Mandarin I Class Summary for this past Monday, December 13, 2021

 

Hi Gang,

This is a crazy week for me with parent health stuff, but I want to take some time to summarize your last class so that any new students or those who missed class this past week can catch up on their own. REMEMBER THAT THERE WILL BE NO CLASS THIS COMING MONDAY, AS I WILL BE OUT OF TOWN FOR A FAMILY EMERGENCY.

IN ADDITION, THERE ARE NO CLASSES UNTIL JANUARY 11 DUE TO WINTER BREAK.

Let's see what we covered this past Monday...

Starting on page 1 of your textbook, we discussed how every Chinese syllable has 3 components:

AN INITIAL SOUND

A FINAL SOUND

and

A TON

We reviewed the "SIMPLE FINALS," which we had introduced the previous first class on the handout that I provided, which new students may download from the first of the 2 welcome emails that I forwarded you when you joined the class from the waitlist.

You will remember that the simple finals are:

a     o     e     i     u    ü

We discussed that

a sounds like "father"

o sounds like "on" or "off" -- AND NEVER LIKE "OH MY GOD!!!"

e sounds like "wood" or sometimes like "duh," depending on where the native speaker is from

u sounds like "food"

ü is a challenging sound for beginners to make. You say "ee" like "meet," but you shape your lips like you are going to whistle or make a kissy face. This modifies the "ee" into UMLAUT U.

Finally, we saw that the i in Mandarin has 2 possible sounds, depending on which initial consonant it follows. If the i follows lines 1, 2, and 4 of the bo po mo fo table of initial consonant sounds, the i is pronounced like "meet" or "see." If the i follows lines 5 or 6 of the bo po mo fo table initial consonants, it sounds almost like a buzzy grunt. The actual sound of the i after the consonants from lines 5 and 6 is difficult to type and must be heard and imitated over and over until the student gets it right on a consistent basis.

We mentioned that one of the greatest cardinal sins of beginner Mandarin students is to pronounce "Wo3 Shi4" ["I am"] as "WHOA SHE."

DO NOT EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER

[EVER]

DO THIS!!!

The o sound in spoken Mandarin is always pronounced as "on off." The i sound after "sh" is always pronounced like the American English word "shirt," but without the "t" at the end.

The bo po mo fo table of initial consonant sounds in Mandarin Chinese was presented to the class as such, with specific finals assigned to each row:

1. bo po mo fo                                                        4. ji qi xi

2. de te ne le                                                           5. zi ci si

3. ge ke he                                                               6. zhi chi shi ri

We spent the rest of the class this past Monday going over these pronunciations, found in section B. Initials on page 2 of the textbook:

 Of note to remember:

b, p, m, f all sound exactly like they do in English.

d, t, n, l also sound exactly like English.

g sounds exactly like the "HARD G" [golly gosh go get it, NOT George, which is a "soft g"].

k sounds exactly like English.

h sounds like the beginning of the English male first name, "HUGH," and can be described as sort of a "h+y" kind of initial sound. If you want to be authentically Mandarin with your h sound, put a small amount of phlegm behind it.

You MUST MUST MUST ALWAYS say line 4 with a very wide, awkward smile on your face. If you do this, you cannot possibly mispronounce these 3 initial sounds, even if you try!!! The i sound in like 4 sounds like "see.

The z sound is actually "DZ," like the end of the English word "adds" -- "It all adds up..." The i in this line sounds like a bee buzzing in your ear, NOT like "see." DO NOT EVER PRONOUNCE THIS LINE'S I LIKE "SEE!!!"

The c sound is actually "TS," like the end of the English words "cats." REMEMBER THIS.

The s sound sounds like a very hissy English s.

IF YOU KEEP APPROXIMATELY THE SAME WIDE, AWKWARD SMILE THAT YOU USED FOR LINE 4 [BUT NOT QUITE AS WIDE] AND USE IT FOR LINE 5, MAKING SURE THAT YOUR I VOWEL SOUNDS LIKE A BEE BUZZING, YOU WILL PRONOUNCE ALL 3 OF THESE CORRECTLY.

ZHI sounds like an exaggerated beginning to the English word, "jerk," with a very over-emphasized "JER" and you do not pronounce the k in the English word.

CHI sounds like an exaggerated beginning to the English word "church," but you do not pronounce the final "ch."

SHI sounds like an exaggerated beginning to the English word "shirt," but you do not pronounce the final "t."

RI sounds like little kids pretending they are revving the engine on a toy car while they push it along the floor while playing.

Hopefully these hints will help you to internalize and remember these fundamental sounds of spoken Mandarin.

See everyone on January 11 after the Winter Break. Sorry again that I have to miss class this coming Monday due to a family emergency out of state.

Best wishes and Happy Holidays to All!

Brendan

Da4 jia1 hao3 -- Welcome to all new ALESN Mandarin I students!

 Hi Everyone,

Many thanks again to everyone who came to class last night. I think that we had 11 people, which means that 10 were missing. Several students have emailed that they were ill or needed to work late, and 1 or 2 have dropped out and are in the process of being replaced with waitlist folks. If you are one of the 9 or so remaining people from my original class roster provided to me by our ALESN Program Administrator, please let me know whether to expect you in class going forward, or if you will need to drop out due to scheduling or personal needs. PLEASE REPLY ASAP, BECAUSE MY WAITLIST IS ALMOST AS LONG AS THE CURRENT ROSTER FOR THIS CLASS -- AND WE WANT TO GIVE INTERESTED STUDENTS THE OPPORTUNITY TO JOIN IF ANYONE CURRENTLY REGISTERED CAN NO LONGER TAKE MY CLASS.

Thanks in advance.

Last night was a very good and encouraging first class. We spent some time covering a basic handout and went around the room doing some very brief programmed self-introductions. I was pleasantly surprised at some of the students' pronunciation and tones. Other students are obviously "from zero" absolute beginners -- and that is certainly ok. More than ok, because if you really pay attention and make sure that you learn properly from the very beginning, you won't need to unlearn any mistakes that are common to beginner Mandarin students in general, and more specifically to students over the years in our ALESN program!

We also covered a brief overview of your textbook. Your homework for next Monday, whether you were in class last night or not (as long as you intend to stay in the class), will be to download your textbook and to read the intro portion and familiarize yourself with the pronunciation and tones section up to or around page 11. OBVIOUSLY, few or none of you will know how to pronounce many or most of these syllables or tones yet -- unless you really paid attention in class last night, or unless you have previous Mandarin language study experience. 

You are welcome to spend 5 minutes looking at this material in your book...or you can immerse yourself and do some internet research, watch random Youtube videos on the four Mandarin tones and the neutral tone, etc. -- whatever you feel motivated or inspired to do. Once we actually cover 1 hour worth of pronunciation material from the book next week, you will all have a much better idea FOR EACH OF YOU INDIVIDUALLY what you may OR MAY NOT need to spend time studying, focusing on, and reviewing -- as much or as little as necessary over the next few weeks before we launch into our first dialogue and we look at our first beginner level vocabulary list.

