10/25/18 ALESN Mandarin I Monday night class summary and notes FOR 10/22 CLASS

ALESN Mandarin I Monday night class summary and notes

---

	Thu, Oct 25, 2018 at 8:33 AM
Hi Gang, Thanks to everyone who attended class this past Monday. If you missed class, here is what we covered, as well as the Homework for next week: As I mentioned, everyone should please read or skim everything from the very beginning of the book up to what we covered in class. People keep asking me for page #s. I will make it very simple: Open up your book, read the very first page inside the cover and keep reading or skimming until you hit what we covered during Monday's class. It doesn't need to be any more complicated than that. I am asking you all to give yourselves an overview of the textbook by reading the publisher's intro material about how the book is organized and the goals of the book for a college freshman Mandarin Chinese I class, which it was designed for. Please stop asking me what pages to read. READ OR SKIM THE ENTIRE FRONT OF THE BOOK UP TO THE PRONUNCIATION MATERIAL THAT WE COVERED ON MONDAY. Now to what we covered in class: We covered pages 1 and 2. That's it. It took an entire hour for me to go over the simple finals and the initial consonant sounds of the BO PO MO FO table. We will review this material next week and going forward as much as we have to. YOUR HOMEWORK IS TO GO ON YOUTUBE AND WATCH AS MANY DIFFERENT BO PO MO FO MANDARIN CHINESE PRONUNCIATION VIDEOS AS YOU HAVE TIME FOR AND CAN FIND. PLEASE SPEND AT LEAST 30 MINUTES DOING THIS. The best ones are usually the very juvenile ones with pink ponies and purple hearts and little baby Mandarin children in high voices pronouncing the syllables. Try to find at least one with an adult voice as well, though, to make sure you are hearing everything clearly. The only way to get these sounds into your mind and mouth is to listen and listen and listen over and over again until you get them. Several observations: Nearly every single student in the class was able to almost perfectly parrot back to me the exact sounds that I asked to you repeat on Monday, with few exceptions. Even if certain among you were not perfect, almost everyone pronounced the sounds of the simple finals and the bo po mo fo table WITHIN A WINDOW OF WHAT WOULD BE ACCEPTABLE TO A NATIVE SPEAKER. This means that nearly every one of you has the potential to pronounce this language correctly. The question is, can you eventually do it in slow but real time without repeating after another speaker? Can you eventually take the vocabulary and sentence structures we are going to learn this year and use them to formulate your own basic thoughts in Mandarin and then express these thoughts out loud from scratch and have a native speaker who doesn't know you understand what you are trying to communicate? I would like to suggest that WHILE ALMOST EVERYONE IN THE CLASS DEMONSTRATED THE POTENTIAL ABILITY TO DO THAT ON MONDAY, VERY FEW OF YOU WILL ACCOMPLISH THIS GOAL THIS YEAR. That is ok. Please just realize that YOU (yes, you) have a real potential to speak this language accurately. I pointed out that you all NEED to approach the sounds of Mandarin Chinese first and foremost as a set of sounds that are NOTHING like English or French or Spanish or Russian or whatever your first language might be. I tell you this, but as the year unfolds, most of you will revert to pronouncing the syllables of pinyin JUST LIKE your first language. Please don't do that to yourself. Allow yourself to learn something new, and keep it new by constantly being aware that it is not supposed to sound ANYTHING like your first language -- even AND ESPECIALLY if your first language is Cantonese or another Chinese dialect! I pointed out some of the cardinal sins of beginner Mandarin students and explained that you must never EVER pronounce certain syllables this way from the bo po mo fo table or from the list of simple finals. I made a big deal of this. I even went so far as to be borderline insulting to suggest that if some of you make these very basic mistakes and keep making these mistakes over and over again without fixing them, you will sound like AN IDIOT. In spite of my possibly offensive remarks when discussing this, a certain portion OF YOU will start to make these stupid, stupid errors and will continue to make these moronic, moronic errors all year and for the rest of your time that you attempt to study or speak Mandarin. WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT TO YOURSELVES?! I am giving you everything you need to pronounce this language acceptably to a native speaker. Please do the work and take your time and learn this language properly. Otherwise, some of you are going to feel like an idiot as the year goes by if I keep correcting the same students over and over and over again in order to try to fix these stupid, stupid beginner pronunciation errors. Thanks in advance for being offended enough by me to take this seriously. Next week, we will review the simple finals and the bo po mo fo table. Then we will plow through pages 3, 4, and 5, beginning the COMPOUND FINALS. EXTRA CREDIT HOMEWORK: GO ON YOUTUBE AND RESEARCH AND WATCH 30 MINUTES OF MISCELLANEOUS VIDEOS ON THE COMPOUND FINALS OF MANDARIN CHINESE. The stuff at the top of page 6. This will be our focus at the end of next class and then for the following week, all the while reviewing everything we have covered so far. Put in the time to get these sounds right AND TO KEEP THESE SOUNDS SOUNDING RIGHT. If you get lazy, you are going to make the exact stupid beginner mistakes I just ranted about in number 3 above and both of us are going to feel frustrated. Do yourself a favor and take this pronunciation stuff very, VERY seriously -- RIGHT NOW, before you learn something incorrectly and you need to take even more time to unlearn something you didn't learn properly in the first place. See everyone next week, Brendan

