Lesson 1

The pronunciation of every Chinese character needs an initial and a final.

An initial means a beginning sound of a Chinese character.
A final means an ending sound of a Chinese character.

The phonetic symbols we will learn in this class cover all initials and finals in Mandarin Chinese language.

Two initials : ㄅ and ㄆ
One final: ㄚ

Examples as follows:

ㄅ is for the beginning sound of "杯子" (cup).
ㄆ is for the beginning sound of "皮球" (ball) or "拍手" (clap hands).

ㄚ is for the ending sound of "蠟筆" (crayon).

Besides beginning and ending sounds, each Chinese character has its tone.
There are 4 tones plus 1 light tone in Mandarin Chinese language.
Without tones, speaking Chinese would be like a robot's talking.

Listen to the following audio lesson and practice four tones with the hand gestures we learned in class.

*Note: click on "Play full song here" link to hear the whole audio clip.