Hanyu Pinyin "bi" and "bu"

We started to look at "bi" and "bu" today. As we started to learn more about the pronounication and blending the initial consonants together with a, o, e, i, u, etc and learning about the chinese characters behind such pronounication, it was fun.

I was telling Kai that Chinese Characters are derived from the drawing and now I regret not shipping over my HanZiGong Series (汉字宫). They are a very good series for learning Chinese and each chapter in a DVD explains the meaning of the word and its usage and also show how each Chinese Character comes about from drawing to the traditional chinese character and then to the simplified character.

Nevertheless, we tried to make good use of the resources we have and maybe I could suggested to the Library here to get it for their DVD collections. And at the meantime asking my friends in Beijing and Hong Kong to help me source books that shows how Chinese Characters derive from drawing to the present Simplified Chinese Characters.

I have gotten for Kai the card for iflashbook and after seeing him getting so interested to learn Chinese, we find went onto the website and use it. (The iflash book cost S$21 from Popular Bookstore in Singapore and it costs S$19.80 if get online. And it has a valid log on period of a year). Kai started to use it and he is enjoying it and asking for more after each session. PanPac iflashbook (我的华文动漫书) is the Singapore Primary School Textbook online and we can listen to the pronounication and read along as well as record one's reading and play back. And each card is valid for a level and for a year period.

By the interest shown by Kai and his willingness to even used it at night after dinner, I thought the money spent is worthwhile. And Daddy also finds it interesting.


Our Chinese for "bi" and "bu"

bi
bī	bí	bǐ	bì	bi
逼	鼻	比	比
屄	荸	笔	币
偪		彼	闭
皀		俾	臂
		吡	毕
		疕	必

bu
bū	bú	bǔ	bù	bu
哺	醭	哺	步
逋		卜	不
晡		补	布
钸		捕	钸
		卟	部

NB:
1. Some words has two intonation depending on which part of the sentence it is used. We used the soft intonation sometimes at the end of a sentence.

2. For repeated words, the second word intonation is soft intonation, such as 爸爸 (bàba).

3. Some chinese characters have more than one intonation and can also be pronounced differently like 卜. 卜 can be pronounced as bo or bǔ. When it is pronounced as bo, it means turnip. When it is pronounced as bǔ, it means foretell or a surname.

As we go about learning more about Hanyu Pinyin and each characters, we find that it is really interesting to find out how each character came about and hope to have the chance to learn more about China and its history.

Hanyu Pinyin "bo"

After learning ba and a couple of different characters that follows each intonation, we are moving into "bo". It was a good learning experience for both Kai and myself and we are enjoying learning the pronounication and looking at the chinese characters.

It is a good way for me to brush up on my rusty chinese as well since I have not touch it for a long time and a great way to learn and look at the characters and its meaning.


Our Chinese for "b0"

bo
bō	bó	bǒ	bò	bo
啵	伯	跛	亳	啵
波	博	簸	檗	卜
玻	脖		擘
播	钹		柏
剥	薄		譒
彂	舶

NB:
1. Some words has two intonation depending on which part of the sentence it is used. We used the soft intonation sometimes at the end of a sentence.

2. For repeated words, the second word intonation is soft intonation, such as 爸爸 (bàba).

As we went to the examples that I used to teach Kai, both of us also learnt the meaning and usage of the Chinese characters. It is not a complete list for "bo" as there are alot more other characters and I was using this list as to show Kai that characters may have the same intonation but they can be different in meaning.

b p m f and a o e i u

After learning the sound of the initial consonants b p m f of Hanyu Pinyin, we moved on to blend them with a o e i u. Kai was trying hard to learn the correct pronounication and we listened to the pronounication a couple of times before sounding them out.

Here's the list that we were looking at,

b p m f
	a	o	e	i	u
b	ba	bo		bi	bu
p	pa	po		pi	pu
m	ma	mo	me	mi	mu
f	fa	fo			fu

We were learning the pronounications of the list when Kai asked me to come up with a Chinese Character lists for each of the sound. He is keen to see the characters that using the sounds. And I told him that we would use a couple of days to go through them and that there are alot of characters for each sound and they have different meaning though they share the same pronounication. I found a new challenge to help Kai recognise more Chinese Characters through the learning of Hanyu Pinyin and I am so delighted that he is so interested to look into the Chinese Characters as I believe that Hanyu Pinyin should go together with Chinese Characters while learning and not separate them up.


Our Chinese for "ba"

ba
bā	bá	bǎ	bà	ba
八	拔	把	爸	爸
疤	茇	钯	罢	罢
吧	軷	靶	覇	吧
叭	跋		耙	叭
芭	魃		霸
岜	馛		欛
笆	胈		弝
巴	叐		坝

NB:
1. Some words has two intonation depending on which part of the sentence it is used. We used the soft intonation sometimes at the end of a sentence.

2. For repeated words, the second word intonation is soft intonation, such as 爸爸 (bàba).

As we went to the examples that I used to teach Kai, both of us also learnt the meaning and usage of the Chinese characters. It is not a complete list for "ba" as there are alot more other characters and I was using this list as to show Kai that characters may have the same intonation but they can be different in meaning.

The Three Character Classics

Instead of looking at the Chinese textbook and learning Hanyu Pinyin and Chinese rhymes and children's song. I started Kai on 三字经 （The Three Character Classics) and we learnt to recite it and Kai was curious about the meaning of each sentence.

We looked at the following passage,





Click for English Translation

Men at birth,
are morally good and pure.
Their natures and characters are similar;
as time passed by, their habits and characters become different.

Lack of teaching and being neglected,
people's nature and characters deteriorate.
The proper way to teach,
is with absolute concentration and utmost thoroughness.

After using simple words and ways to explain to Kai, he understood the meaning behind this passage and he learnt to recite it. When Daddy came back, he was able to recite to Daddy and told Daddy what this passage meant.

From this passage and from the bible, Kai understands the important of learning and the important of teaching and disciplining, we imposed on him. He also understands that there is a time for everything, time to pray and learn the bible, time to play, time to work, time to relax,etc.

Recognising Chinese Characters

Finally, our shipment has arrived and I have more of my resources for Kai. For the past two years away in Canada, I have been teaching Kai to recognise Chinese Characters and working on him by going through poems, er ge and also books. And Kai was able to read some simple books on his own.

Now we could finally start recognising words again, and start to learn the basic to write Chinese Characters. We just started reviewing and revisit all the characters that we have learnt previous before we move on.

We pray that it will be a fruitful time, Kai and I would master Chinese and one day, we could bring him to China to visit friends we have met in Canada and also to the Great Wall, Forbidden City and lastly to see his favourite panda bears. Daddy has been commenting that we visit alot of western countries but one day, we must set foot in China (Our forefathers' homeland) to discover the history and to trace our ancestors' journey to South East Asia.

Learning about good Habit

For chinese, we did not do Hanyu Pinyin today, instead, we read Chinese Storybook on "Good Habits". Kai enjoys reading storybooks in both languages and we decided that we take a break from the textbook and website and read a book on good habit.

Kai was captivated by the story about The Lazy Pig That Loves to Sleep. After reading, we discussed about the story to make sure Kai understand the story.

Then I told Kai that he has to sleep early daily and the latest he must be in bed is 9.30pm.