Reviews

• 

  Chynna - 2007-12-23 09:36:27

  The following are some successful tips from our wonderful tutors in tutoring and commenting.
  1. Encourage learners, help them gain confidence, and satisfy their needs.
  

   

  Report abuse
• 

  Chynna - 2007-12-23 09:37:02

  2. Provide a positive, respectful, enjoyable, and friendly learning environment。 Please keep it in our mind that Chinese is the most challenging language to learn in the world. Our learners are the most wonderful students in the world. Everyone is unique at the self-paced learning and everyone is doing a great job.
  

   

  Report abuse
• 

  Chynna - 2007-12-23 09:37:57

  3. Help learners practice first on the basic vocabulary and sentence structures from the texts. Stay with lessons. Learners are beginners. Too many expressions confuse them.
  
  

   

  Report abuse
• 

  Chynna - 2007-12-23 09:38:23

  4. Within learners' comfortable zone, enhance their learning at the appropriate and accepted level in the scientific and psychological way, (80%-90% for basic learning and 10%-20% for supplementary knowledge, according to learners’ needs). Please do not confuse them with too many different sentence structures in the same meanings.
  

   

  Report abuse
• 

  Chynna - 2007-12-23 09:38:38

  5. Chinese has many ways to express the same meanings. We respect and accept learners' effort, cultures, works and creation first. If there is a big issue, try to correct it, loyal to learners' meaning. Keep it in our mind that they are adult learners to learn their foreign language. They are in the creative learning.
  

   

  Report abuse
• 

  Chynna - 2007-12-23 09:38:50

  6. When offering our alternative version or enhancing their learning, explain this is not a wrong or right issue but the different contexts of our version; literal, oral, scholar, slang, classic, modern, educational level, professional, formal, informal, senior, age, gender, tones, emotional, technical, research, dialect... Those contexts help learners to choose what they think fit their submission.
  Thank you--all of the Chinese tutors for the great work! Happy New Years to you!
  

   

  Report abuse
• 

  Chynna - 2007-12-23 09:58:01

  How to type Chinese character.
  
  1. Go to the "start" and find "control the panel". Then, click "language" option to "add another language". Finally, to click "language" to "install another Asian language". Click "apply and OK"

   

  Report abuse
• 

  Chynna - 2007-12-23 09:59:12

  2. Microsoft automatically displays the icon "EN" at the bar of the right corner. You may click "EN"(English) and change it into "CH"(Chinese). Then, you can type Chinese Pinyin to choose Chinese word.
  
  

   

  Report abuse
• 

  Chynna - 2007-12-23 09:59:46

  3.  You may also go to the link to download the typing Pinyin software from Google.
  http://tools.google.com/pinyin/ 
  It is a Chinese version. You may click "下载谷歌拼音输入法" at the right side.
  
  

   

  Report abuse
• 

  Chynna - 2007-12-23 10:00:41

  Here is the link to explain in English how it works.
  http://blogoscoped.com/archive/2007-04-04-n49.html
  
  3. When you type, you may start with your learned and simple Chinese characters.
  For example," wo", you may type "wo". Then, the computer will generate many Chinese characters marked 1,2,3,4,5, related the sound, "wo". You have to choose one meaning "I" 我 by typing the number.
  

   

  Report abuse
• 

  Chynna - 2007-12-23 10:07:35

  Tutoring Chinese tones
  
  1. Here is a movie at the link, which may help you to learn Chinese tones.
  http://youtube.com/watch?v=laXqwR9hfJo
  
  2. Here is another link to explain Chinese tones.
  http://www.wku.edu/~shizhen.gao/Chinese101/pinyin/tones.htm
  
  

   

  Report abuse
• 

  Chynna - 2007-12-23 10:23:13

  Free online Pinyin lessons:
  http://www.instantspeakchinese.com/pinyin/index.cfm
  Pinyin is a way to represent Chinese characters and express the sounds in the Chinese language using the alphabet. There are other systems to express Mandarin, but Pinyin is the most accepted and widely used. Once you learn Pinyin you will know how to pronounce any word in Mandarin using a Chinese dictionary. Pinyin is also the most common way to input Chinese characters into a computer. Although Pinyin and English both use the Roman alphabet, many letters are not expressed with the same sounds that English uses.

   

  Report abuse
• 

  Chynna - 2007-12-23 10:37:55

  What is the Chinese character
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_character
  A Chinese character or Han character (simplified Chinese: 汉字; traditional Chinese: 漢字; pinyin: Hànzì) is a logogram used in writing Chinese, Japanese, sometimes Korean, and formerly Vietnamese.
  
  The number of Chinese characters contained in the Kangxi dictionary is approximately 47,035, although a large number of these are rarely-used variants accumulated throughout history. Studies carried out in China have shown that full literacy requires a knowledge of between three and four thousand characters.[1]

   

  Report abuse
• 

  Chynna - 2007-12-23 10:40:35

  Animated demonstration of Chinese characters
  
  http://www.yellowbridge.com/chinese/chinese-dictionary.php
  
  This free online dictionary, which contains over 180,000 entries, is designed for students of Mandarin Chinese. Unique features include:
  
      * Word Decomposition. Words are automatically decomposed into the component words and characters, a great way to remember new words and a unique feature of the Chinese language. View Sample.
      * Head and Tail Words. Gain a better understanding of a word by seeing how other commonly used words share the same head word or tail word. Also a great way to learn additional words from characters you already know. View Sample.
      * Character Details. Detailed information about individual characters, including a list of commonly used words that use the character. View Sample.
      * Etymological Decomposition. Our Etymology Explorer allows you to drill down into the character components one layer at a time or how other characters incorporate the current one. This unique feature helps you visualize how characters relate to each other semantically and phonetically, greatly facilitating their memorization. View Sample

   

  Report abuse
• 

  Chynna - 2007-12-23 10:45:22

  Writing topics related to the lesson, vocabulary, and sentence patterns:
  
  您 的 朋 友(Unit1-1)
  描述您 知道 的某人。 这人是谁? 他(她)富有或穷, 年轻 或年老,胖, 或瘦?
  
