Lesson 1: Self Introduction

Daily Conversation

Today, we are going to learn how to make a self introduction. Before that, we learn a short greeting. Usually before we introduce our self, we say “hello”.

Hello! or Hi!

In Chinese, 你好！ (nǐ hǎo)

Aihua

Hello

	你	好
	nǐ	hǎo

Amy	你	好
	nǐ	hǎo

Repeat 2 times

Next, we learn how to make a self introduction.

Aihua

I’m Aihua. In Chinese,

	我	是	爱	华	。
	wǒ	shì	ài	huá

What’s your name?

Amy

I’m Amy.

Aihua

In Chinese, you say

	我	是	爱	米	。
	wǒ	shì	ài	mǐ

Amy	我	是	爱	米	。
	wǒ	shì	ài	mǐ

Repeat 2 times

Aihua

I’m 30 years old. In Chinese,

	我	３	０	岁	了	。
	wǒ	sān	shí	suì	le

How old are you, Amy?

Amy	I’m 5 years old.

Aihua

In Chinese, you say

	我	５	岁	了	。
	wǒ	wǔ	suì	le

Amy	我	５	岁	了	。
	wǒ	wǔ	suì	le

Repeat 2 times

PinYin

What’s Pinyin?

Pinyin is “spelling sound” or “phonetics” of Chinese.

It expresses the sounds in the Chinese language using the alphabet. Pinyin is also the most common way to input Chinese characters into a computer. Although Pinyin and English both use the alphabet, many letters are not expressed with the same sounds that English uses.

Today, we learn “a” as in “father”.

Aihua

a

Amy

a

Repeat 2 times

Tones

Mandarin Chinese is a tonal language. It has four pitched tones and a “toneless” tone. Different tone expresses different meaning.

Four tones of “a” are pronounced like this.

Aihua

ā

á

ǎ

à

Amy

ā

á

ǎ

à

Repeat 2 times

Vocabulary

Today, we are going to learn three words.

Name, 名字 (míng zi)

I, 我 (wǒ)

You, 你 (nǐ)

Aihua

Name

	名	字
	míng	zi

Amy	名	字
	míng	zi

Repeat 2 times

Aihua

I

	我
	wǒ

Amy	我
	wǒ

Repeat 2 times

Aihua

You

	你
	nǐ

Amy	你
	nǐ

Repeat 2 times

Review

Let’s review what we learned today. We learned Self Introduction.

Aihua

I’m Aihua, I’m 30 years old.

In Chinese,

	我	是	爱	华	。
	wǒ	shì	ài	huá

	我	３	０	岁	了	。
	wǒ	sān	shí	suì	le

Could you introduce yourself in Chinese, Amy?

Amy	我	是	爱	米	。
	wǒ	shì	ài	mǐ

	我	５	岁	了	。
	wǒ	wǔ	suì	le

Dialog Practice

Pretend we meet each other at first time. I am going to introduce myself to you, and then you are going to introduce yourself to me. First, we are going to use English, then use Chinese.

Aihua

Hello!

I’m Aihua,

I’m 30 years old.

Amy

Hello!

I’m Amy,

I’m 5 years old.

In Chinese,

Aihua	你	好	！
	nǐ	hǎo

	我	是	爱	华	。
	wǒ	shì	ài	huá

	我	３	０	岁	了	。
	wǒ	sān	shí	suì	le

Amy	你	好	！
	nǐ	hǎo

	我	是	爱	米	。
	wǒ	shì	ài	mǐ

	我	５	岁	了	。
	wǒ	wǔ	suì	le