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M1S2 PPT1

Mandarin, also known as Putonghua, is the most important Chinese dialect to learn. It is spoken by over 900 million people as a first language and 190 million as a second language. Mandarin is the official language of China and Taiwan, an official language of Singapore, and one of the official languages of the United Nations. Learning Mandarin is important because it will be a major global language and provide advantages to those who speak it.

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31 views15 pages

M1S2 PPT1

Mandarin, also known as Putonghua, is the most important Chinese dialect to learn. It is spoken by over 900 million people as a first language and 190 million as a second language. Mandarin is the official language of China and Taiwan, an official language of Singapore, and one of the official languages of the United Nations. Learning Mandarin is important because it will be a major global language and provide advantages to those who speak it.

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FORELAN: Foreign Language

Mandarin/Putonghua:
An Introduction
Intro to Mandarin/ Putonghua

Greet the teacher properly in


Mandarin
Familiarize oneself with the Chinese word for Mandarin,
the teacher’s Chinese name and basic greeting in class

Understand the background and history of Mandarin

Enumerate the importance of learning Mandarin


Huān yǐng!
Welcome!
Please listen!
Qǐng tīng!
Chinese is a family of
related languages, or
dialects, that originated in
China. There are hundreds,
and some argue
thousands, of different
dialects of Chinese. The
most important one you
should know is Mandarin.
Mandarin, with about 900,000,000
speakers, is the official language of
China, Taiwan (Republic of China),
an official language of Singapore,
and one of six official languages of
the United Nations. When people
refer to the “Chinese” language,
they are usually referring to
Mandarin.
Spoken by
900 million as L₁,
and by 190 million
as L₂

Total: 1, 090 million

Source: Ethnologue (2015, 18th edition)


+ The official/main language of
China and Taiwan
+ One of the four official
languages of Singapore
+ Spoken in Malaysia,
Indonesia, Vietnam, Hong
Kong, South Africa, Macau,
Cambodia, Thailand,
Philippines, UK, USA, Brunei,
among others
Do you remember taking standardized tests in school?
Nightmare. Well, we can thank the emperors of ancient China for
beginning this tradition. “Mandarins” is the name Europeans gave
to government officials in Imperial China. To serve the court,
mandarins had to pass examinations, the world’s first
standardized tests.

Over time, the term “Mandarin” evolved to refer to the language


that these officials spoke in the Imperial court and gradually to the
main dialect in use today.
+ Mandarin is going to be the next lingua franca.
+ People who can speak Mandarin will have an edge over
others.
Nǐ hǎo!

Hello!
Dà jiā hǎo!

Hello everybody!
Zhāng Lǎoshī
hăo.

Hello, Teacher
Zhang.
Zhāng Lǎoshī
wǔ ān.

Teacher Zhang,
good afternoon.

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