Cantonese I ALESN 4/15/19 Class Summary and Notes AND NO CLASS TONIGHT FOR EASTER MONDAY/SPRING BREAK!!!

Hi Gang,

Before I go over what we covered last week, I want to mention that one thing that I am not a big fan of is when people either quit my class and do not tell me, or when new students drop in, are added to the class email list, realize that my class is hard or that it will take a lot of work to catch up this far into the semester, and then I never see or hear from them again.

THERE ARE WAYYYYYYY MORE PEOPLE ON THIS CLASS EMAIL LIST THAN ARE ACTUALLY ATTENDING MY CLASS RIGHT NOW.

As it is, I am giving away all of this information and my time FOR FREE without any kind of payment or compensation other than the warm, fuzzy feeling in my heart that I might be reaching a few of you and helping you to learn basic Chinese.

PLEASE REPLY TO THIS EMAIL TO DO THE RIGHT THING AND HAVE YOURSELF REMOVED FROM MY EMAIL DISTRIBUTION LIST IF YOU ARE NO LONGER ATTENDING MY CLASS. ESPECIALLY IF YOU HAVE NOT YET EXTENDED THE FUNDAMENTAL COURTESY TO ME OF LETTING ME KNOW THAT YOU ARE NO LONGER ATTENDING MY CLASS.

I really hate it when people take me for granted in this life, especially when I am already giving my time and energy for free at ALESN. Thanks.

OK -- cool.

For everyone else who is still attending my class:

NO CLASS TONIGHT -- DO NOT COME TO THE SCHOOL, AS IT WILL BE PHYSICALLY CLOSED FOR SPRING BREAK/EASTER MONDAY, WHICH IS AN OFFICIAL NEW YORK PUBLIC SCHOOL CLOSING.

Let's see what we covered last Monday in class:

• We covered the Vocabulary for Lesson 6 on pages 150-151.
• We covered the Build-Up and Recapitulation of the Dialogue for Lesson 6 on pages 127-129.
• We saw some new measure words for nouns in this lesson. Please memorize these.
• We learned the names for various pieces of male and female upper and lower body clothing in Cantonese, along with their measure words. Please memorize these.
• We learned the terms for store clerk and customer. Please memorize. Remember that part of the word for customer is haak3 = guest, which we have already seen as part of several previous vocabulary words from the politeness conversation in the previous chapter.
• We experienced a very basic general introduction to the concept of and one possible situation for buying something in Cantonese -- in this case clothing at a store.
• Pay special attention to asking how much something costs and the example responses for the shirts, etc. in the dialogue.
• Pay special attention to "haih6 mh4 haih6 dou1 haih6..." as it is used by the customer when asking if these shirts cost the same as those shirts. I explained this in detail during last class. Please ask me to explain this again at the beginning of next week's class if anyone still has a question about this common Cantonese way of asking if something is also...[whatever you want to know].
• "...bei2 bi1 gihn6 ngoh5 laa1." Remember that I explained that Mandarin and English both share the syntax "Give ME the shirt," WHEREAS PROPER CANTONESE [grammatically correct and syntactically correct Cantonese] MUST use the word order, "Give the shirt TO ME." Remember that on the one hand, I told you all this -- and then on the other hand, I pointed out that Mandarin speakers of Cantonese often use the Mandarin syntax when asking someone to give them something. This will definitely be understood, but it is not "proper" Cantonese. Please ask me to explain this again next week if anyone has a question about this point.
• Notice the somewhat forceful sales person trying to close the deal and the way that the customer politely says no and asserts that he or she just wants the items that he or she wants.

We will review this vocabulary and dialogue next Monday and then move through some pronunciation review, some grammar and culture notes, and then onto our various drills for the lesson.

See everyone next week. REMEMBER -- NO CLASS TONIGHT!!!

Best,

Brendan

Mandarin I ALESN 4/15/19 Class Summary and Notes AND NO CLASS TONIGHT FOR EASTER MONDAY/SPRING BREAK!!!

Hi Gang,

Before I go over what we covered last week, I want to mention that one thing that I am not a big fan of is when people either quit my class and do not tell me, or when new students drop in, are added to the class email list, realize that my class is hard or that it will take a lot of work to catch up this far into the semester, and then I never see or hear from them again.

THERE ARE WAYYYYYYY MORE PEOPLE ON THIS CLASS EMAIL LIST THAN ARE ACTUALLY ATTENDING MY CLASS RIGHT NOW.

