Enjoy reading!

My teen-age daughter was preparing to return home after having visited her grandparents for a few weeks one summer.Her grandfather gave her 12 post cards.
"Here,write us a few lines every month,"he said.
Months passed and the cards remained unused -- that is until the day this letter arrived:
Dear Jennifer,
Life is a series of stages.
As a child, I looked forward to becoming a teen-ager--that happened.
As a teen-ager,I looked forward to becoming a young man---that happened.
As a young man, I looked forward to meeting a young woman,falling in love and becoming a married man---that happened.
As a married man,I looked forward to becoming a father --- that happened.
As a father, I looked forward to becoming a grandfather to beautiful ,intelligent grandchildren ---that happened.
Then I looked forward to the day they would learn to write --- that hasn't happened yet.

一年夏天，我的十几岁的女儿在他的爷爷奶奶家度过了几个星期。回来的时候她的爷爷给了她12张明信片。
“来，每个月写点东西给我们，”他说。
一个月接着一个月的过去了，但是那些明信片并没有用，直到下面我们接到了下面这封信：
亲爱的 珍妮弗
人生由几个阶段组成。
当我是小孩子的时候，我盼望着自己能够快点长成一个十几岁的孩子---它已经发生了。
当我长到十几岁的时候，我盼望着自己能够成为一个成年的小伙子---它已经发生了 。
当我是一个年轻的小伙子的时候，我盼望着能遇到一个年轻的漂亮姑娘，我们互相爱慕然后结婚---它已经发生了 。
当我是一个已婚男士的时候，我盼望着自己能够有个孩子，当一个爸爸---他已经发生了。
当我 是一个爸爸的时候，我盼望着自己能够成为一个漂亮聪明的孩子的爷爷---它已经发生了。 然后，我盼望着她能够学会写信---它还没有发生。

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Learn Chinese idioms - pao zhuan yin yu - eChineselearning.com

pāo zhuān yǐn yù
抛 砖 引 玉

Explanation: A metaphor that means one might offer some rough idea or essay first, in order to draw out other people's better or more mature ideas.

Tone: Positive

The Story: In the Tang Dynasty, there was a poet named Zhao Gu--he was very intelligent. One year, he went to Su Zhou, where a local poet Chang Jian was always admiring his literary talent. In order to get Zhao Gu's attention, Chan Jian wrote 2 stanzas on the wall of the Lingyan Temple. When Zhao Gu visited the temple and saw the unfinished poem, he completed it by adding another 2 stanzas, as expected.

As Zhao Gu's part was better than Chang Jian's, later people described this kind of action as 'throwing a brick to attract jade'.

In modern life, you can easily find many ways to use this idiom!

抛砖引玉，出自《传灯录》。相传唐代诗人常建，听说赵嘏要去游览苏州的灵
岩寺。为了请赵嘏作诗，常建先在庙壁上题写了两句，赵嘏见到后，立刻提笔续写
了两句，而且比前两句写得好。后来文人称常建的这种作法为“抛砖引玉”。此计
用于军事，是指用相类似的事物去迷惑、诱骗敌人，使其懵懂上当，中我圈套，然
后乘机击败敌人的计谋。“砖”和“玉”，是一种形象的比喻。“砖”，指的是小
利， 是绣饵； “玉”，指的是作战的目的，即大的胜利。“引玉”，才是目的，
“抛砖”，是为了达到目的的手段。钓鱼需用钓饵，先让鱼儿尝到一点甜头，它才
会上钩； 敌人占了一点便宜，才会误入圈套，吃大亏。

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Lesson 13. Grammars – to BE or NOT to Be

One of the simplest and yet the most important structure in Chinese language is the following:

Noun + Verb + noun

It is the same as English. The first noun is subject, the verb describes action, and the last noun serves either as object or complement. For example: “I love books.” “He hates math.” Similar to that of English, the most frequently used verb of such structure in Chinese is also verb BE, the emphasis of this class.

