Chinese I—Semester A

Sample Lesson - Introduction

Lesson 4.06: They Shoot…They Score

We're not sure what sport this is, but…they might want to be wearing helmets.
(Source)

By now, you've got a pretty decent sense of how to figure out something's location, so don't you think maybe it's time for a change of scenery?

That's right. Shut down your computer, put away your 铅笔 and 纸, throw open the classroom door and head out onto the grass—it's time for some sports.

We're fully kidding. Don't actually go outside.

The truth is, while you have to be outside to play most sports, you don't need to go outside to learn about them. And just ahead, you'll get a chance to learn the names of popular U.S. sports, as well as a few that are big in Asia—think badminton and ping pong. Big on outdoorsy activities that don't require a ball or jersey? We'll talk about other athletic activities, too—like biking, for instance.

You'll also be given an array of verb phrases so you can describe doing the sports. It's a little trickier than it sounds. In Chinese, whether you use your hands or feet to play a game affects your choice of verb.

Seriously; it does. But we're sure you'll get the hang of it.

Sample Lesson - Reading

Reading 4.4.06a: Vocabulary

Let's talk a little bit about Lionel Messi, who's seen by many as a god on the soccer field. Some people would call Messi the best soccer player of all time, to which we say…

"Whatever."

Like, okay. Soccer skills are impressive and all, but can he rattle off the names of twelve different kinds of sports in Chinese? You'll be able to in just a second. (Take that, Messi.)

Take out your vocabulary notebooks and warm up your vocal chords—it's time to drill the following new terms:

Nouns

• 运动 yùndòng: sports; exercise
  她喜欢做运动. Tā xǐhuān zuò yùndòng.
  She likes to do exercise.

• 棒球 bàngqiú: baseball
  他们打棒球. Tāmen dǎ bàngqiú.
  They play baseball.

• 篮球 lánqiú: basketball
  打篮球很好玩. Dǎ lánqiú hěn hǎo wán.
  Playing basketball is fun.

• 排球 páiqiú: volleyball
  他们在海边打排球。Tāmen zài hǎibiān dǎ páiqiú.
  They play volleyball at the beach.

• 网球 wǎngqiú: tennis
  Roger Federer打网球打得很好。Roger Federer dǎ wǎngqiú dǎ dé hěn hǎo.
  Roger Federer plays tennis very well.

• 乒乓球 pīngpāngqiú: ping pong
  你会打乒乓球吗？Nǐ huì dǎ pīngpāng qiú ma?
  Can you play ping pong?

• 羽毛球 yǚmáoqiú: badminton
  她最喜欢打羽毛球. Tā zuì xǐhuān dǎ yǚmáoqiú.
  Her favorite is playing badminton.

• 足球 zúqiú: soccer
  Mia Hamm踢足球。Mia Hamm tī zúqiú.
  Mia Hamm plays soccer.

• 美式足球 měishì zúqiú: American football
  美式足球很危险。Měishì zúqiú hěn wéixiǎn.
  American football is dangerous.

• 功夫 gōngfu: kung fu
  我不会功夫. Wǒ bú huì gōngfu.
  I don't know kung fu.

• 队 duì: team
  我们的学校有足球队. Wǒmen de xuéxiào yǒu zúqiúduì.
  Our school has a soccer team.

• 比赛 bǐsài: competition; match; game
  我想参加一场热狗吃比赛。Wǒ xiǎng cānjiā yī chǎng règǒu chī bǐsài.
  I want to enter a hot dog eating competition.

• 球 qiú: ball (used in games)
  给我一个球. Gěi wǒ yīge qiú.
  Give me a ball.

Verbs

• 跑步 pǎobù: to run; to jog
  他紧张的时候跑步。Tā jǐnzhāng de shíhòu pǎobù.
  He runs when he's stressed out.

• 散步 sànbù: to walk; to stroll
  他们喜欢在公园散步. Tāmen xǐhuān zài gōngyuán sànbù.
  They like to take a stroll in the park.

• 游泳 yóuyǒng: to swim
  我害怕海洋，因为我不能游泳。Wǒ hàipà hǎiyáng, yīnwèi wǒ bùnéng yóuyǒng.
  I'm afraid of the ocean because I don't know how to swim.

• 骑车 qíchē: to ride a bicycle
  她不会骑车。Tā bù huì qíchē.
  She doesn't know how to ride a bicycle.

• 跑 pǎo: to run
  他们在学校里跑步. Tāmen zài xuéxiào li pǎobù.
  They go running in the school.

• 打 dǎ: to play (used with hand sports); to hit
  打羽毛球很好玩. Dǎ yǚmáoqiú hěn hǎo wán.
  Playing badminton is fun.

• 踢 tī: to play (used with foot sports); to kick
  你会踢足球吗? Nǐ huì tī zúqiú ma?
  Do you know how to play soccer?

Phrases

• 好球！hǎoqiú!: nice shot; good play
  他打了两分，好球！Tā dǎ le liǎng fēn. Hǎo qiú!
  He scored two points. Nice shot!

Sample Lesson - Reading

Reading 4.4.06b: Ear-obics (Audio)

Now that your vocal chords are good n' warmed up, it's time to loosen up your ear drums. If, uh, that's a thing you can do with ear drums. (Now that we've said it out loud, it sounds kind of dangerous.)

