TEXTBOOK (First Draft)

MAGIC CHINESE

TEXTBOOK (First Draft)

Lesson 1: Numbers

The story…

The ‘Magic Chinese’ journey starts when Melissa and her family go to a flea market and buy what they think is a compass.It is old and rusty, with many dials and buttons that seem more like decorations than anything else.Beautiful designs are carved into the lid. Even though the compass doesn’t seem to work very well, Melissa still loves it. What she doesn’t realize is that the compass is going to change her life and that of her friends.

On the day after she buys the compass, Melissa, as always, gets together with her four good friends in Peter’s garage. Excitedly, Melissa shows everyone the compass. Peter immediately declares that he knows how to make it work,but Tom barges his way in, snatching the compass and wildly pressing all of the buttons and turning all of the dials.Suddenly, strange, glowing words appear as if by magic in the air. Tom drops the compass out of surprise, but the words remain. Everyone is astonished by them.

They ask Peter at once what these words mean. Peter explains that they are times and dates in Chinese, but he doesn’t know why they are there or how they have appeared. Melissa exclaims that it doesn’t matter. She thinks that everything that has occurred so far is extremely exciting and just like what is told in fantasy stories. Maybe the compass will take them to a magical world! However, something strange happens.When Reggie pushes the upper left key, the compass screen promptly displays English on what looks like a computer screen. It seems to have turned into a translator.

I. 故事發展 (Narration)

II. 課文對話 (Dialogue)

III. 詞彙 Vocabulary

零 zero

一 one

二 two

三 three

四 four

五 five

六 six

七 seven

八 eight

九 nine

十 ten

年 year

月 month/moon

日 date/sun

分 minute

上午 morning, AM

下午 afternoon, PM

百 hundred

天 sky, day(s)

是 to be, am, are, is

有 to have, there is, there are

點 o’clock

分 minute

四字表Four-word phrases

IV. 語法與句型 Grammar Points, Sentence Patterns

1. To state a telephone number in Chinese just say each digit in order. Remember numbers are keys words in a sentence; you need to pronounce each number clearly and correctly.

415-833-9706 四一五-八三三-九七零六

Now, ask some of your classmate to state their home phone numbers in Chinese, and write them down below:

______

2. How do you say year, month and date in Chinese?

In Chinese, the character 月(yue4) “The moon” stands for month; while 日(ri4) “The sun” stands for the day or date. For example, the eighteenth day of September is written 九月十八日. In speaking, however, the word “號” (hao4=number) replaces “日”. Thus, 九月十八號 is how you say September 18th.

From January to December, you can just go by the order of the numbers from the first month to the twelfth:

January 一月, February 二月, March三月, April 四月,

May 五月, June 六月, July 七月, August 八月,

September 九月, October 十月, November 十一月, December 十二月

Now, what are these dates? Give the English translation for each of the following:

四月九日＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿十一月二十號＿＿＿＿＿＿＿

七月六號＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿八月三十一日＿＿＿＿＿＿＿

九月八日＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿十二月十八號＿＿＿＿＿＿＿

For the year, you will say the four digit number just like you say the telephone numbers, and end the phrase with 年 (nian2, the word for “year”). For example:

1990, 一九九零年

1865, 一八六五年

2002, 二零零二年

2008, 二零零八年

2012, 二零一二年

Now, to give information on year, month and date, simply use this order: from large to small (year+month+date):

For example; September 30th, 2008- 二零零八年九月三十日

Please give the English translation for each of the following dates:

一七八五四月六日 ______

一八九三年十月十五日 ______

一九九六年八月二十九日 ______

二零零九年三月十六日 ______

Now give the date of birth of some your family members or your friends:

______

3. What is today’s date? 今天是幾月幾號? “幾” is a question word, which literally means “how many” or “how much”. Whenever a question regarding a number is asked, 幾is used.

今天 (是) 幾月幾號?

明天

你的生日

六月有幾天?

十月

今年二月

你的電話幾號?

4. Note the difference between一月and 一個月. The word “個” is a generic measure word. So while 一個月means one month,一月means January. For example;

一個月有三十天 as opposed to 一月有三十一天

今年二月有二十九天

明年二月二十八天

九月三十

5. To state the time of the day:

上午九點十分

下午三點二十分

Now, write down the following times in Chinese:

6:00 AM ______8:30 PM ______

11:15 AM ______6:35 PM ______

2:36 PM ______7:50 AM ______

6.Please note when counting the number of years, ‘年’, does not take a measure word. Thus, ‘a year’ is ‘一年’ rather than‘一個年’For example: “ There are 365 days in a year” is “一年有三百六十五天.” (A year has 365 days.)