As it is, I am giving away all of this information and my time FOR FREE without any kind of payment or compensation other than the warm, fuzzy feeling in my heart that I might be reaching a few of you and helping you to learn basic Chinese.

PLEASE REPLY TO THIS EMAIL TO DO THE RIGHT THING AND HAVE YOURSELF REMOVED FROM MY EMAIL DISTRIBUTION LIST IF YOU ARE NO LONGER ATTENDING MY CLASS. ESPECIALLY IF YOU HAVE NOT YET EXTENDED THE FUNDAMENTAL COURTESY TO ME OF LETTING ME KNOW THAT YOU ARE NO LONGER ATTENDING MY CLASS.

I really hate it when people take me for granted in this life, especially when I am already giving my time and energy for free at ALESN. Thanks.

OK -- cool.

For everyone else who is still attending my class:

NO CLASS TONIGHT -- DO NOT COME TO THE SCHOOL, AS IT WILL BE PHYSICALLY CLOSED FOR SPRING BREAK/EASTER MONDAY, WHICH IS AN OFFICIAL NEW YORK PUBLIC SCHOOL CLOSING.

Let's see what we covered last Monday in class:

• We covered the vocabulary for Lesson 4 Dialogue 1 on pages 100-101. Make sure you review this words, memorize as many as you can now, and then go over the dialogue, making sure that you understand everything that is said.
• We covered the dialogue on page 99 for the pinyin. Remember that you must read from the pinyin until your pronunciation of all new words is 100% accurate -- and then you can choose to read from the Chinese characters if you are able to do so and would like to do that.
• This is a lesson about hobbies and things that we like to do in our spare time. We learned the words for weekend; paying all kinds of sports involving balls (we will learn later on how to specifically say tennis, baseball, basketball, and perhaps some other sports); watching sports -- either at a game or on TV;  singing songs and singing karaoke; dancing; listening to music; reading books; going to movies.                                                     
• We learned how to talk about time: a period of time; how often something happens; sometimes; often.
• We reviewed the concept of inviting someone to do something, which we have seen in the previous 2 dialogues regarding inviting someone to dinner. Now we are inviting them to do a hobby or pastime with us.
• We learned a basic sentence structure involving: BECAUSE...THEREFORE...
• In the dialogue, we saw Gao Wenzhong attempt to ask out Bai Ying'Ai, only to be put in "the friend zone" when Bai Ying'Ai also invites Wang Peng and Li You and suggests that Gao Wenzhong pay for all of them. The subtext here adds humor to the dialogue and the situation behind the dialogue is continued from the 2 previous dialogues, tying lesson 4 to the events of lesson 3. This is helpful when thinking about what is happening here and remembering the storyline, who does what, as well as the new vocabulary words.

Please review the dialogue and vocabulary. I believe that we are set to break into small groups and run the dialogue at the beginning of class next week. From there, we will cover 5 grammar points (wow!) and then break into small groups to do some Language Practice, pending time towards the end of class next week.

See everyone next Monday. I hope that most of you will be able to join Cliff et. al. at I believe it is the Whole Foods on Houston for a review session tonight. Great job organizing that, guys and gals!

Best,

Brendan

ALESN Monday night Mandarin I Class Summary and Notes 4/8/19

Hi Everyone,

Finally, a week when I am sending out this email with a more reasonable timeframe for you all to consider and review.

This past Monday, we reviewed Lesson 3 Dialogue 2's vocabulary and dialogue. Following this, we covered the grammar points, then you all broke into small groups and did the Language Practice exercises. I had hoped to preview Lesson 4 Dialogue 1 Hobbies, but we will instead begin class next week with the next dialogue.

Of particular note regarding the material that we covered this past Monday:

• Please make sure you memorize the new "time phrases:" NOW, TODAY, TOMORROW, etc. Very important. Please also remember where they go (word order-wise or SYNTAX-WISE) in a proper Chinese sentence. We have covered this concept multiple times this year, but please ask me if you have any questions, because it is fundamental to your ability to make correct Mandarin sentences with correct word order.
• The concepts of WHY? and BECAUSE..., both of which share the word or "root" WEI4, for [the purpose of]
• Again, this idea that Chinese as a family of languages is great at making up new words using basic "Lego" building block concepts: TONG2XUE2 = [literally] "WITH STUDY" = "SOMEONE YOU STUDY WITH" = "CLASSMATE."
• We reviewed the dialogue again. Please make sure you understand what is going on here with Bai2 Ying1 Ai4 asking Wang2 Peng2 if he is free and then inviting him to Gao1 Wen2 Zhong1's birthday dinner the following evening.
• GRAMMAR POINTS THAT WE COVERED:
• Affirmative+Negative A NOT A questions: VERB BU4 VERB or ADJECTIVE BU4 ADJECTIVE questions. We discussed that the meaning of these questions is the same as the equivalent VERB MA? or ADJECTIVE MA? question. I gave the example that the standard Mandarin set phrase, "Ni3 hao3 ma?" can also be worded (and has the same meaning as) "Ni3 hao3 bu4 hao3?" -- but, please remember that "Ni3 hao3 ma?" is the set phrase to ask someone how they are doing -- and that "Ni3 hao3 bu4 hao3?", while carrying the same meaning, does not also function as a set phrase greeting in Mandarin.
• Please remember that the exception to the above VERB BU VERB? or ADJ BU4 ADJ? format is YOU3 MEI2 YOU3 for "have not have" questions. For YOU3, you always use MEI2 to negate --  you never use BU4 to negate YOU3, EXCEPT IN THE VERY SPECIFIC EXCEPTION GIVEN ON PAGE 54 INVOLVING THE USE OF DOU1 FOR INCLUSIVENESS WHEN ASKING IF SOME MEMBERS OF A CERTAIN GROUP DON'T HAVE SOMETHING.
• Use of HAI2 when constructing "afterthought" statements meaning that someone or something ALSO does something, in addition to the people or things doing it in the beginning of the sentence. Remember that using HAI2 in this situation is different from using HE2 to rattle off a list of nouns, because when we use HAI2 to construct a "So and so [or such and such] is ALSO VERB'ing [whatever the verb is]," WE NEED TO REPEAT THE VERB IN THE HAI2 PORTION AT THE END OF THE SENTENCE IN ORDER FOR HAI2 TO BE USED PROPERLY. OTHERWISE, YOU WOULD REWORD THE SENTENCE, INCLUDE THE LAST PERSON OR THING AS PART OF THE ORIGINAL LIST, AND JUST USE HE2. Got it? Good.
• I was encouraged that some groups finished the entire Language Practice section and then made up additional practice exercises on their own using the lesson material and vocabulary. Way to go, guys and gals! For those of you who struggled with the material or didn't finish the Language Practice exercises during the last 15-20 minutes of class, keep at it -- you are doing great and will get it soon enough.

FINALLY, before I go, I want to suggest that you all check out the remaining screenings from this great new NYC Chinese film festival going on right now -- as sent to me by our new student, Jose Payamps:

CineCina Film Festival

https://cine-cina.co

CineCina Film Festival (CineCina) is the only New York-based film festival dedicated to promoting excellent Chinese films. Founded in 2018, it was organized and planned by a group of young film scholars and filmmakers active in New York.

CCFF aims to bring the best Chinese films to New York. Starting from the exhibition of wonderful Chinese films, the committee of CineCina is committed to making CCFF a platform for the export of Chinese culture, and increasing opportunities for the development and distribution of Chinese films in North America. Meanwhile, CineCina is going to put the rapid development of Chinese film under more diversified exposure, and extends the influence of Chinese cultural industry in North America.

Best wishes to Everyone, and see you next week!
Brendan

ALESN Monday night Cantonese I Class Summary and Notes 4/8/19

Hi Everyone,

Finally, a week when I am sending out this email with a more reasonable timeframe for you all to consider and review.

This past Monday, we reviewed lesson 5's vocabulary and dialogue, then moved through the pronunciation points, the grammar points, and the drills. This put us in a position to begin lesson 6 next week. Yay!

Of particular note when reviewing lesson 5:

• Please review all of the politeness terms and phrases in the vocabulary for this lesson. With the exception of the sentence final particle LEH5 (which I need to research), all of the vocabulary for this lesson is still very much in use everyday throughout the Cantonese speaking diaspora.
• Remember the various ways that the guest attempted to politely decline the offers for cigarette, food and beverage before ultimately capitulating to all but one offer (the final offer declined with LEH5).
• Pronunciation review: comparing and contrasting short and long vowel pronunciations for:
• AI vs. AAI
• ANG vs. AANG
• AK vs. AAK (with explanation of the -K "stop tone" final sound and a review of -P, -T, and -K final stop tone consonants used in Cantonese, reminding you that they are not so much spoken as FELT)
• AU vs. AAU
• Politeness culture notes. I had elaborated on these concepts during your previous class, so we skilled this section in the book, but I recommend that you all read it and see how the book explains Cantonese host-guest politeness behaviors in polite society. Again, I recommend my Hong Kong friend Cecilie's Cantocourse Youtube spoof video entitled, "In Polite Society." I wrote about this last week in your email/blog entry and have mentioned it in class at least twice.
• Grammar points:
• LAAK3 as the sentence final particle LA3 with the added -K final stop tone sound for enthusiasm or liveliness. We discussed LA3 as a sentence final particle signifying change: The situation used to be this way (whatever "old way" the situation was), but now things have changed and it is this way LA3 (a "new situation," in whatever way the situation is now "new")
• Sentence suffix LEH5: again, I need to research this and find out if it is still in use. I have never, to my knowledge, encountered this sentence final particle in my personal studies of Cantonese or during my 3 months in Hong Kong.
• Sentence final particle LA1 for polite suggestion, softening what would otherwise be an order or even a "barked order." Please review the use of this particle in Lesson 5's dialogue and make sure you understand it.
• The verb suffix/verb final particle HAH5, indicating casualness or TO DO THE VERY A LITTLE BIT. Most often used with SI3, TO TRY, as in "SI3 HAH5 LA1" "try a little bit," when offering food to a guest, etc. Can also be used with other verbs -- in particular with YAM2 and SIHK6, to drink and to eat, from Lesson 5. Drink a little bit; eat a little bit...
• and finally, the use of YIU3 (TO WANT) as a helping verb meaning TO NEED TO DO ANOTHER VERB -- or MUST TO THAT VERB. The big example from the dialogue was "NGOH5 YIU3 JAU2 LA3." "I NEED to go." Not "I want to go," but rather, " I NEED to go." We pointed out that in question form, we can either ask "NEIH5 YIU3 MH4 YIU3 [VERB]?" or "NEIH5 SAI2 MH4 SAI2 [VERB]?" for "Do you NEED to [verb]?" -- but that SAI2 MH4 SAI2 [NEED NOT NEED][ TO DO A VERB]? might be the more common way to be very clear that we are asking, "Do you NEED to do this verb?" Please let me know if this is unclear and we can discuss at the beginning of next Monday's class.
• DRILLS: We went through all of the various drills for Lesson 5, doing 2 or 3 examples from each drill. Everyone did very well with these and there didn't appear to be any questions or sticking points where students were struggling in any way.

I was very encouraged with everyone's pronunciation and tones this past Monday, and with everyone's apparently comprehension of the material. Assuming that your apparent comprehension was actual comprehension, we are definitely ready to begin lesson 6 next week.

Very best wishes to All and see everyone next Monday!

Mandarin I ALESN Class Summary and Notes Monday, April 1, 2019

Hi Gang,

Big delay this time, this week. I was all set to get up early today and type this, but there was a huge explosion on my block here in Brooklyn and the entire block without power this morning as Con Ed figures out how to fix the issue. SO, I am at a cafe on my laptop because THAT is how dedicated I am to bringing you guys your weekly update email...ahem...6 days late...ahem...

Anywho...

This past Monday, we covered Lesson 3 Dialogue 2's vocabulary and dialogue. We will pick up tomorrow night with the 2 grammar points for this dialogue and then you will break up into small groups to do the Language Practice exercises.

Of particular note for Lesson 3 Dialogue 2:

• The placement of time phrases (now, today, tonight, tomorrow night, etc.) in a Mandarin Chinese sentence. These time phrases can ONLY go in 2 possible places: either right before or right after the subject: "You TODAY (very) busy" or "TODAY, you (very) busy" -- BUT NEVER "You very busy TODAY" word order wise (syntax-wise). It is very important that you remember this always for the rest of your time studying and speaking Mandarin Chinese. 1 billion people thank you in advance.
• We discussed the grammar of HEN3 as A PLACEHOLDER for "Subject [is/are] adjective" statements in Mandarin. Remember that although equivalent English sentences involve some form of the verb TO BE ("He IS fat," "She IS ugly," etc.), the equivalent Chinese grammar dictates use of HEN3 as A PLACEHOLDER between the subject and the adjective, BUT EVEN THOUGH HEN3 TECHNICALLY MEANS "VERY," IN THIS PARTICULAR USAGE, A "SUBJECT [IS] ADJECTIVE" STATEMENT IN CHINESE USING HEN3 DOESN'T NECESSARILY MEAN THAT THE SUBJECT IS ACTUALLY "VERY" THAT ADJECTIVE. Huh?! If you were in class, please remember that I went on and on about this for like 15 or more minutes. If you were not in class, please Google the use of HEN3 in "subject is adjective" type Mandarin statement sentences and you will learn that if you do not use HEN3 as a placeholder in such statements, you will imply a comparison between the subject and some other unspecified person or thing related to that adjective. Don't worry; I will explain again tomorrow night! Feel free to email me with any questions if you don't understand this fundamental Mandarin Chinese grammatical concept. It is very important that you eventually understand what I am talking about here!
• Memorize WHY and BECAUSE and pay special attention to how we use these new vocabulary words in this lesson and going forward. Asking WHY things are the way they are and explaining to people that things are such and such way BECAUSE of such and such reason is fundamental to your growing ability to communicate with people in basic Mandarin.
• Notice the way that Bai2 Ying1 Ai4 invites Wang2 Peng2 to dinner -- first inquiring about his schedule and then working around his lack of availability to have dinner that evening. This is good, basic language stuff and should be understood, drilled, and memorized asap.

