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edX Mandarin level 3 Lesson 1 and 2


Shelley

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Welcome back to edX Mandarin Level 3.

I will be writing up the lessons every couple of weeks to give people an idea what the online lesson are like and to help me consolidate my learning.

 

Lesson 1 - Watching a movie.

 

In this lesson we learn about going to the movies, the types of movies and the chinese names of some famous actors.

 

The two friends, Luke and Pipe meet in the street and start discussing their weekend.

Luke took his girlfriend to dinner  and then to a movie - 电影。 She wanted to watch a horror movie - 恐怖片 but Luke was too scared and wouldn't dare - 敢 watch it so they ended up - 后来 watching a romance movie.爱情片.

Luke found the 爱情片 boring, not interesting 没有意思。

Pipe said he liked to watch comedies and action movies - 喜剧和动作片

We learnt the names of actors in chinese, for example Johnny Depp 强尼戴普。

Luke and Pipe decide to go watch a movie after class.

 

We also learnt a lot of associated vocabulary to do with movies and actors.

 

Grammar included learning about 了 - "is used to mark the completion of the action, it is usually followed by some quantity describing the object." This one of the uses of 了, I am sure we will come across the others in the future

Time duration + 没。。。。了to express that you haven't done something for a period of time.

How to express whatever using 什么 twice in a sentence.

本来。。。。后来。。。。to show the contrast between what one thought before and later.

 

I have only given a brief outline of the grammar points, you can view the lesson in full on the edX site, it is free.

Hope this is of some help.

 

I did the quiz and got a 100% pass, I always surprise myself with how well I do with the listening comprehension and then completely crumple at having to listen and then write what I heard, seems there is a difference between just listening and understanding and writing down what you hear either in pinyin or characters. I kept getting the wrong tone using pinyin and writing the characters just drew a blank.

 

Lesson 2- Studying Chinese

This lesson introduces us to measure words 量词.

Lily and Pipe are discussing the the fact that chinese class has become harder.

Pipe asks why and Lily says because characters such as 的 and 了 have more than one pronunciation. 的 can be di or de and 了 can be le or liao.

Pipe agrees and says that there is also grammar to learn. He remarks that some people say that chinese doesn't have grammar but how is that even possible? Lily also says that she is "afraid of two articles of clothing" .

Pipe works out what she is talking about is measure words and tells her yes you will have to practice that.

Lily says she is also having trouble remembering the stroke order for writing characters. Pipe agrees and recommends taking time and practising and you will see improve.

Lily jokes that having a Chinese boyfriend will improve your chinese. Pipe is astonished she would say this but then realises she is joking. we learn the useful phrase I am just kidding 我是 开玩笑的。

 

There are 4 grammar points this week:

1) For example 比如说 it is used very much like you would use it in English.

2) To suggest doing something more or less put 少 or 多 before the verb.

3) 还是 is used to express that things will remain the same.

4) To reassure others use the pattern 会。。。。的 usually appearing with the adverb 一定。

 

The vocabulary reflected the dialogue's content about learning Chinese and words to do with language, So we learnt, amongst others, 量词 measure word,   笔画 stroke order,   发音 pronouciation,   语法 grammar, syntax and the very useful 目的 objective, goal. Our 目的 should be to practice 练习 ,to understand 了解 and not forget 忘记 the 笔画。

 

I did the quiz but only managed 90% as I just couldn't do the 2 listening and writing questions in time, I spent too much time listening and not enough time writing:conf

 

So that was lesson 2, I am going to give each lesson it own topic so it it easier to keep in order.

 

Hope this was of help.

 

 

 

 

 

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7 Comments


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@roddy Thanks I did wonder about that.

 

@laogui No I didn't, I wasn't aware of it. Might have been put off by the fact it was for business though. Not sure why just don't feel the need for a business oriented course.

How are you finding Level 3?

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Shelley: the MandarinX Business English Chinese course is really just another set of scenarios and associated vocabulary loosely associated with business: Travel, Exhibitions, Banquets, Business etiquette, Negotiation, Banking.  Typical Estella, with all the same participants and structure.  Estella as effervescent and gushing as always! 老鬼

 

In the first course 5 of us formed a group for the course, since Estella required this arrangement, and we were the ones always attending the Google hangout sessions.  Two Iranian students, an aging Italian, venerable Japanese and antique Aussie!.  This group has hung together since, following Estella through four courses.

 

Edited by laogui
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Oh interesting, thanks for that. I suppose I thought a business course would be dull and full of things I didn't think I needed. I will have a look. When is the next "live" course or is it finished? I don't like do the archived courses for this type of thing. I am doing the chinese architecture course as a self paced because it is purely for pleasure.

8 hours ago, laogui said:

Shelley: the MandarinX Business English

I take it you mean MandarinX Business Chinese.

 

I never got into joining a group or taking part in the online tutorials because I can never guarantee to keep to a schedule.

Are you doing this course? If you are how do you find it?

 

 

 

 

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Shelley: we're doing the next live course already, the one you are speaking of.  Estella is also in facebook, and these courses I think are part of her thesis.  I now find the Coursera HSK3 courses are more useful because that's my direction, and they stress the reading and writing.  However you cannot help but like Estella for her energy and enthusiasm.

Edited by laogui
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I found it difficult to sign up to Coursera, they wanted to take pictures of my driving license using my webcam and it didn't work very well.

 

I am not not sure if that was needed if you just want to do it without a certificate. I also wasn't happy with putting my ID on line so I didn't do it.

I found one on Coursera that I liked the look of about learning to write characters but it was not very well done. The teacher was very severe looking and seem terrified in front of the camera. I tried it for awhile but it soon lost my interest because it was slow and not well done in my opinion.

 

I will go and look for Estella on Facebook.

 

Yes I realise we are live with MandarinX level 3, I meant the Business course.

 

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