Testing out

你好Helen!

谢谢！：）那些课很好。我很高兴开始＂Ｅｌｅｍｅｎｔａｒｙ＂的课！

周末快乐！

Chris

你好Chris！

这是你的新课表，希望你会喜欢这些课！

By the way, 你的进步很快，继续加油哦哦!!:)

Week 1   
1.    Elementary - Mother's Birthday

2.    Review
3.    Elementary - Do you have vegetables?

4.    Review
5 .    Elementary - Fast Food

Week 2   
1.    Elementary - What would you like to drink?

2.    Review
3.    Elementary - No TV Before Your Test!

4.    Review
5.    Elementary - Getting Taller (Not Fatter)

Week 3   
1.    Elementary - Useful Phrases #3

2.    Review
3.    Elementary - I don't have time

4.    Review
5.    Elementary - Common Measure Words

Week 4   
1.    Elementary - Why are You Studying Chinese?

2.    Review
3.    Elementary -Are You Busy?

4.    Review
5.    Elementary - Grammar Lesson

Hi Helen,

9:15pm is fine. :) I also feel really bad for changing times so often lately, but tons of things have been coming up. Thanks!

再见！

Chris

Hi Chris,

Sorry, as I didnt got your reply earlier, so I have other schedules at 9pm your time. Would you mind 9:15pm? 真不好意思，It has been really hard to change the lesson time recently. Hope you can understand!

谢谢！

Helen

星期三九点，好的。：）

谢谢！

Chris

哦，真不好意思，星期三6：20不方便。但是9pm your time 可以。

你星期三晚上九点有空吗？

你好Helen!

星期三，我们会有课吗？星期四，我获悉我不再这里。

对不起为我的难日程。 ：（

谢谢，Chris

新年好Chris!

好的，那我们下个星期四（March 4）上课。

很可惜，最近我没看 "冬奥会"哦 :P

下周见！

Helen

你好 Helen,

新年快乐！

对不起，下个星期四(February 25)我不再这里。下个星期每天我不会做课。下下个星期四(March 4) 我会做我们的课，好吗？

另外，你看Olympics吗？中国的花样滑冰真的好。：）

谢谢！

Chris

好的 ：）

Chris

你好Chris,

欢迎回来！

好的，2月1号 （星期一）6：20pm可以的！:)

Cheers,

Helen

你好 Helen!

I am back from my vacation but I forgot that I had a prior engagement this Thursday - I don't know if I told you about it last week or not. Could we possibly do this week's lesson sometime on Monday (Feb 1st)? If not, I won't be able to have a lesson until next week's lesson on Thursday (Feb 4).

Sorry once again for changing plans. Please let me know.

真的谢谢你，

Chris

你好Chris,

不好意思（bu4hao3 yi4si--- sorry），我昨天忘记(wang4ji4-forget)给你新的课表了！:P

周末愉快！

下个星期四“见”！

Cheers,

Helen

Week 1   

1.    Newbie - Too expensive!

2.    Newbie - No, thank you!

3.    Newbie - Asking for Change

4.    Newbie - Buying Bread and Butter

5 .    Newbie - Using a Credit Card


Week 2   

1.    Newbie - Who are You Looking For?

2.    Newbie - Colored Balls

3.    Newbie - Wait for Me Here

4.    Newbie - Lost Keys

5.    Newbie - Riding the Elevator


Week 3   

1.    Newbie - Colored Balls

2.    Newbie - Didn't Hear Clearly

3.    Newbie - Get up!

4.    Newbie - Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes

5.    Newbie - Requesting a Glass of Water


Week 4   

1.    Newbie - Cell Phones

2.    Newbie - Getting a Phone Number

3.    Newbie - I'm bored

4.    Newbie - Is it far?

5.    Newbie - Where is the supermarket?

I meant to say 新 instead of 心 :)

你好 Helen!

你可以给我心个课表吗？在假，我要试学我的课一点。 ：）


谢谢！ 我见你下下个星期四吧。 :)

周末快乐！

Oh, wow! 好漂亮啊!(So beautiful!)

谢谢你的图片！

:D

你好 Helen！

“眼斑双锯鱼” 是鱼的汉子。这个是图片的我的两条眼斑双锯鱼。 ：）

http://the-polyglot.net/uploads/other/aquarium/jamie_and_cleo.jpg

好！ ：）

新年好Chris！

We had two Fridays off here for the holidays.

我们还是星期四晚上6：20上课，好吗？（your time）

:)

Helen

Nihao Helen,

Just wondering when our next lesson will be.

Hope you had a good New Year. :) Thanks!

