Teaching with Rhymes – A Class Song

The activity is to create a simple rhyme and sing it. It practices sounds, tones, tone changes and adjective as predicate. It requires use of all language skills, and can be used as a class activity, homework assignment, or even assessment. Student may create their own versions in writing and speaking.

Preparation for the activity:

1)      Know pinyin.

2)      Know positive and negative patterns of description.

3)      Know tone changes.

Procedure:

Step 1: Create a class song.

      As the class progresses, a rhyme comes into being sentence by sentence:

      傅老师不饿。

      傅老师不渴。

      傅老师很忙。

      傅老师很好。

Step 2: Rehearse

1)      The whole class says or sings it aloud ( with attitude!)

2)      Small groups repeat until memorized.

           Step 3: Write from memory

                 1)A volunteer goes to the board to write it down.

                 2)Others write it out in pinyin, too.

           Step 4: Peer editing

                 Check each other’s work in pairs.

           Step 5: Create another verse

                 Go home and write another verse using other subjects and adjectives.

       Follow-up:

           Come back with a new verse memorized and perform it.

       Analysis of the activity:

1)      It makes learning easier but fruitful, boosting the confidence of learners.

2)      It helps to expand simple words into sentences using both positive and negative patterns.

3)      It employs tone changes and fluency of speech.

chinese idiom-wangyangbulao

亡羊补牢 

【拼音】：wáng yáng bǔ láo

A man who raised sheep once noticed there was a hole in the walls of his sheepfold. But he neglected to repair it. A few days later, several sheep were missing. His friend advised him: "It is not too late to mend the sheepfold."

"Wang Yang Bu Lao" or "Mending the sheepfold after the sheep have been stolen" advises us that even though we have suffer a loss, it is never too late to take steps to prevent further losses.

The Origin of Shanxi Business –Ancient City of Pingyao

The city of Pingyao located in the middle part of Shanxi Province, China is an ancient city with a history of over 2700 years. UNESCO describes it as an “ outstanding city model fo the Han nationality in the Mng (1368-1644) and (1644-1911) dynasty” and listed it as a World Cultural Heritage Site in the year of 1997.

Firstly built as early as 827 B.C. to 782 B.C., the city walls, streets, dwelling houses, shops and temples have been well-protected. Besides, many traditions are still preserved in the daily life of people living in Pingyao. The city we see today was rebuilt in 1370 on the basis of the old one.

The design of the ancient city is strictly according to China’s traditional archaeological thoughts. The wall circling the city is one of three treasures of Pingyao. Made of black bricks, the city wall has stood against rains and storms for over 600 years and been well preserved. The circuit of walls measures 6 km in length with 3,000 battlements and 72 massive bastions, presenting Confucius’s 3000 disciples and 72 sages. In the late Qing Dynasty, a Kuixing Pavilion was built in the southeast of the city to keep flourishing literature here, which showed how geat the Confucianism influence was.

Moreover, the city wall has six city gates and from above the city resembles a turtle with the southern gate as the head, the northern gate as the tail, the four gates in the west and east as the four legs and the four major streets, eight small streets and 72 lanes as designs on the back of the turtle. In ancient China, a turtle was the symbol of longevity and peace.

Pingyao enjoys the distinction of its folk residence. The private houses are built round four sides of an open courtyard, in black bricks and gray tiles, symmetrical and rectilinear. The cave dwelling put up with bricks are in particular of strong flavor of rural life. Now, the city possesses 3,797 courtyard dwellings, in which more than 400 are preserved to an exceptional extent.

The ancient city of Pingyao is known as “ a gallery and treasure houses of Chinese ancient architectures” since there are many precious historic and cultural sites such as the other two treasures of Pingyao, the Zhenguo Temple and the Shuangliing Temple.

The Zhengguo Temple with a history of more than 1,000 years is located to the northeast of the city. It is famous for its building technique and the color-painted sculptures of the Five Dynasties, In terms of its building technique the most representational is the Ten-Thousand-Buddha Hall, which is one fo the three oldest timberworks in mainland China.

The Shuanglin Temple to the southwest of the city is 400 years older than Zhengguo Temple. It is considered as the “ ancient painted scuplures meseum”. The temple house more than 2,000 colorful sculptures reflecting the exquisite skills of the artisans of the Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties.

