Hi Gang,
This past Monday night, we covered:
·
5 Grammar
Points for Lesson 4 Dialogue 1 on pages 102-106. That's a lot of grammar
for one class. Thanks to everyone for your attention!
·
You guys broke into small groups and did the
various Language Practice exercises on
pages 107-109, with me walking around and answering any questions.
·
I quickly previewed
the vocabulary and dialogue for Lesson 4 Dialogue 2, in which Wang Peng
asks Gao Wenzhong if he wants to hang out and do various sports things over the
weekend, but Gao Wenzhong only wants to eat and sleep - so lazy! At the end,
Wang Peng is fed up and basically says, "Screw you -- I'll go find someone
else to hang out with!"
We reviewed the basic word order
for a Chinese sentence. I drew my own diagram that I use to teach with
every year for both Cantonese and Mandarin basic syntax (grammatical word
order) and then we compared that with the way the book teaches the same
material. Please review the book's explanation of syntax on page 102, as this
is very important to your developing ability to make correct basic sentences in
Mandarin Chinese.
Next, we covered/reviewed more about "Affirmative Negative A not A Questions." This time, we
saw that if there is any kind of
adverbial modifier to the adjective or verb in the question, the question must
be expressed as a "[Blah blah blah] ma" question and CANNOT be
expressed as a "Verb BU4 verb?" or "Adjective bu4
adjective?" question. Remember that the asterisked / greyed out
examples in the grammar sections of your textbook are INCORRECT EXAMPLES and
are NOT TO BE REPEATED OR STUDIED! Do not accidentally study this incorrect
examples!!! Please review all of the examples in this section on pages 102-104.
Next, we covered the use of NA4
or NA4 ME as a conjunction meaning, "Well..." or "Then..."
or "So..." or "In that case..." Please review the text
and pay attention to how this is used in everyday conversation, because it is
an excellent transition word for you to learn to help make your beginner level
Mandarin conversations flow more naturally when you are trying to speak with
native speakers.
We discussed QU4 + an action
[verb], as in someone is physically GOING [someplace] else to do that action. If
you are "going to" do something the way we most often use that phrase
in English (i.e. "I WILL do that thing at some point in the future"
as opposed to necessarily moving from where you are right now to another
physical location to do the action), then Mandarin more often uses YAO4 + verb
to mean that you will do that verb in the future, or that you intend to do that
verb in the future. HOWEVER, if you need to physically move from where you are
right now to another location in order to do the action [as in "I am GOING
to play baseball" because we are in a classroom and you need to physically
leave the classroom and walk to the baseball field to play the game], then this
is the use of QU4 + verb that the book is discussing here on page 106. Please
review and make sure you understanding the subtle difference compared to
English's use of the concept of "going to do something," which can
have either or both meanings.
Finally, we discussed HAO3 MA as
a tag to statements, turning them
into a question with the exact same meaning as “STATEMENT + ZEN3 ME YANG4?”
This basically means, "Is it ok
that...?" or "Can [I / we / etc.] do this..." or "Will that
work?" -- something to that effect. Please review the examples on page
106 and make sure you can create a variety of [Blah blah blah statement] HAO3
MA? questions in Mandarin.
Please also review the Language
Practice activities that you all did in class this past Monday and make
sure that there are no questions. If you do have questions, please ask at the
beginning of next week's class.
See everyone on Monday, when we will dive right into Lesson 4 Dialogue
2 and then you will all break into small groups and run the dialogue with your
partners.
YOUR HOMEWORK IS TO WATCH THE
VIDEO SEGMENT FROM THE RHODE ISLAND OR SAN FRANCISCO STATE UNIVERSITY WEBSITES
FOR THIS NEW DIALOGUE (LESSON 4 DIALOGUE 2).
Best,
Brendan