Clearwater Chinese School Conversation

Welcome to Our Chinese Conversation Class!

Teacher: Haihe Tian, Ph.D. Lao(3)-shi(1)

About the Teacher: Dr. Haihe Tian, an Oriental Medical Doctor, has made programs for CCTV and the Beijing Television Station. He has taught Chinese to foreigners for ten years in China and taught Chinese to Americans for four years in the US.

About the Class

• Text Books (yet to be decided!)

Barron's Learn Chinese The fast and Fun Way by Lifei Ji

Please Order the Edition with Tape Cassette Here

Here is a sample (tones omitted):

Mary: Women jinwan qu kan dianying ba. Let's go to the movies tonight.

In class we go over the translation and sentence structure, thus:

Wo(3)-men means "we or us"
jin(1)-wan(3) means "this evening"
qu(4) means "go out"
kan(4) means "see or watch"
dian(4)-ying(3) means "movie"
ba is a particle added to the end to ask "how 'bout it"

Once you get the basic words and structure, you can put your own sentences together and make conversation. Writing down the pinyin is a little easier than speaking. It is a step on the road to becoming fluent in conversation, good practice.

• Learning Helpers

1. Friendly Chinese Community, Parties, Friends to Make

2. Active Web Site Dedicated to Discussion and Learning

3. Computer Savy Teaching Assistants to Help You

• Participation

0. In Classs Discussions in Chinese

1. Learn Chinese Culture Xuexi Zhongguo wen(2)-hua(4)

2. Explore the Internet and Help Build Our Web Site

· Gong(1)-ke(4) Homework

0. Easy Excercises

1. Fun Learning on Our Web Site

2. IRC chat assignments (example conversation on IRC #CHINA)

Tom: ni hao
Lemon: hello
Tom: I am trying to learn Chinese
Lemon: u r not a Chinese, are u
Tom: wo shi mei guo ren
Lemon: From US? cool
Lemon: i'm in Canada now
Tom: wo zai Florida
Lemon: florida, cool
Tom: can you do some pin yin?
Lemon: ke yi
Tom: wo xuexi zhongwen zai Qing Shui Zhongwen Xuexiao
Lemon: wo ming bai la
Tom: wo de laoshi de mingzi shi David
Tom: gramar dui bu dui
Lemon: dui, ta shi zhongguo ren ma?
Tom: dui, ta cong de shanghai
Lemon: shi ta gao su ni zhe ge mIRC server de ma?
Tom: bu
Lemon: we usually say "bu shi" not only "bu"
Tom: dui, bu shi
Lemon: your chinese is very good
Tom: xie xie nin
Tom: wo xuexi zhongwen wu nian
Lemon: hen chang de shi jian
Lemon: suo yi jiang de zhe mo hao
Lemon: it was very nice meeting u
Lemon: but i've to leave now
Lemon: hope to meet u next time
Tom: hao
Lemon: bye
Tom: zai jian

Join our class. You can learn to chat in pin yin too!

When and Where

When: Every Sunday 2:30 PM (excpet major holidays) during the school year.

Where: St. Petersburg Catholic High School. 9th Ave East of 66th St. in St. Petersburg, Florida

Register now for next year! Class starts first Sunday in September.

Call Haihe Tian (727) 547-9137

Email: Haihe Tian

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