  Sentence patterns:
  1. subject +be...我是女人
  2. subject +adj.(phrase) 她年纪大
  3. subject +(bu, not) +be/adj.你年纪不大
  Vocabulary:
  男人女孩我高矮胖瘦是年纪大小富有很穷你他她这个不

   

  Report abuse
• 

  Chynna - 2007-12-23 10:46:49

  简 单 介绍(unit 1-2)
  自我描述. 您是一个男人或女人? 您矮或高? 您年轻或年老?
  
  
  Sentence patterns:
  1. subject +be...我是女人
  2. subject +adj.(phrase) 她年纪大
  3. subject +(bu, not) +be/adj.你年纪不大
  Vocabulary:
  男人女孩我高矮胖瘦是年纪大小富有很穷你他她这个不

   

  Report abuse
• 

  Chynna - 2007-12-23 11:38:02

  您的第一住宅(Unit1-3)
  描 述您 的 第一 住 宅或 您居住的 大楼. 它 是 旧 的 或 新 的 ? 它 是 什么 颜 色 ? 前门 是 什 么 颜 色 ? 有 庭 院 吗 ？ - - 如 果 是 那 样 , 有 树 和 花 吗 ?
  Sentence patterns
  1. subject+be+color(de)
  2. measure phrase+color(de)+noun
  
  Vocabulary
  这个，一枚硬币, 一 辆 卡/汽车, 一个皮夹/钱包, 一座房子/楼, 一 扇 门,  一朵 花， 一 棵 树， 金黄色的  银黑棕白  红蓝紫橘绿

   

  Report abuse
• 

  Chynna - 2007-12-29 03:22:33

  Summery of the sentence pattern...要/想去(做)...(be going/want/like..+do). Berkelep did a very good job in this pattern.
  1. In Chinese, there is a sentence pattern called : verbs in series, 连谓结构 (several verbs are put together) especially when we talk about a plan, a desire, a wish, a hope, a need...This is different from English because Chinese verbs have no tense , voice and modal form. We have to use the verbs in series
  http://www.rci.rutgers.edu/~rsimmon/chingram/img19.html
  
  2. In our lessons on Livemocha, Unit 6-4 p32. "她要去付款“， there are three verbs in series. "want+go+pay".
  http://www.livemocha.com/learn/Chinese/l:234/e:1409#32
  It is a very useful pattern for the beginners because it is very simple to put the verbs together。In Livemocha's lessons, we learn:
  要/想去+打球/唱歌/跳舞/买东西/渡假/旅游/访问...
  
  3. In Google, it is popular to say "去服兵役". There is only one page in Google with about 10 search result, 10 people use ""去服兵役"
  http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&client
  =firefox-a&channel=s&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&hs
  =v06&q=%E5%8E%BB%E6%9C%8D%E5%85%B5%
  E5%BD%B9&btnG=Search
  他有可能不需要去服兵役。 ...
  允浩已经收到必须去服兵役的信，
  若要去服兵役的话，
  2年後要服兵役嗎
  亞綸身體不好豁免不用去服兵役\
  我现在就直接去服兵役了. ...
  1958年，猫王被派到德国去服兵役。
  倒像是去服劳役。
  要不我怕都撑不到侑去服兵役應
  
  4. The other comments all use the correct pattern with using different expressions based on the regions, ages, education and personalities.
  想服兵役
  想當兵
  想去服兵役
  梦想是当兵
  想当一名士兵
  想当一名军人
  要（or 想）服兵义
  梦想是成为一名军人
  
  5. I choose "去服兵役" because I feel it is close to the author's meaning "做服兵役". We don't say"做" but "去".

   

  Report abuse
• 

  莎莎 - 2008-02-27 10:46:16

  您可以试着描述身边的朋友，提供些形容词给你吧．
  开朗的　乐观的　　善良的　　上进的　　正直的　这些是描述性格的．
  高　低　　胖　瘦　漂亮　帅气　这些可用来描述外貌．
  希望你越来越喜欢中文　喜欢中国

   

  Report abuse
• 

  Awen - 2008-03-05 01:23:48

  Chynna, I would also add a comment about different ways of saying things in China. A lot of Chinese do not realize that China is a big country. Different parts of China use different ways of saying the same thing. As an example, I have been criticized  for saying mei wenti instead of mei guanxi while others have said mei wenti is fine.

   

  Report abuse
• 

  Chynna - 2008-03-05 03:02:15

  Awen, I agree with you. Chinese is so rich that we should not judge and criticize learners' submissions only based on one of standers. It is nice for reviewers to offer their own versions so that the learners can shop around and choose their favorite one to satisfy their own needs.

   

  Report abuse
• 

  Sylvia Plath - 2008-04-07 13:41:54

  Thank you Chynna.On everything :)

   

  Report abuse
• 

  ievabee - 2008-04-23 18:06:35

  Very useful information, thanks!

   

  Report abuse