Moving along through the classic beginner language, Lesson 2 of Integrated Chinese focuses on family. Although the concept of “family” in Chinese culture (and all the associated language) is one that could fill volumes, this chapter does a nice job of giving the beginner the important first tools to discuss one’s own family in Chinese. And let’s face it… your new Chinese friends are going to want to know about your family.

Another important topic introduced in Lesson 2 is that of measure words [Wikipedia link]. Measure words can be quite a pain, but they’re important to learn from the beginning. Just as you learn what gender every new noun is in Spanish, or the various declensions of nouns in German, you should get in the habit of learning what measure words go with what nouns.

In Lesson 2 we learn that 个 (ge) is a measure word used for people, and many other things as well. It’s the “default measure word” that you use for words with no specific measure word, or for words whose measure word you don’t know (yet!). Take a look at some of the sample sentences for 个. They’re all quite short, and give you some idea of how 个 is used before you delve into the IC grammar section.

Lesson 2 also introduces the more specialized measure word 张 (zhāng). 张 is used for flat objects. A very common use for 张 would be to say “sheet” as in “a sheet of paper.” It would also apply to “a ticket” (even though there’s no measure word there in English). It can even apply to bigger, sturdier flat objects like tables, but there’s no need to obsess over the scope of the measure word for now.

Lesson 2 also teaches that 张 (Zhāng) is a surname. If you’re really hard-working and went through all of ChinesePod’s related lessons for Lesson 1, you already knew that from the Polite Introductions lesson. (It’s also mentioned in Note 1 on page 31 of the IC textbook.) But anyway, yes, it’s exactly the same character, pronounced in exactly the same way.

Now that you know about the dual nature of 张 (zhāng/Zhāng), you may be up for a little exercise. Take a look at the short sample sentences for 张 in the ChinesePod Dictionary and see if you can identify when 张 is being a measure word and when it’s being a last name. The name-related vocabulary you learned last lesson, along with the English translations, should be plenty to get you through. Give it a shot!

It may take some time to wrap your head around measure words. Take some time to examine and try to understand them, because they’re not going away.

Here’s the handy Lesson 2 PDF vocabulary list:

• IC Level 1, Lesson 2 Vocabulary

As usual, bring on the Lesson 2 vocabulary questions!

-John Pasden