Please also take a look at the 2 links that I provided in my previous email to the the video material that will accompany our dialogues, once we begin the actual lessons in our book. It is worthwhile watching (before next week) the 5 minute-long lesson 1 dialogue 1 video to gain an idea of the campy, fun resource that I hope these videos will be for each of you this year to help reinforce the vocabulary, sentence structures, and lesson materials that we will cover between now and May or June.

A few suggestions to help you learn AND RETAIN proper pronunciation, tones, vocabulary, grammar and syntax, as well as situational language cues (i.e. under what circumstances you might expect to hear and use the various Mandarin concepts and specific vocabulary and sentence structures that you will be learning this year):

1. The fastest way to learn to pronounce Mandarin properly in a way that native speakers who don't know you will be able to understand what you are trying to communicate is to RECORD ALL OF YOUR CLASSES AND THEN LISTEN BACK, PRETENDING YOU ARE AN OUTSIDER. TRY YOUR BEST TO DISTANCE YOURSELF FROM ANY EMOTION, FROM ANY DISAPPOINTMENT OVER NOT SOUNDING AS "GOOD" AS YOUR NEIGHBOR, AS WELL AS FROM ANY GRATUITOUS PATTING YOURSELF ON THE BACK FOR BEING SUCH A "STAR STUDENT," SHOULD THAT BE THE CASE. You will find that you can learn a lot from listening back to what you and all of your classmates do RIGHT each week, and even more, from what you and your classmates might say incorrectly. I tell all of my absolute beginner students to do this each year (those who do not already know how to pronounce Mandarin accurately, who have not grown up speaking with their families, etc.). Each year, only one or two students will actually record their classes and listen back each week. Invariably, each year, THOSE 1 OR 2 STUDENTS make the most progress -- sometimes even eclipsing the spoken language abilities of other ethnically Chinese students in the class who may have grown up listening to and speaking Chinese. Not exaggerating. I once had a caucasian female Mandarin student who recorded and really listened back to and studied her classes each week. Within one academic year, she went from zero (never tried to speak Chinese before) to delivering a short speech in spoken Mandarin for her US fashion design company to factory representatives in China where her company was outsourcing all of the textile labor for their clothing line. It was very important that she pronounce Chinese slowly and accurately, so that her Chinese clients would understand the friendly and positive teamwork message that her US company intended to communicate. She was able to accomplish this goal, and it was impressive for the class to see it unfold and then to hear about it after the student returned from her trip later that spring.
2. The best way to stay motivated while learning a new language during the beginning and early stages, besides enthusiastically taking advantage of every possible opportunity to speak that language with anyone who might even remotely have time to speak with you, is to MAKE THE LEARNING PROCESS AS FUN AS POSSIBLE. This will be different for each person. For some people, collecting a personal library of books or PDF resources and then bombarding yourself with beginner level language and culture information, vocabulary, and basic concepts, is the way to go. For others, starting a collection of travel guides or history books about various place(s) in the world where the language is spoken can allow frequent daydreaming, where the student can imagine all kinds of exciting social interactions that he or she might one day have with native speakers of the language while visiting exotic locales where the language is spoken. For others, maybe the motivation is to deepen your relationship with your favorite grandparent, or to connect with overseas relatives that you do not yet know, but have always wanted to visit. For me, when I first started learning Cantonese (and several years later, Mandarin), I was very into martial arts, and in particular into watching and collecting DVDs of vintage kung fu films from the 70s and 80s. I'd had opportunities to watch non-overdubbed Jackie Chan and other classic Chinese action movies on DVD, and was blown away by how much better and more engrossing the storylines were in those films when not butchered with ridiculous overdubbed English language tracks. For me, as fun as it was to hear "You bastard, I am going to kill you" fifty times during each Chinese kung fu film I might watch, it became a much deeper "foreign film" experience for me to listen to the original soundtracks in Cantonese and Mandarin and to daydream about how I might over time understand more and more of the spoken Chinese until one day, I might be able to watch these movies in their original Cantonese or Mandarin without subtitles. To that end, I RECOMMEND TO ALL OF MY STUDENTS TO PURCHASE OR DOWNLOAD ENGLISH LANGUAGE CHILDREN'S MOVIES OR TV SHOWS DUBBED INTO CHINESE WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES. MY PERSONAL FAVORITES, WHICH ARE AMAZING IN MANDARIN, ARE ALL OF THE HARRY POTTER MOVIES, AS WELL AS ANY DISNEY OR PIXAR ANIMATED MOVIE -- PERSONAL FAVORITES INCLUDE FROZEN, MEGAMIND, AND THE INCREDIBLES. Of course, movies originally released in Mandarin from China, Taiwan or Hong Kong are also amazing resources. For me, my favorite genres are the aforementioned Hong Kong martial arts movies (especially Shaw Brothers's 70s and 80s "period" kung fu films, many of which were originally released in Mandarin) and romantic or other comedies. Laughter always helps with language learning -- especially for beginners.

Anyway, these are some suggestions that I can give to help you improve quicker rather than slower as a beginning Mandarin student -- especially for those of us who are not ethnically Chinese and may not have grown up hearing and speaking some amount of Chinese with our families.

Thanks for reading and see everyone next week,

Brendan

Brendan, your ALESN Mandarin I teacher for the 2021-2022 Academic Year, saying WELCOME TO ALL NEW AND RETURNING STUDENTS!!!

 

Hi Gang,

I have been away from ALESN for a few years, so it is possible that some of you are returning students -- perhaps former students of our other ALESN Mandarin 1 teachers. If that is the case, welcome back! For all new students, WELCOME!

Let me tell you a bit about myself, in particular about how it might impact my teaching over the coming months -- though I will try my best to not have that happen, if at all possible:

First of all, before I tell you a bit about my background and my hopes for what I want us to accomplish in this class over the coming months, let me mention this crucial tidbit: 

Unfortunately, both of my parents are currently ill with unrelated but serious medical concerns, and they are located 200+ miles from NYC. I have been driving back and forth between Brooklyn and Baltimore, MD every other week, usually leaving on a Tuesday and returning on a Friday or Saturday, for the past 2 months. This will continue for the foreseeable future. I have asked my parents to schedule all doctors' appointments mid or end-week so that I can teach for ALESN this year and so that I can start each work week right for myself at my NYC home office if it will be "a Baltimore week" for me. In the event that my parents need me on a Monday, I have arranged with Tsz for me to possibly teach online via the ALESN portal, if that might be doable for my schedule in Baltimore that week.

Thank you all in advance for your kind understanding of my ongoing family emergency travel logistics, which may or may not impact my ability to teach on some Mondays going forward.