Besides the long history and those valuable architectures, Pingyao is also famous as the financial center of China in the late Qing Dynasty. The first bank in Chinam “Ri Sheng Chang”, was founded by Shangxi merchants. At the zenith in the late Qing Dynasty, there were as many as 22 draft banks in Pingyao, with more than 400 branches countrywide. The main street of the city, currently a 440-meter-long street in the Ming and Qing styles, had been called the Wall Street of Asia in the 19^th century.

The attraction of Pingyao is the city  itself, Much of the central part of town is free of vehicles and makes for a pleasant walk checking out the wares available for purchase, from the odd baked good to pieces of jade to silk purses. All in the Pingyao is a relaxed pretty little town. It’s definitely recommended to come here, live in the hostel built in 1591 and feel the peaceful atmosphere of a real ancient city.

The Imperial Garden—The Summer Palace

The Summer Palace, located in the west of Beijing, is the largest and best-preserved imperial garden in China. It was used as a summer residence by China’s imperial rulers and as a pleasure ground in the countryside near to the city. The Summer Palace is a museum of traditional Chinese gardening that combines rocks, plants, pavilions, ponds, cobble paths and other garden styles to create a poetic effect between different scenes, which is really a masterpiece of Chinese landscape garden design.

The gardens that became the Summer Palace date from the Jin Dynasty(1115—1234). In Yuan Dynasty(1279—1368), canals were constructed to transport water from the Western Hills to the Summer Palace and the Kunming Lake was enlarged to reserve the water. The substantial gardens of Summer Palace were added in 1750, by the Emperor Qian Long（1736—1796）of the Qing Dyansty (1644-1911). Designers were appointed to reproduce the styles of various palaces and gardens from around China.

In 1860, the Anglo-French Allied Forces invaded Beijing and set the fire to many of the buildings within the Summer Palace. The Dowager Empress Cixi embezzled funds from the Imperial Navy and restored the gardens in 1888. Ten years later, the reconstruction and enlargement was finished and the gardens were renamed “Yi He Yuan”(Garden of Peace and Harmony). The Summer Palace was open to the public as a park in 1924 and was designated a World Cultural Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1990.

No visitor to the Summer Palace should miss the well-known scenic spots like the Suzhou Street, the long Corridor, the Kunming Lake, the Marble Boat, the Jade Belt Bridge, and the 17-Arch Bridge, etc. The following passage will introduce these one by one.

Entering the north gate, you may see the Suzhou Street, a 300-meter-long street over water with shops along the banks. The street and the shops are modeled on the town of Suzhou in Zhejiang Province and the commercialism in southern China in the 18^th century is illustrated well here. You could find teahouses, restaurants, grocery stores even a bank here.

The Long Corridor running by the north side of Kunming Lake starts from Inviting the Moon Gate in the east and ends at Shizhang Pavilion in the West, covering a distance of 728 meters with its 273 sections, which is the longest corridor in Chinese classical gardens. There are over 14,000 traditional Chinese Painting episode from Chinese classic literature, flowers, architecture and landscapes on the beams and crossbeams. The four octagonal pavilions with double eaves, “Mesmerizing Scenery”, “Harmonizing with the Lake”, “Autumn Water” and “Clear and Carefree” intersperse along the corridor intermittently, presenting the four seasons in a year.

The Summer palace coves an expanse of 290 hectares and three quarters is open water. The Kunming Lake is primarily man-made. The earth and rocks removed to form the lakes was used to make the Longevity Hill less steep. In accordance with the “three islands in one pool” principle for the design of water features in imperial garden, three islands were built on the lake, which actually present the three islands to the east of Bohai Bay where the gods lived in Chinese tales. One of them is the South Lake Island, linking to the east bank by the famous 150-meter-long 17-Arch Bridge, the long carved on the posts of the bridge’s railings. A “Golden Ox” statue was positioned on the east of the bridge to keep the floods down.

After the Great Wall and Forbidden City, the Summer Palace is the next “must see” palace to visit for any tourist. A whole day is recommended for your visit, to relax and enjoy a different view of these wonderful gardens.

