical book on Amazon, though this title has been out of print for many years and used copies might be expensive. Perhaps it is best to wait and see if this will become an actual class or if it will be relegated to "4 week-long workshop" status.
Here is a download link for the textbook that I will be using for this class. This resource includes a PDF of the textbook (which you may download to a laptop, tablet, or phone, or print and put in a binder) as well as maybe 20-30 HOURS of mp3 audio to accompany all of the lessons:
https://www.livelingua.com/course/fsi/Cantonese_-_Basic_Course_-_Volume_2
Download links and instructions are AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PAGE.
Do not be fooled into downloading the "free" software offered on this page above where the ebook displays on your screen and again right above the file download links at the bottom of the page. This is advertising and may include spyware. It has nothing to do with downloading this ebook or its mp3s.
The free PDF and audio mp3 downloads are clean and all you need to do is scroll to the bottom of the page, right click each item and save them to your computer. There are also instructions on how to do this right next to the files that you will right click.
You must plan to set aside time for the duration of this course to listen to these mp3s MULTIPLE TIMES EACH WEEK! The only way you can improve at speaking a foreign language with pronunciation very different from your first language is to hear that language over and over again, and to try to replicate the sounds of the new language over and over again -- each time getting closer, eventually "getting it right."
If you are ethnically Chinese and have been speaking with your family for some number of years, you can most likely disregard the previous paragraph.
Thanks for reading and see you all in class!
Textbook information for Thursday Night ALESN Mandarin I Class
Hi Gang,
Here is information regarding your textbook. All sections of ALESN Mandarin I use the same textbook, which is Integrated Chinese Level 1 Part 1 THIRD EDITION Textbook. You can choose either Traditional or Simplified Character Version -- in fact, you have to choose one or the other.
Let me briefly explain, and then the choice is up to you. It is NOT a big decision, because I will not be teaching characters this year. If you intend to learn Chinese characters on your own or via one of our Saturday ALESN classes, or perhaps at another school or with a private tutor, then you need to make a decision, however. I will make the choice very straight-forward for you:
Unlike the Cantonese textbook that I am using this year, your Mandarin I textbook is NOT public domain. The copyright is still very much alive on this title, which means that we cannot and will not give out links to download free PDFs of this book. However, many of our students are very clever and have found the book online as a PDF, which they have been able to download to their laptops, tablets, or phones, and even print out and put in notebook binders.
DO NOT ASK AN ALESN INSTRUCTOR HOW TO FIND A FREE COPY OF THIS BOOK ONLINE.
The book as well as the CD set designed to go with this level are available online for those who know where to look. In fact, last year, the entire audio CD set was available as a free mp3 download from iTunes, and the textbook was available for free download from the official website of a university in Asia for much of the 2016-2017 academic year, before it was taken down. I do not know about this year.
Here are links to the official Amazon listings for your textbook:
Simplified Character Edition:
https://www.amazon.com/Integrated-Chinese-Simplified-Characters-Textbook/dp/0887276385/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1506543452&sr=1-2&keywords=integrated+chinese+level+1+part+1
Traditional Character Edition:
https://www.amazon.com/Integrated-Chinese-Level-Textbook-Traditional/dp/B006UJH5K8/ref=sr_1_9?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1506543452&sr=1-9&keywords=integrated+chinese+level+1+part+1
There may be other third party vendor links on Amazon for the same 2 editions. Just make sure that you get THIRD EDITION TEXTBOOK. It must be Third Edition, and it must be the Textbook -- not the workbook or character workbook.
We will start right away tomorrow night with the first pronunciation exercises in the introduction to this book, once I go over the basics of the course as well as my teaching philosophy and once I answer any general questions.
DO NOT PURCHASE A PHYSICAL TEXTBOOK IF YOU ARE UNCERTAIN ABOUT YOUR LEVEL OF INTEREST IN LEARNING MANDARIN CHINESE IN OUR PROGRAM!!!
This is an expensive book, even used, if you choose to purchase it, and we cannot be responsible for any of you feeling like you wasted money if you decide that Mandarin is too difficult for you, or if you wind up having a scheduling conflict and need to quit our program.
ONE FINAL NOTE TO ALL BEGINNING MANDARIN STUDENTS:
You must plan to set aside time for the duration of this course -- MULTIPLE TIMES EACH WEEK -- to LISTEN TO SOME KIND OF BEGINNER LEVEL MANDARIN AUDIO OR WATCH BEGINNER LEVEL YOUTUBE VIDEOS!!! The only way you can improve at speaking a foreign language with pronunciation very different from your first language is to hear that language over and over again, and to try to replicate the sounds of the new language over and over again -- each time getting closer, eventually "getting it right."
We will discuss this theme many times during this course, and I will suggest many different beginner level Mandarin audio and video resources that you can study during your journey towards basic conversational ability in the language.
Thanks for reading and see you in class!
Here is information regarding your textbook. All sections of ALESN Mandarin I use the same textbook, which is Integrated Chinese Level 1 Part 1 THIRD EDITION Textbook. You can choose either Traditional or Simplified Character Version -- in fact, you have to choose one or the other.
Let me briefly explain, and then the choice is up to you. It is NOT a big decision, because I will not be teaching characters this year. If you intend to learn Chinese characters on your own or via one of our Saturday ALESN classes, or perhaps at another school or with a private tutor, then you need to make a decision, however. I will make the choice very straight-forward for you:
- If your family is from Mainland China or you intend to spend most of your time visiting or speaking with people from Mainland China as opposed to Hong Kong or Taiwan, then you should purchase the SIMPLIFIED CHARACTER EDITION.
- If your family is from Hong Kong or Taiwan, or you intend to spend most of your time visiting one of these 2 places as opposed to Mainland China, then you should purchase the TRADITIONAL CHARACTER EDITION.
- If you intend to visit Mainland China as well as Hong Kong and Taiwan on a regular basis, then choose the one you will visit more often and pick the Character Edition of your textbook accordingly.
- If you have no idea what the hell I am talking about and you have no preference or no desire to learn to read or write Chinese, but you want to purchase a physical book, then simply purchase the cheapest used copy you can find of EITHER CHARACTER EDITION in a condition that will make you happy.
Unlike the Cantonese textbook that I am using this year, your Mandarin I textbook is NOT public domain. The copyright is still very much alive on this title, which means that we cannot and will not give out links to download free PDFs of this book. However, many of our students are very clever and have found the book online as a PDF, which they have been able to download to their laptops, tablets, or phones, and even print out and put in notebook binders.
DO NOT ASK AN ALESN INSTRUCTOR HOW TO FIND A FREE COPY OF THIS BOOK ONLINE.
The book as well as the CD set designed to go with this level are available online for those who know where to look. In fact, last year, the entire audio CD set was available as a free mp3 download from iTunes, and the textbook was available for free download from the official website of a university in Asia for much of the 2016-2017 academic year, before it was taken down. I do not know about this year.
Here are links to the official Amazon listings for your textbook:
Simplified Character Edition:
https://www.amazon.com/Integrated-Chinese-Simplified-Characters-Textbook/dp/0887276385/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1506543452&sr=1-2&keywords=integrated+chinese+level+1+part+1
Traditional Character Edition:
https://www.amazon.com/Integrated-Chinese-Level-Textbook-Traditional/dp/B006UJH5K8/ref=sr_1_9?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1506543452&sr=1-9&keywords=integrated+chinese+level+1+part+1
There may be other third party vendor links on Amazon for the same 2 editions. Just make sure that you get THIRD EDITION TEXTBOOK. It must be Third Edition, and it must be the Textbook -- not the workbook or character workbook.
We will start right away tomorrow night with the first pronunciation exercises in the introduction to this book, once I go over the basics of the course as well as my teaching philosophy and once I answer any general questions.
