Cornelius C. Kubler - Elementary Mandarin Chinese Textbook: The Complete Language Course for Beginning Learners

Elementary Mandarin Chinese The Complete Language Course for Beginning Learners CORNELIUS C. KUBLER, Ph.D Published by Tuttle Publishing, an imprint of Periplus Editions (HK) Ltd. www.tuttlepublishing.com Copyright 2019 Cornelius C. Kubler All photos Cornelius C. Kubler except for: Front cover: Brocreative/Shutterstock.com; szefei/Shutterstock.com Assistance received from the following in the filming of conversations is gratefully acknowledged: Lesson 5, Part 1: The Mandarin Training Center, National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei. Lesson 6, Part 1: Shangrila Hotel, Beijing; Part 2: Hilton Hotel, Taipei.

Lesson 8, Unit 2: Beijing West Railway Station, Beijing. Lesson 9, Part 1: The Mandarin Training Center, National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei; Part 2: Jianquan Clinic, Taipei. Lesson 10, Part 1: Swisshotel, Beijing. Lesson 12, Part 1: Yuelong Restaurant, Beijing. Lesson 17, Part 2: Fortune Garden Restaurant, North Adams, Massachusetts. All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior written permission from the publisher. ISBN 978-1-4629-2125-6 Distributed by North America, Latin America & Europe Tuttle Publishing 364 Innovation Drive, North Clarendon, VT 05759-9436 U.S.A. Tel: 1 (802) 773-8930; Fax: 1 (802) 773-6993 www.tuttlepublishing.com Asia Pacific Berkeley Books Pte. Ltd. 3 Kallang Sector #04-01, Singapore 349278 Tel: (65) 6741-2178; Fax: (65) 6741-2179 www.periplus.com 22 21 20 19 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Printed in Singapore 1909MP TUTTLE PUBLISHING is a registered trademark of Tuttle Publishing, a division of Periplus Editions (HK) Ltd. ABOUT TUTTLE Books to Span the East and West Our core mission at Tuttle Publishing is to create books which bring people together one page at a time.

Tuttle was founded in 1832 in the small New England town of Rutland, Vermont (USA). Our fundamental values remain as strong today as they were thento publish best-in-class books informing the English-speaking world about the countries and peoples of Asia. The world has become a smaller place today and Asias economic, cultural and political influence has expanded, yet the need for meaningful dialogue and information about this diverse region has never been greater. Since 1948, Tuttle has been a leader in publishing books on the cultures, arts, cuisines, languages and literatures of Asia. Our authors and photographers have won numerous awards and Tuttle has published thousands of books on subjects ranging from martial arts to paper crafts. Free Bonus Material may also be Downloaded. How to Download the Bonus Material of this Book. Free Bonus Material may also be Downloaded. How to Download the Bonus Material of this Book.

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. Preface This book, which is a concise, streamlined, combined version of the authors Basic Mandarin Chinese: Speaking & Listening and Basic Mandarin Chinese: Reading & Writing (Tuttle Publishing 2017), will help learners establish a strong foundation in listening, speaking, reading, and writing Mandarin Chinese. The book was designed for a beginning level course in Mandarin Chinese that meets three hours a week for one academic year. In addition to time in class, students will need to prepare approximately two to three hours for each class hour.

This textbook book should be used with the accompanying Elementary Mandarin Chinese Workbook (Tuttle Publishing 2019), which is available separately, and with the accompanying audio files, which can be downloaded directly from the Tuttle Publishing website. In a college or university environment, it is recommended that this textbook be taught at the rate of approximately one lesson per week. Each lesson is divided into two parts, so Part One could be taken up on the first class day each week and Part Two on the second day, with the third day being used for review, testing, and supplemental activities. Since it would take 24 weeks to go through the materials at this rate but most institutions schedule 25-35 weeks of instruction per academic year, this would still leave some time for other activities, or else allow for a somewhat slower rate of progress through the materials, if preferred. The exact schedule and rate of progress will, of course, need to be determined based on local conditions. With the exception of two introductory lessons and two review lessons, each part of each lesson in this book includes a conversation, lists of new and supplementary vocabulary, questions on the conversation, general questions, notes on the conversation, and a section specifically on reading (which in turn consists of new characters and words, sentences, conversations, narratives, and notes).

Since Pinyin is included everywhere except in the reading exercises, the book is usable even by learners who wish to focus on speaking and listening. I wish to acknowledge here the following, who have been particularly helpful in the preparation and publication of these materials: Nancy Goh, Jerling G. Kubler, Qunhu Li, Eric Oey, Amory Shih, Yang Wang, and Jun Yang. Cornelius C. Kubler
Williamstown, Massachusetts LESSON 1 Orientation to the Study of Chinese The first task facing you as you set about learning Chinese is to become familiar with the pronunciation system. There are two aspects to this: (1) being able to recognize the sounds of Chinese when someone else produces them and (2) being able to produce the sounds of Chinese yourself.

Since the pronunciation you develop during your first few weeks of learning Chinese is likely to stay with you for the rest of your Chinese-speaking daysand will to a large degree determine whether or not people understand you and what effect your speech has on them, its crucial that you do all you can now to acquire the best pronunciation possible. Transcription Systems for Chinese As youre no doubt already aware, Chinese is ordinarily written in Chinese characters. However, since the characters take time to learn and dont provide information on pronunciation in a systematic way, its more efficient to begin the study of Chinese via a transcription system. The Pinyin system is the transcription system well be using in this text. The written symbols of Pinyin are basically the same as those of the Roman alphabet except that the letter v isnt used. Be aware that Pinyin doesnt record all the details of Chinese sounds; it can only be a rough reminder of the real sounds, which must exist in your heads based on frequent hearing of live or recorded sounds.

Its very important that you practice in class with your instructor, and at home with the accompanying audio recordings, just as much as possible. The Sounds of Mandarin The basic unit of Mandarin pronunciation is the syllable. A typical Mandarin syllable is composed of three parts: an initial sound, a final sound, and a tone. For example, in the syllable m scold, m is the initial, a is the final, and ` represents the tone. Some syllables lack an initial and some syllables, when theyre unstressed, have no tone; but every syllable must have a final. In Pinyin the same letter may have two or more different pronunciations depending on what letters come before or after.

For example, the i