Mandarin I ALESN 4/15/19 Class Summary and Notes AND NO CLASS TONIGHT FOR EASTER MONDAY/SPRING BREAK!!!

Hi Gang,

Before I go over what we covered last week, I want to mention that one thing that I am not a big fan of is when people either quit my class and do not tell me, or when new students drop in, are added to the class email list, realize that my class is hard or that it will take a lot of work to catch up this far into the semester, and then I never see or hear from them again.

THERE ARE WAYYYYYYY MORE PEOPLE ON THIS CLASS EMAIL LIST THAN ARE ACTUALLY ATTENDING MY CLASS RIGHT NOW.

As it is, I am giving away all of this information and my time FOR FREE without any kind of payment or compensation other than the warm, fuzzy feeling in my heart that I might be reaching a few of you and helping you to learn basic Chinese.

PLEASE REPLY TO THIS EMAIL TO DO THE RIGHT THING AND HAVE YOURSELF REMOVED FROM MY EMAIL DISTRIBUTION LIST IF YOU ARE NO LONGER ATTENDING MY CLASS. ESPECIALLY IF YOU HAVE NOT YET EXTENDED THE FUNDAMENTAL COURTESY TO ME OF LETTING ME KNOW THAT YOU ARE NO LONGER ATTENDING MY CLASS.

I really hate it when people take me for granted in this life, especially when I am already giving my time and energy for free at ALESN. Thanks.

OK -- cool.

For everyone else who is still attending my class:

NO CLASS TONIGHT -- DO NOT COME TO THE SCHOOL, AS IT WILL BE PHYSICALLY CLOSED FOR SPRING BREAK/EASTER MONDAY, WHICH IS AN OFFICIAL NEW YORK PUBLIC SCHOOL CLOSING.

Let's see what we covered last Monday in class:

• We covered the vocabulary for Lesson 4 Dialogue 1 on pages 100-101. Make sure you review this words, memorize as many as you can now, and then go over the dialogue, making sure that you understand everything that is said.
• We covered the dialogue on page 99 for the pinyin. Remember that you must read from the pinyin until your pronunciation of all new words is 100% accurate -- and then you can choose to read from the Chinese characters if you are able to do so and would like to do that.
• This is a lesson about hobbies and things that we like to do in our spare time. We learned the words for weekend; paying all kinds of sports involving balls (we will learn later on how to specifically say tennis, baseball, basketball, and perhaps some other sports); watching sports -- either at a game or on TV;  singing songs and singing karaoke; dancing; listening to music; reading books; going to movies.                                                     
• We learned how to talk about time: a period of time; how often something happens; sometimes; often.
• We reviewed the concept of inviting someone to do something, which we have seen in the previous 2 dialogues regarding inviting someone to dinner. Now we are inviting them to do a hobby or pastime with us.
• We learned a basic sentence structure involving: BECAUSE...THEREFORE...
• In the dialogue, we saw Gao Wenzhong attempt to ask out Bai Ying'Ai, only to be put in "the friend zone" when Bai Ying'Ai also invites Wang Peng and Li You and suggests that Gao Wenzhong pay for all of them. The subtext here adds humor to the dialogue and the situation behind the dialogue is continued from the 2 previous dialogues, tying lesson 4 to the events of lesson 3. This is helpful when thinking about what is happening here and remembering the storyline, who does what, as well as the new vocabulary words.

Please review the dialogue and vocabulary. I believe that we are set to break into small groups and run the dialogue at the beginning of class next week. From there, we will cover 5 grammar points (wow!) and then break into small groups to do some Language Practice, pending time towards the end of class next week.

See everyone next Monday. I hope that most of you will be able to join Cliff et. al. at I believe it is the Whole Foods on Houston for a review session tonight. Great job organizing that, guys and gals!

Best,

Brendan