Chinese Language Sound: Pinyin and Tones

This week I am starting a new ‘Chinese Language for Beginners’ course. I plan to introduce the Chinese Pinyin and tones in the very first class.  In a Western language, such as English, French, or Spanish, a word is spelled with a group of letters from an alphabet.  Generally, based on its spelling, once you learn the alphabet, you know how to pronounce the word.  Unlike an alphabetic language, Chinese writing and pronunciation are two different systems.  Chinese writing consists of “characters” which are visual symbols, each a work of art in itself. Mandarin Chinese sounds are represented with Hanyu Pinyin and four tones.  To learn to understand and speak Chinese, the biggest challenge is to master the pinyin sounds. Chinese Pinyin uses the Roman alphabet, but the actual sounds can be very different.

This morning when I was checking my Beijing high school friends’ group chat online, a few friends from around the world were chatting about the 2024  Australian Open on their local TV stations, specifically on the new Chinese tennis star – Qinwen Zheng.  One post from a friend who lives in Melbourne states: “All the commentators can't pronounce Zheng Qinwen. They called her Zhong Qinwen, Zhang Qinwen, or the worst one, Zhong Queenwin [Chuckle].” 

There are a few things to mention on this post:

1. The Chinese tennis player’s name is: Zheng Qinwen (Chinese: 郑钦文; pinyin: Zhèng Qīnwén).
2.  In a Chinese name, family name or surname comes first, followed by given name which can be one or two characters.
3. The tennis player’s family name is: Zheng. But some of the Australian tennis commentators pronounce it as Zhang (Chinese: 张；pinyin: zhāng), or Zhong (Chinese: 仲；pinyin: zhòng).
4. The tennis player’s given name is: Qinwen (Chinese: 钦文; pinyin: qīn wén). The pinyin Q is pronounced more like the Ch sound in Chimney, not Qu as in Queen.

When speaking Chinese, one needs to pay attention to the pronunciation - pinyin and tones, otherwise no one will understand what you are saying; they’ll get confused or laugh about it:-)

I am not discouraging anyone to learn Chinese, but just want to raise the awareness.  

Happy Learning Chinese😊

Saturday Children’s Chinese Class at Athenaeum

On this quiet beautiful autumn Saturday morning after the Halloween in Salem, Panda Land is starting a new Chinese class for young children at The Salem Athenaeum.  Children will learn to speak Mandarin with the tones, write Chinese characters with the strokes, read Chinese poems, and listen to stories in Chinese.  In addition to language study, children will learn about Chinese culture through stories. This is a wonderful opportunity to introduce children to Chinese language and culture and enrich their education and life.

The class is on Saturday morning at 10am. If you are interested to sign your children up for the class, please contact Judy Wang Bedell for details.  For more information about Panda Land you can visit www.pandalandchinese.com .  Please feel free to pass the word around.

Writing Chinese Characters

Starting with this new school year, I have been teaching a Chinese 1 course at our local high school. The students are really enjoying learning Chinese language and culture.  They try their best at the tones and the sounds, write the characters, and speak the numbers and daily greetings.  They hope that someday their Chinese language skills will be useful to them in life.

However, mastering the Chinese tonal sounds and memorizing the characters are challenging.  These days I am constantly thinking how to help my students to memorize the visual image of characters.

Interestingly enough, this morning I read an article online at the Wall Street Journal about a spelling bee on Chinese Central TV promoting Chinese youth to gain and retain their skills in writing Chinese characters. 

I found a few interesting passages in the article:

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304410204579141422985199050

The show has touched a nerve in China, where purists complain that smartphones are eroding language skills, thanks to the frequent use of emoticons and software that lets people write faster using the pinyin system, where Chinese words are written phonetically in Latin script.

Mandarin has been an important part of the government's strategy to unify a vast country that spans the Uighur-speaking Muslims of the far West, and the dialects of Cantonese and Fujianese in the south. Contestants from various ethnic minority groups in China also took part in the competition in their ethnic dress, underscoring the idea that Chinese language brings the country together.

"Save the children, save the Chinese language, save our culture!" he [Wang Xuming, a former spokesman of the Ministry of Education] tweets frequently on his account, which has about 1.8 million followers.

When I was growing up in Beijing, I practiced writing characters with a fountain pen every night and aimed to master the skills to write each character beautifully.  I also practiced Chinese calligraphy with brush and ink.  The idea I was taught was that with the skills of writing characters beautifully, I would be respected as a well educated and intelligent person.  I guess this value has changed in the new generation in China as it has in America, where many young people don’t learn or care much about beautiful cursive writing.  Many learn to type on computers and use their smart phones to communicate.