1. 是 shi4

This is only form of verb Be in Chinese, independent of tense, subjects, or single/plural forms.

2. 不 bu4

不 means “no”. It is used to present negative.

3. 不是 bu2 shi4

Please notice that the tone of不 changes to 2 instead of 4 when used as “not” in front of 是.

Again, unlike English where ‘not’ follows verb ‘Be’, 不 precedes是 in Chinese.

Examples:

4. 我是中国人 wo3 shi4 zhong1 guo2 ren2

I am Chinese.

5. 他们不是学生 ta1 men bu2 shi4 xue2 sheng1

They are not students.

Dialogue in Chinese - Courtesy

1.


- 请让一下!
qing3 rang4 yi xia4!
Excuse me please! (when someone blocks your way.)

2.


- 谢谢！
xie4 xie4 !
Thanks a lot!

- 不客气！
bu2 ke4 qi4 !
You are welcome!

3.


- 你真棒！
ni3 zheng1 bang4 !
You are so wonderful/great/nice!

- 谢谢！
xie4 xie4!
Thanks!

4.


- 对不起！
dui4 bu4 qi3!
I am sorry!

- 没关系
mei2 guan1 xi !
That's alright!

learn Chinese online - Chinese characters

Chinese characters are all in square block shape like this one: 口 (meaning ‘mouth’). Simple or complicated, they all take the same area on paper. To write Chinese, you should know 3 things to get ready:

1. Strokes

A stroke is a single brush of pen on the paper. All Chinese characters are made of one or more strokes such as the character: 一 (meaning ‘one’). There are dozens of simple strokes which will be discussed in detail in Class 6. Please also remember that every stroke should be written in a specific way. For example, the horizontal stroke in character “一” has to been written from left to right.

2. Radicals

Radicals are the basic component of Chinese characters. Think of Chinese characters as molecules like water or salt and then the radicals as equivalents to element atoms such as sodium, hydrogen, or oxygen. The analogy can be demonstrated this way:

Chinese characters - > molecules such as water, salt, sugar

Radicals - > atoms such as sodium, hydrogen, or carbon

Stroke - > subatomic particles such as proton, neutron, or electron

Just like Chemical elements, many radicals can make single characters by themselves. The character口 (mouth), for example, is frequently used as radicals in characters related to mouth such as 唱, meaning ‘sing’.

Radicals are very important to the meaning and writing of Chinese characters. Here are two examples. First example, 男 means “man”. It is made up of 2 radicals vertically. The upper part is 田, meaning farm land and the lower part is 力, meaning labor or force. Therefore, it is easy to remember the character because the labor at the land is often male people. Another example: the character 林means “forest”. Since 木 means wood, it should seem obvious that doubling wood would make a forest.

There are about 200 radicals in Chinese characters. Learning them all is a natural process that will not take too long.

3. Stroke and Radical orders

There is a certain order to write strokes and radicals in a Chinese character. The general rule is from above to below, from outside to inside, and from left to right.

We will use the next 3 lessons to show you the details of these 3 important aspects of writing Chinese characters so that you will be best prepared to start to write Chinese.

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Lesson 4: Pinyin - Consonants

Consonant Table:

b p m f

d t n l

g k h

j q x

z c s r

zh ch sh

y w

For consonants, we also put all these into English words with the same sound for you to learn and remember in an easier way.

*Note: We pronounce these consonants followed by some vowels that can help deliver the sound more clearly. Letters in the following explanation in "..." are pronounced as in English, and those in '... ' are pronounced in Pinyin.

b - as the "b" in "book"

p - as the "p" in "pool"

m - as the "m" in "moon"

f - as the "f" in "food"

d - as the "d" in "door"

t - as the "t" in "tom"

n - as the "n" in "no"

l - as the "l" in "love"

g - as the "g" in good"

k - as the "k" in "kill"

h- as the "h" in "high"

j- as the "j" in "jeep"

q- as the "ch" in "cheese"

x- as the "sh" in "sharp"

z- as the "z" in "zero"

c- as the "ts" in "tsunami"

s- as the "s" in "sun"

r- as the "r" in "red"

zh- start with 'j' in "jeep", but then end smoothly with "r" sound. The first 2 sounds in the sample voice show such move.

ch- start with 'q' in "cheese", but then end smoothly with "r" sound. The first 2 sounds in the sample voice show such move.

sh - start with 'x' in "sharp", but then end smoothly with "r" sound. The first 2 sounds in the sample voice show such move.