This said, I want to also mention what is perhaps a bit of TMI, but it will help to explain if my language skills might appear a bit rusty at times -- should any of the students ask questions at a higher level than the beginner lesson material that we will be learning:

It is true that I have studied Cantonese and Mandarin on and off since 2009, exclusively with ALESN, and that as of Feb 2020 right before the Pandemic Shutdown, my broken Cantonese and Mandarin conversational skills were effective enough for me to be able to teach 2-hour ESL lessons 4 nights a week, almost entirely in either Cantonese or Mandarin or both back and forth, to new Chinese immigrant ESL students via the YMCA, in the same building where we are currently studying with ALESN.

It is also true that I have not spoken Cantonese or Mandarin in almost 2 years -- AND that over the past year, I was diagnosed with mercury poisoning and lyme disease. Luckily, for the past 3 months, I have been undergoing treatment and my brain has started working again. However, for most of this calendar year, I was experiencing all kinds of memory lapses and learning disability moments.

I am extremely confident that I am more than qualified to teach your absolute beginner level class this year; I am also certain that if you pay attention, you will develop extremely accurate pronunciation and tones as you begin your Mandarin language learning odyssey. As I say, though, it is possible that if someone asks me a more advanced question that I would have otherwise known the answer to immediately 2 years ago, I might not remember right away. My brain is still "coming back," so to speak. Thank you all in advance for your kind understanding. I didn't mean to share too much just now, but I also don't want my students to feel that I am unqualified if you ask me something that I should (and probably do) know, but I cannot recall immediately, the same moment as your question.

Ok -- enough of all of that.

Let me now tell you a bit about my Chinese background and my hopes for your class. Following this, I will include links and attachments for some resources that we will be using in this class: your textbook, some audio stuff, some web stuff, etc.

A BIT ABOUT ME:

I started studying Cantonese before Mandarin as a hobby, with Tony Parisi, the co-founder of ALESN, in 2009. After several months of a false start, I returned in 2010 and studied Cantonese language and culture obsessively -- in class with Tony and other ALESN teachers, and for many hours each week on my own. In 2012, 2013 and 2017 respectively, I spent 1 month each time in Hong Kong, on purpose staying in Sham Shui Po: a very grungy, blue collar area in Kowloon where few locals speak English. This allowed me hours of daily opportunities to butcher the language during all manner of daily tasks and experiences. This, combined with constantly challenging myself to speak often, and to use Cantonese (not English) to ask Chinese people how to say what I didn't know how to communicate in Cantonese, allowed me to become very functionally conversational [WITH ALL KINDS OF ERRORS] across a wide variety of topics -- all the while speaking broken, but effective Cantonese with a "white person" accent.

Along the way, when ALESN began offering Mandarin classes as well, I started attending, and was able to quickly participate in Mandarin II and III classes via the miracle of cognates and by translating from Cantonese in real time in my head -- which we will discuss at length for those of you who might already speak Mandarin or another Chinese dialect.

I continued my [literally] obsessive self-directed Chinese studies until 2017, when after 10 years away from music (my original reason for moving to NYC in 1998), I started to feel a pull to sing again. It is a long story, but the summary is that when I was totally into Chinese, I had been accepted to a language certification program in Hong Kong and my intention was to do that and then return to start a PhD program here in the US in Applied Linguistics with a focus in Chinese. My life direction changed around 2018/2019, however, and now I am back to focusing on my music and on music journalism -- or at least that was the plan before the Pandemic started...

So, anywho, that is my background.

I taught ESL to absolute beginner Chinese people IN CHINESE for the YMCA for most of the 2019-2020 academic year preceding the start of the Pandemic, but because I have not spoken either dialect at all for almost 2 years, I am currently, alas...ahem...rusty.

AS FAR AS OUR CLASS GOES, HERE IS MY HOPE REGARDING WHAT I WOULD LIKE TO ACCOMPLISH:

We will be using Integrated Chinese THIRD EDITION Level 1 Part 1 TEXTBOOK, which was an extremely popular high school- and college-level intro Chinese textbook for many years until it was recently supplanted by the 4th edition. WE WILL NOT BE USING THE REWRITTEN 4TH EDITION. I do not have a copy of the 4th edition; have never seen the 4th edition; and have no idea what the many page # differences or entirely rewritten sections might be. Please plan to study from the THIRD EDITION. Thanks in advance.

While I firmly believe in US Copyright law, the Pandemic has made things wonky all over, so I am breaking with my own rule from past years teaching at ALESN by providing PDFs of the textbook as free downloads to the students. You have your choice of Traditional or Simplified Character editions. Don't worry if you have no idea what this means; I will explain in class. IT DOES NOT MATTER TO ME WHICH EDITION YOU USE, BECAUSE FOR MY PURPOSES, THEY ARE FUNCTIONALLY IDENTICAL FOR THIS CLASS. I WILL NOT BE TEACHING CHINESE CHARACTERS. I WILL BE FOCUSING ON THE SOUNDS AND MEANINGS OF BASIC MANDARIN CHINESE WORDS AND PHRASES, WHICH WILL ALLOW YOU TO BEGIN TO HAVE BASIC CONVERSATIONS WITH NATIVE SPEAKERS WHO HAVE NEVER MET YOU BEFORE.

PLEASE DOWNLOAD YOUR TEXTBOOK HERE:

[link removed]

I will explain the layout of the textbook this evening as well as over the next few classes if we have any new students join.

I love this textbook. It is extremely practical, and is written for adults without a bunch of dumbed-down language. If you pay attention in class and learn proper pronunciation and tones, you WILL be able to use this particular book as a launching pad to begin to speak real, basic Mandarin with real Chinese people you have never met before. And if you really pay attention and practice a lot, these Chinese strangers will actually understand you -- and vice versa!

In addition to the textbook, the publishers of the Integrated Chinese series also produced all kinds of workbooks, audio resources, AND VIDEO RESOURCES to help reinforce the lesson material, especially the dialogues. This year, we will be referring often to the VIDEOS in particular that were designed to go with the lessons from your textbook. At this moment, I was able to find 2 separate, unrelated non-password-protected major US university websites with free streaming access to the complete dialogue and "culture moments" videos for your book. At least one of the sites also has complete audio for your book as well as access to the Level 1 Part 1 Workbook, for those of you interested in teaching yourself to read and write Chinese characters -- which again, will be outside the scope of what I will teach this year.

Please familiarize yourself with whichever website below that you prefer. Hopefully, both will remain un-password-protected for the duration of our 2021-2022 class. In past years, we used to rely on the University of Rhode Island's Chinese Department's website, but they are now password-protected, alas...

HERE ARE THE 2 WEBSITES THAT I FOUND LAST WEEK CONTAINING ADDITIONAL LEARNING RESOURCES FOR YOUR TEXTBOOK:

[links removed]

In class tonight, we will be using the attached PDF handout to hear and produce some very basic Mandarin sounds, and to learn some very basic words and sentences. Most likely, next week in our second class and then going forward, we will switch exclusively to studying from the book. I recommend that you either put the book on a laptop or tablet and bring that to class from now on -- or that you print the first 25 pages of the book (minus the intro text portions before the Pronunciation section -- which you should read, but which we will not be covering in class). Once we have covered these initial 25 pages, you can print out additional lessons as necessary. If you are going to print out your pages, please make sure that you print ALL of the pronunciation and tones pages prior to the first lesson!