We will review the vocabulary and dialogue for the first 5 minutes or so of class tomorrow night, then go through the grammar points and break into small groups for the Language Practice. Ideally, I would like to finish this dialogue tomorrow and either preview Lesson 4 Dialogue 1 at the end of class tomorrow night or begin the following class with the next dialogue and its vocabulary.

See everyone tomorrow night.

Best,
Brendan

Cantonese I ALESN Class Notes and Review Monday, April 1, 2019

Hi Gang,

Big delay this time, this week. I was all set to get up early today and type this, but there was a huge explosion on my block here in Brooklyn and the entire block without power this morning as Con Ed figures out how to fix the issue. SO, I am at a cafe on my laptop because THAT is how dedicated I am to bringing you guys your weekly update email...ahem...6 days late...ahem...

Anywho...

This past Monday, we covered Lesson 5's vocabulary and dialogue. I covered the Build Up properly this time, and then we repeated the Recapitulation multiple times and at the end of class broke into small groups to run the dialogue. We will pick up tomorrow night with a quick review of the vocabulary and dialogue, then a speedy overview of the lesson's pronunciation reminders; some culture notes about Cantonese life in Hong Kong; and then we this lesson's grammar points. Following this, we will hopefully begin to go through some of this lesson's drills -- seeing how far we can get during our hour or so of class time tomorrow night.

If you haven't already done so, now is a great time to visit the newly relocated DVD store on Grand Street and 2nd Ave I think it is, and select something fun from their kids' and cartoon sections to reinforce your beginning Cantonese studies. I recommend one of the Harry Potter Movies. They also had a $1 copy of Megamind outside in their discount rack last week, which is one of my all time favorite American kids' movies to watch in Cantonese. 

Of particular note in Lesson 5:

• Remember the extreme, comic level of politeness going on here. If you have time and interest, compare and contrast this "serious" dialogue in your textbook with the joke video by Cecilie Gamst Berg on the Cantocourse Youtube channel called "In Polite Society," which I mentioned last week. A quick search of Youtube for the keywords mentioned above will find this video.
• Please start to memorize most of the new words in lesson 5's vocabulary. These are good basic words that we will continue to see and use -- except, perhaps, the references to cigarette smoking.
• Pay special attention to the various polite phrases and their logical responses: "Thank you." "No need to thank me." That kind of stuff. These are all stock sentences right out of a phrasebook and will work well for you when meeting Cantonese speakers and attempting to thank them for their hospitality.
• Notice the interplay, as we discussed, between the forcefully polite host and the ubermodest guest who doesn't really want certain things, but also doesn't want to offend the host by declining various offers. This is typical of a Cantonese get together at someone's home. Things are forced upon you and in the end, no matter how much you politely protest, you kind of have to just accept some things like the food items, etc., and say thank you and at least try them -- even if you are a squeamish eater and have been offered something that you think is yucky. Welcome to Cantonese hospitality!
• Notice the polite way that the guest disengages himself from the social situation at the end of the dialogue and tells the host that he has to leave. This is also typical and can stand you in good stead if you ever feel awkward when talking to someone in Cantonese and want to politely excuse yourself from the conversation and leave -- which will happen ALL THE TIME if/when you decide to start having random conversations in Cantonese with random people in NYC to practice your new language skills. Some of those conversations will go well or "be successful," but others will be very awkward and uncomfortable. It is always good to know how to politely extricate yourself and run away...

Run away...

Ok, that's all for now. See everyone tomorrow night when we continue with this nonsense.

Best to all,
Brendan