10/22/18 ALESN Mandarin I class -- We will be starting to work from our textbook tonight -- please make sure you bring a book...

ALESN Mandarin I class -- We will be starting to work from our textbook tonight -- please make sure you bring a book, a PDF, a phone/tablet/laptop, or a printout of the Intro section

---

	Mon, Oct 22, 2018 at 2:16 PM
I had mentioned this last week. I apologize for not emailing this past week, but I was swamped with work. Please review last week's pre-class email below, make sure that you are keeping up with what we have covered so far, and that you are ready for tonight's class. Please bring a book, a PDF, a phone/tablet/laptop, or a printout of the Intro pronunciation section tonight, as that is what we will be covering for the next couple of classes. We will NOT be working from handouts tonight and I will NOT have anything to give to any students who come unprepared. See you all in class. Thanks in advance, Brendan

10/22/18 ALESN Cantonese I class -- We are starting the book tonight, in which we will cover a brief conversation and then start to learn pronunciation

ALESN Cantonese I class -- We are starting the book tonight, in which we will cover a brief conversation and then start to learn pronunciation

---

	Mon, Oct 22, 2018 at 2:12 PM
Please reread the email I sent last week, make sure you have been keeping up, and please review the handout from last week. We will NOT be working from the handout today. We will instead be starting our textbook, as I mentioned last week. I do not have handouts. It is everyone's responsibility to bring a book, a PDF or a printout of lesson 1 tonight. I apologize for not sending an email last week, but I was swamped with work. See everyone tonight. Brendan

10/24/18 ALESN Monday night CANTONESE class summary and notes FOR 10/22/18

ALESN Monday night CANTONESE class summary and notes

---

	Wed, Oct 24, 2018 at 3:08 PM
Hi Gang, This past Monday, we covered pages 2 and 3 in our textbook. I also strongly recommended that everyone read the introductory pages from the very beginning of the book up to page 1. It is always a good idea to know what to expect before you come across new material in a course. This past Monday night, we covered a brief dialogue based on a simple case of mistaken identity. I went through syllable by syllable, tone by tone, then we reviewed the entire short dialogue via the Recapitulation, and then we broke up into small groups for 10 minutes to allow pairs and tables to run the dialogue back and forth several times. I was encouraged by what I heard and by the accuracy of the tones when everyone was repeating immediately after me. This leads me to conclude that ALL of you are capable of producing the correct tones in real time in theory. The trick is to eventually be able to connect everything you are learning so you can produce the correct tones in real time ON YOUR OWN without repeating after someone with correct pronunciation. In general, I feel like we are off to an excellent start. Next week, we will begin to look more in depth at tones and we will begin to explore the basic syllabic building blocks of the sounds of Cantonese Chinese. Please PREVIEW this material from pages 3-12. This is the material that we will cover over the next 2 classes. HOMEWORK: Read from the very beginning of the book through page 1. Review pages 2-3, which were covered in class. Preview pages 3-12, focusing on pages 3-10. LISTEN TO THE MP3 THAT ACCOMPANIES LESSON 1. Try to listen to the entire mp3, so you can begin to allow the sounds of Cantonese to seep into your mind. Best wishes and see everyone next week, Brendan

10/15/18 ALESN Mandarin I class -- welcome back after a 2 week Federal Holiday break -- see everyone tonight...

