Skip to content

Lesson 1

Lesson date: 27/01/2026 (Thursday)

Lesson time: 6:30pm to 8:30pm

Lesson was held on a zoom session.

Lecture slides link

Google classroom link

YouTube link (1)

  1. This is my own seperate recording using OBS. I am recording my screen. When publishing to YouTube I will keep it unlisted to protect the privacy of other students.

Introduction

Course instructor is Dr Cheng-Wei Wang he teaches at both UNSW and USYD. He has a great interest in both the English and Chinese language.

His pages:

Dr Cheng-Wei Wang also recommends getting the following textbooks for the course.

  • Integrated Chinese 1 Textbook
  • Integrated Chinese 1 Workbook

Both textbook and workbook will be referenced in this course. Some sections will say what page number in which book.

Note

It is my personal opinion that textbooks should be free. See the link for the case for free online books (FOBs). I believe I have found the books here:

Textbook link

Workbook link

I have also downloaded the PDFs separately for this website as well.

Chinese "Characters"

Characters/Morphemes are monosyllabic (1)

  1. Monosyllabic means having only one syllable. wiki link

For example:

nǐ hǎo
xué
Zhōng wén
你, 好,
学,
中文
you, good,
learn,
Chinese

Chinese character are morphologically and syntactically analytic while with no inflection
wǒ xué zhōng wén
我 学 中 文。 I study Chinese.
tā xué zhōng wén
她 学 中 文。 She studies Chinese.
nǐ xué zhōng wén ma?
你 学 中 文 吗 Do you study Chinese?

Interestingly - Google translate will use Xuexi instead of Xue.

学习 xuéxí
学 xué

Chinese is a tonal language. For example: shuǐjiǎo (dumpling) 🥟 vs shuìjiào (sleep) 🛏 💤. Another example would be mǎi (buy) vs mài(sell)
水饺 shuǐjiǎo dumpling
睡觉 shuìjiào sleep
买 mǎi buy
卖 mài sell

Info

  1. Google translate will use a different word for dumpling. Jiǎozǐ (饺子). However both jiǎozǐ (饺子) and shuǐjiǎo (水饺) are considered correct translations. Jiǎozǐ (饺子) is a general term for dumpling. It can be boiled, steamed or pan-fried. Shuǐjiǎo (水饺) literally means "water dumpling". It refers specifically to boiled dumplings.

    饺子 = Jiǎozǐ = dumpling
  1. If you put mǎi and mài together then it will indicate business (Literally meaning "buy sell"). When we say "do business" in chinese it is "zuò mài mài” (做买卖)".

    做买卖 = zuò mài mài = Doing business

    买卖 = mǎi mài = buying and selling
  1. Context can help solve ambiguity. For example it does not make sense to say "I am going to dumpling" vs "I am going to sleep". But it is important to be deliberate and precise with your tone as it changes the meaning of a word. An english example would be coke vs cock or sheet vs shit.

Hanyu Pinyin (拼音)

  • Pinyin (拼音) is a way to represent and express the sounds of Chinese characters using 25 English letters
    • The character that is not used is "v" for any native sound. Some keyboard for chinese on computers use "v" as a placeholder for ü.
  • Once you learn Pinyin you will know how to pronounce a character/word in Chinese and be able to type characters on electronic devices
  • Although Pinyin and English both use Roman alphabets, the sounds they represent can vary WIDELY
  • There are 3 parts in Pinyin to represent a pronunciation of a Chinese character:
    1. Initial (Consonant)
    2. Final (Vowel + ending consonant)
    3. Tone

Example

image

36 Finals/vowels Simple Finals (p.2)

Textbook reference page: 2

vowel English approximation audio
a Like "ah" in "father"
o Round, like "or" but shorter
e Similar to uh, not like english "e"
i Like "ee" in "see"
u Like "oo" in "food"
ü(v) Lips rounded "ee" (French "u")

The ones in red indicate different sounds to English. The red ones are semi-vowels.

Instructor quiz

During the session Dr Cheng-Wei Wang gave us a small quiz. All words are in first tone (flat tone).

quiz English approximation answer
ne Like "nuh" with a high, steady pitch
le Like "luh" high and level
he "huh" but back of throat, high pitch
she "shuh" retroflex, high pitch
wu "oo" like in "food", high pitch
tu "too" with aspirated t, high pitch
hu "hoo" with back of throat, high pitch
lü "lee" with lips rounded, high pitch
nü "nee" with lips rounded, high pitch