There is SO much that I could continue to type here regarding Mandarin language and culture; or Hong Kong; or my limited experiences in Beijing, Guangzou, and Taiwan; or my personal successes and failures learning to speak Chinese; or any number of related topics, but I think you have already read enough and I don't want to exhaust you before class even starts...

If you are very curious and want to know more about what kind of teacher I am, or have been in the past, over the many years that I have taught for ALESN (I think this is my 7th or 8th year teaching for ALESN?), please feel free to check out my dedicated Cantonese and Mandarin Chinese language learning blog that I maintained for my ALESN students over a several year period. There are several sections devoted to my prior Mandarin 1 classes that I taught at ALESN. Lucky for you, ALL of my blog's Mandarin I category entries focus on lessons from the exact same edition of the exact same textbook that you will be learning from -- so if you ever want any additional insights on the same material covered in each class that I teach this year, all you need to do is visit the earliest entries each year under the Mandarin I category of the blog, and then proceed to read in reverse chronological order until you find the same lesson that we might be currently covering in your in-person 2021 or 2022 ALESN class:

www.sayitrightchinese.com

ONE FINAL THING, THOUGH I DON'T BELIEVE IT WILL BE A CONCERN THIS YEAR:

It is my very firm policy, backed up many times over the years by the "Powers That Be" at ALESN (of which I used to be one, with a title and everything), that an absolute beginner student will only be allowed to study ONE dialect at first -- until that student can demonstrate accurate pronunciation and tones in that first dialect without making goofy beginner mistakes. ONLY THEN will I allow one of my students to take my classes while simultaneously studying another Chinese language. As I say, I don't believe this applies to any of my students this fall, but if it does and I see you in both of my classes, we will need to have a little chat away from the other students after class or via email. Thanks in advance...

Very best wishes to All and WELCOME TO MANDARIN 1 AT ALESN!

 Welcome to my new in-person Fall 2021 ALESN Mandarin I students!

I took a break for the past 2 years from teaching for ALESN, but I am back -- and hopefully, so are you. Faaaaaaaaaantastic...

While I wait for scheduling logistics and any Fall 2021 YMCA Covid policy concerns, I wanted to say hello to my new students as well as any returning students whom I might have taught in past years.

Hello.

For our textbook this year, we will be using Integrated Chinese Level 1 Part 1 THIRD EDITION Textbook, either Traditional or Simplified Characters -- your choice, because I will not be teaching characters. At all. As in, if you want to learn to read Chinese, please take a different intro class taught by a different teacher, most likely on Saturdays. In this particular Mandarin I intro class, we will be learning how to pronounce spoken Chinese and we will learn some very useful, very basic conversations about everyday tasks, objects, locations, and people.

Please note that we will be using the THIRD EDITION -- an older edition of this popular industry- standard beginner level college textbook. If you decide to purchase a copy, you need to make sure that you are buying THE TEXTBOOK, and NOT the workbook or the character workbook or the CD set or any other accompanying volumes from the same publisher. Because this is an older edition, you can find used hardcover copies of the Simplified version right now on Amazon for $21 plus shipping -- I just checked 5 minutes before typing this post.

Of course, many or even most of my students over recent years have found free PDF copies of this book floating around online. While I cannot encourage this -- AND I ASK YOU PLEASE TO NEVER ASK ME TO PERSONALLY GIVE YOU A FREE ILLEGAL COPY OF THIS BOOK -- if you are clever, you can find multiple PDF versions online for immediate download in under 1 minute via a standard Google search. 

The last time I taught Mandarin I for ALESN, several US universities had actually posted not only the complete textbook for free download to their Chinese students, but also all of the accompanying audio and video files designed to go along with the textbook. Once we start classes this fall, I am sure that links will be traded so that everyone can download all kinds of fun learning resources for free, if you so choose. I highly recommend the video rip of the accompanying DVD, if it is still available online (ahem, Rhode Island, ahem), because the skits are fun to watch; cover all dialogues and vocabulary items; and even include supplementary "Culture Notes" about daily international student life in Beijing circa 2005.

ONE LAST THING: In the interest of time, AND because Blogger's overall functionality is garbage, the only way for me to change the name of the label for my Mandarin I tab from "Mandarin I ALESN 2017-2018" to "Mandarin I ALESN" would be for me to waste 1-2 hours of my life individually changing every single post I have ever made to this category. I don't have time for that kind of nonsense, so going forward for 2021 and later, the Mandarin I menu tab's label will continue to state "2017-2018," but the actual archived contents of this section will extend from 2017 through 2021 and beyond, in reverse chronological order." Thanks for your kind attention!

See you all in class!

Brendan with a final thank you and end of the year wrap-up for my Cantonese I and Mandarin I Monday night 2018-2019 students...

Hi Gangs,

Many thanks again to everyone who attended my classes at anytime this past academic year, and in particular to my students who stuck it out to the very end of classes 2 Mondays ago! I sincerely appreciated everyone's interest in and passion for learning Chinese. I hope that you all got something positive out of my classes and that maybe you were inspired to continue with further ALESN classes next fall or perhaps with self-directed study on your own. I know that some students from both classes were talking about setting up a regular time to meet at the Houston St. Whole Foods. Please let me know if that happens and I will try to attend here and there this summer as my schedule permits.

During our final classes 2 Mondays ago, I briefly reviewed the lesson materials and vocabularies that we had covered the week before and then we spent the rest of each class discussing various ways to continue your learning -- on your own or at ALESN. I mentioned various DVDs from among my list of personal favorites that I have used over the years to improve my own conversational Cantonese and Mandarin Chinese. We discussed the various course offerings at ALESN as well as my suggestion to the Mandarin I class to try to cover the remaining vocabulary and dialogue material in your textbook between now and September (on your own or in small groups if you do meet up at Whole Foods, etc.) so that you will be ready for ALESN's Mandarin II class, which uses the next book in the same series. This has always been an issue for our program, that we never finish Book 1 and yet Mandarin II starts with Book 2, which assumes that you have learned all of the materials from Book 1. Yes, it would be ideal if ALESN were to offer Mandarin 1.5, covering lessons 6-10 in Book 1, but that never happens.

Maybe if enough of you directly contact Tony Parisi or Tsz Fong, both of whom are cc'ed on this email, and you request such a class, it is possible that someone might want to step up and teach Mandarin 1.5 on Thursday or Saturday starting in the fall?

As I mentioned to my classes, I will be taking a break from teaching in the fall in order to devote my time and attention to my singing. I have deeply appreciated the opportunity to learn and grow through teaching for ALESN over the past 6 years or so, and I will definitely miss everything about it. Even though I am putting aside my own Chinese studies and teaching for the time being, I will still offer private tutoring at a discounted rate for any recent or former students who might have enjoyed my teaching style and would like to continue with their learning one-on-one. Please reach out to me if you are interested. 