ALESN Mandarin I class -- welcome back after a 2 week Federal Holiday break -- see everyone tonight...

---

	Mon, Oct 15, 2018 at 10:50 AM
Hi Gang, A few things: Just checking in -- making sure that you have been reviewing the material from the handout we covered 2 weeks ago. Also hoping that each of you has been and will continue to be proactive, exploring various free and low cost independent studies resources online, on YT, checking out Pimsleur Mandarin, etc. Reminder: RECORD YOUR CLASSES FROM YOUR DESK! Every year I ask my students plainly and simply: HOW CAN YOU EXPECT TO LEARN TO SPEAK A BRAND NEW LANGUAGE PROPERLY IF YOU CANNOT LISTEN BACK TO YOURSELF, HEAR WHAT YOU ARE DOING RIGHT AND KEEP THAT, HEAR WHAT YOU ARE DOING WRONG AND FIX THAT, AND IN GENERAL BE ABLE TO CHART YOUR PROGRESS WITH THE WAY THAT THE LANGUAGE SOUNDS? Every year, I ask people this and my students mostly mumble in response -- something to the effect of, "Yeah, yeah, yeah, whateverzzzzz." Then, 9 months later, these same students have really, really SHITTY pronunciation -- the kind of pronunciation that a native speaker would need charades or an English translation to understand. Please, for the love of everything that is holy, take me seriously and record your lessons. RECORD YOUR OWN VOICE MAKING MISTAKES EVERY SINGLE WEEK, and then listen back to each lesson, preferably several times, so that you can fix those mistakes. I am really going to drill pronunciation and tones this year, and I am going to seem like an asshole to some of you. Those of you who feel this way will wind up quitting if you don't do whatever you need to do to sound "Chinesey" when you speak Chinese. For the next few weeks, I am going to ask you all over and over AND OVER again to please record your classes. If any of you is not recording and listening back to your lessons and yet is struggling with pronunciation and tones as the weeks go by, you might as well quit my class, because you will be wasting your time and mine. If you are recording and listening back to all of your lessons and STILL struggling with your pronunciation and tones, you will ALWAYS be welcome in my classes, no matter how long it takes you to learn to pronounce Mandarin accurately. Cool? Cool. In tonight's lesson, we are going to review some basic phrases, maybe repeat the self introductions around the room since it has been 2 weeks, and then begin looking at pronunciation and tones from a general overview perspective, I am also going to take a few minutes to discuss some additional resources that you can all use to supplement your Chinese learning. This is related to # 1 above: Pimsleur Mandarin, Popup Chinese and similar audio and podcast resources Disney and other children's DVDs dubbed into Mandarin with English language subtitles. Researching and finding one or more fun Youtube videos specifically on the bo po mo fo table as well as additional compound final sounds in standard spoken Mandarin Chinese. ALSO: Please print out and bring with you the attached documents (the Word doc is from last class). We will be working from the Word document again tonight, and will also touch on the second document as an intro to the more systematic pronunciation approach presented in your actual textbook. I will have copies of these handouts with me tonight, but I need everyone who attended the first class to please bring the handout that you got last time if possible, so we can save paper. Thanks in advance. Please also either purchase the textbook or confer with your classmates and find a downloadable version by next week. I can tell you that there are multiple sources online of free downloads for the textbook, the audio and even the video that is available for the textbook. I am NOT going to tell you where or how to get a free PDF textbook, but once we are ready to start lesson 1 dialogue 1, I AM going to give you all a link for the University of Rhode Island's Chinese Department's website, where you can download and stream both the audio and complete DVD video for our textbook. See everyone tonight. *PLEASE NOTE THAT THE DOCUMENTS REFERRED TO IN THIS POST ARE THE SAME THAT WERE UPLOADED TO THIS BLOG IN OCTOBER 2017, AS MENTIONED IN AN EARLY BLOG ENTRY FROM THAT TIME.

10/15/18 ALESN Cantonese I class -- welcome back after a 2 week Federal Holiday break -- see everyone tonight...

ALESN Cantonese I class -- welcome back after a 2 week Federal Holiday break -- see everyone tonight...

