Integrated Chinese is written for the classroom, so besides pronunciation and character basics, the Introduction also covers language that a teacher and student would commonly use in the classroom. Before we get to that, though, I’d like to offer you a few words of encouragement.
I. Chinese Pronunciation
The Integrated Chinese Introduction starts off with pronunciation instruction and drills. Looking through the extensive treatment of the sounds of Mandarin, it’s completely natural to feel a little overwhelmed. I mean, it’s like 20 straight pages of phonetics! Don’t get me wrong… pronunciation is very important. But don’t let it kill your enthusiasm for the language. You can come back to this stuff again and again, whenever you need to, and your teacher will likely cover it all in class. It’s also very likely that you’ll get most of your pronunciation instruction from multimedia resources rather than straight from a book. So don’t let these 20 pages scare you.
II. Chinese Writing System
After pronunciation comes a section on the Chinese Writing System (page 20). This stuff is also important, but at this stage you should think of it more as a section you can reference later. You really don’t need to know the names of all the radicals and strokes now. Really. If you find it interesting, great. If not, just come back to it when and if you need it.
III. Useful Expressions
To me, the real interesting part of the intro is the Useful Expressions section (page 26). This is real Chinese, stuff that you will hear and need to say. Since ChinesePod is all about practical language, this is the part we focused on for this blog entry.
The Classroom Expressions are all very useful, and they’re certainly worth memorizing. Considering that these might be the very first Chinese you’re learning, though, you might find it a lot to be learning all at once. Some phrases to focus on first:
- Nǐ hǎo! - Hello!
- Hěn hǎo! - Very good!
- Duìbuqǐ. - I’m sorry.
- Xièxie. - Thank you.
- Wǒ bù dǒng. - I don’t understand.
- Dǒng le. - I understand.
- Zàijiàn! - Goodbye!
Below you will find a link to a PDF file containing the “Useful Expressions” vocabulary with ChinesePod definitions. It also includes Chinese characters (while the IC intro does not). Don’t worry about learning the characters just yet, but we figured you wouldn’t mind seeing them.
IC Introduction VocabularyNext entry we’ll be looking at some ChinesePod material which beautifully complements the IC Introduction. Stay tuned!
-John Pasden
For those of us that have already signed up for a ChinesePod subscription, will this material be available to us also? Thanks
Bob,
The material will be publicly available to everyone, from right here on this blog. It’s just likely to be most helpful to those studying Integrated Chinese in class. Don’t let that stop you, though!
HI - For those just starting out, try saying (1)”Name + ni hao”, rather than (2)”Ni hao + name”. (1) is a natural Chinese order, (2) not so much. I mention this as it took me about about 200 jillion uses of (2) before anyone ever told me.
I think what CPod is doing to incorporate “traditional” method of learning from standard texts can be useful as there are certainly times when I “need” alot of structure. That being said, the real gem about CPod is that I am in control of designing the structure which works best for me…rather than following that of an author. I’m intrigued and will probably continue to design my own lesson plans with CPod, but follow some structure posed by this IC Text.
Anyhow, my question…will the IC Vocab lists be available, the way that CPod Lesson Vocab lists are available currently? I’d like to incorporate them into my flashcards.
Thanks.
AY
P.S. - Love the improved dictionary features!
Ana,
We agree that the ability to freely design one’s own curriculum is a big plus, so we plan to always offer it. We hope that students of IC will discover this advantage as well.
We don’t plan to make the IC vocabulary lists into actual “lessons” (like the ChinesePod lessons), but since the vocabulary is all relatively common vocabulary, it will be in the dictionary. You can search for it, and then from there add it to your vocab list.