Lesson 7 of Integrated Chinese uses lots of juicy vocabulary for studying Chinese. Wow, you’re learning Chinese to talk about learning Chinese. How meta!
I’d like to start by mentioning a simple phrase that seems quite simple, but in practice can actually turn out to be very difficult. I speak, of course, of the words for “very difficult,” which are 很难 (hěn nán). English-speaking students of Chinese frequently have a problem with this 3-2 tone combination. Even though they know they want to say “hěn nán,” students often find themselves saying “*hén nàn” or “*hén nǎn.” Communication is always the most important thing, but if you’re practicing on your own, pay attention to your pronunciation and try not to fall into this trap! (For more help on this kind of “tone pair,” check out my Tone Pair Drills on Sinosplice.) The ChinesePod Dictionary, as always, has lots more 难 (nán) sentences, some even related to today’s very topic.
Next I’d like to take on the the classic Chinese reply to a compliment: “哪里，哪里” (see your IC textbook, page 169). Literally, it means, “where, where?” as if you can’t “find” or see the positive traits in yourself that are being pointed out to you. It’s a form of modesty. What I’d like to tell you is that although this response is very common and Chinese people might even expect you to use it, Chinese people themselves don’t actually use it among themselves very much! Shocking, but true. Another more oft-used option is 过奖了 (guòjiǎng le), which means “you have overpraised me.” ChinesePod covered this expression in a lesson called Elementary - Dealing with Praise. Check out the dictionary entries for 过奖 (guòjiǎng) too.
Finally, when it comes to homework, Chinese culture has got it covered. Just ask any Chinese kid how much time they spend doing homework. So much homework gets done in China that one word for it is not enough. So in addition to the word 功课 (gōngkè) that you learned in this lesson, there’s also the word 作业 (zuòyè) which gets used at least as much (and according Baidu search, it gets used even more, at least online). Both words can actually be used not only to mean “homework,” but also for in-class assignments. Context usually makes it quite clear which is being referred to.
Lastly, I give you another PDF to aid you in studying about studying.
IC Level 1, Lesson 7 VocabularyWe welcome your questions and comments.
-John Pasden
dynamite! Thank you
Toni
Hello,
I think these PDF documents are very helpful, however, I’d appreciate if the characters were available in the “written style”, instead of the “blocky style” that is used. If you’re not sure what I mean, the two styles of characters are used in the IC book. The more stylish “written style” characters is used in the listing of new words at the beginning of each chapter and in the dialogues or narratives presented, whereas the “blocky style” is used in the various notes, within english sentences.
As a quick look-up reference sheet, I’d use your PDF files, but because they use the blocky characters, it makes it harder for a beginner to remember how to correctly write characters (because you don’t want to write them in blocky style!).
Also you could possibly shrink the spacing between lines so that it makes less pages to print.
Otherwise, keep doing the good job you do and thanks.
I see what you mean, Philippe. Thanks for the suggestion!
Ha! Recently I asked my (native speaker) Chinese tutor about “哪里，哪里”and asked if there was anything else I could say instead, since I never heard Chinese people saying it, and I felt like people were giving me weird looks when I said it. He insisted that it was the correct thing to say, and that there was nothing else. Now I feel slightly vindicated.
I’m going to try 过奖了 now. First I have to remember it. 过奖了, 过奖了, 过奖了….