China

Mandarin for Kids

Mandarin

Countries Spoken – China and ?; Continent – Asia

With very grateful thanks to Laura who took an enormous amount of trouble over these.

Mandarin is a very literal language and a lot of what you say is explained simply by context and by little ‘add-on’ sounds within sentences that mean it is a question or is referring to something that has already happened etc.For example we would say, “It’s a hot day isn’t it?” The Mandarin would say “Day hot + sound to show it wasn’t hot before + sound to show this was a question”

Mandarin is a tonal language so you have to adjust how you say a word to mean something completely different; For example take the word “qing”

If you say “qing” in a high, level voice it can mean “clean, clear and pure”.

If you say “qing” with your voice rising like a question it can mean “feelings and affection”.

If you say “qing” dropping your voice low and then flicking it up slightly at the end it can mean, “to ask”.

If you say “qing” with your voice falling sharply like giving a dog a bossy command to sit, then it can mean, “to celebrate”

These are the four main tones and then there is a neutral tone, which is as it sounds. When you are learning Mandarin then you write a symbol for the tone over the top of the word so you know how to say it – just be aware if anyone is practising some of these words they may not be saying exactly what they think they are!

Numbers

One	Yi	Eleven	Shi Yi	Twenty One	Er Shi Yi
Two	Er	Twelve	Shi Er	Twenty Two	Er Shi Er
Three	San	Thirteen	Shi San	Thirty	San Shi
Four	Si	Fourteen	Shi Si	Forty	Si Shi
Five	Wu	Fifteen	Shi Wu	Fifty	Wu Shi
Six	Liu	Sixteen	Shi Liu	Sixty	Lui Shi
Seven	Qi	Seventeen	Shi Qi	Seventy	Qi Shi
Eight	Ba	Eighteen	Shi Ba	Eighty	Ba Shi
Nine	Jiu	Nineteen	Shi Jiu	Ninety	Jui Shi
Ten	Shi	Twenty	Er Shi	One Hundred	Yi Bai

The number rule for 21-29, 31-39 etc is as follows…

Rule for twenty and above: number of tens + number

eg. 47 is Si (4) Shi (10) Qi (7) Si Shi Qi
83 is Ba (8) Shi (10) San (3) Ba Shi San

Alphabet

Where N/A is put in, no equivalent to the English exists in this language. The sounds are phonetic.

A	B	C	D	E
	as in Bun	Hard ‘s’ tongue behind the teeth to make a ‘ts’ sound	as in Dog	short as in jerk
F	G	H	I	J
as in Food	as in Good	as in Hut but with a breath out to make it a soft sound	as in bee*	as in Jump
K	L	M	N	O
as in Kick	as in Log	as in Mouse	as in Nice	‘oh’ as in go
P	Q	R	S	T
as in Panda	Hard ‘ch’ with the tongue behind the teeth to make a ‘tch’ sound	very guttural and slightly rolled like a Scots accent	as in Sing	as in Tag
U	V	W	X	Y
as in too**		as in Wing	Aspirated ‘sh’ tongue in roof of mouth to make a ‘hsh’ sound
Z	CH	SH	ZH	Yi
Hard ‘z’ to make a ‘dz’ sound	as in Church	as in Shout	almost as in Jump but with a slight buzz	As in Bee
EI	AO	OU	AI	EN
as in hay	as in cow	as in show	as in tie	as in olden times
IE	IAO	IU	IAN	UI
ee-eh as is bee-enter	ee-ow as in bee cow	ee-oh as in bee go	ee-en as in bee-ben	oo-ay as in too-way

*Except after these Zh, Sh, Z, C, S, R when it is short as is jig

**(except after ‘y’, ‘yu’ is pronounced like “see you jimmy”, when spoken with a strong Glaswegian accent)

Other end sounds are either a combination of the above or as they would be in English but often with a real nasal twang

eg. ‘Tang’ would be a longer nasal sound ‘tahng’

Sounds to practice because they are so similar:

She and Shi

Ji and Qi

Chong and Zhong

Chang and Zhang

Days and Months

January	Yi Yue	Monday	Xing Qi Yi
February	Er Yue	Tuesday	Xing Qi Er
March	San Yue	Wednesday	Xing Qi San
April	Si Yue	Thursday	Xing Qi Si
May	Wu Yue	Friday	Xing Qi Wu
June	Liu Yue	Saturday	Xing Qi Liu
July	Qi Yue	Sunday	Xing Qi Ri
August	Ba Yue
September	Jiu Yue	Morning	N/A
October	shi Yue	Afternoon	N/A
November	Shi Yi Yue	Evening	N/A
December	Shi Er Yue	Night	N/A
Month	Yue (moon)	Week	Xing Qi

In the case of Sunday, Ri does mean Sun rather than being a number.