你好 Helen!

圣诞节快乐! :)

I just wanted to say that I won't be able to make our next lesson. I'll be visiting New York City. Could we do instead some time on my Wednesday the 30th?

谢谢！

That sounds fine. Thanks. :)

Ah, I see.

How about Monday at 8pm your time?

Nihao Helen,

Sorry for the short notice, but a small emergency has popped up.  I will not be able to make it for tonight's lesson.  Could we reschedule for Monday night?  I won't be available for any time next week, except for Monday, because of Christmas.  This also includes next Thursday's lesson.

Please let me know.  Xiexie!

Chris

不客气！

也祝你周末愉快！ :)

下个星期见！

Helen

Thanks for the links, Helen! Like I said earlier, it's just something I've always wondered, if the melody of music can interfere with the Chinese tone system, so talking about that tonight was very informative. :D

Also, when you asked me about the color of my shoes, I tried to answer you, but I actually couldn't remember what color they were. But I checked after my lesson! 白和黑 :)

Thanks again! Have a nice weekend!

Chris

你好Chris,

Hope you are having a great 周末！

这是你的新课表，希望你会喜欢这些课！!

Week 1   

1.    Newbie - Colors Song

2.    Newbie - Pretty Ugly

3.    Newbie - Someone needs a shower

4.    Newbie - Buying a Newspaper

5 .    Newbie - Sing and Dance


Week 2   
1.    Newbie - Weekend Plans

2.    Newbie - Taking a Shower

3.    Newbie - Pretty Clothes

4.    Newbie - Street Argument

5.    Newbie - Come on up!


Week 3   
1.    Newbie - No Need to Take off Your Shoes

2.    Newbie - Stuffy Room

3.    Newbie - Hold the Elevator

4.    Newbie - Too Heavy!

5.    Newbie - Stinky Feet


Week 4   
1.    Newbie - I'm cold!

2.    Newbie - It's Snowing

3.    Newbie - I didn’t bring my umbrella

4.    Newbie - It's Stopped Raining

5.    Newbie - Forget It

你好 Helen!

Sorry I didn't contact you until now, but I got a new computer and I've been trying to get things back in order over the past week. I was wondering, do you have a new lesson plan for me?

谢谢你！

Thank you!

Oh, sorry!

Here you go:

http://gongjushu.cnki.net/kns50/NaviCRFD/ShowDetail.aspx?Table=CRFDOTHERINFO&ShowField=Content&TitleField=Title-ShowTitle&Field=OTHERID&Value=R20060505700A000004

Nihao Helen!

Thanks for sending the message, but I don't see a link. Could you send it again (or if it still doesn't work, perhaps through e-mail)?

Thank you!

Chris

Chris,

Here is the link to the commonly used measure words and the nouns it normally combined with

Hope that helps!

      .

Thank you Helen, it does help! :)

我星期四见你! :)

你好Chris!

"谢谢" is the most common way to express one's gratitude almost for every situations.  I think in the restaurant using "谢谢" is pretty proper.

or you can also say "多谢" instead. 

Hope you helps!

Helen

你好 Helen!

I just had a quick question that I thought about the other day. I was visiting a Chinese restaurant and I got the opportunity to briefly speak in Mandarin with one of the waitresses. However, I was wondering; I've heard that "谢谢" isn't used very often in China outside of quite formal settings. Am I mistaken, or is there a better way of expressing gratitude for situations like thanking waitresses for bringing food?

Thanks!

Chris

I meant to say, 那些课很好 ：）

你好 Helen,

那个课很好 :)

谢谢，

Chris

Hope you 喜欢这些（zhe4xie1=these）课！

星期四“见”！

Helen

 你好 Chris,

Hope you had a great 周末!

（周末zhou1mo4=weekend）

Sorry, I just realized I forgot to give you the new lessons earlier. Here you go:

Week 1   

1.    Newbie - Please speak slowly

2.    Newbie - Counting Coins

3.    Newbie - Asking for Help

4.    Newbie - It's broken

5 .    Newbie - Upset


Week 2   

1.    Newbie - What's up?

2.    Newbie - Being Seated in a Restaurant

3.    Newbie - Simple Toasts

4.    Newbie - Really Good Food

5.    Newbie - I'm really full!


Week 3   

1.    Newbie - Are You Tired?

2.    Newbie - Speaking and Writing

3.    Newbie - Best Friends

4.    Newbie - Seeing Somebody to the Door

5.    Newbie - Handsome Boy


Week 4   

1.    Newbie - Surfing the Internet

2.    Newbie - Sending Emails

3.    Newbie - Chatting Online

4.    Newbie - Downloading Music

5.    Newbie - Internet Cafe Rates

好的，那下个星期"见"吧！^^

Helen

Unfortunately I'm also busy Sunday nights. Maybe next week would be better then?