Erhua—儿化音

Erhua (simplified Chinese: 儿化; pinyin: Érhuà); also called erhuayin (simplified Chinese: 儿化音; pinyin: Érhuàyīn) or erization, refers to a phonological process that adds r-coloring or the "ér" (儿) sound (transcribed in IPA as [ɻ]) to syllables in spoken Mandarin Chinese. It is most common in the speech varieties of North China, especially in the Beijing dialect, as a diminutive suffix for nouns, though some dialects also use it for other grammatical purposes. The Standard Chinese spoken in government-produced educational and examination recordings features erhua to some extent, as in 哪儿 (nǎr) ("where"), 一点儿 (yìdiǎnr) ("a little"), or 好玩儿 (hǎowánr) ("fun"). Colloquial speech in many northern dialects has more extensive erhua than the standardized language. Southwestern Mandarin dialects also have Erhua, for example, the dialect in Chongqing and Chengdu. By contrast, many Southern Chinese who speak non-Mandarin dialects may have difficulty pronouncing the sound or may simply find it distasteful, and for whatever reason usually avoid words with Erhua when speaking Standard Chinese, replacing the above examples with 哪里 (nǎlǐ), 一点 (yìdiǎn), or 好玩 (hǎowán).

Only a small number of words in standardized Mandarin, such as 二 "two" and 耳 "ear", have r-colored vowels that do not result from the erhua process. All of the non-erhua r-colored syllables are pronounced [ɑɻ] with no initial consonant. All other instances of r-colored vowels are a result of erhua applying to originally non-r-colored syllables.

Zhongyong

禮記;--中庸

１．天命之謂性，率性之謂道，修道之謂教。道也者，不可須臾離也，可離非道也。是故君子戒慎乎其所不睹，恐懼乎其所不聞。莫見乎隱，莫顯乎微。故君子慎其獨也。

What Heaven has conferred is called the nature; an accordance with this nature is called the parth of duty; the regulation of this path is called instruction. The path may not be left for an instant. It it could be left, it would not be the path. On this account, the superior man does not wait till he sees things, to be cautious, nor till he hears things, to be apprehensive. There is nothing more visible than what is secret, and nothing more manifest than what is minute. Therefore the superior man is watchful over himself, when he is alone.

喜怒哀樂之未發，謂之中；發而皆中節，謂之和；中也者，天下之大本也；和也者，天下之達道也。致中和，天地位焉，萬物育焉。

While there are not stirrings of pleasure, anger, sorrow or joy, the mind may be said to be in the state of equilibrium. When those feelings have been stirred, and they ace in their due degree, there ensues what may be called the state of harmony. This equilibrium is the great root from which grow all the human actings in the world, and this harmony is the universal path which they all should pursue. Let the states of equilibrium and harmony exist in perfection, and a happy order will prevail throughout heaven and earth, and all things will be nourished and flourish.

２．仲尼曰：「君子中庸，小人反中庸。君子之中庸也，君子而時中；小人之中庸也，小人而無忌憚也。」

Zhongni (Confucius) said: "The superior man embodies the course of the Mean; the mean man acts contrary to the course of the Mean. The superior man's embodying the course of the Mean is because he is a superior man, and so always maintains the Mean. The Mean man's acting contrary to the course of the Mean is because he is a mean man, and has no caution."

３．子曰：「中庸其至矣乎！民鮮能久矣！」

The Master said: "Perfect is the virtue which is according to the Mean! Rare have they long been among the people, who practise it.!"

４．子曰：「道之不行也，我知之矣：知者過之，愚者不及也。道之不明也，我知之矣：賢者過之，不肖者不及也。人莫不飲食也，鮮能知味也。」

The Master said: "I know how it is that the path of the Mean is not walked in: The knowing go beyond it, and the stupid do not come up to it. I know how it is that the path of the Mean is not understood: The men of talents and virtue go beyond it, and the worthless do not come up to it. The is nobody but eats and drinks. But they are few who can distinguish flavours."

５．子曰：「道其不行矣夫。」

The Master said: "Alas! How is the path of the Mean untrodden!"

６．子曰：「舜其大知也。與舜好問，而好察邇言，隱惡，而揚善，執其兩端， 用其中於民，其斯以為舜乎。」

The Master said: "There was Shun: He indeed was greatly wise! Shun loved to question others, and to study their words, though they might be shallow. He concealed what was bad in them, and displayed what was good. He took hold of their two extremes, determined the Mean, and employed it in his government of the people. It was by this that he was Shun!"

There at Dawn and Four at Dusk

Chinese Culture--There at Dawn and Four at Dusk

In the state of Song there was a man who kept monkeys. He was very fond of monkeys and kept a large number of them. He could understand the monkeys and they could also understand him. He reduced the amount of food for his own family in order to satisfy the monkey’ demands.

