ALESN Mandarin Class Summary AND REMINDER THAT THERE IS NO CLASS TONIGHT, also including Holiday closings schedule for the rest of the year...

Hi Gang,

FIRST OF ALL, A REMINDER THAT THERE IS NO CLASS TONIGHT. We dd a survey and enough students said that they were attending family and work events tonight that it didn't make sense to hold classes, even though the school will be physically open.

I apologize for my delay in sending this summary and notes on last week. We announced last week in class that there would be no class tonight. Since no one has emailed me regarding the holiday schedule and since class was pretty full last week (the fullest in weeks), I am assuming that everyone knows. If you show up for class tonight, I apologize, but that is what you get for missing classes and not checking in with me.

Related to our Holiday closings, we will resume classes on Monday, January 7, 2019.

Saturday classes will resume on Jan 5, 2019.

Monday classes will resume on Jan 7, 2019.
Thursday classes will resume on Jan 10, 2019.

For those among you who like to plan in advance, here are the official school, YMCA, and ALESN closings for the rest of the year:

2019 School closings:
Mon Jan 21 MLK
Tue Feb 5, 2019 Lunar New Year
   (Feb 18-23 Midwinter Recess)
Mon Feb 18 Midwinter Recess
Thu Feb 21 Midwinter Recess
Fri Feb 22 Midwinter Recess
Sat Feb 23 Midwinter Recess
    (Apr 19 - 27, 2019 Spring Recess)

Fri Apr 19 Spring Recess

Sat Apr 20 Spring Recess

I also have the following note:

" We'll be closed for 2 Saturdays from 4/19 - 4/27"

*I AM NOT SURE IF THIS MEANS THAT WE WILL ALSO BE CLOSED MONDAY, APRIL 22. I GUESS WE WILL FIND OUT...

Last Monday, we briefly reviewed lesson 1 dialogue 1 and vocabulary, and then we moved onto LESSON 1 DIALOGUE 2.

We covered the vocabulary on page 28, clarified some pronunciation issues, and then went through the dialogue from the pinyin on page 28 as well. Remember that is is ok for you to read from the Chinese characters (if you can) ONLY AFTER you take the time to successfully learn to pronounce each new vocabulary word while speaking aloud, with the proper tone for each syllable, in real time. Until you are able to accomplish this basic level of speaking ability for each new dialogue, you are absolutely NOT allowed to look at the Chinese characters. Thank you to everyone for your understanding and cooperation.

As I had predicted, (some of you will remember that I have joked about this several times during previous classes), many people in the class had a problem pronouncing the Mandarin word for New York. In super slow-mo, the English pronunciation approximates:

KNEE

YO

YOU

EH

But, we have seen that this is not EXACTLY how it is pronounced, so use this as a crutch, but not as your final pronunciation of this place name. Those of you who recorded the class can listen back for practice with this and other "problematic" new words.

After covering our very brief dialogue, we split into groups, I believe, and everyone had a chance to practice this with one or more partners. Remember that with any luck, we will have a native speaker joining us come January to help us with the vocabulary, dialogues, and especially to help with any questions when we break up into groups to run the dialogues and "Language Practice" sections of our book.

Yay.

We will pick up next time on January 7 with the Grammar points on page 29. PLEASE PREVIEW THE GRAMMAR ON PAGES 29 TO 32, AS WELL AS THE LANGUAGE PRACTICE EXERCISES ON PAGES 32 TO 34. This is the material we will be covering next time.

I am not sure what happened, but I cannot locate the 2017 blog entry for Lesson 1 Dialogue 2. It appears that Jeremy (our Thursday night Mandarin 2 teacher) substituted for me last year and he may have skipped this dialogue in favor of starting lesson 2 dialogue 1. If I remember correctly, my shy class didn't stop him to tell him he had skipped material. I must have skipped writing a blog entry last year about the second dialogue in lesson 1, because I am unable to locate it. Sorry about that!

Please review this dialogue and its vocabulary and we will pick up where we left off in a few weeks. Thanks and Happy Holidays, everyone!

Cantonese ALESN Monday night class summary from last week, REMINDER THAT THERE IS NO CLASS TONIGHT, and holiday school closing schedule...

Hi Gang,

FIRST OF ALL, A REMINDER THAT THERE IS NO CLASS TONIGHT. We dd a survey and enough students said that they were attending family and work events tonight that it didn't make sense to hold classes, even though the school will be physically open.

