掩 yǎn: cover, mask; 耳 ěr: ear; 盗 dào: steal; 铃 líng: bell.
Short Description: ‘yǎn ěr dào líng’ is a story that happened in the late Spring and Autumn Period in Chinese history (about two thousand and three hundred years ago). A man from country Jìn wanted to steal a bell of somebody else. He was well aware of that the bell would ring if he touched it. Then he would be caught if he did so. ‘how should I steal the bell?’, he thought. Shortly he came up with a good idea …
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Typically, people borned in 1915, 1927, 1939, 1951, 1963, 1975, 1987, 1999 are of the Chinese zodiac, Rabbit(tù, 兔). But it’s not always true. Exceptions do exsist and we have a special topic on that.
Highlights of Lesson 4: good morning, long time no see; 4 tones for 6 basic vowels; numbers 0~10.
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Typically, people borned in 1914, 1926, 1938, 1950, 1962, 1974, 1986, 1998 are of the Chinese zodiac, Tiger(hǔ, 虎). But it’s not always true. Exceptions do exsist and we have a special topic on that.
Highlights of Lesson 3: the pinyin system; phonetic tones; Chinese characters; Mandarin.
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Typically, people borned in 1925, 1937, 1949, 1961, 1973, 1985, 1997 or 2009 are of the Chinese zodiac, Ox(niú, 牛). But it’s not always true. Exceptions do exsist and we have a special topic on that.
Highlights of Lesson 2: more first words; genders and plural forms of nouns; conjugation of verbs; quiz 2.
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Typically, people borned in 1924, 1936, 1948, 1960, 1972, 1984, 1996 or 2008 are of the Chinese zodiac, rat(shŭ, 鼠). But it’s not always true. Exceptions do exsist and we have a special topic on that.
This is our very beginning. Highlights of Lesson 1: basic greeting words; where do you come from; Chinese way of saying ‘how are you doing’; a doo-dah quiz.
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