The word for week “星期” on the other hand, takes measure word “個” as a counter. For example: There are 21 days in three weeks.三個星期有二十一天.(Three weeks has 21 days.)

Now, can you translate the following into English?

There are 366 days in the year 2008. (The year 2008 has 366 days.)

______

There are 29 days in February this year ______

There are four weeks in a month.______

There are 52 weeks in a year. ______

補充詞彙Words to help.

VI. 動腦活動 Class Activities

A. 唱歌: 用 One little, two little, three little Indians 曲調

(以後五線譜要畫在這裡, 淑真,你真不得了, 你的五線譜是怎麼弄的?).

一個, 兩個, 三個小孩; 四個, 五個, 六個小孩; 七個,八個, 九個小孩十個小孩通通來.

B. 連連看 Dot to Dot (做一個連接點到點的圖畫,讓學生從一連到一百.)

C. 畫一隻長長的蜈蚣,讓學生猜猜看一共有多少隻腳?

D. 部首: Radical/Writing: 人口

Some of the following characters belong to radical ‘person’; some belongs to ‘mouth’. Copy them down on the space provided below.

人/ : ______

口： ______

VII. 文化知識 Culture Notes

A. Chinese believe that some numbers are more auspicious than others. Six and Eight represent good fortune for Chinese, much as the number seven is considered a lucky number for Westerners. Westerners consider thirteen to be an unlucky number while for Chinese number 4 is considered unlucky. The pronunciation of number 4 is homophonic (that is it sounds the same) with the word for “death”, and is therefore often avoided.

B. 在這裡畫出中國人如何用手語來表達數字 1-10.

Magic Chinese - Lesson 2

(Introduction)

After the previous experience, Peter’s garage becomes the fixed place where they amuse themselves with the compass. One day, Melissa unintentionally keys in her date of birth: “Here! Look! It’s my birthday.” Tom grabs the compass and turns the outermost circle of the compass to the left. Peter nervously yells: “Wait! Wait!” Suddenly, the screen emits a blinding light that none of them can keep their eyes open. They are so surprised to find that Peter’s garage has vanished after they open their eyes. Instead, the surrounding looks like a middle school sports ground. The students around them are all Easterners look rather like Peter and Linda. With a confused look on their faces, they come up to ask who they are and where do they come from. Peter knows none of his friends understand Chinese language, so he begins to introduce himself. To his amazement, they all can speak the language fluently and none of them understand why.

Rei qi wa

瑞奇:「哇! 我在哪裡?」

Lingda zhe

玲達: 「彼得! 這是哪裡? 」

Bi de zhi dao ge xue

彼得: 「我不知道! …是個中學! 」

tangmu wa zhe tai wan le

湯姆: 「哇! 這太好玩了! 」

Xuesheng jia Yi shei zen me lai de

學生甲: 「咦? 你們是誰? 怎麼來的? 」

Xuesheng yi Hai zi

學生乙: 「嗨! 你們叫什麼名字? 是哪裡人? 」

Bi de bi de tangmu li sha rei qi he lingda

彼得: 「你們好! 我叫彼得。他們是湯姆, 麗莎, 瑞奇和玲達。」

Li sha

麗莎: 「我們是美國人。這裡是哪裡? 」

Xuesheng yi tai bei shan xue

學生乙: 「這裡是台北中山中學。」

Bi de yi li sha

彼得: 「咦! 麗莎! 你說中文嗎!? 」

Rei qi zen me hui jia a

瑞奇: 「我們怎麼回家啊? 」

Even though they don’t understand what has happened, but they do enjoying talking with the Taiwanese students. Except Reggie is quite nervous about this adventure and keeps thinking about how are they going to go home. Fortunately, Peter finally figures out the reverse process and all of them says goodbye to the students of ZhongShan Middle School in Taipei (台北), Taiwan (台灣).

Da jia zai jian zai jian hui jia le

大家: 「再見! 再見! 我們回家了! 」

In a blink of an eye, they are back in Peter’s garage save and sound! Now they realize what a treasure this compass is. They pledge to keep this secret among themselves.