DO NOT PURCHASE A PHYSICAL TEXTBOOK IF YOU ARE UNCERTAIN ABOUT YOUR LEVEL OF INTEREST IN LEARNING MANDARIN CHINESE IN OUR PROGRAM!!!
This is an expensive book, even used, if you choose to purchase it, and we cannot be responsible for any of you feeling like you wasted money if you decide that Mandarin is too difficult for you, or if you wind up having a scheduling conflict and need to quit our program.
ONE FINAL NOTE TO ALL BEGINNING MANDARIN STUDENTS:
You must plan to set aside time for the duration of this course -- MULTIPLE TIMES EACH WEEK -- to LISTEN TO SOME KIND OF BEGINNER LEVEL MANDARIN AUDIO OR WATCH BEGINNER LEVEL YOUTUBE VIDEOS!!! The only way you can improve at speaking a foreign language with pronunciation very different from your first language is to hear that language over and over again, and to try to replicate the sounds of the new language over and over again -- each time getting closer, eventually "getting it right."
We will discuss this theme many times during this course, and I will suggest many different beginner level Mandarin audio and video resources that you can study during your journey towards basic conversational ability in the language.
Thanks for reading and see you in class!
Reposting Cantonese I Textbook Information for New Students at ALESN
Hi Everyone,
Because I am going to create a Mandarin I post in a moment with information about their textbook, I thought I would copy and paste textbook information for your class as well, so it will be the newest blog entry in your category until we meet next Monday:
The textbook is called Cantonese Basic Course by Elizabeth Latimer Boyle or E Boyle. It is often referred to as "FSI Cantonese" or "Foreign Service Institute Cantonese Basic Course," and was created by the US Government in the mid to late 1960s to help foreign diplomats and military personnel learn to speak Cantonese while being stationed in Hong Kong:
Students can click the left icon for Volume 1, which will be our specific textbook. Volume 2 is more advanced, for you to study on your own after completing my class.
I clicked on both the PDF and the first mp3 to verify that they work in both streaming mode and as right click downloads. This is probably the best / quickest free source online and the PDF looks like a good quality scan. The first mp3 is also very clear to listen to. This is a public domain textbook, which means that any and all versions that you might find online should be downloadable for free without restriction. DO NOT PAY FOR AN E-VERSION OF THIS BOOK.
You must plan to set aside time for the duration of this course -- MULTIPLE TIMES EACH WEEK -- to listen to the appropriate lesson from among the 20 - 30 HOURS OF MP3 AUDIO included with this download! The only way you can improve at speaking a foreign language with pronunciation very different from your first language is to hear that language over and over again, and to try to replicate the sounds of the new language over and over again -- each time getting closer, eventually "getting it right."
If you are a fan of reading real books like me, there are multiple versions of this title available for purchase on Amazon. I recommend the Hippocrene reprinted edition, which is standard trade paperback size, has excellent binding and print quality, and looks the best as a physical book. You may also find the original US Government green covered textbook on Amazon; these are fine, but tend to fall apart due to age (circa 1970). Most of my students last year either used tablets or printed the textbook and put it in a binder, which they brought to class. If you are accepted to this class via the initial registration process as opposed to being placed on our waitlist, please print or bring the first lesson with you to the first class, because I will be starting right away, and I will not be distributing copies in class.
As of September 27, 2017, here are some links on Amazon for different editions of our textbook, if you would like to purchase physical book. There appear to be many copies currently available for under $5 as I type this:
https://www.amazon.com/Cantonese-Course-Hippocrene-Language-Studies/dp/078180289X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1506541809&sr=1-1&keywords=hippocrene+basic+cantonese
https://www.amazon.com/Cantonese-Course-Elizabeth-Latimore-Boyle/dp/088432799X/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1506541825&sr=1-2&keywords=cantonese+boyle
https://www.amazon.com/Cantonese-Basic-Course-Vol-I/dp/B002JJVNWO/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1506541825&sr=1-5&keywords=cantonese+boyle
https://www.amazon.com/Cantonese-Basic-Course-Elizabeth-Latimer/dp/B000GWKGUQ/ref=sr_1_7?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1506541825&sr=1-7&keywords=cantonese+boyle
Thanks for reading and I look forward to teaching you this year!
Because I am going to create a Mandarin I post in a moment with information about their textbook, I thought I would copy and paste textbook information for your class as well, so it will be the newest blog entry in your category until we meet next Monday:
Here is a download link for the Cantonese
textbook that I will be teaching from this year, so you can see what I
intend to cover and how the textbook is laid out. The book is taught in
ROMANIZED CANTONESE (no Chinese Characters),
which allows us to focus on pronunciation and tones, especially for
speakers of other dialects of Chinese:
The textbook is called Cantonese Basic Course by Elizabeth Latimer Boyle or E Boyle. It is often referred to as "FSI Cantonese" or "Foreign Service Institute Cantonese Basic Course," and was created by the US Government in the mid to late 1960s to help foreign diplomats and military personnel learn to speak Cantonese while being stationed in Hong Kong:
Students can click the left icon for Volume 1, which will be our specific textbook. Volume 2 is more advanced, for you to study on your own after completing my class.
I clicked on both the PDF and the first mp3 to verify that they work in both streaming mode and as right click downloads. This is probably the best / quickest free source online and the PDF looks like a good quality scan. The first mp3 is also very clear to listen to. This is a public domain textbook, which means that any and all versions that you might find online should be downloadable for free without restriction. DO NOT PAY FOR AN E-VERSION OF THIS BOOK.
You must plan to set aside time for the duration of this course -- MULTIPLE TIMES EACH WEEK -- to listen to the appropriate lesson from among the 20 - 30 HOURS OF MP3 AUDIO included with this download! The only way you can improve at speaking a foreign language with pronunciation very different from your first language is to hear that language over and over again, and to try to replicate the sounds of the new language over and over again -- each time getting closer, eventually "getting it right."
If you are a fan of reading real books like me, there are multiple versions of this title available for purchase on Amazon. I recommend the Hippocrene reprinted edition, which is standard trade paperback size, has excellent binding and print quality, and looks the best as a physical book. You may also find the original US Government green covered textbook on Amazon; these are fine, but tend to fall apart due to age (circa 1970). Most of my students last year either used tablets or printed the textbook and put it in a binder, which they brought to class. If you are accepted to this class via the initial registration process as opposed to being placed on our waitlist, please print or bring the first lesson with you to the first class, because I will be starting right away, and I will not be distributing copies in class.
As of September 27, 2017, here are some links on Amazon for different editions of our textbook, if you would like to purchase physical book. There appear to be many copies currently available for under $5 as I type this:
https://www.amazon.com/Cantonese-Course-Hippocrene-Language-Studies/dp/078180289X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1506541809&sr=1-1&keywords=hippocrene+basic+cantonese
https://www.amazon.com/Cantonese-Course-Elizabeth-Latimore-Boyle/dp/088432799X/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1506541825&sr=1-2&keywords=cantonese+boyle
https://www.amazon.com/Cantonese-Basic-Course-Vol-I/dp/B002JJVNWO/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1506541825&sr=1-5&keywords=cantonese+boyle
https://www.amazon.com/Cantonese-Basic-Course-Elizabeth-Latimer/dp/B000GWKGUQ/ref=sr_1_7?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1506541825&sr=1-7&keywords=cantonese+boyle
Thanks for reading and I look forward to teaching you this year!
The next postings that I will type...
From a series of emails just now to my friend Asim, who has been acting as a consultant to me recently as I rearrange my professional life:
...I am still tweaking [sayitrightchinese] to make it function more like a website, less like a default blog template. I will be adding tabs as soon as I grab lunch. I just added a static homepage, so whenever anyone goes to the blog, they will always see my welcome message -- and then they can click on any of the specific categories at the right (and possibly at top once I create tabs). This way, my Cantonese students can click on their tab, my Mandarin students on their tab, and general visitors can explore the blog as if it were a website with multiple thematically self-contained sections.
