Continuing Mandarin Chinese Textbook: The Complete Language Course for Intermediate Learners

By Cornelius C. Kubler

Continuing Mandarin Chinese Textbook is a new intermediate-level course in Mandarin which enables you to quickly learn the next level of the language--following the first book in the series, Elementary Mandarin Chinese Textbook.

The 24 lessons in this book are meant to be used in 3 hours per week of class instruction over one academic year. Students will need another 2-3 hours of outside practice and review for every hour of class time using the materials in the Continuing Mandarin Chinese Workbook that accompanies this textbook.

These books can also be used by self-study learners due to the extensive explanations and free supplementary materials available including online audio and video recordings and flash cards.

The entire course can be completed in 25 to 35 weeks and teaches you the basic skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing Mandarin Chinese at a conversational level. Each lesson starts with a dialogue and includes a list of new and supplementary vocabulary along with questions and grammar notes about the dialogue, a reading section and extensive exercises (that are in the Workbook).

Continuing Mandarin Chinese Textbook offers the following significant advantages over other similar textbooks:

• Everyday Chinese dialogues are used for listening and practice -- complete with vocabulary lists and questions and storylines based on actual everyday experiences in China
• Chinese grammar is explained in simple, non-technical terms with useful notes and tips given
• Reading exercises are provided for all new words and phrases in each lesson
• Free online audio recordings by native speakers from various parts of China help you not only acquire correct pronunciation but also to understand Chinese speakers who have different accents
• Illustrations and supplementary video clips add authenticity to the dialogues in the book
• A Chinese-English dictionary is provided at the back for easy reference

Chinese characters and Pinyin Romanized forms are used throughout the book except for the reading exercises--so this book is usable by learners who wish to focus on learning the spoken language and do not necessarily want to learn to read and write Chinese.

This textbook should be used with the accompanying Continuing Mandarin Chinese Workbook and with the accompanying audio files, which can be downloaded free directly from the Tuttle website.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tuttle Publishing
• Release date: Oct 20, 2020
• ISBN: 9781462921799

Book preview

LESSON 1

Getting Around Taipei

PART ONE

Conversation

Situation: Sandra Russell, an American graduate student in Taipei, hails a taxi for herself and a friend.

New Vocabulary

Supplementary Vocabulary

Notes on the Conversation

Imperatives consisting of Verb + Stative Verb + yidian(r)

In utterance 5, look at Kāi màn yidian Drive more slowly. This is a common way to tell someone how to do something. More examples: Kāi kuài yidianr Drive a little faster, Zǒu màn yidianr Walk more slowly, Shuō qīngchu yidian Speak more clearly.

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Le

to indicate time continuing up through the present

Look at the question Nǐ lái Táiwān duō jiǔ le? How long have you been in Taiwan? and the answer Wǒ láile sān’ge duō yuè le I’ve been here for more than 3 months. A le at the end of a sentence containing a time expression indicates that the action of the verb has been continuing for a period of time up to and including the present. Examples: Wǒ xué Rìyǔ xuéle liùge yuè le I’ve been studying Japanese for 6 months, Lǎo Liú chīfàn chīle sān’ge zhōngtóu le! Old Liu has been eating for 3 hours!, Xiǎo Wáng jiéhūn liǎngnián duō le Little Wang has been married for more than 2 years. Be careful to distinguish sentences that have only a verb -le from those that have both a verb -le and a le at the end of the sentence. Contrast: Tā zài nèijiā màoyì gōngsī gōngzuòle wǔnián She worked at that trading company for 5 years vs. Tā zài nèijiā màoyì gōngsī gōngzuòle wǔnián le She’s been working at that trading company for 5 years.

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Accented Mandarin

The driver in the conversation doesn’t speak standard Mandarin; his Mandarin is accented through influence from his native language, Taiwanese. Speakers from many parts of mainland China and Taiwan use non-standard pronunciation. Common features of non-standard Mandarin include: (1) zh-, ch-, and sh- may lose the h to become z-, c-, and s- so that zhū pig sounds like zū rent and shān mountain sounds like sān three; (2) -ing and -eng may lose the final g to become -in and -en so that xìn letter and xìng surname sound the same; and (3) the distinction between l- and n- may be lost so that lán blue and nán difficult sound the same. Tones may also differ from standard Mandarin and there may be less use of final -r. Even when these distinctions are lost, context usually makes the meaning clear. As your Chinese language experience increases, you’ll gradually get used to common accented Mandarin pronunciations.