I am wondering how long I would like to have my students to learn to write Chinese characters before I introduce them how to use a computer to “type” Chinese characters. 

Children’s Chinese Class in Fall 2013

Hope you all enjoyed the summer.  As the new school year is about to start, Panda Land is preparing a new Chinese class for young children, to be held after school on Wednesdays at The Salem Athenaeum.  Children will learn how to speak Chinese with the tones, how to write Chinese with the strokes, and listen to stories in Chinese.  In addition to language study, children will learn about Chinese culture through stories.

This is a wonderful opportunity to introduce children to Chinese language and culture and enrich their study.

If you are interested to sign your children up for the class, please contact Judy Wang Bedell.  For more information about Panda Land you can visit www.pandalandchinese.com .  Please feel free to pass the word around.

Red, White, Blue, and Fireworks

Today we had our first summer class.  We learned how to say different colors in Chinese.  On the day before Independence Day, I had the children write down the Chinese characters for red, white, and blue.  I also encouraged them to think of words for colors when they watch the fireworks tomorrow night.

Here are some words for colors:

English	Chinese	Pinyin
black	黑色	hēi sè
blue	蓝色	lán sè
brown	咖啡色	kāfēisè
gold	金色	jīn  sè
gray	灰色	huī sè
green	绿色	lǜ sè
light blue	浅蓝色	qiǎn lán sè
maroon	栗色	lì sè
orange	橙色	chéng sè
pink	粉红色	fěn hóng sè
purple	紫色	zǐ sè
red	红色	hóng sè
silver	银色	yín sè
violet	紫罗兰色	zǐ luó lán sè
white	白色	bái sè
yellow	黄色	huáng sè

Happy 4th of July!

Teaching Boys Mandarin Chinese

In the school year of 2012-2013, most of my Chinese students were young boys, ranging from 7 to 14 years old.  I wasn’t teaching at an all-boy school or specifically favoring boys.  I have taught many girls in the past and enjoyed them very much.  However this year it happened to be this way.  I don’t want to promote any gender stereotypes, but do find it very interesting to teach these boys with their smart and active minds. 

In one class I had three second-graders, all active and fun-loving boys.  They also loved to learn Chinese.  One’s favorite activity was writing Chinese characters, another’s was to read and speak phrases in story books, and the third boy was happy to do whatever the other two liked to do.  They also liked to sing; they were very young and picked up the tunes very easily, so sounded just like Chinese children.  One day they were saying in my class, “Studying Chinese is not a race.  By studying Chinese, we learn to focus then we can unlock our potentials.”  Hearing these words come out of their mouths, I knew they had learned more than just Chinese from my teaching. 

In the other class, I had two sixth-graders who were very intelligent and passionate about learning Chinese.  One boy was very particular about learning to write each character in correct stroke order and to say each word in perfect tones; another took a more naturally easy approach and especially liked reciting Chinese poems and songs.  We talked about Chinese history and how it relates to the rest of the world.  At the end of the year, I introduced Chinese chess to them which they enjoyed immensely.

Two other boys studied Chinese with me this year.  One is a 9-year-old who has been studying with me for four years now.  He is so dedicated to Chinese study, does everything I ask him, from learning the Pinyin, speaking phrases, and writing characters.  He especially enjoyed his Chinese calligraphy lessons.  The other student was an eighth-grader who had studied Chinese for two years in Hong Kong.  He has been my most advanced student so far.  I admired his study habits which I believed he had adopted in Hong Kong.  I also appreciated his understanding of Chinese culture and the sense of global citizenship.  We had many interesting conversations on Eastern and Western culture.

It’s been a busy and rewarding year.  I am so happy to share my knowledge and heritage with people in our community.  I know that more and more young people will study Chinese in this changing world and I will be glad to help.

Salem Education Day

Introduction to Chinese Writing and Calligraphy

 Workshop for School-Age Children and Adults

At the Salem Athenaeum

Together we will learn about Chinese characters, discover the concepts and rules of Chinese calligraphy, and make the ink, hold the brush, practice strokes, and write on rice paper.  While you learn calligraphy, you will discover how to master your mindfulness, your breathing, and even your movement.

The instructor is Judy Wang Bedell, who was born, raised, and educated in Beijing China.  Since 2009 she has operated Panda Land, an enterprise in which she teaches Chinese language and culture to people on the North Shore.  She has taught in The Salem Athenaeum, Peabody Essex Museum, The Phoenix School, and Shore Country Day School.