...
Once I have added these posts, I will start going through my email archives from past years of classes I have taught and I will copy and paste various important orientation emails and other relevant Cantonese and Mandarin insights from past years into 2 new sections of the blog: Cantonese Learning Archive and Mandarin Learning Archive.
These last 2 sections will give me hundreds of blog posting possibilities. All I need to do is scroll through the hundreds or thousands of Chinese school emails I have sent and received over the past almost 8 years and pull the best language strategies, insights, fun or funny stories, etc. and copy and paste them one at at time as new blog entries....This way, I will have a blog with literally hundreds of screens of content in a matter of months...
By the end of this week, I should have around 20-30 posts on this Chinese Learning blog. I have started with 11 by copying and pasting content from recent Chinese school emails in my inbox, plus typing one new page from scratch (my welcome page). I will add at least 3 more posts later today -- so almost 15 posts on the first day that the blog as gone live.
...
I also need to find out how to get my Chinese blog listed on Google -- and then do the same for my other blogs as well, once I populate them.
...I am still tweaking [sayitrightchinese] to make it function more like a website, less like a default blog template. I will be adding tabs as soon as I grab lunch. I just added a static homepage, so whenever anyone goes to the blog, they will always see my welcome message -- and then they can click on any of the specific categories at the right (and possibly at top once I create tabs). This way, my Cantonese students can click on their tab, my Mandarin students on their tab, and general visitors can explore the blog as if it were a website with multiple thematically self-contained sections.
...
I have also planned the next 5 specific posts
that I will do (3 more today -- one for each of my classes with links to
download or purchase textbooks, so students can get the appropriate
texts right away). Following these 3, one posting for each of 2 new blog
sections on Mispronouncing Cantonese and Mispronouncing Mandarin, in
which I have chosen 3 pairs or sets of multiple very similar
mispronunciations, where one pronunciation is correct and the other is
either humorous or vulgar.
Once I have added these posts, I will start going through my email archives from past years of classes I have taught and I will copy and paste various important orientation emails and other relevant Cantonese and Mandarin insights from past years into 2 new sections of the blog: Cantonese Learning Archive and Mandarin Learning Archive.
These last 2 sections will give me hundreds of blog posting possibilities. All I need to do is scroll through the hundreds or thousands of Chinese school emails I have sent and received over the past almost 8 years and pull the best language strategies, insights, fun or funny stories, etc. and copy and paste them one at at time as new blog entries....This way, I will have a blog with literally hundreds of screens of content in a matter of months...
By the end of this week, I should have around 20-30 posts on this Chinese Learning blog. I have started with 11 by copying and pasting content from recent Chinese school emails in my inbox, plus typing one new page from scratch (my welcome page). I will add at least 3 more posts later today -- so almost 15 posts on the first day that the blog as gone live.
...
I also need to find out how to get my Chinese blog listed on Google -- and then do the same for my other blogs as well, once I populate them.
Welcome!
Hi Everyone!
Welcome to my blog dedicated to the correct pronunciation of Cantonese and Mandarin Chinese. I appreciate your visit!
This blog began in 2017 as a collection of weekly insights about the Chinese language learning process in general, and contained all weekly class updates for the two 1 year-long intro courses that I taught during the 2017-2018 academic year at ALESN in NYC: Cantonese I and Mandarin I. Due to my work schedule at the time, I needed to stop teaching halfway through that particular academic year. The remainder of my classes were covered by other ALESN teachers.
Welcome to my blog dedicated to the correct pronunciation of Cantonese and Mandarin Chinese. I appreciate your visit!
This blog began in 2017 as a collection of weekly insights about the Chinese language learning process in general, and contained all weekly class updates for the two 1 year-long intro courses that I taught during the 2017-2018 academic year at ALESN in NYC: Cantonese I and Mandarin I. Due to my work schedule at the time, I needed to stop teaching halfway through that particular academic year. The remainder of my classes were covered by other ALESN teachers.
From September, 2018 through February, 2019, I populated this blog with straight copies of my weekly update emails written to my ALESN students in NYC. Once each class reached the point where I had stopped teaching the previous year due to my work schedule, I continued with brand new blog entries, also copied from my email updates to my students at the time.
I did not teach Chinese during the 2019-2020 academic year, but rather taught absolute beginner level ESL to Cantonese and Mandarin speakers in NYC's Chinatown as a member of the YMCA's New American's Initiative at MS131. I hope to eventually blog a bit about my experiences teaching basic English in Cantonese and Mandarin to new immigrants in NYC's Chinatown community.
I did not teach Chinese during the 2019-2020 academic year, but rather taught absolute beginner level ESL to Cantonese and Mandarin speakers in NYC's Chinatown as a member of the YMCA's New American's Initiative at MS131. I hope to eventually blog a bit about my experiences teaching basic English in Cantonese and Mandarin to new immigrants in NYC's Chinatown community.
After almost 2 years away from my Chinese studies during the first part of the Pandemic here in NYC, I am finally back, and am currently adding new content for my two 2021-2022 beginner classes that I am once again teaching in Manhattan's Chinatown --
BUT, BUT BUT...
Due to shortsightedness on my part in 2017 when I initially set up this blog, ALL CURRENT POSTINGS ARE STILL [INCORRECTLY] CLASSIFIED AS EITHER CANTONESE OR MANDARIN "2017-2018."
SORRY FOR THAT!!!
I will not have time to go back in and change all of the hundreds of posting labels to properly archive older entries from years past, nor to relocate my older postings to archive folders and then rename any current lessons as "2021" onward -- so please pardon the incorrectly labeled years for my recent and current Cantonese I and Mandarin I postings...
Please check out www.ALESN.org for more information on the amazing FREE language and culture outreach program here in NYC where I studied and taught Cantonese and Mandarin Chinese. Besides being a teacher at this school for 5 years and a student for 7, I was also Associate Director of the program as well as a member of the Board of Directors for ALESN's 501 (c)(3).
In addition to 2017-2019 and 2021-2022 weekly posts directed towards my beginning in-person Cantonese and Mandarin students here in NYC, this blog also supports my private tutoring services that I offer in-person and online, which have, for the most part, been on hiatus due to the Pandemic. If you are interested, please contact me, as I do offer Zoom and Facetime lessons.
Unlike most Cantonese and Mandarin teachers and tutors in NYC, I exclusively focus on beginner level pronunciation and tones and offer "clean-up" services to help students fix major pronunciation and tone errors, bringing their spoken Chinese to within an acceptable window of what would be understood by a native speaker without forcing that native speaker to play charades in order to understand what the hell the student is trying to say.
For new readers of this blog who are not studying with me here in NYC, please check out the oldest posts for my Cantonese I and Mandarin I classes for the 2017-2018 academic year, in which I explain my "no nonsense" teaching philosophy.
DISCLAIMER: I want to be clear that I am not fluent in either Cantonese or Mandarin, and I have never claimed to be. I pronounce both dialects with a thick "white person" accent, and I still have A LOT to learn vocabulary-wise in both dialects...BUT, when I go to Hong Kong and China and I open my mouth, real, understandable, functional basic Cantonese and Mandarin sounds come out. There is no need for charades, and if I don't know how to say something, I am able to ask in Cantonese or Mandarin how to say the thing that I don't know the words for...and then the conversation continues. I am usually understood the very first time I speak, by people who don't know me, who are in a hurry, who don't give a shit about my life or what I am trying to ask them or talk about.
Please click on any of the categories in the navigation bar up top or on the right hand side of your screen to get started -- or to read your weekly class emails and homework assignments if you are one of my students.
Thanks for reading and good luck with your own Chinese Language Learning Adventure!
