The next Mandarin Training Course for beginners will start in July/August in Johannesburg (Edenvale). If you are further away you can join us via Skype. This course will take place on Saturdays and you are more than welcome to e-mail me on lucia@mandarintraining.co.za for more information or to book. This is the Table of Contents of this course showing the logical and systematic way the language will be taught.

1. Practical Mandarin I
©Copyright 2013. Lucia Hau-Yoon. All rights reserved. Designed by Lucia Hau-Yoon i
Revised 2016
Table of Contents
The characteristic of Mandarin …………………………………….…………………… iv
Reference for Pinyin …………………………………….…………………………. vi
Key to symbols …………………………………….………………………………… x
Four tones ………………………………………………………………… 1
Third-tone sandhi ………………………………………………………………… 2
Four tones diagram ………………………………………………………………… 3
Some Everyday Expressions ……………………………………………………………… 4
Lesson 1 “nǐ de jiārén hǎo ma? –How’s your family ?
Dialogue ……………………………………………………………… 5
Vocabulary for Lesson 1 ……………………….……………………………… 6
Memory work . …… ………………………………………….…………...… 7
Supplementary vocabulary …………………………………………......... 7
Word usage ................…………………………………………………… 8
Drills ………………………………………………………………… 9
Review for Lesson 1 ………………………………………………………………… 10
Patterns: for Lesson 1 ………………………………………………………………… 11
Receiving a compliment in a Chinese way…………………………………………… 12
Lesson 2 “nǐ hē shénme? – What do you drink?
Dialogue - Situation 1 ……………………………………………………………… 13
Vocabulary for Situation 1 ……………………….……………………………… 13
Dialogue - Situations 2 & Situation 3………………………………………………… 14
Vocabulary for Situations 1 & 2……………………….……………………………… 14
Drinks and Food . …… ………………………………………….…………...… 15
Memory work . …… ………………………………………….…………...… 16
Supplementary vocabulary …………………………………………......... 16
Word usage ................…………………………………………………… 17
Drills ………………………………………………………………… 18
Review for Lesson 2 ………………………………………………………………… 19
Patterns: for Lesson 2 ………………………………………………………………… 20
Lesson 3 “nín guìxìng? -May I ask your name?”
Dialogue - Situation 1 ……………………………………………………………… 22
Vocabulary for Situation 1 ……………………….……………………………… 22
Dialogue - Situations 2 ………………………………………………………. 23
Vocabulary for Situations 2 ……………………….……………………………… 23
Memory work . …… ………………………………………….…………...… 24
Supplementary vocabulary …………………………………………......... 24
Word usage ................…………………………………………………… 25
Drills ………………………………………………………………… 25
Review for Lesson 3 ………………………………………………………………… 27

2. Practical Mandarin I
©Copyright 2013. Lucia Hau-Yoon. All rights reserved. Designed by Lucia Hau-Yoon ii
Revised 2016
Patterns: for Lesson 3 ………………………………………………………………… 28
Lesson 4 “zhè ge duōshǎo qián? – How much is this?”
Dialogue - Situation 1 ………………………………………………………………. 29
Vocabulary for Situation 1 ……………………….……………………………… 29
Numbers 1 – 10 & 0 ………...……………………………………………………… 30
Dialogue - Situations 2 ……………………………………………………… 31
Vocabulary for Situations 2……………………….………………………………….. 31
Supplementary vocabulary ………………………………………................................ 31
Memory work . …… ………………………………………….…………...… 32
Clothing …………………………………………......... 33
Colours …………………………………………......... 34
Word usage ................…………………………………………………… 35
Drills ………………………………………………………………… 35
Review for Lesson 4 ………………………………………………………………… 37
Patterns: for Lesson 4 ………………………………………………………………… 38
Lesson 5 “jiārén hé qīnqi – Family and relativies.”
Dialogue ……………………………………………………………… 41
Vocabulary for Lesson 5 ……………………….……………………………… 42
Memory work . …… ………………………………………….…………...… 42
Supplementary vocabulary …………………………………………......... 43
Family terms ................…………………………………………………… 44
Word usage ................…………………………………………………… 45
Drills ………………………………………………………………… 47
Review for Lesson 5 ………………………………………………………………… 48
Self-introduction ................…………………………………………………… 49
Patterns: for Lesson 5 ………………………………………………………………… 50
Lesson 6 “zài nǎlǐ? – Where is it?”
Dialogue Part One ……………………………………………………………… 51
Vocabulary for Part One ……………………….…………………………………… 51
Dialogue Part two ……………………………………………………………… 52
Vocabulary for Part Two ……………………….……………………………… 52
Supplementary vocabulary …………………………………………......... 53
Memory work . …… ………………………………………….…………...… 55
Word usage ................…………………………………………………… 56
Drills ………………………………………………………………… 57
Review for Lesson 6 ………………………………………………………………… 59
Patterns: for Lesson 6 ………………………………………………………………… 61
Lesson 7 “chī Zhōngguó cài – Having Chinese meal ”
Dialogue ……………………………………………………………… 62
Vocabulary for Lesson 7 ……………………….……………………………… 63