---

	Mon, Oct 15, 2018 at 10:38 AM
Hi Gang, A few things: Just checking in -- making sure that you have been reviewing the material from the handout we covered 2 weeks ago. Also hoping that each of you has been and will continue to be proactive, exploring various free and low cost independent studies resources online, on YT, checking out Pimsleur Cantonese, etc. Reminder: RECORD YOUR CLASSES FROM YOUR DESK! Every year I ask my students plainly and simply: HOW CAN YOU EXPECT TO LEARN TO SPEAK A BRAND NEW LANGUAGE PROPERLY IF YOU CANNOT LISTEN BACK TO YOURSELF, HEAR WHAT YOU ARE DOING RIGHT AND KEEP THAT, HEAR WHAT YOU ARE DOING WRONG AND FIX THAT, AND IN GENERAL BE ABLE TO CHART YOUR PROGRESS WITH THE WAY THAT THE LANGUAGE SOUNDS? Every year, I ask people this and my students mostly mumble in response -- something to the effect of, "Yeah, yeah, yeah, whateverzzzzz." Then, 9 months later, these same students have really, really SHITTY pronunciation -- the kind of pronunciation that a native speaker would need charades or an English translation to understand. Please, for the love of everything that is holy, take me seriously and record your lessons. RECORD YOUR OWN VOICE MAKING MISTAKES EVERY SINGLE WEEK, and then listen back to each lesson, preferably several times, so that you can fix those mistakes. I am really going to drill pronunciation and tones this year, and I am going to seem like an asshole to some of you. Those of you who feel this way will wind up quitting if you don't do whatever you need to do to sound "Chinesey" when you speak Chinese. For the next few weeks, I am going to ask you all over and over AND OVER again to please record your classes. If any of you is not recording and listening back to your lessons and yet is struggling with pronunciation and tones as the weeks go by, you might as well quit my class, because you will be wasting your time and mine. If you are recording and listening back to all of your lessons and STILL struggling with your pronunciation and tones, you will ALWAYS be welcome in my classes, no matter how long it takes you to learn to pronounce Cantonese accurately. Cool? Cool. In tonight's lesson, we are going to review some basic phrases, do some self introductions around the room, and begin looking at pronunciation and tones from a general overview perspective, I am also going to take a few minutes to discuss some additional resources that you can all use to supplement your Chinese learning. This is related to # 1 above: Pimsleur Cantonese, Popup Cantonese and similar audio and podcast resources Disney and other children's DVDs dubbed into Cantonese with English language subtitles. Researching and finding one or more fun Youtube videos specifically on proper pronunciation and tones of Cantonese. If you want to go to my blog that I kept last year for my ALESN classes and if you click on Cantonese 1 and go wayyyyy back to October of 2017, you will find an entry where I give many Youtube links with feedback regarding the helpfulness of each link, for beginner Cantonese pronunciation and tones videos. I suggest that you all check that out: www.sayitrightchinese.com ALSO: Please print out and bring with you the attached document from last class. We will be working from this document again tonight, mainly from page 1. I will have copies with me, but I need everyone who attended the first class to please bring the handout that you go last time, so we can save paper. Thanks in advance. Please also download your free textbook per my previous long email with textbook info. We will start looking at the textbook next week or the week after. See everyone tonight. *PLEASE NOTE THAT THE DOCUMENTS REFERRED TO IN THIS POST ARE THE SAME THAT WERE UPLOADED TO THIS BLOG IN OCTOBER 2017, AS MENTIONED IN AN EARLY BLOG ENTRY FROM THAT TIME.

10/8/18 REMINDER: NO ALESN MANDARIN CLASS TODAY BECAUSE OF FEDERAL HOLIDAY!!!

REMINDER: NO ALESN MANDARIN CLASS TODAY BECAUSE OF FEDERAL HOLIDAY!!!

---

	Mon, Oct 8, 2018 at 5:48 PM
AND ANOTHER REMINDER THAT ANYTIME THERE IS A FEDERAL HOLIDAY OF ANY KIND, THERE IS NO ALESN THAT DAY!!! We are going to jump right in to pronunciation during next week's class with a brief intro to tones. We will focus on pronunciation and tones for the rest of the year, but we will ONLY focus on these 2 concerns for the next 2 to 3 classes. See you all next Monday, Brendan