Chinese Language Learning: Tones, Characters, and Study Strategies

主意

idea

开了中文课

opened/started chinese class

劝

advise

面对面

face to face

保持

keep

买菜，买日用品，吃饭什么的

buy groceries, daily items, food, something like that

玩意儿

thing

唐人街

chinatown

能看懂多少就算多少

understand as much as you can

几句话就够了

a couple of sentences is enough

词汇

vocab

谈论

talk

分不出

can't tell the difference

字母

letter

并

and

只不过不叫"声调"

it is just not called tones

加上

add

练习

practice

成绩

grades

听写

dictation

罚他们重写

punish them by rewriting

翻译

translate

背诵

recite

依赖

depend

挑战

challenge

经过

After (a period of time)

也许

Perhaps, maybe

已经

already

发现

discover

其实

actually

虽然

although

存在

exist

数数儿

Count (numbers)

注意到

notice

习惯

habit/get used to

语法

grammar

动词

verb

名词

subject

基本上

Basically, on the whole

不变

Does not change

作为

Take to be

学生觉得中国的声调很难学，因为他们常常分不出第二声和第四声。

Students feel that chinese tones are hard, because they cant tell the difference between second and fourth tone.

很多语言没有声调

Many languages dont have tones

因为每一个字都不同，所以要学很多很多字。

Because every letter is differnt, so have to learn many letters

不像西方语言只要学会不到三十个字母就可以拼出很多字了，比学中文汉字简单得多。

Doesnt relate to western languges that uses less than 30 words tro produce many words, wasier to learn than chinese

他认识中文其实并没有那么难。

He knows that chinese acttually isnt that hard

中文的四声在其他的语言里也有

Pther languages have chineses' four tone marks

中文的语法比其他外语的语法简单得多。

Chinese grammer is a lot easier than other languages

用中文是要习惯每个字都要加上声调，这点是要练习的。

when using chinese, you need to get used to adding tone marks to each character, this requires practice

上课时老师会先讲课文

In class, the teacher will first read the text.

然后老师要学生背课文，再把每课的生词都要抄写下来好几次

Then the teacher made the students memorize the text and copy down the new words for each lesson several times.

学生要是字写错了，老师就要罚他们重写

If students misspell a word, the teacher will punish them by making them rewrite it.

姚老师劝同学们多跟中国朋友聊天或者一起出去玩儿。

Teacher Yao encouraged the students to chat more with their Chinese friends or go out and have fun together.

但是如果不能在一起的话，也可以给中国朋友打电话，写信，写电邮或者用Facebook保持联系

But if you can't be together, you can also call, write letters, email, or use Facebook to stay in touch with your Chinese friends.

在饭店里可以用中文点菜，或者跟说中文的店员聊天儿

You can order food in Chinese at restaurants, or chat with the Chinese-speaking staff.

姚老师劝同学们多看中文报纸，多看中文的电视节目

Teacher Yao encouraged the students to read more Chinese newspapers and watch more Chinese television programs.

不能完全都看得懂都听得懂也没有关系，能看懂多少就算多少。

It doesn't matter if you can't understand everything. Just understand as much as you can

大家要用中文写日记，每天都要写，不用写太多，几句话就够了

Everyone should write a diary in Chinese, every day. You don't need to write much, just a few sentences are enough.

把自己哪天做了什么，想了什么等等的事情简简单单得写下来。

Write down simply what you did and thought on each day.

段落

paragraph

经过一年的学习，你们也许已经发现了，学中文其实并没有那么难。

After a year of study, you may have discovered that learning Chinese is not actually that difficult.