Essential classroom Mandarin Chinese
Learning Chinese in Chinese
We all know that practice makes perfect and that we should practice a foreign language as much as we can in order to learn it. Still, many learners feel that it's hard to start speaking a language they don't know. There are few useful things you can say with the limited vocabulary you learn as a beginner. Sure, you can create conversations about your family and tell people who you are, but this only
counts as real communication if you're actually telling a stranger about yourself, which is unlikely to be the case in the classroom.
Speak Chinese in the classroom
One thing you should do from day one is to try to speak as much Chinese as you can in the classroom. This ought to be obvious and is indeed common practice in many second language environments (e.g. when you learn Chinese in China), but it's fairly common that teachers don't insist on it if you're learning Chinese at home. One reason might be that if the teacher speaks the language of the students, it's much easier to communicate. However, making things too easy also means that you're not learning as much as you could.
Therefore, whether or not your teacher emphasizes this, you should speak as much Chinese as you can in the classroom. In this article, we will look at some important phrases that are incredibly useful. Learn them as chunks even if you don't understand exactly how the grammar works. You will use them so often that
they will become part of your active vocabulary very soon. Learning these phrases will also teach you about basic grammar, word order, pronunciation and so on.
Phrases you can use to speak more Chinese in the classroom
These phrases are all very common even if some of them might sound odd in English. For instance, in Chinese it's normal to greet each teacher the first time you meet him or her that day, using the proper address 老师 (老師) lǎoshī. You should also add the teachers family name after 老师, so if you want to address me, you can say 凌老师. The following phrases are arranged roughly in the order they might appear during a lesson:
| Good morning! |
| 早上好！ |
| 早上好！ |
| zǎoshanghǎo！ |
| Good morning, teacher! |
| 老师，早上好！ |
| 老師，早上好！ |
| lǎoshī，zǎoshanghǎo！ |
| Open the book on page X. |
| 请打开书的第X页。 |
| 請打開書的第X頁 |
| qǐng dǎkāi shū de dì X yè |
| Read the text in chapter 4 aloud. |
| 请大声朗读第四章的课文。 |
| 請大聲朗讀第四章的課文。 |
| qǐng dàshēng lǎngdú dìsìzhāng de kèwén。 |
| Create sentences with the new words for this chapter. |
| 请用这一课学过的新词造句。 |
| 請用這一課學過的新詞造句。 |
| qǐng yòng zhèyíkè xuéguò de xīncí zàojù。 |
| Do the exercises on page X. |
| 请完成第X页的练习。 |
| 請完成第X頁的練習。 |
| qǐng wánchéng dì X yè de liànxí。 |
| Teacher, I have a question. |
| 老师，我有一个问题。 |
| 老師，我有一個問題。 |
| lǎoshī，wǒ yǒu yíge wèntí。 |
| How do I say X in Chinese? |
| X用中文怎么说？ X的中文是什么？ |
| X用中文怎麼說 ？X的中文是什麼？ |
| X yòng Zhōngwén zěnmeshuō？ |
| What does X mean? |
| X是什么意思？ |
| X是什麼意思？ |
| X shì shénme yìsi？ |
| Do I wirte this character the right way? |
| 我的笔画对吗？ |
| 我的筆畫對嗎？ |
| wǒ de bǐhuà duì ma？ |
| Am I pronouncing this word correctly? |
| 我的发音正确吗？ |
| 我的發音正確嗎？ |
| wǒ de fāyīn zhèngquè ma？ |
| What tone is this? |
| 这是什么声调？ |
| 這是什麼聲調？ |
| zhè shì shénme shēngdiào？ |
| Can you please say that again. |
| 请你再說一遍。 |
| 請你再說一遍。 |
| qǐng nǐ zàishuō yíbiàn。 |
| Please speak more slowly. |
| 请说慢一点。 |
| 請說慢一點。 |
| qǐng shuō màn yìdiǎn。 |
| Good, that's right! |
| 很好，回答正确。 |
| 很好，回答正確。 |
| hěnhǎo，huídá zhèngquè。 |
| That's wrong, please try again. |
| 不对，请再来一遍。 |
| 不對，請在來一次。 |
| búduì，qǐng zàilái yícì。 |
| Your homework for tomorrow is... |
| 你们明天的作业是.... |
| 你們明天的作業是... |
| nǐmen míngtiān de zuòyè shì... |
| That's all for today, see you tomorrow! |
| 今天就到这里，明天见！ |
| 今天就到這裏，明天見！ |
| jīntiān jiù dào zhèlǐ，míngtiānjiàn！ |
Conclusion
You have no excuse to not use basic Chinese in the classroom. The earlier you start doing it, the sooner it will become natural. Practice makes perfect, good luck!