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Video Course - Chinese Reading and Writing 2

Continue to learn how to read and write Chinese with free online video lessons, presented by Chinese teacher April Zhang. You are now at Chinese Reading and Writing 2 of the series. 

Learn 50 new Chinese characters and their words and their combinations. Two special characters are introduced.

Chinese Reading and Writing 2 video course includes:

Follow the self-study guide How to self-study Chinese characters and go beyond to achieve the best learning result.

April Zhang

Online Video Lessons

Chinese Reading and Writing 2


Lesson 6 Characters

As a continuation of Chinese Reading and Writing 1, Chinese Reading and Writing 2 starts at Lesson 6. "Awareness, expansion, practice and consolidation" continues to be the lesson format. 

This lesson covers the beginning of Lesson 6, teaching you 10 new Chinese characters, how to read them, how to write them, and their meanings.

Lesson 6 Words and Combinations

In this lesson, April presents 46 words and combinations which use the newly learned Chinese characters in Lesson 6 and the ones learned previously. Comparing to the increase of individual characters, the increase of the words and expressions is exponential. 

Practice reading and writing these words. They are the building blocks of the exercises in Lesson 6.

Lesson 6 Grammar

This lesson presents five important grammar points in Lesson 6, including: 1) 在 + V., 2) V. + 了, 3) Yes/No questions, 4) 几, and 5) 都. 

April gives many examples to demonstrate the structures and usages. All examples are written using the characters taught in Lesson 6 and in Chinese Reading and Writing 1. 

Moreover, April would like to stress that 了 does not indicate past tense in Chinese.

Lesson 6 Practice

In this lesson, April explains the two sentences under index number 15, as the usage of 好 in the sentences is a new one. It also tells us that the best place to understand the meaning of a Chinese character or word is in a given context.

Read and write all the exercises, which includes 28 sentences listed under 18 index numbers, 4 conversations and 1 narrative. Once you feel you have a good grasp, come back for the end-of-chapter challenge. You have two minutes to finish.

Lesson 7 Characters

In this lesson, April demonstrates how to read and write ten new Chinese characters presented in Lesson 7, and their meanings. 

She also points out that, although one of the meanings of 和 is “and”, it is not used to join sentences, which is very different from how “and” is used in English. If you use 和 too many times, you might be speaking or writing Englinese - When Chinese language is influenced by English language.

Practice reading and writing these Chinese characters until you’re very familiar with them, and get ready for the words and combinations at the next lesson.

Lesson 7 Words and Combinations

In this lesson, you’ll learn eleven words and combinations presented in Lesson 7. You’ll be delighted to see some old Chinese characters are back and new meanings are created.

Lesson 7 Grammar

In this lesson, teacher April explains how to use 多么 to express exclamations in Chinese, and what the criterion is for using it.

Lesson 7 Practice

In this lesson, April explains one sentence in the exercise section of Lesson 7, and points out that, in that sentence, the Chinese character “了 le” has nothing to do with past tense. 

Read and write all the exercises in the book, including 29 sentences listed under 19 index numbers, 3 conversations, and 1 narrative. Sufficient practice is the most crucial element for you to develop your Chinese reading skills. Once you’ve got a good grasp, come back for the end-of-the-chapter challenge.  You have two minutes to finish the quiz.

Lesson 8 Characters

In this lesson, Chinese teacher April presents ten new characters in Lesson 8. And for the first time, you’re going to learn two special Chinese characters. These two belong to a special category of Chinese characters which have more than one pronunciations and each pronunciation is tied to different meanings. The two special characters introduced in this lesson is 哪 and 种.

We have seen many times that the same Chinese character carry different meanings. Now we know that it is possible that some characters can also be pronounced differently.

Lesson 8 Words and Combinations

This lesson covers the expansion section in Lesson 8 of Chinese Reading and Writing 2. You’ll learn 34 new words and combinations. All of them are very useful. 

Enjoy this lesson with Chinese teacher April. 

Lesson 8 Practice

In this lesson, April explains four sentences, all of which contain the Chinese character 花, but the meanings are all different from one another. This example to demonstrate the importance of understanding the meaning of a Chinese character within a context, at least a word or a combination. 

An essential task for you to do, and nobody can do it for you, is to read and write all the exercises in Lesson 8, including 36 sentences listed under 33 index numbers, 3 conversations, and 2 narratives.

Once you have a good grasp, come back for an end-of-chapter challenge. You have two minutes to complete.

Lesson 9 Characters

In this lesson, teacher April teaches ten new Chinese characters in Lesson 9 of the book, how to read them, how to write them, and their meanings.

As always, when standing alone, each Chinese character can be interpreted in many different ways. To know what a character means, we must look at how this particular character is used in connection with other characters.

Lesson 9 Words and Combinations

In this lesson, Chinese teacher April presents 36 words and combinations which are expanded from the latest ten new Chinese characters. 

Moreover, she explains that the meaning of 五月三号 is the same as 五月三日. The difference is that the former often appears in verbal communications such as daily conversations, while the latter often shows up in writings such as newspapers or journals.

Lesson 9 Grammar

In this lesson, Chinese teacher April teaches four grammar points in the book: 1. 从 … 到 …; 2. 到 is used as a verb complement; 3. 从来都不; 4. 从来没有. 

She gives examples of how to use them, and especially points out the difference between 从来都不 and 从来没有.

Lesson 9 Practice

In this lesson, among all the exercises in Lesson 9, Chinese teacher April picks two sentences to explain. Both of these two sentences can function as subtle greetings in Chinese, and are very useful in daily life.  

Complete all the exercises in the book, including 58 sentences under 39 index numbers, 8 conversations, and 2 narratives, all are necessary for you to develop good Chinese reading skills. Once you have a good grasp, come back for the end-of-chapter challenge. You have two minutes to complete.

Lesson 10 Characters

In this lesson, teacher April presents ten new Chinese characters, the final ten, in Chinese Reading and Writing 2. She demonstrates how to read them, how to write them, and their meanings. 

Practice reading and writing these characters until you’re familiar with them.

Lesson 10 Words and Combinations

In this lesson, teacher April presents 39 words and combinations listed in Lesson 10, and explains a few places that many students have asked about. The first one is when 块 is used as currency unit. The second one is why there are so many Chinese words ending with 子. The third one is the exact weight of 斤 in different regions, and the meaning of 半斤八两.

Enjoy the lesson!

Lesson 10 Practice

In this lesson, Chinese teacher April explains one sentence selected from the exercise section of Lesson 10, to demonstrates how to use the word 半斤八两. 

Read and write all the exercises in Lesson 10, including 40 sentences under 26 index numbers, 3 conversations, and 1 narrative. This is the most important tasks to improve your Chinese reading and writing skills. 

Once you have a good grasp, come back for the end-of-chapter challenge. You have two minutes to complete.

Review 2

This is the last lesson of this online Chinese course, covering the final chapter, Review 2, of the book, Chinese Reading and Writing 2. Congratulations to everyone who has gone this far! 

There are two sections in Review 2. The first one lists all the individual Chinese characters taught in the book. The second section is the exercise section, including 38 sentences listed under 19 index numbers, and two narratives. 

Teacher April gives instruction on how to approach each section, what to do, and what to expect. At the end of the lesson, she gives the final end-of-chapter challenge of Chinese Reading and Writing 2. You have two minutes to finish.

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