Please check out www.ALESN.org for more information on the amazing FREE language and culture outreach program here in NYC where I studied and taught Cantonese and Mandarin Chinese. Besides being a teacher at this school for 5 years and a student for 7, I was also Associate Director of the program as well as a member of the Board of Directors for ALESN's 501 (c)(3).
In addition to 2017-2019 and 2021-2022 weekly posts directed towards my beginning in-person Cantonese and Mandarin students here in NYC, this blog also supports my private tutoring services that I offer in-person and online, which have, for the most part, been on hiatus due to the Pandemic. If you are interested, please contact me, as I do offer Zoom and Facetime lessons.
Unlike most Cantonese and Mandarin teachers and tutors in NYC, I exclusively focus on beginner level pronunciation and tones and offer "clean-up" services to help students fix major pronunciation and tone errors, bringing their spoken Chinese to within an acceptable window of what would be understood by a native speaker without forcing that native speaker to play charades in order to understand what the hell the student is trying to say.
For new readers of this blog who are not studying with me here in NYC, please check out the oldest posts for my Cantonese I and Mandarin I classes for the 2017-2018 academic year, in which I explain my "no nonsense" teaching philosophy.
DISCLAIMER: I want to be clear that I am not fluent in either Cantonese or Mandarin, and I have never claimed to be. I pronounce both dialects with a thick "white person" accent, and I still have A LOT to learn vocabulary-wise in both dialects...BUT, when I go to Hong Kong and China and I open my mouth, real, understandable, functional basic Cantonese and Mandarin sounds come out. There is no need for charades, and if I don't know how to say something, I am able to ask in Cantonese or Mandarin how to say the thing that I don't know the words for...and then the conversation continues. I am usually understood the very first time I speak, by people who don't know me, who are in a hurry, who don't give a shit about my life or what I am trying to ask them or talk about.
Please click on any of the categories in the navigation bar up top or on the right hand side of your screen to get started -- or to read your weekly class emails and homework assignments if you are one of my students.
Thanks for reading and good luck with your own Chinese Language Learning Adventure!
ALESN Thur 6:00 - 7:30pm Mandarin Level 1 -- GREETINGS FROM YOUR TEACHER, BRENDAN!
Below is my official
"welcome email" to all new and returning Mandarin I students from the
initial registration list for the 2017-2018 academic year at ALESN,
taught at NYC's MS 131 with support from the YMCA's Beacon educational
outreach program.
Please refer to www.ALESN.org for more information on this amazing program. Please also feel free to contact me directly with any questions regarding ALESN or our 2017-2018 classes and workshops.
Best wishes to All,
Brendan
...
Brendan here. Looking forward to meeting all of the new people and seeing all of the returning students again this year. In your first class, I will go over the textbook, my various expectations for the coming academic year, and my general teaching approach / philosophy, which has significantly changed from past years.
MY FOCUS FOR YOUR CLASS THIS YEAR WILL BE ACCURATE PRONUNCIATION AND TONES ABOVE ALL ELSE.
For new students, I will do what I can this year to help you achieve at least a bare minimum threshold level of intelligible Chinese pronunciation, so that by the end of the academic year, native speakers will understand you at the most basic, most fundamental level if you try to say hello to someone, tell them your name, ask what their name is, ask where the bathroom is located -- that kind of very basic communicative language. Some of you will achieve much more than this. Some of you will find that you can't pronounce Chinese at even the most basic level despite your best intentions and various amounts of focused or non-focused self-study.
PLEASE NOTE: This year, beginning around mid-November, I am going to start gently and as nicely as possible encouraging students with the worst pronunciation to quit my class and pursue a different hobby. Life is too short to waste your time trying to do something you may not be cut out to do. If this makes any of you angry or you think I am a jerk for saying this, GOOD! Maybe it will encourage more students this year to speak intelligible Chinese, instead of gobble-di-gook that doesn't sound anything like the material that we will be studying. The whole point of learning to speak Chinese is LEARNING TO SPEAK CHINESE -- so that Chinese people can understand you -- not so you can have a place to hang out every week, look at a textbook, and then months later not be able to pronounce the material covered the first or second week of class.
FOR MY RETURNING STUDENTS: If you are unable to achieve a threshold level of the most basic survival pronunciation of your chosen Chinese dialect by the beginning of November, I will ask you politely to leave the class and not return until you have achieved the most basic, tolerable level of "accurate enough" pronunciation on your own via tutoring or intense self-study and self-practice. In other words, if you have taken my class before and you still cannot tell me what your name is, that you are American, ask me what my name is, and ask me where something is located (the bathroom, the library, AMERICA) in a way that I can understand what you are trying to communicate, you will need to leave my class and not return until you have fixed your major pronunciation errors.
I mean no disrespect, and some of my returning students with the worst pronunciation issues are literally my favorite people I have ever met at ALESN. I am just going to be very strict this year, and I do not want to start off the year by playing favorites with returning students with horrible, unacceptable pronunciation at the most basic survival level.
I will evaluate remedial returning students on a person by person basis, so please do not let this scare you away -- just know that I am not going to hold anyone's hand this year. THIS DOES NOT PERTAIN TO ANY NEW STUDENTS -- ONLY TO RETURNING STUDENTS WITH PRONUNCIATION SO BAD THAT I CAN'T EVEN TELL YOU ARE TRYING TO SPEAK CHINESE.
Thanks in advance to everyone -- new and returning students, and I look forward to teaching you all this year!
Best wishes and see you in class!
Brendan
Please refer to www.ALESN.org for more information on this amazing program. Please also feel free to contact me directly with any questions regarding ALESN or our 2017-2018 classes and workshops.
Best wishes to All,
Brendan
...
Hi Gang,
Brendan here. Looking forward to meeting all of the new people and seeing all of the returning students again this year. In your first class, I will go over the textbook, my various expectations for the coming academic year, and my general teaching approach / philosophy, which has significantly changed from past years.
For new students, I will do what I can this year to help you achieve at least a bare minimum threshold level of intelligible Chinese pronunciation, so that by the end of the academic year, native speakers will understand you at the most basic, most fundamental level if you try to say hello to someone, tell them your name, ask what their name is, ask where the bathroom is located -- that kind of very basic communicative language. Some of you will achieve much more than this. Some of you will find that you can't pronounce Chinese at even the most basic level despite your best intentions and various amounts of focused or non-focused self-study.
PLEASE NOTE: This year, beginning around mid-November, I am going to start gently and as nicely as possible encouraging students with the worst pronunciation to quit my class and pursue a different hobby. Life is too short to waste your time trying to do something you may not be cut out to do. If this makes any of you angry or you think I am a jerk for saying this, GOOD! Maybe it will encourage more students this year to speak intelligible Chinese, instead of gobble-di-gook that doesn't sound anything like the material that we will be studying. The whole point of learning to speak Chinese is LEARNING TO SPEAK CHINESE -- so that Chinese people can understand you -- not so you can have a place to hang out every week, look at a textbook, and then months later not be able to pronounce the material covered the first or second week of class.
Sorry to be
blunt, but I want to help anyone in class this year who really wants to
learn to speak Chinese to learn to SPEAK CHINESE -- not to learn their
own made-up pronunciation of the words in our textbook, Let's all start
classes this year with this exact expectation in mind. Thanks in advance
to everyone!
FOR MY RETURNING STUDENTS: If you are unable to achieve a threshold level of the most basic survival pronunciation of your chosen Chinese dialect by the beginning of November, I will ask you politely to leave the class and not return until you have achieved the most basic, tolerable level of "accurate enough" pronunciation on your own via tutoring or intense self-study and self-practice. In other words, if you have taken my class before and you still cannot tell me what your name is, that you are American, ask me what my name is, and ask me where something is located (the bathroom, the library, AMERICA) in a way that I can understand what you are trying to communicate, you will need to leave my class and not return until you have fixed your major pronunciation errors.