21 Initals and consonants (p.3)

textbook reference page: 3

1
b p m f /ending with (u)o/
2
d t n l /ending with e/
3
g k h /ending with e/
4
j q x /like FLAT jee, chee, shee/
5
z "tszz" c (ts)"ts-hh" s /c is like "ts" from cats/
6
zh "jerk" ch "chirp" sh "Shirley" r "voiced Shirley"

Important

In zi, ci, si, zhi, chi, shi, ri, the vowel is NOT /i/ like English "see". There is no e sound

zi


ci

si

zhi

chi

shi

ri

Compound Finals (p.7)

Textbook reference page: 7

Compound finals means that we combine two finals to create a new sound.
1. ai ei ao ou
2. an en ang eng ong
3. ia iao ie iu (=iou)
ian in iang ing iong
4. ua uo uai ui (=uei)
uan un (=uen) uang ueng
5. üe üan ün
6. er

ao is like the first part of "ouch"

an start with mouth open.

ang is shorter than an. with ang, tongue stays down.

Instructor quiz

word audio
han
hang
ban
bang
liu
lie
liao
lia
lüe
lüan I cannot find an audio file for this.
luan

Tones

Textbook reference page: 9-10

First tone is steady, high and flat. It feels calm and is like singing.

Second tone is rising. From low to high. It feels like asking "huh?" or "what?"

Third tone is low/dipping. It goes low -> lower -> rise. It feels thoughtful, hesitant.

Fourth tone is sharp drop/fall. It starts high -> sharp drop. It feels strong, decisive and sometimes angry.

Fifth tone is called the neutral tone. It is light and unstressed. It sounds short, soft, no fixed pitched. It feels casual.

first tone second tone third tone fourth tone neutral tone
mā má mǎ mà ma
image image image image
玛 麻 马 骂 吗
mother hemp horse rebuke Y/N Qs indicator

Different regions may have slightly different tones - but this is considered as an accent.

Beijing tones image

Taipei tones image

Spelling rules (p.8)

Textbook reference page: 8

  • ueng is written as ong if preceded by an initial, e.g., tong, dong, nong, long. Without an initial, it is weng.
  • To avoid confusion, an apostrophe is used to separate two syllables with connecting vowels, e.g., nǚ'ér (daughter) and the city Xī'ān (nǚ and ér, Xī and ān are separate syllables). Sometimes an apostrophe is also needed even if the two syllables are not connect by vowels, e.g., fáng'ài (to hinder) and fāng'àn (plan; scheme).
word audio
ueng
ong
tong
dong
nong
long
weng
nǚ'ér
Xī'ān
fáng'ài
fāng'àn

Spelling rules continued (p.5)

Textbook reference page: 5

The finals that can be combined with j, q, and x are limited to i and ü and compound finals that start with i or ü. When j, q, x are combined with ü (or a compound final starring with ü), the umlaut is omitted and appears as a u. For example, jü, qüe and xüan become ju, que and xuan.

word audio
jü
qüe
xüan
ju
que
xuan

Online Pinyin Table

As English and Chinese have very different phonetic systems, What you see is not what you get. When you are note sure how to pronounce certain combinations, the following website and app may help you (with the choice of four tones).

Website: https://chinese.yabla.com/chinese-pinyin-chart.php

Mobile App: Pleco, Pinyin Coach

Note

One mobile app that I would recommend is duolingo - but yes the ads on that app are shit.

Numbers (p. 20)

Textbook reference page: 20

líng yī èr sān sì wǔ
〇 一 二 三 四 五
0 1 2 3 4 5
liù qī bā jiǔ shí shíyī
六 七 八 九 十 十一
6 7 8 9 10 11

6 can be pronounced as liou.

9 can be pronounced as jiou.

o is omitted in the spelling.

The recommendation is to only look at the written symbols since on the exam there won't be pronunication guides.

external resource:

Short greeting phrases

A: 你 好 (Hello)
   Nǐ hǎo
   literally means "You good"

B: 你 好 (Hello)
   Nǐ hǎo

A: 你叫什么名字？
   Nǐ jiào shénme míngzì?
   You (are) called what name?

B: 我叫 (your given name). (My name is _)
   Wǒ jiào _
   I (am) called _.
Chinese characters audio
你好 Nǐ hǎo
你叫什么名字？ Nǐ jiào shénme míngzì?
我叫 Wǒ jiào

Final remarks

How to say "Thank you" and bye bye.

text chinese pinyin audio
Thank you 谢谢 Xièxiè
Bye 再见 Zàijiàn

Also just saying "Bye bye" is also acceptable/informal way of saying bye. Zàijiàn is more formal on saying bye/"I don't know when I will see you again".

Thank you: Stop Saying "Shie Shie"! Fix Your Chinese "X" Sound Instantly (The Physics Trick)

Extra resources I found helpful