What ideas do you have for Qing Wen lessons?

xiaophil

August 06, 2010, 09:48 AM posted in General Discussion

Okay everybody, per suggestin, I am spreading a thread I started on the lesson topic suggestions post to the general community for everyone to see easier and hopefully generate some discussion.  Because Qing Wen was almost reduced by half, I made a long list of Qing Wen topics just to make sure there is plenty of material for CPod to choose from.  TheMainMan also made two suggestions (see below).  I'm hoping some of you will A) contribute your own Qing Wen lesson ideas for any level, and B) comment on which ideas are the most/least useful and what other suggestions you might have.

谢谢你们!

Level: Qing Wen

Subject:  成语’s that are frequently heard in oral Chinese (a series would be nice, actually)

Notes: I don’t know if 乱七八糟 is an official 成语, but I sure do hear it a lot.  On the other hand, there are a lot of 成语’s that are only seen in literature.  What are some ones we can feel certain won’t sound strange coming from a 老外’s mouth?

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Level: Qing Wen

Subject: rules, regulations, standards, laws

Notes: distinguish 规则，规定，规矩，法律

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Level: Qing Wen

Subject: 以

Notes: help us know when and how to use this word, e.g. 以..为…

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Level: Qing Wen

Subject: Chinese cool talk

Notes: let us know some basic cool talk that the hipster Chinese kids use

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Level: Qing Wen

Subject: some Chinese expressions that are common but would not be intuitive to a native English speaker

Notes: an example of this would be 情况 (situation).  I just heard a Chinese person today say in English, “have a good body situation.”  Was he trying to say 由一个好身体情况?  That’s what I think, but it sure sounds funny in English.  It would be great to know more of these types of expressions.

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Level: Qing Wen

Subject: some English expressions that cannot be directly translated into Chinese

Notes: Here is an example of something that cannot be directly into Chinese: I want to know if you are eating with us.  Not the ‘if’ in this sentence.  If we look in a dictionary, it will say 如果 or 要是 or something like that, but we cannot say in Chinese 我想知道如果你会跟我们一起吃饭.  It would be nice to know some other expressions that just don’t work when directly translated.

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Level: Qing Wen

Subject: reach

Notes: it would be nice to know the difference between 得出，达到，达成，到达 and any other word that might mean ‘reach’

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Level: Qing Wen

Subject: receive

Notes: what’s the difference between 收到，受到，得到，获得，and 取得

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Level: Qing Wen

Subject: 此 words

Notes: in formal writing we see a lot of 此 words such as 因此，由此，此外 and so on.  Perhaps CPod could introduce them so we can get a feel for them.

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Level: Qing Wen

Subject:  salutations and signing off on letters and emails

Notes: in English we say dear so and so, to whom it may concern, best regards, yours sincerely and so on, how do we do this in Chinese?  What situation are certain expressions appropriate?

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Level: Qing Wen

Subject: outdated Chinese or Chinese that isn’t used as often as textbooks would like us to believe

Notes: most Chinese don’t say 同志，你好, they don’t say 马马虎虎 all that much, and it is pretty rare to deflect praise with 哪里哪里, so what are some others?

Courtesy of TheMainMan:

Here are two more QW topic suggestions:

The difference between Zǒngsuàn and Zhōngyú (this one has actually been covered).

and the difference between yǐwǎng and yǐqián