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Reading

New Characters and Words

¹

A. SENTENCES

一、 高老师，我能问您一个问题吗？

二、 我觉得我们一定要快一点儿解决这个问题。

三、 你的同屋没什么问题，你可以放心了。

四、 解放前我表哥是一位小学老师，解放后他换了工作。

五、 刚刚是谁开的门？请你快一点儿关上门，好不好？

六、 校长，请您放心，这个问题很快就会解决的。

七、 这么多的问题，你太慢了，快一点儿，我忙死了！

八、 这家公司的东西贵死了，我们快去别家吧！

九、 小何很喜欢中国，所以决定以后要到中国去住。

十、 王大海气死了，他有很多问题，朋友也不给他解决。

B. CONVERSATIONS

一、

方先生： 老林，你决定什么时候去成都了吗？

林先生： 我还没决定，但是我大概下个月去。

方先生： 你去四川一定得小心一点儿！

林先生： 放心，不会有问题的。

二、

边美生： 金金，你能给我解决一个问题吗？

王金金： 那我得先知道是什么样儿的问题，对不对？

边美生： 我表妹明天晚上要从上海来。她叫我去机场等她，但是我明天有事。你能不能到机场去等她呢？

王金金： 没问题，你放心好了，我一定去。她明天几点到？

边美生： 六点三刻。

王金金： 那么，我就六点半到机场等她吧。

边美生： 金金，真谢谢你了！

王金金： 没事儿。

C. NARRATIVES

我姐姐快要三十岁了，我也已经二十五岁了。时间实在过得太快了！还记得小的时候，我觉得三十岁一定很老，但是现在觉得三十岁不一定那么老。其实，有很多事我还不太清楚，也有很多问题我还没解决。不过我已经长大了，要决定的事，还是早一点决定吧。

Notes

A5. 关上门 close the door

A6. 这个问题很快就会解决的 This problem will be solved soon. The pattern 会……的 means be likely to or will and expresses the writer’s conviction that something will most likely be a certain way.

A8. 别家 here stands for 别家公司 another company.

A10. 气死 qìsǐ become extremely angry

B1. 不会有问题的 There won’t be (any) problems.

C1. 时间实在过得太快了 Time really passes too quickly.

C2. 要决定的事，还是早一点决定吧 literally, The matters that should be decided, on reflection it would be better to decide them a little earlier. A more idiomatic translation might be I’d better decide the things that need to be decided as soon as possible. Note that 要 here means need to, should.

Bank of Taiwan headquarters on Chongqing South Road in Taipei

PART TWO

Conversation

Situation: Elizabeth Brill, an American who is teaching English for a year at a language school in Taiwan, wants to find out which bus to take to get to Muzha, a suburb of Taipei.

New Vocabulary

Supplementary Vocabulary

Notes on the Conversation

Negative time spent

Take the sentence Wǒ hǎo jiǔ méi zuò gōngchē le I haven’t taken a bus for a long time. We learned previously that time spent expressions that tell for how long something happened come AFTER the verb. In this lesson we learn that negative time spent expressions that tell for how long something hasn’t happened come BEFORE the verb. Contrast these pairs of sentences: Wǒ xuéle sānnián le I’ve been studying it for three years vs. Wǒ sānnián méi xuéle I haven’t studied it for three years; and Tā gōngzuòle sān’ge yuè She worked for three months vs. Tā sān’ge yuè méi gōngzuò le She hasn’t worked for three months.

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Number of times within a period of time

In lines 5-6, look at the question Duō jiǔ yìbān? How often is there a bus? and the response Wǔfēn zhōng yìbān One every five minutes. To express the number of times something happens during a certain period of time, mention first the period of time you’re talking about and then the number of times during that period. If there is a verb, it occurs in the middle. The pattern is: Period of Time + (Verb) + Number of Times. More examples: yìnián qù sāncì go three times a year, yíge yuè lái liǎngcì come twice a month.

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The verb ending -wán

to indicate completion or depletion

The verb construction màiwán, composed of the verb mài and the ending wán, means sell with the result that everything is depleted or sell out. In English we often say we’ve finished something without specifying what it is, as in I’m finished!; but in Chinese, the action which has been finished is mentioned, so you’d have to say Wǒ chīwánle wǔfàn or Wǒ kànwánle shū. Some more examples with -wán: Wǒ shuōwánle I’ve finished speaking, Tā yǐjīng chīwánle She’s already finished eating, Wǒmen dōu zuòwánle We’ve finished doing all of it.