I mean no disrespect, and some of my returning students with the worst pronunciation issues are literally my favorite people I have ever met at ALESN. I am just going to be very strict this year, and I do not want to start off the year by playing favorites with returning students with horrible, unacceptable pronunciation at the most basic survival level.
I will evaluate remedial returning students on a person by person basis, so please do not let this scare you away -- just know that I am not going to hold anyone's hand this year. THIS DOES NOT PERTAIN TO ANY NEW STUDENTS -- ONLY TO RETURNING STUDENTS WITH PRONUNCIATION SO BAD THAT I CAN'T EVEN TELL YOU ARE TRYING TO SPEAK CHINESE.
Thanks in advance to everyone -- new and returning students, and I look forward to teaching you all this year!
Best wishes and see you in class!
Monday 6:00 - 7:15pm Cantonese Level 1: GREETINGS TO ALL NEW AND RETURNING STUDENTS FROM YOUR TEACHER!
Below is my official "welcome email" to all new and returning Cantonese I students from the initial registration list for the 2017-2018 academic year at ALESN, taught at NYC's MS 131 with support from the YMCA's Beacon educational outreach program.
Please refer to www.ALESN.org for more information on this amazing program. Please also feel free to contact me directly with any questions regarding ALESN or our 2017-2018 classes and workshops.
Best wishes to All,
Brendan
...
Brendan here. Looking forward to meeting all of the new people and seeing all of the returning students again this evening. Tonight, I will go over the textbook, my various expectations for the coming academic year, and my general teaching approach / philosophy, which has significantly changed from past years.
MY FOCUS FOR YOUR CLASS THIS YEAR WILL BE ACCURATE PRONUNCIATION AND TONES ABOVE ALL ELSE.
For new students, I will do what I can this year to help you achieve at least a bare minimum threshold level of intelligible Chinese pronunciation, so that by the end of the academic year, native speakers will understand you at the most basic, most fundamental level if you try to say hello to someone, tell them your name, ask what their name is, ask where the bathroom is located -- that kind of very basic communicative language. Some of you will achieve much more than this. Some of you will find that you can't pronounce Chinese at even the most basic level despite your best intentions and various amounts of focused or non-focused self-study.
PLEASE NOTE: This year, beginning around mid-November, I am going to start gently and as nicely as possible encouraging students with the worst pronunciation to quit my class and pursue a different hobby. Life is too short to waste your time trying to do something you may not be cut out to do. If this makes any of you angry or you think I am a jerk for saying this, GOOD! Maybe it will encourage more students this year to speak intelligible Chinese, instead of gobble-di-gook that doesn't sound anything like the material will be studying. The whole point of learning to speak Chinese is LEARNING TO SPEAK CHINESE -- so that Chinese people can understand you -- not so you can have a place to hang out every week, look at a textbook, and then months later not be able to pronounce the material covered the first or second week of class.
FOR MY RETURNING STUDENTS: If you are unable to achieve a threshold level of the most basic survival pronunciation of your chosen Chinese dialect by the beginning of November, I will ask you politely to leave the class and not return until you have achieved the most basic, tolerable level of "accurate enough" pronunciation on your own via tutoring or intense self-study and self-practice. In other words, if you have taken my class before and you still cannot tell me what your name is, that you are American, ask me what my name is, and ask me where something is located (the bathroom, the library, AMERICA) in a way that I can understand what you are trying to communicate, you will need to leave my class and not return until you have fixed your major pronunciation errors.
I mean no disrespect, and some of my returning students with the worst pronunciation issues are literally my favorite people I have ever met at ALESN. I am just going to be very strict this year, and I do not want to start off the year by playing favorites with returning students with horrible, unacceptable pronunciation at the most basic survival level.
I will evaluate remedial returning students on a person by person basis, so please do not let this scare you away -- just know that I am not going to hold anyone's hand this year. THIS DOES NOT PERTAIN TO ANY NEW STUDENTS -- ONLY TO RETURNING STUDENTS WITH PRONUNCIATION SO BAD THAT I CAN'T EVEN TELL YOU ARE TRYING TO SPEAK CHINESE.
Thanks in advance to everyone -- new and returning students, and I look forward to teaching you this year!
Best wishes,
Brendan
Please refer to www.ALESN.org for more information on this amazing program. Please also feel free to contact me directly with any questions regarding ALESN or our 2017-2018 classes and workshops.
Best wishes to All,
Brendan
...
Hi Gang,
Brendan here. Looking forward to meeting all of the new people and seeing all of the returning students again this evening. Tonight, I will go over the textbook, my various expectations for the coming academic year, and my general teaching approach / philosophy, which has significantly changed from past years.
For new students, I will do what I can this year to help you achieve at least a bare minimum threshold level of intelligible Chinese pronunciation, so that by the end of the academic year, native speakers will understand you at the most basic, most fundamental level if you try to say hello to someone, tell them your name, ask what their name is, ask where the bathroom is located -- that kind of very basic communicative language. Some of you will achieve much more than this. Some of you will find that you can't pronounce Chinese at even the most basic level despite your best intentions and various amounts of focused or non-focused self-study.
PLEASE NOTE: This year, beginning around mid-November, I am going to start gently and as nicely as possible encouraging students with the worst pronunciation to quit my class and pursue a different hobby. Life is too short to waste your time trying to do something you may not be cut out to do. If this makes any of you angry or you think I am a jerk for saying this, GOOD! Maybe it will encourage more students this year to speak intelligible Chinese, instead of gobble-di-gook that doesn't sound anything like the material will be studying. The whole point of learning to speak Chinese is LEARNING TO SPEAK CHINESE -- so that Chinese people can understand you -- not so you can have a place to hang out every week, look at a textbook, and then months later not be able to pronounce the material covered the first or second week of class.
Sorry to be
blunt, but I want to help anyone in class this year who really wants to
learn to speak Chinese to learn to SPEAK CHINESE -- not to learn their
own made-up pronunciation of the words in our textbook, Let's all start
classes this year with this exact expectation in mind. Thanks in advance
to everyone!
FOR MY RETURNING STUDENTS: If you are unable to achieve a threshold level of the most basic survival pronunciation of your chosen Chinese dialect by the beginning of November, I will ask you politely to leave the class and not return until you have achieved the most basic, tolerable level of "accurate enough" pronunciation on your own via tutoring or intense self-study and self-practice. In other words, if you have taken my class before and you still cannot tell me what your name is, that you are American, ask me what my name is, and ask me where something is located (the bathroom, the library, AMERICA) in a way that I can understand what you are trying to communicate, you will need to leave my class and not return until you have fixed your major pronunciation errors.
I mean no disrespect, and some of my returning students with the worst pronunciation issues are literally my favorite people I have ever met at ALESN. I am just going to be very strict this year, and I do not want to start off the year by playing favorites with returning students with horrible, unacceptable pronunciation at the most basic survival level.
I will evaluate remedial returning students on a person by person basis, so please do not let this scare you away -- just know that I am not going to hold anyone's hand this year. THIS DOES NOT PERTAIN TO ANY NEW STUDENTS -- ONLY TO RETURNING STUDENTS WITH PRONUNCIATION SO BAD THAT I CAN'T EVEN TELL YOU ARE TRYING TO SPEAK CHINESE.
Thanks in advance to everyone -- new and returning students, and I look forward to teaching you this year!
Best wishes,
Introducing a potential new Saturday Cantonese II workshop / class if there is enough interest from students...
This class will start as a 4 week workshop, but if at
least 10-12 students commit to taking the class on a permanent basis, I am
willing to teach it for the rest of the academic year until next June,
barring any out of town travel that I might need to do.
Here is the course description:
Brendan has offered to teach an additional level 2 Cantonese class this year, starting as a 4-week workshop on Saturdays from 5:30 - 6:30 pm (room to be announced) and continuing as a full year course if at least 10- 12 students commit to attending the class for the duration of the academic year until next June.