After a while his family did not have enough to eat, so he wanted to limit the food for the monkeys. But he was afraid that the monkeys would not submit to him. Before doing that he first played a trick on them.

“If give you three chestnuts in the morning and four in the evening, would that be enough?” he asked the monkeys.

All the monkeys rose up in a fury.

After a short time he said, “If I give you four chestnuts in the morning and three in the evening, would that be enough?”

All the monkeys lay on the floor, very happy with this proposal.

An Argument about the Sun

Chinese Culture--An Argument about the Sun

When Confucius was traveling in the eastern part of the country, he came upon two children in argument, so he asked them to tell him what is was all about.

“I think,” said one child, “that the sun is near to us at daybreak and far away from us at noon.”

The other contended that the sun was far away at dawn and nearby at midday.

“When the sun first appears.” Said one child, “It is as big as the canopy of a carriage, but at noon it is only the size of a plate or a bowl. Well, isn’t it true that objects far away seem smaller while those nearby seem bigger?”

“When the sun comes out,” pointed out the other,  “It is very cool, but at midday it is as hot as putting your hand in boiling water. Well, isn’t it true that what is nearer to us is hotter and what is farther off is cooler?”

Confucius was unable to settle the matter for them.

The two children laughed at him, “Who says you are a learned man?”

The Pot Calling the Kettle Black

The Pot Calling the Kettle Black

“I have spent a lot of time and effort,” stated King Hui of the state of Liang, “ on governing my country. When there is a bad harvest in Henei, north of the Yellow River, I evacuate the people to Hedong, east of the Yellow River and move the grain of Hedong to Henei. When the harvest is bad in Hedong I would do the same for them. As far as I could see, none of the rulers of the neighboring states does not decrease and the number of my subjects does not increase. Why is this so?”

“My lord likes fighting battles,” replied Mencius, “so I will use an analogy from war: imagine battledrums thundering and weapons clashing. At this time some soldiers abandon their armour and run away, dragging their weapons behind them. Some stop after going on hundred paces. Other halt after fifty paces. Those who ran only fifty paces laughed at those who ran a hundred. What do you think?”

“That’s not right. It’s just that they didn’t go a hundred paces, but they did run away all the same.”

“My lord, if you understand this, then you should not cherish hopes of having more subjects than your neighbours.”

mandarin reading skill / chinese reading skill

You can read novels, the newspaper, and work as mandarin reading materials.

Choose those story that isn't too complicated, then you get a chance to enhance your reading speed and smoothness level. You can learn a lot of new expression from them.

first step:try to read page after page without stopping. Just guess the meaning of the words that you don’t really know , and you can underline them .

second step:after reading ,you can check from the dictionary,and note those really “new” words for you .

last step , read the reading materials again to review the new words .

Method-2

I recommend that you can just play some famous and traditional computer games in Chinese, such as THE CHINESE LOVE STORY(Chinese name is: 仙剑奇侠传).

Method-3

reading children's books and watch those television program for children, try the Chinese online streaming video site from CCTV. You can see the children's section here. Most videos have sub titles. or some children's DVDs with Chinese subtitles.

One of the five scared mountains --- Mount Heng

Mount Heng is one of the five sacred mountains. It is called Heng Shan.Heng Shan has been considered a sacred mountain since the Zhou Dynasty.

During the Han Dynasty, a temple called the Shrine of the Northern Peak (Beiyue Miao), dedicated to the mountain god was built on Hengshan's slopes.

The most famous temple at Hengshan is not Daoist, but is actually the Buddhist Hanging Monastery (Xuankong Si).The Hanging Monastery stands at the foot of Mt. Hengshan and is one of the most dramatic sights at Hengshan - a wooden temple clinging to the cliff side, appearing to defy gravity with only a few wooden posts as support. The Hanging Monastery, built in 491, has survived more than 1,400 years.

One of the five scared mountains --- Mount Song

Mount Song, known in Chinese as Song Shan (Simplified Chinese: 嵩山; Pinyin: Sōng Shān), is one of the Five Sacred Mountains of Taoism and is located in Henan province on the south bank of the Yellow River in China. Its summit is 1,500 meters above sea level.