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Reading

New Characters and Words

A. SENTENCES

一、 我弟弟很久没说日本话了，大概已经忘了很多了。

二、 老张那个人说一是一，说二是二，你别再问了。

三、 我和我的小学六年级同学说了再见以后，就很久没再见到他们了。

四、 原来你说还有很多公车票，怎么现在都卖完了？

五、 你大概已经忘了我了吧？我们已经好久没见了。

六、 你从公司给我打电话或者找一个公共电话给我打都可以。

七、 饭也吃完了，东西也买完了，我们可以回家了。

八、 你要是需要换钱的话，可以去机场或者比较大的饭店换。

九、 这个地方天天下大雨或是毛毛雨，我们已经好久没见到太阳了。

十、 我们等王大海已经等了好久了，但是他还没吃完晚饭，叫我们再等他一会儿。

B. CONVERSATIONS

一、

老师： 我叫你写的字你都写完了吗？

学生： 都写完了。

老师： 这个字写错了，请你再写一次

二、

张老师： 老李，好久不见了！

李老师： 是，好久不见！

张老师： 你准备什么时候去香港？

李老师： 我下个星期六或者星期天就要走了。

张老师： 你要去多久呢？

李老师： 还不知道，因为去了香港以后，还要去广州。

张老师： 是吗？时间不早了，我得先走了。明天见！

李老师： 再见！

C. NARRATIVES

一、 小学五年级的时候，我有一个同学住在我们家对面。他是美国人，但是中国话说得比中国人还好！小学六年级的时候，他和他家人回美国去了，听说他们现在住在美国的西岸。我已经好久没见到他了。不知道他最近怎么样，也不知道什么时候会再见到他。

二、 我有一个朋友姓温，名字叫温安然。他现在是记者，住在我们家对面，不过我很久没见到他了。老温是我以前上大学时候的同屋，很喜欢买东西。有一次，他买了一个大钟。我问他：你为什么要买那个钟？你家里不是已经有好几个钟了吗？老温说他很需要那个钟，别人家里都没有，买了以后只有他一个人有，所以一定要买。还有一次，老温买了一个很贵的汽车。我问他：你为什么要买那么贵的汽车？你真的需要吗？老温说因为别人都有这样的车，所以他不能不买。我真不知道说什么好。

Notes

A2. 说一是一，说二是二 literally, Say one and it’s one, say two and it’s two or, in idiomatic English, Mean what you say or Stand by your word.

A3. In this sentence, notice that the two 再见 have very different meanings. The first occurs in 说再见 Say goodbye. The second occurs in 很久没再见到他们 (I) didn’t see them again for a long time.

B1. You’ve learned 叫 in the sense of be called or call. 叫 can also mean tell (someone to do something). Therefore, 我叫你写的字 means the characters that I told you to write.

C1. 比中国人还好 means even better than Chinese people.

C2. 你家里不是已经有好几个钟了吗？ Don’t you already have quite a few clocks at your home? This is a rhetorical question, in other words, the speaker believes that the person he or she is speaking to does have a lot of clocks at their home. 好几个 means quite a few, several, or a lot of.

People waiting at a bus stop on Heping East Road in Taipei

¹The character numbers in this volume continue on from Elementary Mandarin Chinese, which introduced characters number 1-288.

LESSON 2

Asking Directions to a Friend’s House

PART ONE

Conversation

Situation: Mark Donnelly has been invited to the Taipei home of his friend Zhou Zengmo. He has been riding back and forth on his motorcycle but can’t find the street, so he calls Zhou to ask for directions.

New Vocabulary

Supplementary Vocabulary

Notes on the Conversation

Verb-lái

verb-qù

The very common and useful pattern Verb-lái Verb-qù expresses the sense of do something back and forth, do something here and there, do something all over the place, or do something again and again. Examples: zhǎolái zhǎoqù look all over, zǒulái zǒuqù walk back and forth, kànlái kànqù look at over and over again, xiǎnglái xiǎngqù rack one’s brains, bānlái bānqù move all over the place.

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Zěmme

(Verb) yě

+ negative verb no matter…

This pattern means no matter (how hard one tries or what one does), one doesn’t or didn’t or can’t or couldn’t (do something). The first occurrence of the verb is optional, but the second occurrence of the verb (the negative verb) is mandatory. Examples: Wǒ zěmme zhǎo yě zhǎobudào No matter how hard I searched, I couldn’t find it, Wǒ zěmme yě mǎibudào No matter what I did, I wasn’t able to buy one, Wǒ zěmme yě shuìbuzháo No matter how hard I tried, I just couldn’t fall asleep, Tā zěmme xué yě xuébuhuì No matter how hard she tried, she just couldn’t learn it.

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Metric system

The official system of measurement in both mainland China and Taiwan is the metric system. The key terms are: gōngfēn centimeter, gōngkè gram, gōngchǐ meter, gōngjīn kilogram, kilo, gōnglǐ kilometer, gōngshēng liter.

Reading

New Characters and Words

A. SENTENCES

一、 这个事儿我已经跟你讲过很多次了，你怎么不听？