Welcome!

This is the first lesson of Chinese Reading and Writing 4, teaching 10 new Chinese characters. How to read them, how to write them, and their meanings.

Learning Chinese characters is always the first step. The key is to know how to use them. 

In this lesson, you’ll learn 37 words and combinations. Practice reading and writing them until you’re fluent. 

In this lesson, April explains two useful grammar points, both are related to the word 怎么. The first one is to use 怎么 as a question word “how”, and the second one is to use it to refer to “a certain way of doing things”.

Make a couple of your own sentences after this lesson.

It’s practice time, the most important task for developing solid Chinese reading and writing skills. The textbook contains 37 sentences under 34 index numbers, 3 conversations, and one interesting narrative. Work on them thoroughly. 

In this lesson, April picked two sentences to demonstrate. After that, you have two minutes to finish an end-of-chapter-challenge.

In this lesson, you’ll be learning ten new Chinese characters in Lesson 17, and also one special character which first appeared in Lesson 10 in Chinese Reading and Writing 2. This special character can be combined with one of the new characters and thus generate new meanings.

In this lesson, the previous ten new Chinese characters are put into use. 

You are going to learn 57 words and combinations, and many of them are names of different places, including places both inside and outside of China.

In this lesson, April uses two examples to demonstrate how to use “黄了” to describe a situation when things fall through. 

This structure is a vivid one, bringing a strong image to our mind. It also testifies how expressive Chinese is.

It’s time to practice reading and writing Chinese texts and to develop solid reading and writing skills. No body can do this for you! In the book, there are 41 sentences under 37 index numbers, 2 conversations, and one narrative. Study them thoroughly. 

In this lesson, April picks two sentences to demonstrate, and she also points out that one of the reasons why reading Chinese is difficult is the fact that Chinese does not give clues to names, regardless of people’s names or places’ name. 

After you have a good grasp of all the exercises, come back for an end-of-chapter challenge. You have two minutes to finish.

In this lesson, you’ll learn ten new Chinese characters. How to read them, how to write them and their meanings. Also, an old character “为” is brought back, and you’re going to learn its second pronunciation.

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

Words are the building blocks of Chinese texts. And in this lesson, you’re going to expand your word bank with 39 new words and combinations. 

Practice reading and writing these words until you’re very familiar with them!

It’s time to focus on all the exercises and to improve your Chinese reading and writing skills. There are  36 sentences under 32 index numbers, 3 conversations, and 1 narrative in the book. Work through all the exercises in the textbook thoroughly.

In this lesson, April picks two sentences to demonstrate how to use “以为” to convey the message that a notion, which was previously held, is mistaken. 

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

In this lesson, you’ll learn 10 new Chinese characters, how to read them, how to write them, and their meanings. 

Of these ten Chinese characters, while many carry so many potential meanings, two are only particles which do not have any fixed meanings. Particles are very useful Chinese characters, but can only be fully explained in a sentence. 

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

In this lesson, you’re going to expand your word bank by 41 new words and combinations. Interestingly enough, two of them use the same two Chinese characters “长毛”. Look out for these two words and find out how to read them and their meanings.

In this lesson, April explains when and how to use “着” to express a continued action or state, and also the difference between “V. + 着” and “在 + V.”.

After this lesson, make sure you make a couple of sentences of your own. 

It’s time to practice, and to develop your Chinese reading and writing skills. In the end, it’s the skills that count! In the book, there are 39 sentences under 32 index numbers, 3 conversations and 1 narrative. Work them thoroughly.

In this lesson, April picks two sentences to explain how the Chinese character 呢 is used. 

After you have had a good grasp of all the exercises, come back for an end-of-chapter challenge. You are expected to write about a scene, using at least 150 Chinese characters.

This lesson teaches the final ten new Chinese characters in Chinese Reading and Writing 4, how to read them, how to write them, and their meanings.

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

After learning ten new Chinese characters, this lesson focuses on expanding the size of your vocabulary. 

There are 48 words and combinations listed in the book, including an old word, 面子, which you have learned before. The reason is that one of the new words is its synonymous. It’s good to put them side by side. Find out which word it is!

Practice reading and writing these words until you’re fluent.

It’s time for practice, using newly acquired words and combinations to read and write Chinese texts and to improve your reading and writing skills. There are 37 sentences under 34 index numbers, 3 conversations and 1 narrative in our textbook.

In this lesson, April uses two sentences to explain the usage of Chinese character 白 when it conveys the meaning of “for nothing” or “in vain”. Keep that in mind that it’s not always bad! 

Work through all the exercises thoroughly. Once you have a good grasp, come back for an end-of-chapter challenge. Use a minimum of 150 Chinese characters to describe the scene you are about to watch.

Congratulations for getting this far!

This is the final lesson in this Chinese course, an opportunity for you to review what you have learned before and work on integrated exercises to consolidate your learning. 

April has three tasks for you. Once it’s all done, come back for an end-of-chapter challenge.