Greetings

Hello	Ni Hao
Goodbye	Zai Jian
How are you	Shen-ti Hao Ma
Good Morning	Zao Hao

Please is Quig Ni

Thank you is Xie Xie

The old ways of greeting people which go back to when many people did not have enough to eat or clothes to keep out the cold were

Have you eaten yet? Ni Chi Le Mei You

Are You Cold? Leng Bu Leng

Relations

Mummy	Ma Ma
Daddy	Ba Ba
Elder Sister	Jie Jie
Younger Sister	Mie Mie
Elder Brother	Ge Ge
Younger Brother	Di Di
Uncle	Bo Fu
Aunt	Bo Mu
Baby	Ying Er
Grandma	Zu Mu
Grandpa	Zu Fu
Cousin	Tang

Flag of China

Colours

Red	Hong Se
Yellow	HuangSe
Blue	Lan Se
Green	Lu Se
Purple	Zi Se
Orange	Ju Se
Pink	Fen Hong Se
Brown	Zong Se
Grey	Hui Se
Black	Hei Se
White	Bai Se

The word for colour is Se

Size and Shape

Small	Xiao
Large	Da
Tiny	Ji Xiao
Huge	Ji Da
Square	Fang Xing
Rectangle	Chang Fang Xing
Triangle	San Jiao Xing
circle	YuanXing
oval	Tuo Yuan Xing

Directions

North	Bei Fang
South	Nan Fang
East	Dong Fang
West	Xi Fang
Left	Zuo Bian
Right	You Bian
Up	Shang
Down	Xia
High	Gao
Low	Di

Question starters

I have included these but with Lauras rider that they do not translate well, due to changing with situations.

When	Shen-me Shi-hou
Where	He Chu OR Zai Nar
Why	Wei Shen-me
How	Zen Me
Who	Shui de OR He Ren
What	Shen-me Yang

Some China associations and names

– to be expanded!

China Zhong Guo ( means the central kingdom)

Chinese Han Yu ( as in Chinese language)

Chopsticks – Kuai Zi

Panda – Xiong Mao

Rice – Mi Fan

China Resources

Animals of China

Chinese Matching Cards

Simple World Map Outline

China Map Outline

China Facts

All the following facts have been taken from reading WorldInfoZone, a completely superb site.

Other links on this site China, Map Outline and Chinese New Year.

I’m going to illustrate this page and add more to bits we are interested in – stand by….

*The Great Wall of China was started over two and a half thousand years ago and is more than 5,000 km long.

*One-fifth of the world’s population lives in China.

*Chinese cuisine can be divided into northern, eastern, southern (Cantonese) and central and southwestern (Sichuan).

*Chinese people live in modern buildings in the towns, farmhouses in rural areas; houses made of bamboo and even caves in the mountains and sampans (houseboats) on the rivers and in harbours.

*Chinese wildlife includes tigers, leopards, snow leopards, monkeys, yaks and giant pandas. The birdlife includes peacocks, parrots, cranes and storks.

*Cormorants are used by some fishermen on the rivers to catch fish for them.

*Bamboo is a very fast growing plant which can grow up to one metre a day. Its eaten by Pandas.

*Thousands of years ago the Chinese had developed a calendar, writing, the wheel and a thriving silk industry and was advanced in astronomy and mathematics. It was the first to invent gunpowder hich was used for fireworks.

*Crops include rice, wheat, maize, millet, sorghum, soya beans, rapeseed, sesame, sugar, tea (20% of the world’s supply) as well as potatoes, peanuts, pineapple, bananas and vegetables, honey and eggs, poultry and pork. Cattle, sheep and camels are farmed (camel hair is used for good quality paint brushes).

*China is among the world’s largest producers of cotton and Silk production has been an important part of the Chinese economy for thousands of years.

*The forestry industries produce pine, oak, teak and mahogany.

*China produces fish such as cod, tuna and dolphin, prawns and also freshwater fish.

*China has deposits of iron ore, tin and tungsten and also produces coal and oil.