This
class will not compete with Hung's Saturday Cantonese 2 class (which
Brendan will be attending as an advisor / fill-in instructor for the
weeks that Hung cannot teach). Rather, it will follow Book 2 of the
popular Foreign Service Institute (FSI) Cantonese Basic Course created
by the US Government's Department of Defense Language School circa 1970
by Elizabeth Lattimore Boyle, beginning at lesson 16 out of 30 total
lessons from the course. The textbook is a free public domain PDF
download, as are the approximately 20 HOURS OF MP3 AUDIO that accompany
the text. Students are also welcome to purchase used copies of the
original textbooks on Amazon, etc.
This class will be taught entirely in Yale Romanized Cantonese -- no Chinese characters -- and our focus will be on the correct pronunciation of hundreds of practical sentence patterns, allowing the student to learn many basic structures into which all kinds of vocabulary words and concepts can be substituted. If this class lasts the entire academic year, students who attend every week and who really pay attention will absolutely be able to purchase items at any Cantonese speaking store in Chinatown, order food at any Cantonese speaking restaurant here and abroad, or have advanced beginner-level conversations with Chinese friends, family members, and extended relatives here and in Hong Kong.
Unlike Brendan's Cantonese 1 class, which will focus entirely on correct pronunciation and tones this year, this FSI Level 2 Cantonese class will take students who can already speak basic Cantonese at an acceptable threshold level of pronunciation and allow them to add hundreds of useful sentence patterns that will begin to lead to real, everyday communication skills in Cantonese.
STUDENTS MUST POSSESS A FIRM BEGINNER LEVEL KNOWLEDGE OF ACCURATE PRONUNCIATION AND TONES, BASIC WORD ORDER AND SENTENCE STRUCTURE, AND A KEEN DESIRE AND WILLINGNESS TO STUDY AND PRACTICE SPEAKING CANTONESE WITH PEOPLE THEY DON'T KNOW, ON THEIR OWN, EACH WEEK OUTSIDE OF CLASS.
I look forward to teaching this class if there is enough interest. I am offering a class that will help any student in our program who can already speak comprehensible basic Cantonese begin to communicate on a daily basis with Chinese people they don't know here in NYC.
AGAIN, YOU MUST MUST MUST BE ABLE TO PRONOUNCE CANTONESE ACCURATELY BEFORE STARTING THIS CLASS, OR I WILL GENTLY BUT FIRMLY ASK YOU TO LEAVE AS SOON AS I HEAR YOUR CRAPPY PRONUNCIATION.
Thanks for your interest!!!
Here is the course description:
Brendan has offered to teach an additional level 2 Cantonese class this year, starting as a 4-week workshop on Saturdays from 5:30 - 6:30 pm (room to be announced) and continuing as a full year course if at least 10- 12 students commit to attending the class for the duration of the academic year until next June.
This class will be taught entirely in Yale Romanized Cantonese -- no Chinese characters -- and our focus will be on the correct pronunciation of hundreds of practical sentence patterns, allowing the student to learn many basic structures into which all kinds of vocabulary words and concepts can be substituted. If this class lasts the entire academic year, students who attend every week and who really pay attention will absolutely be able to purchase items at any Cantonese speaking store in Chinatown, order food at any Cantonese speaking restaurant here and abroad, or have advanced beginner-level conversations with Chinese friends, family members, and extended relatives here and in Hong Kong.
Unlike Brendan's Cantonese 1 class, which will focus entirely on correct pronunciation and tones this year, this FSI Level 2 Cantonese class will take students who can already speak basic Cantonese at an acceptable threshold level of pronunciation and allow them to add hundreds of useful sentence patterns that will begin to lead to real, everyday communication skills in Cantonese.
STUDENTS MUST POSSESS A FIRM BEGINNER LEVEL KNOWLEDGE OF ACCURATE PRONUNCIATION AND TONES, BASIC WORD ORDER AND SENTENCE STRUCTURE, AND A KEEN DESIRE AND WILLINGNESS TO STUDY AND PRACTICE SPEAKING CANTONESE WITH PEOPLE THEY DON'T KNOW, ON THEIR OWN, EACH WEEK OUTSIDE OF CLASS.
I look forward to teaching this class if there is enough interest. I am offering a class that will help any student in our program who can already speak comprehensible basic Cantonese begin to communicate on a daily basis with Chinese people they don't know here in NYC.
AGAIN, YOU MUST MUST MUST BE ABLE TO PRONOUNCE CANTONESE ACCURATELY BEFORE STARTING THIS CLASS, OR I WILL GENTLY BUT FIRMLY ASK YOU TO LEAVE AS SOON AS I HEAR YOUR CRAPPY PRONUNCIATION.
Thanks for your interest!!!
An additional note to returning Mandarin I students this year...
Hello Potential Returning Student,
I recognize that there are many reasons why you would want or need to take our beginning Mandarin class for a second (or God forbid even a third) time this year; I myself had a false start when beginning my Cantonese studies with our founder Tony Parisi eight years ago due to an illness in my family, and I needed to take Cantonese I a second time the following academic year.
I get it, and I have no problem with you taking my class again -- AS LONG AS YOUR PRONUNCIATION IS ABOVE THE MOST BASIC SURVIVAL-LEVEL THRESHOLD FOR WHAT A NATIVE MANDARIN SPEAKER WOULD UNDERSTAND IF YOU WERE DESPERATE AND NEEDED TO ASK WHERE THE BATHROOM IS LOCATED.
I am talking about students who took an entire year of Mandarin I with me in the past -- I am NOT referring to any students who took my class for 1 month last year or the year before and had to drop out due to a scheduling conflict or work obligations or whatever other reasons may have led to you quit our program early on. I am talking about students who have already taken an entire year or more of Mandarin I with me in particular at ALESN:
I am just going to be a hard ass this year, because I want my students to actually be able to have real, basic, intelligible Cantonese and Mandarin conversations this year with Chinese people they have never met before -- on the street, in Flushing, wherever. The only way to do this is to be a lot more strict I think, than in years past. I need to ask more of my students, so that everyone in the class will then ask more of themselves.
Ask yourself how strong, how deep your desire to learn Chinese really is. For some of you, I sense that your personal desire is strong, because I can tell that you genuinely appreciate and gravitate towards Chinese culture and food, or Chinese movies, or perhaps you are dating or are married to a Chinese person and you have a sincere, deep NEED to learn basic Mandarin so that you can communicate with your partner and his or her family.
Each person who succeeds in a free evening and weekend once a week Chinese language adult continuing education program in New York City needs to have a very deep, VERY PERSONAL motivation for learning to speak and understand Chinese accurately enough so that you can accomplish whatever your goals might be WHILE COMMUNICATING WITH NATIVE SPEAKERS OF THIS LANGUAGE.
You need to be able TO COMMUNICATE WITH PEOPLE, folks. It does no good to come to class for x number of months and tell all of your friends and coworkers that you are studying Chinese, which sounds oh so impressive and aren't you amazing for taking this on and attempting to do this -- and then you end up speaking garbage that is actually your own made up language, sounds nothing like actual Mandarin Chinese, and makes it next to impossible or literally impossible for even the most well-intentioned native speaker to understand what the hell you are trying to say.
Someone needs to tell you this, and if you try to take my class for a second or third time this year, I AM GOING TO BE THE ONE TO TELL YOU THIS.
STOP WASTING YOUR TIME AND MINE AND EITHER LEARN TO PRONOUNCE CHINESE WITHIN THE MOST BASIC WINDOW OF WHAT IS ACCEPTABLE TO A NATIVE SPEAKER OR GO TAKE A COOKING CLASS.
My goal is to teach you to have real conversations with real Chinese people, and to feel great about the process, while making steady progress with your ability to understand and be understood. Many of my potential returning students have a very good foundation for understanding basic Chinese, but many of the Mandarin I students that ALESN has churned out over the past few years have almost ZERO ability to be understood when speaking to a Chinese person.