三. 課文詞彙與延展練習(VOCABULARY)

A. 寫字練習

我你他們是不好在哪裡叫什麼名美國人說中文嗎

B. 課文詞彙

我們你們他們

在哪裡? 這是哪裡? 是哪裡人?

你是誰? 叫什麼名字? 我叫

怎麼來的? 怎麼回家?

美國台灣台北中山中學

美國人大家

不知道說中文嗎?

嗨! 哇! 咦! 啊! 太好玩了! 再見!

C. 研展練習

Besides the following examples, you can also practice with the terms you’ve learned in Pre-lesson I.

Zhe jia xue

a. 在哪裡? 在這裡在家裡在中學裡

tai bei

在中國在台北在美國

b. 和我和你我們和你們中國人和美國人

ying ying xue he hui jia

中文和英文英國人和美國人上學和回家

c. 嗎? 我是好人我是好人嗎?

Ying ying

你說英文你說英文嗎?

Hui jia hui jia

他回家他回家嗎?

d. 不是不是是不是? (是嗎?)

好不好好不好? (好嗎?)

說不說說不說? (說嗎?)

叫不叫叫不叫? (叫嗎?)

在不在在不在? (在嗎?)

四: 語法註解 (GRAMMAR NOTES)

1. Asking questions using “嗎?”:

Change a straight sentence into a questions simply add嗎 at the end.

Example: You are American. Are you American?

Ni shi meiguoren. Ni shi meiguoren ma?

He speaks Chinese. Does he speak Chinese?

Ta shuo Zhongwen. Ta shuo Zhongwen ma?

This is fun. Is this fun?

Zhe hao wan. Zhe hao wan ma?

2. Asking questions using “什麼?”, “誰?”, and “哪裡?”:

a. Do not add 嗎 at the end of the questions.

b. Chinese questions follow the same pattern as the answer. All you have to do is

to take out the answer term and put in the questions term.

Examples: What is this? This is a Chinese book.

Zhe shi sheme? Zhe shi Zhongwen shu.

Who is this? This is my mother.

Zhe shi shei? Zhe shi wode mama.

Where is this? This is middle school.

Zhe shi nali? Zhe shi zhongxue.

What is Chinese language?

Zhongwen shi sheme?

Who speak English?

Shei shuo yingwen?

3. Asking questions using “怎麼?”:

a. Do not add 嗎 at the end of the questions.

b. Always use a verb or action word after怎麼 to make a how to type of question.

Examples: How to say this? Zhe zenme shuo?

How to play this? Zhe zenme wan?

How to learn this? Zhe zenme xue?

How to ___verb___? Zenme ___verb___?

c. Learn how to say “What is _____ in Chinese language?”

How to say panda in Chinese? Panda zhongwen zenme shuo?

How to say France in Chinese? France zhongwen zenme shuo?

How to say Japan in Chinese? Japan zhongwen zenme shuo?

4. When to use 是 and when not to use 是:

Think “shi” is an equal sign. When the two sides of shi are the same type of words you can use shi, otherwise, don’t use it.

Example: This is good. This person is a good person.

Zhe hao. Zhe ren shi hao ren.

America is fun. Americans are fun people.

Meiguo haowan. Meiguoren shi haowande ren.

She is beautiful. She is a beauty.

Ta mei. Ta shi meiren.

五. 延伸練習 (EXPANSION)

a. Nationality, people and language

中國中國人中文

美國美國人英文

英國英國人英文

法國 Faguo 法國人法文

德國 Deguo 德國人德文

日本 Riben 日本人日文

西班牙 Xibanya 西班牙人西班牙文

墨西哥 Moxige 墨西哥人西班牙文

台灣台灣人台灣話 Taiwanhua

b. Describing people

好人中國的好人天人好美的天人美人英國的美人名人天下的名人

美國人學中文的美國人中國人說英文的中國人

c. Describing location

哪裡? 哪裡好玩?

這裡這裡好玩

那裡nali 那裡不好玩

家裡家裡好玩

中學裡中學裡太好玩

電話裡電話裡說中文 should we keep this one

六. 交際活動 (TASKS PERFORMANCE)

Activity 1: Conversation circle.

Divide students into two groups with equal numbers. Have them standing in two concentric circles facing each other. The students will ask each other the following questions. Then move the outside circle clockwise to switch to a new partner. You may give them a card with questions printed on it to begin the activity. After a while you can remove all the cards and have them continue on the questioning without cards. This will help students to speak naturally.