Songshan is made up of several mountains that rise to 1500 m in the Dengfeng district of Henan province.Song Mountain is called the Central Mountain of the Five Sacred Mountains in China. It has 36 peaks and stretches 60 kilometers, composed of Taishi Mountain and Shaoshi Mountain. The highest peak is 1494 meters above sea level. The seven peaks of Song Shan stretch for 64km between the cities of Luoyang and Zhengzhou. The slopes rise steeply from the valley and are thickly clad with trees, giving them an impressive appearance, but the highest peak (Junji) reaches only 1500m in altitude.

It contains important Taoist temples such as the Zhongyue Temple; It is home to the Shaolin Temple, traditionally considered the birthplace of Zen Buddhism, and the temple's collection of stupas is the largest in China. The Zhongyue Temple is also located here, one of the earliest Taoist temples in the country. The Songyang Academy nearby was one of the four great academies of ancient China. The mountain and its vicinity are populated with Taoist and especially Buddhist monasteries. The 6th century Songyue Pagoda is also located here, as well as Tang Dynasty (618–907) pagodas within the Fawang Temple.

The Ancient Centre of Power—The Forbidden City

The Ancient Centre of Power—The Forbidden City

Located in the centre of Beijing, the Forbidden City, named Gu Gong in Chinese, was the imperial palace to 24 emperors from the Ming Dynasty to the end of the Qing Dynasty. It is the best preserved imperial palace in China and the largest ancient palatial structure in the world. Thus, the Forbidden City was listed as a World Cultural Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1987. It’s a real treasury vault of Chinese cultural and historical relics.

The Forbidden City is the world’s largest palace complex, which covers 72 hectares with a total floor space of approximately 150,000 square meters and consists of 90 palaces and courtyards, 980 buildings and 8,704 rooms. It is recognized as one of the most important five palaces in the world with the Palace of Versailles in France, Buckingham Palace in the UK, the White House in the US and the Kremlin in Russia.

The gorgeous architecture of the Forbidden City speaks well for the essence and culmination ofaccomplishment. The grand palace took millions of people including one hundred thousand artisans 14 years(1406-1420) to finish its construction. Stone were quarried from the suburbs of Beijing. Some are as heavy as hundreds fo tons and it was  said a well was dug every fifty meters along the road in order to pour water onto the road in winter o slide huge stones on ice ino the city. Large amount of timber and other materials were freighted from provinces in Southern China like Yunnan, Guizhou, Guangdong and Guangxi, etc.

There are entrances to the Forbidden City in all four directions and it’s suggested to enter the Forbidden City from the Tiananmen Gate, the traditional “front door” to experience the carefully laid out complex to best effect. The Forbidden City can be divided, by the Gate of Heavenly Peace, into two parts: The southern section is the “Outer Court” and the northern part is the “Inner Court”. Walking straight ahead northwards, you will reach the main entrance to the palace, the meridian Gate, wher the Emperor announced the new lunar calendar on the winter solstice. Enter the Meridian Gate, and go across the Golden Stream Bridge you will arrive at the outer court.

The Outer Court consists of three halls used for ceremonial purpose and other state affairs. You will be greeted by the magnificent Hall of Supreme Harmony, in which there is  the emperor’s Dragon Throne. The next is the Hall of Central Harmony , the resting palace of the emperor before presiding over grand events held in the Hall of Supreme Harmony. The last hall is the Hall of the Preserving Harmony used for banquets and later for imperial examinations.

The northern section, the Inner Court, was where the emperor lived with his family, eunuchs and maid—servants. The first part of the Inner Court is a series of three halls: the Palace of Heavenly Peace, which was the emperors’ sleeping quarters, the Palace of Union and Peace, where the imperial seas were kept and the Palace of Terrestrial Tranquility, the emperors’ wedding room. Besides the three main buildings there are the six eastern palaces and six western palaces , where the emperor and concubines were living. Those palaces have been converted into exhibitions halls.

Exiting and going further north, travelers will find the Imperial Garden, behind which there is the main exit gate of the Forbidden City, the Gate of Diving Minght. For security the Forbidden City is enclosed by a 10 meters high and 3,400 meters long outer wall. There is a watchtower at each corner of the Forbidden City and around the city there is six meter deep, 52 meter wide moat as the first line of defense.

Nowadays, any tour of Beijing would be incomplete without a visit to the grand palace. The introduction here about the Forbidden City is just the tip of an iceberg. You would never realize how great it is unless you visit there by yourself to enjoy the splendid painted decoration, the grand and deluxe halls, with the surprisingly treasures.