Are you ready to really hone your pronunciation of the language this year -- no bullshit, swallow your pride and just fix whatever isn't correct, so that it will be correct and you will be understood by any Chinese speaker?
If the answer is yes, then see you in class!
I recognize that there are many reasons why you would want or need to take our beginning Mandarin class for a second (or God forbid even a third) time this year; I myself had a false start when beginning my Cantonese studies with our founder Tony Parisi eight years ago due to an illness in my family, and I needed to take Cantonese I a second time the following academic year.
I get it, and I have no problem with you taking my class again -- AS LONG AS YOUR PRONUNCIATION IS ABOVE THE MOST BASIC SURVIVAL-LEVEL THRESHOLD FOR WHAT A NATIVE MANDARIN SPEAKER WOULD UNDERSTAND IF YOU WERE DESPERATE AND NEEDED TO ASK WHERE THE BATHROOM IS LOCATED.
I am talking about students who took an entire year of Mandarin I with me in the past -- I am NOT referring to any students who took my class for 1 month last year or the year before and had to drop out due to a scheduling conflict or work obligations or whatever other reasons may have led to you quit our program early on. I am talking about students who have already taken an entire year or more of Mandarin I with me in particular at ALESN:
If you can really (REALLY) make a sincere
effort this year to listen and fix a few very fundamental pronunciation
errors that you were unable to fix last year, then I would love to see
you in class again. If you think you
can be open minded, "swallow your pride" a bit, and feel secure that I
am not picking on you while trying to help you fix pronunciation errors
this year -- AND IF you can make an obvious effort to correct some of
these errors and keep them corrected once you fix them in class,
then I would love to have you back in class. I always enjoy your energy and desire to learn Chinese.
I am just going to be a hard ass this year, because I want my students to actually be able to have real, basic, intelligible Cantonese and Mandarin conversations this year with Chinese people they have never met before -- on the street, in Flushing, wherever. The only way to do this is to be a lot more strict I think, than in years past. I need to ask more of my students, so that everyone in the class will then ask more of themselves.
Ask yourself how strong, how deep your desire to learn Chinese really is. For some of you, I sense that your personal desire is strong, because I can tell that you genuinely appreciate and gravitate towards Chinese culture and food, or Chinese movies, or perhaps you are dating or are married to a Chinese person and you have a sincere, deep NEED to learn basic Mandarin so that you can communicate with your partner and his or her family.
Each person who succeeds in a free evening and weekend once a week Chinese language adult continuing education program in New York City needs to have a very deep, VERY PERSONAL motivation for learning to speak and understand Chinese accurately enough so that you can accomplish whatever your goals might be WHILE COMMUNICATING WITH NATIVE SPEAKERS OF THIS LANGUAGE.
You need to be able TO COMMUNICATE WITH PEOPLE, folks. It does no good to come to class for x number of months and tell all of your friends and coworkers that you are studying Chinese, which sounds oh so impressive and aren't you amazing for taking this on and attempting to do this -- and then you end up speaking garbage that is actually your own made up language, sounds nothing like actual Mandarin Chinese, and makes it next to impossible or literally impossible for even the most well-intentioned native speaker to understand what the hell you are trying to say.
Someone needs to tell you this, and if you try to take my class for a second or third time this year, I AM GOING TO BE THE ONE TO TELL YOU THIS.
STOP WASTING YOUR TIME AND MINE AND EITHER LEARN TO PRONOUNCE CHINESE WITHIN THE MOST BASIC WINDOW OF WHAT IS ACCEPTABLE TO A NATIVE SPEAKER OR GO TAKE A COOKING CLASS.
My goal is to teach you to have real conversations with real Chinese people, and to feel great about the process, while making steady progress with your ability to understand and be understood. Many of my potential returning students have a very good foundation for understanding basic Chinese, but many of the Mandarin I students that ALESN has churned out over the past few years have almost ZERO ability to be understood when speaking to a Chinese person.
Are you ready to really hone your pronunciation of the language this year -- no bullshit, swallow your pride and just fix whatever isn't correct, so that it will be correct and you will be understood by any Chinese speaker?
If the answer is yes, then see you in class!
My humble opinion regarding a major issue we have had in the past with ethnically Chinese beginning Mandarin I students...
Hello Gang,
If the following email offends, GOOD! It is the truth as I see it about this issue which has wasted a lot of time in my Mandarin I classes over the past 3 years AND IT NEEDS TO STOP. As I tell all of my beginning Chinese students (Cantonese and Mandarin):
IT DOESN'T MATTER HOW YOU THINK [CANTONESE OR MANDARIN] CHINESE IS SUPPOSED TO SOUND. IT ONLY MATTERS HOW EFFECTIVELY YOU ARE ABLE TO ACTUALLY COMMUNICATE WHAT THE HELL YOU ARE TRYING TO SAY.
This is a class in SPEAKING basic Mandarin Chinese. Unlike other teachers in our program, I do not and will not teach characters, because it has been proven time and time again through extensive linguistic research that learning to SPEAK a foreign language with a complicated writing system will come much faster and much more effectively in a shorter period of time if the learner focuses on getting THE SOUNDS right first (pronunciation and tones in the case of Mandarin and Cantonese Chinese) AND THEN begins to learn an entirely new writing system with thousands of characters TO SUPPORT the basic knowledge of the new language already gained through initial efforts to understand and speak the oral version of the language.
So, here is my diatribe about a very annoying issue that has pervaded my beginning Mandarin classes for the past 3 years. THIS HAS TO STOP, AND I PLAN TO PUT A STOP TO IT THIS ACADEMIC YEAR:
Here is my humble opinion about a slightly different and larger issue behind the notion of teaching Chinese characters to beginning students who meet for an hour once a week in a free program with very little accountability and where many students do not do any work or studying outside of class:
In my experience with ALESN (and only with ALESN, because I do not have the benefit of having attended a dedicated university Chinese program as a non-Chinese person like two of our other Mandarin instructors), absolute beginner students who try to learn to read characters at the same time that they try to learn to speak Chinese from zero make their lives harder and set themselves up for extra work. It has been proven over and over again through linguistic research that non-native speakers can learn to SPEAK Chinese faster and more effectively if they focus on pronunciation and learning concepts and sentences first -- and then add reading and writing later on, some months or years later. Of course, there are exceptions to this notion, but not in our specific ALESN program with classes that meet once a week for just over an hour each time, I think.
My real concern, and this has been true in my own classes as well as in every other teacher's beginning Mandarin classes that I have sat in on at ALESN, is this: ethnically Chinese students in our program who can already read characters and who already speak a different Chinese dialect, who have insisted on only reading characters in Mandarin I class instead of learning pinyin. These students have consistently butchered their pronunciation of Mandarin and set a horrible example for non-ethnically Chinese beginner students in our program, who see and hear these ethnically Chinese students with horrible pronunciation and subconsciously assume that these students must be correct BECAUSE THEY ARE CHINESE.
This is especially bad in a class with, say, I don't know, A WHITE TEACHER, because subconsciously every non-ethnically Chinese student in the class will expect the ethnically Chinese students to speak Mandarin more accurately than a white person. This phenomenon has also been proven through psycho-linguistic research. I challenge the other teachers in our program to point out even one example from last year of an absolute beginner Mandarin student who came to class already reading characters and already speaking another Chinese dialect, who insisted on only reading the characters and not ever learning pinyin, who produced anything even remotely sounding like standard spoken Mandarin by the end of the year. It is simply not possible because of a well-documented phenomenon known as interference. Our ethnically Chinese beginner Mandarin students need all the pronunciation help they can get, and forcing them to learn pinyin is the better option of the two when teaching from the first textbook.