3. Practical Mandarin I
©Copyright 2013. Lucia Hau-Yoon. All rights reserved. Designed by Lucia Hau-Yoon iii
Revised 2016
Supplementary vocabulary …………………………………………......... 64
Memory work . …… ………………………………………….…………...… 65
Verb-Ocject compound (VO) ..........…………………………………………………… 66
Word usage ................…………………………………………………… 67
Drills ………………………………………………………………… 68
Review for Lesson 7 ………………………………………………………………… 70
Patterns: for Lesson 7 ………………………………………………………………… 71
Picture of Modifier de ………………………………………............................…….. 74
Lesson 8 “dào nǎlǐ qù? –Where to to to?”
Dialogue - Situation 1 ……………………………………………………………… 75
Vocabulary for Situation 1 ……………………….……………………………… 76
Dialogue - Situations 2 ………………………………………………… 76
Vocabulary for Situations 2……………………….……………………………… 77
Dialogue - Situations 3 ………………………………………………… 77
Vocabulary for Situations 3……………………….……………………………… 77
Dialogue - Situation 4 ……………………………………………………………… 78
Vocabulary for Situations 4……………………….……………………………… 78
Supplementary vocabulary …………………………………………......... 79
dào – PW – lái/qù . …… ………………………………………….…………...… 80
The purpose of coming lái or going qù ……………………………….…………...… 81
The Completed Action le ………………………………………….…………...….. 81
Memory work . …… ………………………………………….…………...… 82
Word usage ................…………………………………………………….. 83
Drills ………………………………………………………………… 84
Review for Lesson 8 ………………………………………………………………… 87
Notes for zài ............………………………………………………………… 88
Patterns for Lesson8 …………………………………………………………….. …. 89
Recipe – Three Cup Chicken ……………………………………….………………… 91
Glossary – Chinese to English ……………………………………….……………… 92
Glossary – English to Chinese ……………………………………….……………… 107
Chronological chart of Chinese historical dynasties .............................................................. 122
Chinese map - six parts ……………………………………….………………… 123
Chinese map – with neighbouring countries ……………………………….………………… 124
Chinese map – provinces and major cities………………………………….………………… 125
Names of the provinces and Capital cities …………………………………….……………… 126
Names of 4 municipalities, 5 Autonomous region and 2 special administrative region ………… 127

4. Practical Mandarin I
©Copyright 2013. Lucia Hau-Yoon. All rights reserved. Designed by Lucia Hau-Yoon iv
Revised 2016
What is the Chinese language?
The confusion can be illustrated by the following dialogues:
A: I hear you’ve begun to study Chinese.
B: Yes.
A: It’s a tough language, isn’t it?
B: It sure is.
A: What does this Chinese character mean?
B: I don’t know.
A: I thought you said you were studying Chinese!
B: I meant, I’m learning how to speak Chinese.
Now you understand that there is a difference between the written language and the spoken
language. What other differences are there?
A: Can you speak Chinese?
B: Yes, I can.
A: We will have a visitor from Taiwan next week. Can you help us do some interpretation?
B: I’m sorry. I cannot help you. I speak Cantonese and people from Taiwan speak Mandarin
or Taiwanese.
Now you understand that spoken Chinese includes a number of different dialects.
Romanisation system
The most commonly encountered Romanisation system are: Wade-Giles, Yale and Pinyin.
Wade-Giles Romanisation was created by two English diplomat-scholars (Sir Thomas Wade and
H.A. Giles) in the beginning of nineteenth century, and was formerly often used in textbooks and
dictionaries (e.g. Matthews’ Chinese-English Dictionary). Until 1960s it was the standard
Romanisation for representing Chinese words in English. It has been also commonly used for
library catalogues in most countries.
Yale, devised by several scholars at Yale Institute of Far Eastern Language of Yale University in
the 1940s, was for many years the most widely used Romanisation for teaching Chinese in the
U.S. A number of common textbooks and dictionaries follow this Romanisation.
Pinyin is the official Romanisation of the People’s Republic of China and has been used
commonly in Western language publications about China since 1990.
The characteristic of Mandarin Monosyllables - A syllable is represented by a single
written character
Two or more characters may be used to form polysyllable compound words e.g.
Chinese character 谢 谢 飞机 律 师 电 脑
Pinyin xièxie fējī lǜshī diànnăo
literal translation thank thank flying machine law master electric brain
free translation thanks aeroplane lawyer computer

5. Practical Mandarin I
©Copyright 2013. Lucia Hau-Yoon. All rights reserved. Designed by Lucia Hau-Yoon v
Revised 2016
The characteristic of Mandarin - A Non-inflectional language
• verbs are not inflected for person:
character 你 去 我 去 他 去
Pinyin nǐ qù wǒ qù tā qù
English you go I go he goes
• verbs are not inflected for numbers:
character 一 个 人 有 书 五 个 人 有 书
Pinyin yī – ge – rén yǒu shū wǔ – ge – rén yǒu shū
English one ge person has book five ge persons have book
• verbs are not inflected for tense:
character 我 在吃 我 吃了 我 还 没 吃 我 要 吃
Pinyin wǒ zài chī wo chī le wo hái-méi chī wǒ yào chī
English I am eat I eat le I not yet eat I’m going to eat
I’m eating I ate. I haven’t eaten yet. I’m going to eat
• nouns are not inflected for numbers:
character 一 本 书 八 本 书
Pinyin yī – běn – shū bā – běn – shū
English one ben book eight ben books
• there is no difference between subject and object for pronounces:
character 我 爱 他 他 爱 我
Pinyin wǒ ài tā tā ài wǒ
English I love him He loves me