I apologize for my delay in sending this summary and notes on last week. We announced last week in class that there would be no class tonight. Since no one has emailed me regarding the holiday schedule and since class was pretty full last week (the fullest in weeks), I am assuming that everyone knows. If you show up for class tonight, I apologize, but that is what you get for missing classes and not checking in with me.

Related to our Holiday closings, we will resume classes on Monday, January 7, 2019.

Saturday classes will resume on Jan 5, 2019.

Monday classes will resume on Jan 7, 2019.
Thursday classes will resume on Jan 10, 2019.

For those among you who like to plan in advance, here are the official school, YMCA, and ALESN closings for the rest of the year:

2019 School closings:
Mon Jan 21 MLK
Tue Feb 5, 2019 Lunar New Year
   (Feb 18-23 Midwinter Recess)
Mon Feb 18 Midwinter Recess
Thu Feb 21 Midwinter Recess
Fri Feb 22 Midwinter Recess
Sat Feb 23 Midwinter Recess
    (Apr 19 - 27, 2019 Spring Recess)

Fri Apr 19 Spring Recess

Sat Apr 20 Spring Recess

I also have the following note:

" We'll be closed for 2 Saturdays from 4/19 - 4/27"

*I AM NOT SURE IF THIS MEANS THAT WE WILL ALSO BE CLOSED MONDAY, APRIL 22. I GUESS WE WILL FIND OUT...

Last Monday, we reviewed the Lesson 2 vocabulary on pages 54-55, then reviewed Lesson 2's dialogue and I believe, if I am remembering correctly, that everyone had a chance to break up into groups and run the dialogue with your partners. From here, we briefly reviewed some pronunciation and tones stuff on pages 34-37, and I asked you all to please read these text points on your own in the interest of saving time. We briefly discussed some Culture Notes and then moved onto some Structure Notes, which is how the book is going to refer to "GRAMMAR" from now on.

We talked about how in Cantonese in the present tense, there is no need for subject verb concordance like in other languages with verb forms, such as French, Spanish, German, etc. We also mentioned that in Cantonese, there is no distinction between singular and plural for the actual WORDS that we use to name our nouns: bridge = bridgeS, person = personS (PEOPLE), etc. Don't worry -- this will make Chinese easier in at least a couple of respects than some other languages you may have studied before. We also mentioned making singular pronouns plural by adding deih6, so ngoh5 (I), becomes ngoh5 deih6 (WE), etc. I reminded everyone that all 3 singular pronouns share the 5th tone, the low rising tone, so this is helpful when pronouncing the pronouns and when memorizing the sounds they make.

We started to take a bit about sentence final particles, which the book refers to as "sentence suffixes." We mentioned the ones we have seen so far:

ma3 (the yes or no question final particle, which turns a statement, any statement, into a yes or no question)

aa3 (also at times a question final particle, though in lesson 2 we see that it can soften a statement and make it "neutral" without attitude or mood)

ne1 (how about?)

We will review these and more after the break.

WE ARE GOING TO PICK UP AFTER THE BREAK WITH CHOICE TYPE QUESTIONS (YES OR NO QUESTIONS) AND VARIOUS "QUESTION WORD" QUESTIONS, SO PLEASE PREVIEW THE MATERIAL ON PAGES 42-44.

Here is last year's blog entry dealing with this section of Lesson 2:

http://www.sayitrightchinese.com/2017/12/cantonese-i-class-summary-insights.html

We will pick up next time with the grammar discussions on page 42. If you would like to preview the material that I will begin to discuss after Christmas break, you are welcome to check out the following blog entries from last year, which is from the classes right after the one referenced in the link above:

http://www.sayitrightchinese.com/2017/12/cantonese-class-summary-insights.html

http://www.sayitrightchinese.com/2017/12/cantonese-i-alesn-monday-december-11.html

Thanks and see everyone in a few weeks. Have a wonderful Christmas and a very festive New Years!

ALESN Monday night Mandarin I class Summary and notes, AND SCHOOL WILL BE CLOSED ON CHRISTMAS EVE, 2 MONDAYS FROM NOW

ALESN Monday night Mandarin I class Summary and notes, AND SCHOOL WILL BE CLOSED ON CHRISTMAS EVE, 2 MONDAYS FROM NOW

Hi Gang,

BEFORE I FORGET TO MENTION, IT HAS BEEN DECIDED THAT OUR PROGRAM WILL BE CLOSED ON CHRISTMAS EVE, 2 MONDAYS FROM NOW, EVEN THOUGH THE SCHOOL AND THE YMCA ARE PHYSICALLY OPEN THAT NIGHT. We know that a lot of folks might have company or family holiday parties and dinners that night, and we certainly don't want to get in the way of anyone's holiday plans!