If the following email offends, GOOD! It is the truth as I see it about this issue which has wasted a lot of time in my Mandarin I classes over the past 3 years AND IT NEEDS TO STOP. As I tell all of my beginning Chinese students (Cantonese and Mandarin):
IT DOESN'T MATTER HOW YOU THINK [CANTONESE OR MANDARIN] CHINESE IS SUPPOSED TO SOUND. IT ONLY MATTERS HOW EFFECTIVELY YOU ARE ABLE TO ACTUALLY COMMUNICATE WHAT THE HELL YOU ARE TRYING TO SAY.
This is a class in SPEAKING basic Mandarin Chinese. Unlike other teachers in our program, I do not and will not teach characters, because it has been proven time and time again through extensive linguistic research that learning to SPEAK a foreign language with a complicated writing system will come much faster and much more effectively in a shorter period of time if the learner focuses on getting THE SOUNDS right first (pronunciation and tones in the case of Mandarin and Cantonese Chinese) AND THEN begins to learn an entirely new writing system with thousands of characters TO SUPPORT the basic knowledge of the new language already gained through initial efforts to understand and speak the oral version of the language.
So, here is my diatribe about a very annoying issue that has pervaded my beginning Mandarin classes for the past 3 years. THIS HAS TO STOP, AND I PLAN TO PUT A STOP TO IT THIS ACADEMIC YEAR:
Here is my humble opinion about a slightly different and larger issue behind the notion of teaching Chinese characters to beginning students who meet for an hour once a week in a free program with very little accountability and where many students do not do any work or studying outside of class:
In my experience with ALESN (and only with ALESN, because I do not have the benefit of having attended a dedicated university Chinese program as a non-Chinese person like two of our other Mandarin instructors), absolute beginner students who try to learn to read characters at the same time that they try to learn to speak Chinese from zero make their lives harder and set themselves up for extra work. It has been proven over and over again through linguistic research that non-native speakers can learn to SPEAK Chinese faster and more effectively if they focus on pronunciation and learning concepts and sentences first -- and then add reading and writing later on, some months or years later. Of course, there are exceptions to this notion, but not in our specific ALESN program with classes that meet once a week for just over an hour each time, I think.
My real concern, and this has been true in my own classes as well as in every other teacher's beginning Mandarin classes that I have sat in on at ALESN, is this: ethnically Chinese students in our program who can already read characters and who already speak a different Chinese dialect, who have insisted on only reading characters in Mandarin I class instead of learning pinyin. These students have consistently butchered their pronunciation of Mandarin and set a horrible example for non-ethnically Chinese beginner students in our program, who see and hear these ethnically Chinese students with horrible pronunciation and subconsciously assume that these students must be correct BECAUSE THEY ARE CHINESE.
This is especially bad in a class with, say, I don't know, A WHITE TEACHER, because subconsciously every non-ethnically Chinese student in the class will expect the ethnically Chinese students to speak Mandarin more accurately than a white person. This phenomenon has also been proven through psycho-linguistic research. I challenge the other teachers in our program to point out even one example from last year of an absolute beginner Mandarin student who came to class already reading characters and already speaking another Chinese dialect, who insisted on only reading the characters and not ever learning pinyin, who produced anything even remotely sounding like standard spoken Mandarin by the end of the year. It is simply not possible because of a well-documented phenomenon known as interference. Our ethnically Chinese beginner Mandarin students need all the pronunciation help they can get, and forcing them to learn pinyin is the better option of the two when teaching from the first textbook.
My basic structure for Cantonese and Mandarin Classes that I will teach at ALESN this year
Hi Gang,
Below is excerpted from an email to another (native speaker) Mandarin teacher at ALESN, who found me a teaching assistant for this year's Thursday night Mandarin I class. I wanted to explain to her what I envision as a basic structure for my classes that I will be teaching during the 2017-2018 academic year:
I would also like my assistant to be ready to say and repeat problem words and phrases over and over again, as many times as necessary, whenever necessary, during class each week -- whenever I need to correct pronunciation errors. In other words, whenever there is any kind of pronunciation issue, I am going to stop class and say the word over and over, and I would like the assistant to say the same word over and over as well, the students repeating over and over after me and after the assistant.
I want to be clear that I am NOT going to be a jerk, but I am going to be very firm with my remedial students this year. I have changed my teaching philosophy. Life if too short for students in a free language program to not study on their own, not make concerted efforts to fix their language errors over time, and then continue to show up to my classes each week with the same awful pronunciation in May that they started with in September. I would never try to be a gymnast because I have no talent for doing that. I recognize this about myself and my life is better for knowing this. I would like to help certain students realize this year that they need to quit studying Chinese and maybe take our dance classes instead.
My number 1 teaching goal this year is to help my absolute beginner students learn to pronounce and speak accurate, very basic [Cantonese and] Mandarin Chinese so they can say hello to someone, ask for the time, ask where the bathroom is located at a restaurant, and hopefully be inspired on their own to learn food or clothing vocabulary so they can order at a restaurant or purchase something at a store. My number 2 goal this year is to help bad students realize that they need stop trying to learn Chinese and choose a new hobby.
Below is excerpted from an email to another (native speaker) Mandarin teacher at ALESN, who found me a teaching assistant for this year's Thursday night Mandarin I class. I wanted to explain to her what I envision as a basic structure for my classes that I will be teaching during the 2017-2018 academic year:
- I want to divide my class into 2 groups for the first 30 minutes of each class. The assistant will work with the more advanced students who have better pronunciation and tones, going over the dialogue, vocabulary, and lesson material that we will be covering that class. At the same time, I will take the more entry level students and those with bad pronunciation and work with them separately at the other end of the classroom to drill pronunciation and tones.
- Maybe 30 minutes into the class, we will stop and become one group again, and I will begin the dialogue, vocabulary and lesson for the evening. I would like my assistant to read the dialogue to the students 3 times: super slow, medium speed, and normal speed, while the students just listen. I will ask the students to point out any pronunciation issues that bother them from listening to my assistant.
- Then, I will read the dialogue super slowly one phrase at a time, having the students repeat after me. We will do this a few times. Then, I will have the assistant do the same thing, so that the students can get used to listening to and repeating different voices and different speeds of spoken Mandarin.
- When the time comes to cover grammar, I would like the assistant to read all of the example sentences and the students to repeat after the assistant, and then I will explain the grammar points in between each sample sentence.
- When we break up into groups, I would like the assistant to walk around one side of the classroom while I walk around the other side, answering questions and helping students with pronunciation issues.
I would also like my assistant to be ready to say and repeat problem words and phrases over and over again, as many times as necessary, whenever necessary, during class each week -- whenever I need to correct pronunciation errors. In other words, whenever there is any kind of pronunciation issue, I am going to stop class and say the word over and over, and I would like the assistant to say the same word over and over as well, the students repeating over and over after me and after the assistant.
I am going to drill pronunciation so much this year that any
students in my class who can't fix their errors on certain words after x number
of weeks of repeating the same errors will become absolutely miserable and quit
my class.
I want to be clear that I am NOT going to be a jerk, but I am going to be very firm with my remedial students this year. I have changed my teaching philosophy. Life if too short for students in a free language program to not study on their own, not make concerted efforts to fix their language errors over time, and then continue to show up to my classes each week with the same awful pronunciation in May that they started with in September. I would never try to be a gymnast because I have no talent for doing that. I recognize this about myself and my life is better for knowing this. I would like to help certain students realize this year that they need to quit studying Chinese and maybe take our dance classes instead.
My number 1 teaching goal this year is to help my absolute beginner students learn to pronounce and speak accurate, very basic [Cantonese and] Mandarin Chinese so they can say hello to someone, ask for the time, ask where the bathroom is located at a restaurant, and hopefully be inspired on their own to learn food or clothing vocabulary so they can order at a restaurant or purchase something at a store. My number 2 goal this year is to help bad students realize that they need stop trying to learn Chinese and choose a new hobby.
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