Thursday, March 19, 2020

How to Say Good Morning and Good Evening in Chinese

How to Say Good Morning and Good Evening in Chinese After learning to say hello in Mandarin Chinese, the next step is learning to say good evening and good morning. Before diving in, its important to keep a couple of Chinese phrasings in mind: the character æâ€" © (zÇŽo) means early in  Chinese. It is often used in morning greetings. Both  Ã¦â€" ©Ã¥ ®â€° (zÇŽo Ä n) and  Ã¦â€" ©Ã¤ ¸Å Ã¥ ¥ ½ (zÇŽo shang hÇŽo) mean good morning. Sometimes, just a quick  Ã¦â€" © is a colloquial way of saying good morning. Good Morning in Mandarin Chinese There are actually three ways to say good morning in  Mandarin Chinese. Audio links are indicated with the mark, ââ€" º .   ââ€" ºÃ¢â‚¬â€¹zÇŽo æâ€" ©Ã¢â€" ºÃ¢â‚¬â€¹Ã¢â‚¬â€¹zÇŽo Ä n  Ã¦â€" ©Ã¥ ®â€°zÇŽo shng hÇŽo æâ€" ©Ã¤ ¸Å Ã¥ ¥ ½ The Importance of æâ€" © (ZÇŽo) As noted, æâ€" © (zÇŽo) means â€Å"morning.† It is a noun and can also be used by itself as a greeting meaning good morning. The Chinese character æâ€" © (zÇŽo) is a composite of two character components: æâ€" ¥ (rà ¬) which  means sun and Ã¥  , an old form of ç” ² (jiÇŽ), which means â€Å"first† or â€Å"armor.† A literal interpretation of the character æâ€" © (zÇŽo), therefore, is â€Å"first sun.† The Difference Between æâ€" ©Ã¥ ®â€° and æâ€" ©Ã¤ ¸Å Ã¥ ¥ ½ The first character æâ€" © in this section head is explained above. The second character Ã¥ ®â€° (Ä n) means peace. So, the literal translation of æâ€" ©Ã¥ ®â€° (zÇŽo Ä n) is morning peace. A more formal way to say good morning is æâ€" ©Ã¤ ¸Å Ã¥ ¥ ½ (zÇŽo shng hÇŽo). HÇŽo–å ¥ ½ means good. On its own, ä ¸Å  (shng) means up or upon. But in this case, æâ€" ©Ã¤ ¸Å  (zÇŽo shng) is a compound meaning early morning. So the literal translation of æâ€" ©Ã¤ ¸Å Ã¥ ¥ ½ (zÇŽo shng hÇŽo) is early morning good. Good Evening in Mandarin Chinese The phrase 晚ä ¸Å Ã¥ ¥ ½ (wÇŽn shng hÇŽo) means good evening in Chinese. The word 晚  is composed of two parts: æâ€" ¥ and å…  (miÇŽn). As noted previously,  Ã¦â€" ¥ means sun, while  Ã¥â€¦  means free or absolve. Combined, the character represents the concept of being free of the sun.   Using the same pattern as æâ€" ©Ã¤ ¸Å Ã¥ ¥ ½ (zÇŽo shng hÇŽo), you can say good evening with 晚ä ¸Å Ã¥ ¥ ½ (wÇŽn shng hÇŽo). The literal translation of 晚ä ¸Å Ã¥ ¥ ½ (wÇŽn shng hÇŽo) is evening good. Unlike æâ€" ©Ã¥ ®â€° (zÇŽo Ä n), 晚å ®â€°Ã‚  (wÇŽn Ä n) is not usually used as a greeting but rather as a farewell. The phrase means good night in the sense of sending people away (in a nice way) or saying the phrase to people before they go to bed.   Appropriate Times These greetings should be said at the appropriate time of the day. Morning greetings should be said up to about 10 a.m. Evening greetings are usually said between about 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. The standard greeting  Ã¤ ½  Ã¥ ¥ ½ (nÇ  hÇŽo) can be used at any time of the day or night. Tones The Pinyin Romanization above uses tone marks. Pinyin is a Romanization system used to learn Mandarin. It transcribes the sounds of Mandarin using the Western (Roman)  alphabet. Pinyin is most commonly used in Mainland China for teaching school children to read, and it is also widely used in teaching materials designed for Westerners who wish to learn Mandarin. Mandarin Chinese is a tonal language, which means that the meanings of words depend on which tone they use. There are four tones in Mandarin: First: a level and higher pitchSecond: rising, which starts from a lower pitch and ends  at a slightly higher pitchThird:  a falling-rising sound that starts with at a neutral tone then dips to a lower pitch before ending at a higher pitchFourth:  a falling tone, which starts the syllable at a slightly higher-than-neutral pitch before going quickly and strongly to a downward tone In Mandarin Chinese, many characters have the same sound, so tones are necessary when speaking to differentiate words from each other.

Monday, March 2, 2020

Language Arts Warm-Ups for Classroom Engagement

Language Arts Warm-Ups for Classroom Engagement Just as a physical workout needs a solid warm-up for peak performance, warm-up exercises at the start of any class prime students to begin learning. Language arts warm-ups focus on grammar and composition with quick activities to encourage the creative flow. Grab your students attention by engaging them with a stimulating task related to the days lesson. You can introduce it on the whiteboard or with a hard copy placed on everyones desk, but make sure they can get started immediately upon their arrival. Language arts warm-ups can review previously covered material or provide a preview of information to come. They should be quick, fun and designed for student success, such as the examples here. Identifying Adverb Clauses Adverbs modify other words, often verbs but also adjectives and other adverbs, by answering when, where and how. Adverbs may come in dependent clauses, or groups of words, making them a bit harder to identify. Welcome your language arts students to class by asking them to identify the adverb clauses in some recognizable proverbial sayings.   Finding Indirect Objects Indirect objects receive or benefit from the action of a verb, but they dont always jump out of a sentence the way direct objects do. Exercises in finding indirect objects get students thinking beyond the easy answers, so warming up with an activity based on indirect objects should make their brains more limber and ready to receive new information. Uncovering Verbals Verbs sometimes stand in as other parts of speech. Collectively called verbals, verbs in use as participles, gerunds, and infinitives may be part of a  phrase that includes related modifiers, objects, and complements. Task students with identifying these undercover verbs and revealing their actual identities for a fun way to engage your grammar sleuths. Practicing With Participles and Participial Phrases Building on the identification of verbals, an activity designed to further highlight the role of participles and participial phrases - when verbs become adjectives - sparks recognition that things may not always be as they seem. This useful concept for many language arts topics also translates to most other academic subjects as well. Differentiating Independent and Dependent Clauses A first glance, independent and dependent clauses appear the same. Both contain subjects and verbs, but only independent clauses can stand alone as a sentence. Start class with this exercise to remind students that rote answers rarely work in language arts and encourage them to use their critical thinking skills. Distinguishing Complete Sentences From Sentence Fragments Complete sentences can contain only one word, while sentence fragments may run on for several lines of text. Get students in the mood for grammar with a fun exercise challenging them to turn fragments into full sentences with the addition of a predicate. This activity promotes the development of complete thoughts. Remedying Run-On Sentences Run-on sentences result from missing conjunctions or punctuation. Starting class with an exercise in correcting run-on sentences prompts students to pay attention to the details. This makes a good opener for lessons on composition and creative writing.