(If there is a unfamiliar character, mover the cursor before it, click on Tools, Hanzi Information to find out the Pinyin. Or click on Tools, Dictionary to find out he Pinyin and meaning. The dictionary function is not available in shareware version.)

Objectives of this lesson

Introduce the year, month, week, day and birthday in Chinese

Cultural background

1. The ways of expressing years, months and dates are different in Chinese from that in English: In Chinese, people say year first, then month and day while in English (American) the order is: month, day, year. In British English, it is day/month/year.

2. Asking age is not a taboo in China. When you travel in China, people will ask you all kinds of questions including your age, your salary, your profession and your family. This may be very uncomfortable for the westerners. But be prepared for that.

Step 1

Review of numbers. Refresh your mind. How to say the following numbers in Chinese?

0, 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 4, 2, 6, 8, 10, 12, 15, 21, 28, 31

Step 2

Learn how to say the date and day of the week in Chinese

Step 3

Learn to ask about birthday

Step 4 Activity

Ask three of your classmates when his/her birthday is and how old he/she is.

Name Birthday Age

____ ________ _______

____ ________ _______

____ ________ _______

Step 5 Do your homework 1.