新同学
The new classmate
Name: ________________ Date: ________
Key words
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 来 | lái | to come |
| 新 | xīn | new; newly; just |
| 同学 | tóngxué | classmate; fellow student |
| 中国 | zhōngguó | China |
| 人 | rén | person; people |
| 中文 | zhōngwén | Chinese (language) |
| 字 | zì | character; written word |
| 你好 | níhǎo | hello; hi |
| 老师 | lǎoshī | teacher |
| 说 | shuō | to speak; to say |
| 谢谢 | xièxie | thank you; thanks; to thank |
| 好吃 | hǎochī | tasty; delicious |
English (for the teacher)
On Monday, a new classmate joined our class. Her name was Mary, and she wasn’t Chinese. Her Chinese was just two characters: “Nǐ hǎo.”
The teacher said, “Every day we’ll teach Mary one Chinese word, and Mary will teach us one word in her language.”
On Monday, we taught her “thank you”. Mary taught us “hello” in her language too. We all said it badly, and she laughed.
On Tuesday, we taught her “delicious”. At lunch, she ate one of my steamed buns and said, “Delicious!”
On Wednesday, we taught her “friend”. She looked at me and said, “Friend.” I was very happy.
On Thursday afternoon, Mary went home, but we stayed. On her phone, the teacher found a sentence in Mary’s language: “Hello, friend!” We practised it for a long time.
On Friday morning, Mary walked into the classroom, and we all said that sentence together.
Mary said a sentence too, in Chinese: “Hello, everyone, my friends!”
We all laughed. She said it better than we did.