I am also open to possibly teaching a weekly group lesson if a certain # of students would commit to attending regularly and each student were to pay something modest per class. We could hold the classes at Whole Foods or some other convenient space in Manhattan, or even outside in a park if the weather will be nice on a given evening. I would certainly be willing to teach a Mandarin 1.5 class in this manner if someone wants to organize it and get a group together at a mutually convenient day and time each week. If this interests you guys, let me know. We could go a bit longer, say 1.5 or 2 hours each time and try to finish Book 1 in this manner.

Because I will not be teaching on Mondays in the fall, there is a possibility that our Monday night ALESN classes are in jeopardy of not happening in September. So -- if any of you knows anyone qualified to teach Cantonese I or Mandarin I on Monday nights starting in the fall and who would be willing to make that commitment from 6 to 7:15 and 7:15 to 8:30 pm every Monday during the 2019-2020 academic year, please contact Tony or Tsz and refer this person as a potential new teacher. I would hate to see Monday night classes go away once I am no longer teaching next year.

Many thanks again to everyone for an excellent and productive Cantonese and Mandarin learning experience. Give yourselvesa round of applause! I hope that each of you will continue on in your own way -- either through private study, self-study or via ALESN classes in the fall. Please feel free to reach out to me with any questions or concerns, or to ask about books, DVDs, web resources, Youtube videos -- whatever you might want to know about regarding continuing your Chinese learning odyssey.

Best wishes to Everyone!

MANDARIN CLASS SUMMARY Monday, June 3, 2019 -- sorry for delay!!!

MANDARIN CLASS SUMMARY FROM LAST WEEK:    

Last week, we finished the Grammar and Language Practice sections of Lesson 4 Dialogue 2 and we previewed Lesson 5 Dialogue 1's vocabulary and dialogue. We will begin class today with this material and spend maybe 30 minutes learning some new stuff pertaining to visiting friends. 

From here, we will spend the rest of class tonight reviewing the general scope of what we covered this year in Mandarin I and discussing what might be next for each of you in your personal journeys to learn to speak and possibly even read Mandarin Chinese. I am happy to recommend appropriate "next steps" for each of you, both within our ALESN program continuing next fall as well as via self-studies and possibly even short-term immersion vacation trips to China or Taiwan -- something I have done for myself three times for one month each time (mainly in Hong Kong with side trips to Taipei, Beijing, and various towns in Guangdung Province). I also co-planned a several day side trip Mandarin language immersion "sights and shopping" bus tour in and around Shanghai with our Head Administrator for ALESN, Mr. Tsz Fong, for 2016, but I had to bow out at the last minute due to a personal emergency here in the US. will share brief stories of my trips to China and Taiwan and of the ways that I attempted to practice my ALESN-gained language knowledge while there in 2014 and 2017. 

I am also happy to share the names of all of my personal favorite Chinese language learning resources with the class and to tell you all what has inspired me most to learn and to improve my Chinese since I started studying with Tony Parisi at ALESN 10 years ago.

Many thanks to everyone who attended any of my Mandarin classes this past academic year. I will be taking a break from teaching for ALESN next fall in order to devote all of my time and energy outside of work to singing and recording music. I will, however, continue to offer reasonably priced 1 hour and 2 hour weekly or one-off private tutoring sessions for anyone who has enjoyed my teaching style and philosophy -- which I think I made pretty clear over the course of this past year, losing many students in the process, ahem...

Big thanks to my more serious and dedicated students with a passion and drive to learn who decided to stick it out with me until the end of this current academic year. I sincerely hope that I have helped you to grow your Mandarin Chinese knowledge and perhaps your confidence to attempt to speak with native speakers whom you do not already know...

Very best wishes to All!

Brendan

Sorry for my not sending class summaries last week -- AND TONIGHT IS OUR LAST CLASS -- NOT NEXT MONDAY!!!

Hi Gangs,

Doh! [Insert best Homer Simpson impression here.]

I had a busy week preparing for a singing audition that happened this past weekend (I got the gig) and I didn't set aside time to type your class summaries from last Monday.

I also mistakenly suggested last Monday (I think -- honestly don't remember) that next Monday would be our last classes. 

ACTUALLY, TONIGHT IS OUR FINAL CANTONESE CLASS AND OUR FINAL MANDARIN CLASS. 

I sincerely apologize for not reading my ALESN closings calendar properly. 

See everyone tonight. I will try to type up quick summaries right now to send before I leave for tonight's classes of what we covered last week if possible. If not, I promise to type a double summary email for each class sometime in the next 1-2 days.

Again, sorry for not sending your weekly summary email, AND MORE IMPORTANTLY, SORRY FOR SUGGESTING THAT WE HAD 2 MORE CLASSES INSTEAD OF JUST ONE MORE CLASS TONIGHT!!!

See everyone in 2 hours,

Brendan

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 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

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

ALESN Monday night Mandarin I Class Summary and Notes 4/8/19

Hi Everyone,

Finally, a week when I am sending out this email with a more reasonable timeframe for you all to consider and review.

This past Monday, we reviewed Lesson 3 Dialogue 2's vocabulary and dialogue. Following this, we covered the grammar points, then you all broke into small groups and did the Language Practice exercises. I had hoped to preview Lesson 4 Dialogue 1 Hobbies, but we will instead begin class next week with the next dialogue.

Of particular note regarding the material that we covered this past Monday:

• Please make sure you memorize the new "time phrases:" NOW, TODAY, TOMORROW, etc. Very important. Please also remember where they go (word order-wise or SYNTAX-WISE) in a proper Chinese sentence. We have covered this concept multiple times this year, but please ask me if you have any questions, because it is fundamental to your ability to make correct Mandarin sentences with correct word order.
• The concepts of WHY? and BECAUSE..., both of which share the word or "root" WEI4, for [the purpose of]
• Again, this idea that Chinese as a family of languages is great at making up new words using basic "Lego" building block concepts: TONG2XUE2 = [literally] "WITH STUDY" = "SOMEONE YOU STUDY WITH" = "CLASSMATE."
• We reviewed the dialogue again. Please make sure you understand what is going on here with Bai2 Ying1 Ai4 asking Wang2 Peng2 if he is free and then inviting him to Gao1 Wen2 Zhong1's birthday dinner the following evening.
• GRAMMAR POINTS THAT WE COVERED:
• Affirmative+Negative A NOT A questions: VERB BU4 VERB or ADJECTIVE BU4 ADJECTIVE questions. We discussed that the meaning of these questions is the same as the equivalent VERB MA? or ADJECTIVE MA? question. I gave the example that the standard Mandarin set phrase, "Ni3 hao3 ma?" can also be worded (and has the same meaning as) "Ni3 hao3 bu4 hao3?" -- but, please remember that "Ni3 hao3 ma?" is the set phrase to ask someone how they are doing -- and that "Ni3 hao3 bu4 hao3?", while carrying the same meaning, does not also function as a set phrase greeting in Mandarin.
• Please remember that the exception to the above VERB BU VERB? or ADJ BU4 ADJ? format is YOU3 MEI2 YOU3 for "have not have" questions. For YOU3, you always use MEI2 to negate --  you never use BU4 to negate YOU3, EXCEPT IN THE VERY SPECIFIC EXCEPTION GIVEN ON PAGE 54 INVOLVING THE USE OF DOU1 FOR INCLUSIVENESS WHEN ASKING IF SOME MEMBERS OF A CERTAIN GROUP DON'T HAVE SOMETHING.
• Use of HAI2 when constructing "afterthought" statements meaning that someone or something ALSO does something, in addition to the people or things doing it in the beginning of the sentence. Remember that using HAI2 in this situation is different from using HE2 to rattle off a list of nouns, because when we use HAI2 to construct a "So and so [or such and such] is ALSO VERB'ing [whatever the verb is]," WE NEED TO REPEAT THE VERB IN THE HAI2 PORTION AT THE END OF THE SENTENCE IN ORDER FOR HAI2 TO BE USED PROPERLY. OTHERWISE, YOU WOULD REWORD THE SENTENCE, INCLUDE THE LAST PERSON OR THING AS PART OF THE ORIGINAL LIST, AND JUST USE HE2. Got it? Good.
• I was encouraged that some groups finished the entire Language Practice section and then made up additional practice exercises on their own using the lesson material and vocabulary. Way to go, guys and gals! For those of you who struggled with the material or didn't finish the Language Practice exercises during the last 15-20 minutes of class, keep at it -- you are doing great and will get it soon enough.

