Chinese 1 for Schools – Lesson 1
We are learning to… Greet people and express feelings.
In this video, you will learn some of the phrases used for greeting someone in Mandarin at various times of the day and in different contexts.
In this video, you will see and hear Chinese people greeting each other and using different answers to the question: Nǐ hǎo ma? (How are you?). Can you understand what they say?
Make a note, if you can, of the various greetings you can hear. Notice and discuss all the cultural elements in the video. What catches your eye? In what ways does it look different from your home country?
In this short animation, you will learn about pinyin, a great tool to help you learn the accurate pronunciation of Mandarin words.
In this story, you will hear where the expression mǎmǎhūhū came from. You will also learn that carelessness can lead to trouble!
Once you have listened to the story, download the word document to complete the quiz.
Supporting resource – Pronunciation of Chinese words for Lessons 1 to 6 cultural podcasts.
The following PowerPoint gives you the correct pronunciation as well as the pinyin, for the Chinese names and words used in the cultural podcasts, for lessons 1 to 6.
Cultural podcasts pronunciation of Chinese words
Challenge 1 – Game
Download the flashcards with various greetings and emotions. Teach your learners the difference between all these greetings. Embed them as part of your morning and/or evening routine.
There are various games you can play with a printed set of Flashcards, such as “mime the flashcard”, “find the missing flashcard” (KIM’s game); or with two sets: memory game, snap game, etc.
Challenge 2 – Talking
As part of the daily routine, get your pupils to stand up when the teacher walks into the class every morning. Remember to use the proper greetings! (If need be, you could leave the room and then come in again!). Greet your learners, colleagues or someone at home in Mandarin, in the morning, afternoon or in the evening.
Get pupils to greet each other too and to wave! They could use a puppet or get them to draw a face on their index finger (2 eyes and a mouth!).