Once again, I am a bit pressed for time this week, but I wanted to get this out sooner than I did last week. I will briefly summarize what we covered and then paste links below for the appropriate 2017 blog entries for you all to read which will more thoroughly cover the same material, as well as preview the material that we will cover in the next couple of classes.

This past Monday evening, we reviewed Lesson 1 Dialogue 1 vocabulary, then quickly reviewed the dialogue, and then moved onto the various grammar points and then broke up into small groups for the last 10 minutes or so of class for you all to work on the Language Practice sections with your friends and neighbors. The vocabulary that we reviewed was on pages 21-22. The dialogue itself is on page 21 in pinyin, which you all will remember that I am insisting that you study FIRST, even if you can already read Chinese characters, for reasons mentioned previously. Though this was a very short and simple dialogue, it sets the groundwork for the rest of our lessons and dialogues, so please make sure that you thoroughly understand it, that you can recite it from the pinyin as accurately as possible, and that you memorize the meanings of all 15 of the first vocabulary items that we have gone over so far. We will briefly review the vocabulary and then move onto Dialogue 2 next Monday.

Yay -- progress, finally!

Please continue to review the pronunciation and tones material from our first month of classes, and please continue to come to class prepared with any questions that might help you with your personal studies and help the class with their general knowledge of beginner level Chinese so far. Thanks!

YOUR HOMEWORK FOR NEXT MONDAY IS to rewatch the video of Lesson 1 Dialogue 1 several times until you have either memorized it or come as close as you can at this point in time. THEN, please preview the video for Lesson 1 Dialogue 2, watching it twice or three times if possible, so that you will be ready in advance of next Monday and have a picture in your mind of what is going on in the dialogue before we cover it.

Please review to the following blog entries from last year's class covering this same material:

intro to Lesson 1 Dialogue 1:

http://www.sayitrightchinese.com/2017/11/mandarin-i-class-summary-insights.html

Lesson 1 Dialogue 1:

http://www.sayitrightchinese.com/2017/11/mandarin-i-class-summary-insights_18.html

Best wishes to all and see you next week,

Brendan

ALESN Cantonese I 121018 Class summary and notes -- and school closing on Monday, December 24 for Christmas Eve

ALESN Cantonese I 121018 Class summary and notes -- and school closing on Monday, December 24 for Christmas Eve

Hi Gang,

BEFORE I FORGET TO MENTION, IT HAS BEEN DECIDED THAT OUR PROGRAM WILL BE CLOSED ON CHRISTMAS EVE, 2 MONDAYS FROM NOW, EVEN THOUGH THE SCHOOL AND THE YMCA ARE PHYSICALLY OPEN THAT NIGHT. We know that a lot of folks might have company or family holiday parties and dinners that night, and we certainly don't want to get in the way of anyone's holiday plans!

Once again, I am a bit pressed for time this week, but I wanted to get this out sooner than I did last week. I will briefly summarize what we covered and then paste links below for the appropriate 2017 blog entries for you all to read which will more thoroughly cover the same material, as well as preview the material that we will cover in the next couple of classes.

This past Monday evening, we first reviewed the vocabulary for lesson 2 on pages 54 and 55 of the text, and then we went over the Build-Up and Recapitulation for lesson 2's Dialogue on pages 32-34. I had wanted to break up into small groups to run the dialogue with your partners, so I could walk around, listen and correct as needed as well as answer questions, but we ran out of time, so we will pick up with that next Monday.

Your homework for next week is to review the above mentioned vocabulary and dialogue, as well as the three 2017 blog links below. Please also review the material from lesson 1 and the pronunciation and tones in general, if you are having any issues with any of the sounds of Cantonese.

Please refer to the following 2017 blog entries for deeper insights and notes on this material:

intro to lesson 2:

http://www.sayitrightchinese.com/2017/11/cantonese-i-class-summary-insights_18.html

lesson 2 vocab and dialogue:

http://www.sayitrightchinese.com/2017/11/cantonese-i-class-summary-insights_24.html

a bit further along in lesson 2, previewing what we will cover 2 classes from now:

http://www.sayitrightchinese.com/2017/12/cantonese-i-class-summary-insights.html

Best wishes and see you all next Monday,

Brendan

ALESN Monday night Mandarin I Class 12/3/18 Summary and Notes -- Sorry for the extreme delay...

