ALESN Monday Night Mandarin I Brendan's class Email Summary and Notes 5/13/19

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

ALESN Cantonese I Monday Class Summary and Notes 5/13/19

Hi Everyone,

This past Monday night, we covered:

·         a review of the concept of measure words on pages 133-136

·         the concept of boundwords like NI1 or GO2, which cannot stand on their own but must be followed by the appropriate measure word (page 136)

·         the difference in grammatical word order (syntax) between English and Mandarin's uses of the indirect object and Cantonese's use of the indirect object (p. 137)

·         GEI2 (DO1) as our question word for "How much?" or "How many?" (pages 137-138)

·         MH4 JI1 [blah blah blah] A3 or NE1 = "I wonder if..." (page 138)

·         Various drills on pages 139-143. We will pick up on page 144 next Monday, finishing the chapter and then beginning the next lesson.

Please review the concept and usage of measure words as explained in the book and try to remember the more detailed discussion that I gave in class this past Monday as well as during various previous lessons when the topic has come up.

Please remember that proper Cantonese can only use ONE of the two possible word orders (syntaxes) for an indirect object that English is able to use:

English:

"Give ME the book"

or

"Give the book TO ME."

Mandarin:

"Give ME the book."

BUT CANTONESE MUST ONLY BE:

"Give the book TO ME."

"Bei2 ni1 bun2 syu1 ngoh5."

Remember the use of measure words in Cantonese to stand in for nouns that have already been specified previously during the conversation. Please review the section on GEI2 DO1 questions if you are unsure about this concept.

Please review the drills that we covered this past Monday so that we can quickly finish the remaining chapter 6 drills and move on to lesson 7 halfway through next week's class.

Best wishes to all and see everyone on Monday,

Brendan

ALESN Cantonese Class Email and Summary from Monday Night, 5/6/19 class

Hi Everyone,

Sorry for my delay in sending this out, but at least I am getting it to you before the weekend.

This past Monday night, we reviewed the vocabulary and dialogue from Lesson 6. We took a look at the 36 vocabulary words on pages 150-151 of the textbook and we chunked some of the knowledge thematically and categorically during our review, which will help you during memorization -- if you paid attention. We reviewed the Recapitulation of the Dialogue on pages 128-129, pointing out the use of measure words when counting pieces of clothing.

Because this past Monday night was entirely review, picking up from where we left off before the Easter Break and then my unfortunate kidney stones absence 2 Mondays ago, there isn't much for me to type. Please take some time this weekend, if you haven't already this past week, to review the vocabulary and dialogue so that we can move forward with minimal questions on Monday.

Following your breaking up into small groups to run the dialogue this past Monday, we reviewed some pronunciation comparisons between short and long vowel sounds/finals on pages 129-131. I also quickly glossed over a review of the numbers chart that we studied earlier this spring, which I had drawn on the white board maybe a month ago or so. Please make sure that you are comfortable with your numbers and go back and review counting from 1 to 99 if you are having any issues recalling the system for constructing numbers in Cantonese.

See you all on Monday. We will pick up with some more grammar and then move onto this lesson's exercises during our next class.

Thanks again to all of the well wishes regarding my recent illness. I wound up having crystals (microscopic kidney stones) and some other complicating factors that made me sick for about 9 or 10 days. I really appreciate the nice emails and welcome backs from students in class this past Monday!

Best wishes to all,

Brendan

ALESN Mandarin I Class Summary and Notes email from 5/6/19 class

Hi Everyone,

Sorry for my delay in sending this out, but at least I am getting it to you before the weekend.

This past Monday night, we reviewed the vocabulary and dialogue from Lesson 4 Dialogue 1 and then you all broke into small groups to run the dialogue with your partners. Unfortunately, we did not have time to begin the lesson's grammar points, so that is what we will start with on Monday.

Because this past Monday night was entirely review, picking up from where we left off before the Easter Break and then my unfortunate kidney stones absence 2 Mondays ago, there isn't much for me to type. Please take some time this weekend, if you haven't already this past week, to review the 20 new vocabulary words on pages 102-103. Please also review the dialogue on page 99 (PINYIN VERSION ONLY AT THIS POINT, PLEASE! LET'S MAKE SURE THAT WE ARE PRONOUNCING EVERYTHING CORRECTLY BEFORE THE READERS AMONG YOU MOVE OVER TO PAGE 98 AND THE CHINESE CHARACTERS!).

Your homework is to watch the video version of the dialogue from either the San Francisco State site or the Rhode Island site, both of which were mentioned in my blog last September/October 2018. I assure you all that the links are there, so please go to www.sayitrightchinese.com and take the time to search the September / October 2018 Mandarin I archives at the right side of the screen until you find the appropriate entry.

See you all on Monday. Thanks again to all of the well wishes regarding my recent illness. I wound up having crystals (microscopic kidney stones) and some other complicating factors that made me sick for about 9 or 10 days. I really appreciate the nice emails and welcome backs from students in class this past Monday!

Best wishes to all,

Brendan