FINALLY, before I go, I want to suggest that you all check out the remaining screenings from this great new NYC Chinese film festival going on right now -- as sent to me by our new student, Jose Payamps:

CineCina Film Festival

https://cine-cina.co

CineCina Film Festival (CineCina) is the only New York-based film festival dedicated to promoting excellent Chinese films. Founded in 2018, it was organized and planned by a group of young film scholars and filmmakers active in New York.

CCFF aims to bring the best Chinese films to New York. Starting from the exhibition of wonderful Chinese films, the committee of CineCina is committed to making CCFF a platform for the export of Chinese culture, and increasing opportunities for the development and distribution of Chinese films in North America. Meanwhile, CineCina is going to put the rapid development of Chinese film under more diversified exposure, and extends the influence of Chinese cultural industry in North America.

Best wishes to Everyone, and see you next week!
Brendan

Mandarin I ALESN Class Summary and Notes Monday, April 1, 2019

Hi Gang,

Big delay this time, this week. I was all set to get up early today and type this, but there was a huge explosion on my block here in Brooklyn and the entire block without power this morning as Con Ed figures out how to fix the issue. SO, I am at a cafe on my laptop because THAT is how dedicated I am to bringing you guys your weekly update email...ahem...6 days late...ahem...

Anywho...

This past Monday, we covered Lesson 3 Dialogue 2's vocabulary and dialogue. We will pick up tomorrow night with the 2 grammar points for this dialogue and then you will break up into small groups to do the Language Practice exercises.

Of particular note for Lesson 3 Dialogue 2:

• The placement of time phrases (now, today, tonight, tomorrow night, etc.) in a Mandarin Chinese sentence. These time phrases can ONLY go in 2 possible places: either right before or right after the subject: "You TODAY (very) busy" or "TODAY, you (very) busy" -- BUT NEVER "You very busy TODAY" word order wise (syntax-wise). It is very important that you remember this always for the rest of your time studying and speaking Mandarin Chinese. 1 billion people thank you in advance.
• We discussed the grammar of HEN3 as A PLACEHOLDER for "Subject [is/are] adjective" statements in Mandarin. Remember that although equivalent English sentences involve some form of the verb TO BE ("He IS fat," "She IS ugly," etc.), the equivalent Chinese grammar dictates use of HEN3 as A PLACEHOLDER between the subject and the adjective, BUT EVEN THOUGH HEN3 TECHNICALLY MEANS "VERY," IN THIS PARTICULAR USAGE, A "SUBJECT [IS] ADJECTIVE" STATEMENT IN CHINESE USING HEN3 DOESN'T NECESSARILY MEAN THAT THE SUBJECT IS ACTUALLY "VERY" THAT ADJECTIVE. Huh?! If you were in class, please remember that I went on and on about this for like 15 or more minutes. If you were not in class, please Google the use of HEN3 in "subject is adjective" type Mandarin statement sentences and you will learn that if you do not use HEN3 as a placeholder in such statements, you will imply a comparison between the subject and some other unspecified person or thing related to that adjective. Don't worry; I will explain again tomorrow night! Feel free to email me with any questions if you don't understand this fundamental Mandarin Chinese grammatical concept. It is very important that you eventually understand what I am talking about here!
• Memorize WHY and BECAUSE and pay special attention to how we use these new vocabulary words in this lesson and going forward. Asking WHY things are the way they are and explaining to people that things are such and such way BECAUSE of such and such reason is fundamental to your growing ability to communicate with people in basic Mandarin.
• Notice the way that Bai2 Ying1 Ai4 invites Wang2 Peng2 to dinner -- first inquiring about his schedule and then working around his lack of availability to have dinner that evening. This is good, basic language stuff and should be understood, drilled, and memorized asap.

We will review the vocabulary and dialogue for the first 5 minutes or so of class tomorrow night, then go through the grammar points and break into small groups for the Language Practice. Ideally, I would like to finish this dialogue tomorrow and either preview Lesson 4 Dialogue 1 at the end of class tomorrow night or begin the following class with the next dialogue and its vocabulary.

See everyone tomorrow night.

Best,
Brendan

Mandarin I ALESN Class Email Summary and Notes from last Monday's class and see you all tomorrow!

Hi Everyone,

Yet again, I am delinquent in sending out my weekly summary and notes email for what we covered in last Monday's class. Hopefully, everyone reviewed the material that we covered in last class and will come to class tomorrow night ready to continue with Lesson 3 Dialogue 2: Inviting Someone to Dinner, which we will begin tomorrow night.

Last Monday, we began class by reviewing the numbers in all of their glory as covered by Lesson 3 Dialogue 1, and then reiterating the first several, very detailed grammar points and their charts on pages 70-75. If you haven't already memorized the following, you need to asap:

• the numbers from 0 to 99
• basic telling of dates and time
• the 3 systems for telling days of the week
• the 12 months
• the syntax (word order) for telling complete dates in Chinese ("Sunday, March 31, 2019" said in the proper Mandarin word order)
• the various vocabulary words and concepts introduced on pages 74 to 75, allowing you to tell time in 15 minute increments or according to the exact time (3:17)

I know this is a lot of new information, but you just need to memorize it.

All of it.

Sorry, not sorry.