In this listening exercise, you'll hear the vocab of the day read aloud by our team of suave voice artists. During the pause after every word and phrase, try your best to imitate their resonant tones as you repeat the vocab out loud.

In places, the narration will include verb phrases for playing sports. You'll hear not only the word for baseball…

• 棒球

…but also the verb phrase meaning to play baseball:

• 打棒球

You'll even get a sample sentence:

• 他们打棒球

Now, click on the link below to hear the audio clip, and…play ball.

Sample Lesson - Reading

Reading 4.4.06c: What's Kickin'?

You've just poured your awesome physique into some body-hugging activewear and hit the court/field/studio. Other than stand around lookin' good, what are you going to do next? Chances are you're about to…play a sport.

This brings up an interesting question: how do different languages talk about doing athletics?

We do, of course, have the answers for you. Take a look at these verb phrases:

• Play tennis
• Play soccer
• Play volleyball

In English, we play our sports. Not so in Chinese, which—as you'll see below—is more about the acts of hitting and kicking in sports.

The two verbs used to perform athletic activities are:

• 打 dǎ: to hit
• 踢 tī: to kick

Combine those verbs with the activity and you get verb phrases like:

• 打乒乓球 dǎ pīngpāngqiú: to play (hit) ping pong
• 打网球 dǎ wǎngqiú: to play (hit) tennis
• 打篮球 dǎ lánqiú: to play (hit) basketball
• 打棒球 dǎ bàngqiú: to play (hit) baseball
• 踢足球 tī zúqiú: to play (kick) soccer

Wait, what just happened there? We were going along fine with 打, then the last example suddenly switched to 踢. What gives?

Turns out there's a method to the 打/踢 madness. The choice of verb is related to how each sport is performed. Hand sports—where you use your hands (or a racket, stick, paddle) to control or "hit" a ball—use 打. Sports where you use your feet to control or "kick" the ball use 踢.

Sports that use 打 include baseball, basketball, tennis, ping pong, badminton…anything using your hands. Sports with 踢 include all the foot sports: soccer. And, soccer. Also, uh…soccer.

Now you're a spectator at the big game. Your favorite star makes an unbelievable play, bringing the crowd to its feet. "Nice shot!" you scream.

Then, you realize everybody around you is speaking Chinese, because you're at the Bird's Nest stadium, watching host Beijing Guoan FC take on rivals Guangzhou Evergrande FC. Racking your brain for the right words, suddenly it comes to you: "好球," you holler. "漂亮!."

Your words of encouragement light a fire under the players and they sweep to victory. And then you're heralded, Mulan-style, as a hero of China.

(What do you mean, "your fantasy is unrealistic"?)

These are some of the "nice shot" phrases you can yell:

• 好球! hǎoqiú: good shot! nice play! (literally, "good ball")
• 漂亮! piàoliang: pretty! nice shot!
• 帅! shuài: awesome! good-lookin' play!

Anybody wanna go kick some soccer now?

Sample Lesson - Activity

Activity 4.06a: Chinese Character Practice

Top athletes like Lebron James stay sharp by doing countless hours of routine passing, shooting and dribbling drills. Chinese students—particularly when it comes to writing characters—also know the value of practice.

Basically, Chinese students are just like Lebron. Except for that $100 million contract. But who needs $100 mil, right?

Step One

First, download and print a Chinese Character Practice Worksheet. You may need more than one copy for all the words you're about to write out.

Step Two

Then, using a pencil (or if you’re feeling confident, a pen), practice writing each of the characters below.

• 跑
• 步
• 球
• 足
• 蓝
• 棒
• 排
• 打
• 踢
• 队

To see the stroke order of each character, check out the website Arch Chinese. All you need to do is copy and paste each character into the search bar, then sit back and watch the animation display the stroke order.

Follow along in your Chinese Character Practice Worksheet and write out each character at least five times.

When you're done, upload a picture or scan of your worksheet(s) below.

Sample Lesson - Activity

Activity 4.06b: Game, Set, Match

Admit it, you're finding it hard to keep track of all those different kinds of 球. 棒球, 乒乓球…why are there so many different kinds of balls in sports? Seems things would be a lot easier if they all used the same kind of ball. Just a suggestion.

Still, that's never going to happen, so we'd better get up to snuff on our sports-themed vocab knowledge. You'll see a list of sports-themed English words below:

A. American football
B. soccer
C. basketball
D. tennis
E. badminton
F. kung fu
G. ping pong
H. swimming
I. baseball

You'll also notice a bunch of Chinese characters for various sports-themed words below, along with input fields. Guess what? The Chinese characters mean the same thing as the list of English words.

Problem is, they're all scrambled. We'd like you to unscramble the lists by writing the letter of each English word into the correct box below. For example, if you see the Chinese characters for "soccer," then you'd write "B" into the box (since B is the letter for soccer).

Sample Lesson - Activity

Activity 4.06c: Trivial Pursuits

Now comes the part of the lesson where we grill you about sports. Do you like baseball? Can you swim? How many bobsledders are on the Jamaican bobsled team?

Just kidding. We won't ask you to tap into your niche sports knowledge (though we'd love to know what little-known sports facts dwell in your noggin). Instead, we just want you to read the questions below, then enter your answers in complete Chinese sentences.