17 Lesson 7 Dialogue 1: Learning Chinese is cool
Narration:
我喜欢学中文，觉得学中文是一个很酷的事儿，而且我的老师教中文教得真不错，所以我觉得中文很容易学。
平常我的学习习惯很好，天天预习和复习功课。我的中文常常考得很好。所以老师常夸我，说我的中文学得不错。
但是我不喜欢写汉字，因为写汉字有点儿难，而且我写得很慢。我的老师常常要我们听写汉字。怎么听写？就是老师说生词，我们写。明天我们上第八课，有一个听写考试，我得去准备一下，练习一下写汉字。
Vocabulary:
| Chinese | Pinyin | English |
|---|---|---|
| 酷 | kù | adj., cool |
| 平常 | píng cháng | adv., usually |
| 习惯 | xí guàn | n., habit |
| 得 | de | particle, see grammar notes below |
| 第 | dì | prefix for ordinal numbers, see grammar notes |
| 天天 | tiān tiān | time word, every day |
| 功课 | gōng kè | n., lesson, assignment |
| 难 | nán | adj., difficult |
| 容易 | róng yì | adj., easy |
| 有点儿 | yǒu diǎn ér | adv., a little bit, somewhat, rather |
| 复习 | fù xí | v., to review |
| 预习 | yù xí | v., to preview |
| 写 | xiě | v., to write |
| 汉字 | hàn zì | n., Chinese characters |
| 夸 | kuā | v., praise, brag, boast |
| 而且 | ér qiě | conj., moreover, in addition |
| 听写 | tīng xiě | n., dictation; v., to dictate |
| 生词 | shēng cí | n., new words |
| 真 | zhēn | adv., really |
| 慢 | màn | adj., slow |
| 怎么 | zěn me | question word, how |
Grammar Notes:
- Descriptive complement:
The particle 得 is often used after a verb or an adjective to describe the verb before it, as in the structure: Verb / Adj. + 得 + Descriptive complement. For example, 我写得慢。In this sentence, 得慢 is the descriptive complement, used to describe the verb 写. It is similar to the English word “slowly”. Here are more examples:
我的中文老师说得很快。(My Chinese teacher speaks Chinese fast.)
她唱得很好听。(She sings well.)
你学得很好。(You learned well.) - The adverb 真 (zhēn):
It is used only in exclamatory sentences and comes before an adjective. For example, 你真好! (“you are truly nice”). In this sentence, 真 is used to modify 好. More examples:
他真帅！
你们真漂亮！
美国真大啊！ - Ordinal numbers:
Chinese ordinal numbers are formed by adding the prefix 第 (dì) before cardinal numbers, which you can see from 第一 (the first) and 第二 (the second). Note that when adding a noun after a Chinese ordinal numbers, we must add a measure word in between, as in the structure “第 + Number + Measure Word + Noun“. For instance, 第一个学生 (the first student), 第三家饭馆 (the third restaurant). - The phrase 有一点儿:
This phrase can be shortened as 有点 or 有一点. In the north, Chinese people would prefer to add -er sound after the phrase, so they would say 有点儿 or 有一点儿. It is used before an adjective, used to express a tone of complaint by the speaker, or some other form of negative impression. It doesn’t just mean “a bit,” but rather “a bit too” from the speaker’s perspective. For example, 中文有点儿难。This sentence indicates that the speaker is complaining that Chinese is a bit too difficult. More examples:
法国菜有点儿贵。(French food is a bit too expensive.)
日语有点儿难学。(Japanese is a bit too difficult to learn.)
老师说得有点儿快。(The teacher speaks a bit too fast.)
Culture Notes:
Chinese characters have two versions: traditional and simplified Chinese. Traditional Chinese was originally the standard written system in all Chinese-speaking regions. In the 1950s and 1960s, the simplified characters used today were developed and implemented by the government of the People’s Republic of China to help improve China’s literacy rates. As its name suggests, simplified characters contain fewer strokes and look much simpler than traditional characters, which makes writing Chinese much easier. For example, compare 說話 (traditional) with 说话 (simplified), as well as 張 (traditional) and 张 (simplified).
Note that not all Chinese characters have been simplified because some are already so simple that there is no need to change them. There are many such characters, including: 上、下、 我，好，人.
Today, simplified Chinese is officially used in mainland China, Singapore, and Malaysia. Traditional Chinese is still used in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau regions.