Following a review of the numbers and all of the charts mentioned above, I went over the 3 additional non-numerical grammar points on pages 76-77:

• The use of DE as " 's " ("apostrophe s") to suggest possession and when it can be omitted when speaking of close personal and family relationships. We actually covered this briefly way back before Christmas break, when we first saw DE and a few students asked about this exact topic. Please review the way your textbook explains this concept on the top of page 76 and come to class with any questions regarding eliminating or requiring DE for "apostrophe s" for close personal relationships and family members.
• The sentence structure of "I will treat you to dinner." WO3 QING3 NI3 CHI1 FAN4. Please review this and come to class tomorrow with any questions regarding the grammar or syntax (specific word order in Mandarin Chinese) of this sentence.
• Alternative Questions (asking about this OR that). "Is it this OR that?" "Did you do this OR that?" Etc... In this case, we are learning to use HAI2SHI TO ASK THIS OR THAT QUESTIONS. Please note that HAI2SHI is used in questions, but either a spoken pause (a comma is used in written English and Chinese) or HUO4ZHE3 (not covered yet) are used IN STATEMENTS (i.e. in responses to HAI2SHI questions). We will see this again in future lessons when choice questions are asked. Please study the 4 examples, as well as a possible response using a spoken pause (written comma) in example 4 on page 77.

From here, I quickly reviewed Lesson 3 Dialogue 1's vocabulary and dialogue, so we would remember what happened, as you all needed that information for the Language Practice exercises that you did in small groups and pairs on pages 78-82. We finished out the class with me walking around helping everyone with any questions regarding the Language Practice exercises for Lesson 3 Dialogue 1.

Please review this material before tomorrow's class, if you haven't already. Tomorrow night we will jump right into the next Dialogue and its vocabulary on pages 83-85.

See everyone tomorrow night!

Mandarin I ALESN Class summary and notes from this past Monday, March 18, 2019

Hi Gang,

Another late email. It happens.

This past Monday, we covered:

• a quick mention of Lesson 3 Dialogue 1's premise and its use of numbers, dates, days of the week, etc.
• the chart for the numbers from 1 to 99, plus a brief mention of the words for zero and 100 -- on page 70
• Dates and Time on pages 71-75

We covered a lot with various uses of numbers this past Monday, but at this point, the MOST important thing is that you take the chart on page 70 of your book and mark it in your mind. Memorize it, make sure that you understand the system for using the words for the numbers 1 through 9 and the word for 10 to create all of the rest of the numbers from 11 through 99. I cannot do the work for you. I have presented you with the table and you simply need to memorize it.

How to memorize and work on your progressively faster recall of the numbers so that you can eventually use them comfortably, in real time, when telling time or handling money or counting objects or whatever?

There are all kinds of exercises you can do for yourself, but the 3 that I mentioned in class which worked the best for me when I was first learning my Chinese numbers and telling time were:

1. Simply telling time -- lots of different times throughout the day -- in Mandarin. Every few minutes, pause and recite the time back to yourself in Mandarin to practice the system that we have learned;
2. Looking at every license plate as you walk down the street, anytime you walk down any street until you have learned your numbers well, and say to yourself the numbers component of that license place. Be careful to make sure you get it right, check your answers the first few times to make sure you are remembering the vocabulary words, and then go nuts, challenging yourself to say the number portions of as many license plates as possible to yourself while walking down the street from your home to the subway or from your job to lunch or whatever; AND
3. Grab a page from your company's phone directory, or from any phone book for that matter, and just start reciting phone numbers in Mandarin.  You already "know" the numbers from 0 to 9. Go nuts and try to read as many phone numbers as possible in Chinese before your brain cramps. Seriously, feel your brain start to cramp and then say maybe 3 or 4 more full phone numbers. This is like cranking out extra reps at the gym with a spotter. You are cranking out extra brain reps. Good for your language learning brain -- I promise you -- and good for general cognition, regardless of the subject matter.

If you haven't already, take some time this weekend and work on your numbers using any or a combination of the above 3 suggested methods. Or make up your own fun study routine with the numbers. If you come up with something good that works for you, please share in class this coming Monday.

After discussing the numbers in general during our last class, we took a look at dates, beginning with DAYS OF THE WEEK. Please memorize the first 2 systems on page 72 and be aware of system 3 using the word ZHOU1. This system is mainly for written Chinese, whereas the other 2 systems at the top of this table are for spoken Mandarin.

Next, we covered MONTHS. Remember that in Chinese, the months are named by simply taking the numbers 1 through 12 and adding the word month afterwards. This is similar to the naming of the first six days of the Chinese week (in principle, but with the word order reversed). If you don't understand what I just said, reread it until you do, because this statement will help you to memorize and remember your days of the week and months in Mandarin Chinese.

From here, we briefly discussed the principle of naming things in Chinese in a progression from most general to most specific, and we showed how the word order for Saturday, March 23, 2019 in Mandarin is:

TWO ZERO ONE NINE YEAR, THREE MONTH, TWENTY THREE DAY, SATURDAY

Live it. Love it. Learn It.

We talked about the use of the word LIANG3 for 2 o'clock -- WE DON'T USE THE WORD ER4 FOR TWO WHEN TELLING TIME! We talked about telling exact times using FEN1. Our visitor, native speaker Qian Qian from Taiwan, confirmed various uses of FEN1 when telling time. We talked about the use of KE4 and BAN4 to tell time in 15 minute increments: a quarter after, half past, and three quarters after such and such hour.

PLEASE REVIEW THE TELLING TIME EXPLANATIONS ON PAGES 74-75 OF YOUR TEXTBOOK.

We will pick up on Monday with the several non-numbers grammar points on pages 76-77, and then you will break up into pairs or small groups to do the Language Practice exercises on pages 78-82. This will put us in position to begin Lesson 3 Dialogue 2 the following class.

See everyone on Monday.

Best to All,

Brendan

ALESN Mandarin I Class summary and notes from Monday night, 3/11/19 Class -- sorry for delay

Hi Gang,

Sorry for my delay in sending this. Luckily for me, we covered some material that I taught last year, so I will once again paste a blog entry from last year for you all to reference this weekend before next Monday night's class.

This past Monday, we backtracked a bit and covered the Lesson 2 Dialogue 2 grammar point DOU1 (both or all) on pages 53 and 54. These were very important points that we did not cover the previous week before moving onto Lesson 3 Dialogue 1. Here, again, is a blog entry covering this grammar point:

http://www.sayitrightchinese.com/2018/01/mandarin-i-alesn-thursday-january-18.html

Following this, we went over the vocabulary and dialogue for Lesson 3 Dialogue 1, covered by this blog entry from last year. You guys broke up into small groups and ran the dialogue and I think that everyone did ok with it -- there were some questions, but everyone seemed comfortable with the new material:

