Sidney Jones
Digital Portfolio
Learning to Count
Chinese
Chinese is one of the world’s most spoken languages and this 8th grade school year we were required to start learning it. So since it’s my first time learning Chinese I thought it would be a great topic of growth. I think I grew in my knowledge of Chinese; my knowledge of characters, speaking and all.
Before the school year started I only knew three words hello (nǐ hǎo), good bye (zàijiàn) and thank you (xiè xiè). Now I know about 20-40, by the end of the school year I’ll probably know hundreds words. I even know how to count from 0-100. First we only learned 0-10 by watching two videos video. The first video told us how to count with our hands in Chinese, how to say the numbers in pinyin and what the character looks like. The second video we watched was a song showing the pinyin with the character. First the video said each number then you would sing the numbers along with it. Pinyin is the how you say a word in Chinese and how you would spell it with the alphabet and tones. Tones are how you say a word and there are four of them. The four tones are just called the first tone, second tone, third tone and fourth tone. The vowel always has the tone on it. If a letter has the first tone on it you would say it dully or long and drawn out. An example would be emphasizing the may in maybe. The second tone gets higher pitched as you go, like when you say what in shock. The third tone goes from top to bottom like when you say uh. In other words, it falls then rises. The fourth tone is the opposite of the second tone, instead from low to high it is high to low. It kind of like when you say no in an angered way.
These are the two pages of a character writing chart I did to learn the Chinese character for 1-10, up, down and middle.
In Chinese class we complete a grid so we can work at our own pace. So I had to learn and remember what letter would have what tone for each word because we were. We were tested so we would always know for future reference. Even though remembering how to write characters is the hardest thing for me remember pinyin is second place. I use to try to just remember but now I say the word and emphasize the tone and make the direction of the tone with my hand. For example I would make my finger go in down ward direction.
Then we learned how to write the charters for numbers 1-10 and characters for up, down and middle. We usually learn character as a class but to practice and remember we get a chart. First we write down the steps of writing the character, then with the left over space we write the character over and over again. To remember characters, as a class we share ways we remember the character to help others. We may compare the character to an object that also has the meaning. For example the character for one has one line for the entire character.
As the school year goes on the characters we learn are going to get harder and longer. In the very first unit of the year the “Big Brother, Big Sister” unit, learning characters was very hard for me. I couldn’t remember what they looked like or the stroke order. But now character writing is easier for me I don’t know exactly how but I think I just got better with practice. Also the class having discussions on how we can remember the character.
Another technique we use to remember is creating a study guide for the set of words we are learning. On that study guide we type the English, Pinyin then Characters.
I had no knowledge of how to specifically write and say all of the Chinese characters that I know now. Besides English this is the best language I can speak. In other languages I just know bits, pieces and common words. But in Chinese I can even read a few characters on a Chinese restaurant menu. I can now confidently say Chinese is a language I know relatively well.