Hi Gang,

I apologize for my extreme delay in posting this review of what we covered last week. I am still trying to get over this annoying cold and I had an unexpectedly busy week last week...

Let's quickly review what we covered last Monday night. I was very pleased to see so many returning faces. Thank you all for continuing to attend class. Now that we have officially finished the dry pronunciation and tones stuff, I promise that we will have a bit more fun going forward.

This past Monday, we started Lesson 1 Dialogue 1. Remember that your homework was/is to download and watch the video for this dialogue, preferably from the San Francisco State University website link that I provided a few weeks ago (this link has the best video and audio quality). Again, because we don't know how long these links will be available, I highly suggest that everyone take 5 minutes to right click and download ALL of the free videos for the entire textbook. We are going to refer to these videos and I am going to assign them as homework/required viewing for the rest of the academic year.

We began by covering some very basic terms on page 19, followed by the vocabulary on pages 21-22. Following this, we went over the dialogue on pages 20-21, and I stressed to all of you that I NEED you to please learn each dialogue going forward FROM THE PINYIN, regardless of whether you can already read the Chinese characters. Once you have memorized the correct pronunciation and tones for all of the new vocabulary items from each dialogue, THEN you are welcome to read and study each dialogue from the characters going forward if you already know or are learning the characters. HOWEVER, AT FIRST, PLEASE LEARN TO READ AND PRONOUNCE EACH DIALOGUE ONLY FROM THE PINYIN, TO MAKE SURE THAT YOU ARE INDEED PRONOUNCING EACH SYLLABLE AND EACH TONE AS ACCURATELY AS POSSIBLE.

Please read the following blog entries from my 2017-2018 class, covering this exact material

http://www.sayitrightchinese.com/2017/11/mandarin-i-class-summary-insights.html

http://www.sayitrightchinese.com/2017/11/mandarin-i-class-summary-insights_18.html

Best wishes to All and see everyone tomorrow night,

Brendan

ALESN Monday night Cantonese Class 12/3/18 -- Sorry for the extreme delay in typing this post...

Hi Gang,

I apologize for taking almost an entire week to post this. I am still recovering from this annoying cold and I had some unexpected stuff this past week.

Last Monday, we covered the drills from lesson 1 and finally finished that lesson. We also previewed lesson 2's vocabulary, putting us in a position to start "lesson 2 proper" tomorrow night.

First, we reviewed the vocabulary for lesson 1 on page 30. These are the most basic words that we will learn all year. Please memorize these 25 vocabulary items (including several common last names). Please refer to the mp3s that accompany the text from your downloads for pronunciation and tones, as well as any recordings that you have hopefully been making of your classes with me pronouncing everything and you guys repeating after me.

Following this, we reviewed lesson 1's dialogue, everyone repeating after me. From here, we went through a series of substitution drills, expansion drills, and one conversation drill on pages 26 through 29. Please review these drills sections, as these exact kinds of drills will be repeated in every lesson for the rest of your course.

Finally, we previewed the vocabulary for lesson 2 on pages 54 and 55. Though there are 31 vocabulary words for lesson 2, many are repeats and in quite a few cases, words contain stems or "roots" if you will, that will help to condense and consolidate this knowledge into far fewer main CONCEPTS that you need to memorize. I pointed out some of these, like the use of YAHN4 after the name of a place to make a noun term for someone coming from that place (America Person = "American"; China Person = "Chinese"; England Person = "English"; etc.). We will review all of this stuff tomorrow  night.

In the meantime, if you have time, please check out the following blog posts that I typed last year for the 2017-2018 ALESN school year, regarding the end of lesson 1 and the beginning of lesson 2:

http://www.sayitrightchinese.com/2017/11/cantonese-i-class-summary-insights_18.html

http://www.sayitrightchinese.com/2017/11/cantonese-i-class-summary-insights_24.html

Please also PREVIEW the following 2017 blog entry, which discusses some of the key concepts that we will cover in lesson 2 over the next couple of weeks:

http://www.sayitrightchinese.com/2017/12/cantonese-i-class-summary-insights.html

See you all tomorrow night. Again, sorry for my delay in posting this entry.

Best,
Brendan