Thanks for being so understanding. :)

谢谢你！

你好Chris!

I am sorry, but we dont work on your Friday (Saturday here). Maybe we can move it to next week and try to do some extra minutes instead?

What do you think? (or how about some time your Sunday night ?)

Please let me know!

谢谢！

Helen

你好 Helen!

对不起, but I will not be able to make Thursday's lesson. I will be volunteering at a food bank (something that offers food to people without a lot of money) for most of the day. Is it possible to move our lesson to some time on Friday? Any time Friday should be okay for me.

I'm sorry for letting you know on short notice again. My schedule has been a bit crazy these past couple weeks.

Thanks!

谢谢！ I really had a great holiday and just came back in Shanghai.

好的，没问题！（no problem）

Will talk to you at 7:20PM today, your time.

 :)

你好 Helen! I hope you had a great holiday.

I've been very busy studying for a very important test I will be taking this Saturday. I haven't been able to follow our lesson plan entirely, so I won't have listened to all the lessons this week. Is it alright if we just talk about grammar again during our lesson on Thursday, like we did before? I'll be sure to catch up with the podcasts after that.

Thanks!

Below is new lesson list for you, hope you enjoy these lessons:

Week 1   

1.    Newbie - What time is it?

2.    Newbie - What are you doing?

3.    Newbie - Something to Do Tomorrow

4.    Newbie - Time to Go

5 .    Newbie Where Did You Go?


Week 2   

1.    Newbie - Can you Speak Chinese?

2.    Newbie - Have you eaten?

3.    Newbie - Giving an Example

4.    Newbie - Where's the bathroom?

5.    Newbie - Where Do You Live?


Week 3   

1.    Newbie - I like beef

2.    Newbie - Asking for a Phone Number

3.    Newbie - She went out

4.    Newbie - When will he return?

5.    Newbie - Who is that?


Week 4   

1.    Newbie - Introducing a Friend

2.    Newbie - What's Your Surname?

3.    Newbie - I'm hungry!

4.    Newbie - Black or Green Tea

5.    Newbie - Thirsty for Water

你好Chris,

As I said this morning, your pronunciation is pretty good. and now you've already known the basic sentence structures and some of differences from English. I would suggest you enlarge your vacabulary and try to make more sentences with the words you know. You may write down your sentences and then post them here, so that I could check it for you, if you like.

你好 Helen,

I was just wondering how you thought our lesson went yesterday. Is there anything in particular I should try to focus on or learn better?

As always I enjoyed talking to you. Thanks!

That sounds great. Once again, I'm sorry to have to change the time, but thanks for responding. :) See you then.

你好 Chris,

Sorry for the late reply.

4:15pm  Thursday your time, which is 4:15am my time would work for me.

Talk soon,

Helen

你好 Helen!

I forgot that I am going to a friend's house for dinner on Thursday night. Could we move our meeting time to the early afternoon or the morning? As long as it's before 5 PM EST, it should be okay.

Thanks, and sorry for the inconvenience!

Sounds good! :D

Sure! How about "Can you speak Chinese" lesson instead?

你好 Helen!

Those lessons look great! I already listened to the "Please speak slowly" lesson, though, so maybe we can switch that with another?

Also, Is it alright if I also additionally do some of the Pinyin program lessons this week to help with my pronunciation?

谢谢

Chris

Please feel free to let me know if you have any questions or suggestions.

周末愉快 zhou1mo4 yu2kuai4 --- Have a nice weekend!

Best,

Helen

你好Chris,

这是你的课表(ke4biao3-- lesson list). Hope you like those lessons.

Week 1

1. Newbie - The First Tone
2. Newbie - The Second Tone
3. Newbie - The Third Tone
4. Newbie - The Fourth Tone
5 . Newbie - The Neutral Tone

Week 2

1. Newbie - What is this called?
2. Newbie - What Character?
3. Newbie - Useful Phrases #1
4. Newbie - How Long in China
5. Newbie - What's tomorrow?

Week 3

1. Newbie - Please speak slowly
2. Newbie - Useful Phrases #2
3. Newbie - What time is it?
4. Newbie - Months
5. Newbie - Working Hours

Week 4

1. Newbie - Working Hours
2. Newbie - Have you eaten?
3. Newbie - Giving an Example
4. Newbie - Something to Do Tomorrow
5. Newbie - Where are you going?