*China is particularly famous for its ceramics – in fact, guess where our word for “china” plates comes from!!!

*Chess is also a favourite pastime. Other popular board games are Go and Mahjong. Try Mahjong at A Fun Zone. You may have to look about for the game a little but its beautiful.

*The most important celebration is the Chinese New Year. This is the biggest national holiday and shops and offices are closed for three days. As well as the traditional festivals, the Chinese commemorate the founding of the Chinese Communist Party and there a number of special celebration days such as a teachers’ day.

See WorldInfoZones Facts Page for more interesting things about China.

All about China

Last year i did a Chinese New Year section which i plan to use properly this year. There is an excellent pdf booklet available at the Woodwench site.(You will need a pdf reader and to access the page via an IE browser for it to open). As Chinese New Year comes first, I am going to use this section as a template for what i will be doing with other countries and festivals over the rest of the year and add in the resources i produce for my girls in the next week or two.

First up – Fantastic Facts about China

Followed by Fantastic Panda Facts

And then… Animals of China

And of course…. Chinese Matching Cards

To start,i have now started on a selection of my own maps outlines. I hope to increase the complexity of what is on them as we revisit places – this year – its just a china outline.

Where is China?

Well – in East Asia and here is a map of the area. The Clipart gallery I use does not have a globe with china highlighted so above is my own map with China highlighted in red – this is a basic map with much fine detail omitted to preserve clarity for young users. A printable outline of this World Map (without China highlighted) is available.

Some of its main borders are with Mongolia, Russia, Kazakstan, Nepal and India, Vietnam and Noth Korea. These are countries which come up in world events a great deal. Also of importance in the area are the former British Colony Hong Kong and the island of Taiwan. As you can see from the map, China also has a long coastline.

What is special about China?

My girls have been intrigued by Pandas, the Great Wall of China, Chinese Dragons and Paddy Fields so over the next few days i will be trying to find information on all of them and i will add an overview here. I’ll probably spend a bit of time on religions for my own benefit.

The Chinese flag, flags being my daughters current obsession is pictured below. Its already in our matching cards set at home and i think i will make a set of dominos, flashcards and matching cards as well.

I’m currently searching for a Mandarin Speaker who might translate some words for our fledgling language section. FOUND ONE!!!! COMING SOON!

Don’t forget to visit the New Year Section. It has info on meals and menus, taboos and traditions and a lot of handy links as well!

My favourite link from this years searching is

WorldInfoZone

Chinese New Year Food

Chinese New Year Decorations and Food

“As at all Chinese festivals, food plays an important role throughout the Chinese New Year Festival, and dinners tend to be especially lavish. Many of the dishes made at this time are served because they are regarded as symbols of good luck. For instance, fish (yu) represent “having enough to spare,” garlic chives (chiu-tsai) stand for “everlasting,” turnips (tsai tou) mean “good omens,” and fish balls (yu-wan) and meat balls (jou-wan) represent “reunion.” Auspicious refreshments are also prepared at this time, such as glutinous rice flour pudding (nien-kao), which is said to make people “advance toward higher positions and prosperity step by step.” People from northern China usually have dumplings (shui-chiao) too, which look like shoe-shaped gold and are supposed to help those who eat them to amass fortunes and wealth. ” From Taiwanese Website

Other Ideas

Write happy wishes on red paper and hang them on the walls. Try out writing two line poems (couplets) for these.

Flowers symbolise wealth and a good career. Make paper flowers and decorate twigs with paper blossoms to put around the house.

Oranges and Tangerines (including a lai see, red envelope with money when brought as a gift) will bring much happiness.

“The candy tray arranged in either a circle or octagon is called “The Tray of Togetherness” and has a dazzling array of candy to start the New Year sweetly. After taking several pieces of candy from the tray, adults places a red envelope (lai see) on the center compartment of the tray. Each item represents some kind of good fortune. “

* Candied melon – growth and good health
* Red melon seed – dyed red to symbolize joy,happiness, truth and sincerity
* Lychee nut – strong family relationships
* Cumquat – prosperity (gold)
* Coconut – togetherness
* Peanuts – long life
* Longnan – many good sons
* Lotus seed – many children

Taken directly from Chinese New Year Site

It would be fun to make all these items and maybe even make and decorate a tray, using small pots or papier mache.

With Thanks

The basis for most of these ideas can be found at Chinese New Year. I couldn’t find a contact link to thank them, but hope this acknowledgement will do!