( 'zh, ch, sh' are similar to, but strictly different from 'j, q, x' respectively. However, mixing them is not a too big problem for you to be understood in China.)

y- as the "y" in "yes"

w- as the "w" in "wood"

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Learn Chinese at eChineselearning - Pinyin ,vowel

拼 音 pin1 yin1

Pinyin is a Roman-letter based system that China now uses to mark the pronunciation of Chinese characters. With four tones and pinyin, any Chinese characters can be pronounced precisely. In many cases, Pinyin is quite intuitive to English speakers with only a few exceptions. However, it can be a twist to render Pinyin in four tones for people who just start.

Pinyin is made up of 2 tables: vowel table and consonant table, the latter of which will be discussed in Class 4.

Vowel Table:

a	o	e	i	u	ϋ
ai	ei	ui
ao	ou	iu
ie	ue	er
an	en	in	un	ϋn
ang	eng	ing	ong

As you can see, most vowels are simply a combination of the 6 major vowels in the first row, which is obviously the most important part, and some special consonants.

How can you remember all this? We are putting all these into English words with virtually the same sound for you to learn and remember in an easier way.

*Note: letters in the following explanation in "..." are pronounced as in English, and those in '... ' are pronounced in Pinyin. Also, all samples are delivered in 4 tones.

a - as the vowel in "star" without the "r" sound

o - as the vowel in "law"

e - as the vowel in "stir"

i - as the vowel in "bit"

u - as the vowel in "food"

ϋ - as "y" in "yellow" followed by the 'u' above

ai - as the vowel in "bike"

ei - as the vowel in "lake"

ui - combination of 'u' and 'i', the same as word "we" in English

ao - as the vowel in "loud"

ou - as the vowel in "flow"

iu - combination of 'i' and 'u', the same as word "yew" in English

ie - combination of 'i' and 'e', as the vowel in "sierra"

ue - combination of 'u' and 'e', as the vowel in "buena"

er - combination of 'e' and 'r', as the vowel in "early"

an - as the vowel in "anchor":

en - as the word "earn" without the "r" sound:

in - as in the word "inn"

un - as in the word "one":

ϋn - as "y" in "yellow" followed by the English word "one"

ang - as the word "long"

eng - as the vowel in "lung"

ing - as the vowel in "England"

ong - as 'u' followed by the 'ng' as above:

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Learn Chinese with eChineseLearning.com - Underestanding the four tons

Lesson 2: Understanding Four Tones

The best way to explain tones is probably do so by using examples. Here, we can use English pronunciation of letter "i" as one example.

Tone 1: flat

In English, it is the default tone we use to pronounce 'i' emotionlessly as in saying "I am ....".

The audio material will show flat tone 'i', and how 'i' would sound on other tones as if with strong emotions although you should keep in mind that in Chinese, tones have nothing to do with meanings or emotions.

Tone 2: up

This tone is a little like the tone used in English for questions. For example: "Is he right?" The tone of "i" used in word 'right' here is equivalent to the up tone used in Chinese.

Tone 3: curve

There is not exact equivalent for Tone 3 in English. However, Tone 3 can be delivered through a quick combination of tone 4 and tone 2 in a very quick way. Remember, tone 4 before tone 2. So maybe you want to learn to use tone 4 first.

Tone 4: down

The 4th tone is what you will use when saying "right" as in "Yes, he is right.”

Four tones together:

All vowels can be pronounced in 4 tones. It can be a great practice to play it on your own language.

Listen to this example that uses 4 four tones to pronounce English letters A, B, C, and D.

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