Colloquial Chinese
eBook - ePub

Colloquial Chinese

The Complete Course for Beginners

  1. 438 pages
  2. English
  3. ePUB (mobile friendly)
  4. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub

Colloquial Chinese

The Complete Course for Beginners

About this book

Colloquial Chinese: The Complete Course for Beginners has been carefully developed by a leading academic in Chinese language teaching and course design.

Based on feedback from learners and teachers who used its previous version, this new edition has been updated to reflect the language and cultural changes in China, such as online shopping and WeChat payment, and to provide a more integrated and step-by-step approach to making the learning of modern Mandarin Chinese more effective and enjoyable.

Combining a clear, practical and accessible style with a methodical and thorough treatment of the language, it equips learners with the essential knowledge and skills needed to communicate confidently and effectively in Chinese in a broad range of situations. No prior knowledge of the language is required.

Colloquial Chinese is exceptional; each unit presents a wealth of grammatical points that are reinforced with a wide range of exercises for regular practice. A full answer key, a grammar summary, bilingual glossaries and English translations of dialogues can be found at the back, as well as transcripts of listening practice exercises.

Key features include:

  • A clear, user-friendly format designed to help learners progressively build up their speaking, listening, reading and writing skills
  • Jargon-free, succinct and clearly structured explanations of grammar
  • Step by step introduction of Chinese characters
  • An extensive range of focused and dynamic supportive exercises
  • A combination of listening, reading and speaking activities with the support of transcripts at the back of the book
  • Realistic and entertaining dialogues covering a broad variety of narrative situations
  • Helpful cultural points explaining the customs and features of life in China
  • An overview of the Chinese language: its sounds, structure and Chinese characters

Balanced, comprehensive and rewarding, Colloquial Chinese is an indispensable resource both for independent learners and students taking courses in Chinese as well as teachers of Chinese.

Audio material to accompany the course is available to download free in MP3 format from www.routledge.com/cw/colloquials. Recorded by native speakers, the audio material features the dialogues, new words and listening practice exercises from the book and will help develop your listening and speaking skills.

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Yes, you can access Colloquial Chinese by Qian Kan in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Lingue e linguistica & Lingue. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Information

Publisher
Routledge
Year
2021
eBook ISBN
9780429758584
Edition
3
Subtopic
Lingue

Unit 1

Hěn gāoxìng jiàndào nǐ 很高兴见到你

Very pleased to meet you
By the end of this unit, you should be able to:
Images
  • say who you are
  • greet people and respond to greetings
  • ask, and respond to, some yes/no questions
  • use some appropriate forms of address
  • recognise your first head components and write your first Chinese characters
(Audio 5)
Images

Vocabulary for Dialogue 1
Images

nín
you [polite form, singular]
you [singular]
shì
be [am, is, are]
Shǐmìsī
Smith
xiānsheng
Mr
ma
[question word, see Note 6]
gāoxìng
be pleased/be happy/be glad
jiàndào
to meet
also/too
jiào
to call/be called
lǎo
old
Dàwèi
David
shì de
yes
I; me
hǎo
good/well
nǐ hǎo
how do you do?/hello [lit. “you well/good”]
Wáng Lín
[personal name]
hěn
very
ba
[grammar word, see Note 9]
hǎo ba/hǎo de
okay/all right
qǐng
please
huānyíng
to welcome
lái
to come/to come to/to arrive
Zhōngguó
China
[Note: see Chinese–English glossary for characters of the above words.]

Images
Dialogue 1

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Nǐ hǎo 你好! How do you do! (Audio 6)

David Smith has just arrived at Beijing Airport. His potential Chinese business partner, Wang Lin, is there to meet him.
Images
...
WÁNG LÍN:
Nín shì Shǐmìsī xiānsheng ma?
DAVID SMITH:
Shì de. Nín shì…?
WÁNG LÍN:
Nǐ hǎo! Shǐmìsī xiānsheng. Wǒ shì Wáng Lín.
DAVID SMITH:
Nǐ hǎo! Wáng xiānsheng. Hěn gāxìng jiàndào nǐ.
WÁNG LÍN:
Wǒ yě hěn gāoxìng jiàndào nǐ. Qǐng jiào wǒ Lǎo Wáng ba.

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Half-Title
  3. Series
  4. Title
  5. Copyright
  6. Dedication
  7. Contents
  8. Acknowledgements
  9. Introduction
  10. 1 Hěn gāoxìng jiàndào nǐ 很高兴见到你: Very pleased to meet you
  11. 2 Xìngmíng, guójí hé niánlíng 姓名、国籍和年龄: Name, nationality and age
  12. 3 Jiā hé péngyou 家和朋友: Family and friends
  13. 4 Wèn shíjiān 问时间: Asking the time
  14. 5 Zài pàiduì shang 在派对上: At a party
  15. 6 Rìqī hé tiānqì 日期和天气: The date and the weather
  16. 7 Wèn lù 问路: Asking for directions
  17. 8 Mǎi dōngxi 买东西: Shopping
  18. 9 Wǎngshàng gòuwù 网上购物: Shopping online
  19. 10 Zài cān’guǎn 在餐馆: At a restaurant
  20. 11 Zuò chūzūchē hé mǎi huǒchē piào 坐出租车和买火车票: Taking a taxi and buying train tickets
  21. 12 Zài jiŭdiàn 在酒店: At a hotel
  22. 13 Dǎ diànhuà 打电话: Making telephone calls
  23. 14 Tàn qīn hé lǚyóu 探亲和旅游: Visiting families and travelling
  24. 15 Míngxìnpiàn hé wēixìn 明信片和微信: Postcard and WeChat
  25. Grammar summary
  26. Answers to Exercises and Listening/reading practices
  27. Transcripts in pinyin for Listening/reading practices
  28. Chinese–English glossary
  29. English–Chinese pinyin glossary
  30. Appendix A: Dialogues in characters for Units 1 and 2
  31. Appendix B: English translations of dialogues/texts from Units 3 to 15
  32. Appendix C: Table of combinations of the initials and finals in Putonghua (Mandarin Chinese)
  33. Appendix D: Useful signs
  34. Index to language and culture notes