• Remember that in Chinese, the names of the 12 months are simply the word for the number 1 through 12 plus the word for "month." Thus, the word for September, the 9th month out of the year, is JIU3YUE4, literally "9 month."
• Though not discussed yet, please remember that when we mention any quantity of any noun in Chinese, we need to insert a measure word between the quantity and the noun. This will hold true when speaking about "9 months" as in, "9 months ago" or "he has studied Chinese for 9 months," which would be JIU3 GE YUE4: 4 measure word month. We will cover this eventually, but I am mentioning it now so you can keep in in mind.
• We will learn all of the numbers from zero to 99 or 100 starting next week, which will create a system for you to memorize many of the new vocabulary words from Lesson 3 Dialogue 1.
• The weekly calendar in Chinese begins with Monday, which is considered the first day of each week. Monday through Saturday are simply called, "WEEK [day] ONE," etc. up to "WEEK [day] SIX." There will be a separate term for Sunday, which we will learn next week.
• Obviously, when discussing when someone's birthday is, we need to be able to say the terms for various days, dates, days of the week, etc. That covers some of the new vocabulary words from this lesson.
• Talking about age using SUI4. We will discuss more of this and see more examples next week.
• Various vocabulary terms for telling time, which we will see more of next week in the grammar points for this lesson and dialogue. Please review what we have covered so far and be ready to continue with our discussion of telling time next Monday.
• Finally, we covered the table on page 70 for the numbers from 1 through 99. PLEASE REVIEW THIS TABLE AND BE READY TO TALK ABOUT IT ON MONDAY.

We will pick up on Monday with this table/chart. Remember that there is a whole system with a chart/table and once you memorize the system (and once you PRACTICE...), you will be able to easily say any number from 1 to 99!

See you all on Monday. Again, sorry for the delay in sending this out.

ALL ALESN CLASSES ARE CANCELLED FOR TOMORROW -- MONDAY, MARCH 4, 2019

Hi Gang,

Per the ALESN website email that was just sent out:

There will be NO classes Monday 3/4. The school is closed Monday 3/4 due to the winter storm.

As I have mentioned many, MANY times, please make sure that all of you are subscribed to and are receiving weekly website email updates from www.alesn.org. They look like this:

Though I was able to double up on the communications this time and send an email to all of my currently registered students for my 2 Monday night classes, I have no way of getting in touch with any drop-ins or any former students who might decide to stop by and rejoin my class at any given time. However, if you've signed up for the website email updates, which are usually sent once a week (except in the case of inclement weather school closings or other schedule changes), you will always know about any ALESN schedule changes as they happen -- in case I am not able to get in touch with you all last minute one day, etc.

Sorry that we will miss another Monday night. See you all the following Monday. Be safe in the snow tomorrow, and when you have time this coming week, please review the appropriate vocabulary and dialogue for your class so that we can pick up where we left off a week from tomorrow.

Best,

Brendan

Mandarin I ALESN Monday Night 2/25/19 Class Summary and Notes

Hi Gang,

This past Monday, we began Lesson 3 Dialogue 1 vocabulary and dialogue. HOWEVER, that is not where we left off the previous class.

You guys jumped ahead a few pages. When I asked where we were in the class, whoever told me was wrong, and whoever agreed with that person/persons was also not paying attention during our previous class.

No problem.

It's all good, because it was my responsibility for believing you guys. I accept full responsibility for accidentally skipping several important pages at the end of Lesson 2 Dialogue 2's Grammar Points. Therefore, we will need to backtrack a bit next Monday, catch up, and then move forward.

Please review Lesson 2 Dialogue 2 from this next blog entry below. This is just to set the stage for the stuff that we missed.

http://www.sayitrightchinese.com/2018/01/mandarin-i-alesn-thursday-january-11.html

I am absolutely certain that I did not cover some of the following material yet in your class, also from Lesson 2 Dialogue 2:

http://www.sayitrightchinese.com/2018/01/mandarin-i-alesn-thursday-january-18.html

I know this because the subtle nuances of mixed uses of bu4 and mei2 with you3 (to have) on the bottom of page 54 always confuse multiple students every year and lead to a somewhat long discussion each year regarding how this works. We absolutely did not discuss this particular stuff yet in your class.

This is where we will pick up next Monday, with the material covered in the second blog entry above (the Grammar Points for Lesson 2 Dialogue 2 -- mainly Grammar Point # 7). From here, we will quickly do the Lesson 2 Dialogue 2 Language Practice. And then, finally, we will move on to Lesson 3 -- hopefully towards the end of next Monday's class.

Regarding our false start with Lesson 3 Dialogue 1 last week, we went over the vocab and then I repeated the dialogue 3 times (3 different speeds from slow to almost normal). Once I go over the remainder of the Lesson 2 Dialogue 2 material mentioned above, we will finally move onto Lesson 3. At that point, we will review the vocab, dialogue, break into groups and then do the Grammar Points for Lesson 3 Dialogue 1. These will mainly focus on the numbers from 0 to 99. We will learn numbers, then applications of numbers, such as telling time, days of the week, months, years, and even the concept of money eventually.

But for now, sorry...we need to finish Lesson 2 Dialogue 2's Grammar Points. Future lessons will assume that you have learned this material and have some command of it. I would rather explain this stuff to you now than have to backtrack later on when the same material is repeated in the book and you guys might be confused about what is going on -- especially the dou1 stuff on page 54.

See you all on Monday,

Brendan

ALESN Monday night Mandarin I class summary and notes from 2/11/19: NO CLASS NEXT MONDAY 2/18 FOR PRESIDENT'S DAY/MID-WINTER BREAK!!!

ALESN Monday night Mandarin I class summary and notes from 2/11/19: NO CLASS NEXT MONDAY 2/18 FOR PRESIDENT'S DAY/MID-WINTER BREAK!!

Hi Gang,

PLEASE REMEMBER:

*NO CLASS NEXT MONDAY 2/18 FOR PRESIDENT'S DAY/MID-WINTER BREAK!!!*

At some point soon, our class is going to move past where I stopped teaching last year when I turned my class over to Jeremy G. Until that time, thankfully, I can send you links to last school year's blog entries, because yet again this was a busy week for me.

Please refer to the following 2018 blog entries covering lesson 2 Dialogue 2 and its related vocabulary:

http://www.sayitrightchinese.com/2017/12/mandarin-i-alesn-thursday-dec-21-2017.html

http://www.sayitrightchinese.com/2018/01/mandarin-i-alesn-thursday-january-11.html

In addition:

YOUR HOMEWORK (ONCE AGAIN) IS TO WATCH THE DVD VIDEO SEGMENT FROM EITHER THE SAN FRANCISCO STATE OR THE RHODE ISLAND UNIVERSITY WEBSITE, SENT TO YOU LAST YEAR.

Please come to class 2 Mondays from now with a good basic understanding of the dialogue that we covered this past Monday, having watched it several times in the scene from the DVD. Because you have 2 weeks, please also memorize all of the new vocabulary for this dialogue.

Next class, we will break into very brief groups at the beginning of the lesson to review the dialogue, since we didn't get much time for that last at the end of this past Monday night's class -- and then we will cover the grammar points from this dialogue. I encourage you to also preview the grammar points on pages 53-54, as well as the Language Practice exercises on pages 55-59, which we will hopefully do at the end of next class.

See you all IN 2 WEEKS (not next Monday),

Brendan