Tuesday 24 February 2015

Week 4 Learning Chinese in Fun! 学中文好好玩!

Welcome to week 4! I hope you had a wonderful Chinese New Year celebration with you family. By now the children are very familiar with Chinese new year, the stories, the food and the song. This week we are back to our regular topic and getting them ready to brainstorm on why learning Chinese is such good fun. There were certainly some bright ideas and here are just a few:

学中文好好玩!

- Play games 玩游戏 (Wán yóuxì)
- Art 艺 (ShǒuGōngyì)
- Listen to stories 听故事 (Tīng gùshì)
- Chinese Calligraphy 书法 (shūfǎ)
- Drawing 绘画 (Huìhuà)
- Watch Chinese Movies 看中电影 (Kàn zhòngwén diànyǐng)
- Writing Chinese characters 写中字 (Xiě zhòngwén zì)

Well that was a great idea sharing session and these elements will be incorporated into our lesson. Learning Chinese is fun after all.

Our sentence focus of the week is:

学中文很有趣, 我们一起... (Xué zhōngwén Hěn yǒuqù, Wǒmen yīqǐ...)

Learning Chinese is fun, we ........ together 

As part of the learning is fun theme, this week we have also started a word a day and Chinese idiom stories 成语 (Chéngyǔ). Chinese idiom made up of 4 Chinese characters and is usually of significant and interesting meaning. Here is our first idiom:


自相矛盾 (Zì xiāng máodùnz) Self contradictory



A man of the state of Chu (chǔ guó 楚国) had a spear and a shield for sale. 
楚国有个卖兵器的人,在市场上卖矛和盾。


He was loud in praises of his shield."My shield is so strong that nothing can pierce it through."
为了让人家愿意买他的货,他先举起盾向人们夸口道:“你们看,我的盾是世上最坚固的盾,任何锋利的东西都不能刺穿它。”


He also sang praises of his spear."My spear is so strong that it can pierce through anything."
接着又举起他的矛,向人吹嘘说:“你们再看看我的矛,它锋利无比,无坚不摧,无论多么坚硬的盾,都挡不住它,一刺就穿!”


"What would happen," he was asked, "if your spear is used to pierce your shield?"
人群中有人问道:“如果用你的矛去刺你的盾,结果怎么样?”


It is impossible for an impenetrable shield to coexist with a spear that finds nothing impenetrable. 
这世界上一样无坚不摧的东西永远不会与一样什么都能摧毁的东西共存。