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Do you want to learn some basics in Mandarin Chinese? The tracks presented here are designed to give you a taste of Mandarin Chinese language and culture. You’ll hear short conversations where people greet each other, introduce themselves and their families, describe where they come from and what they do for a living. You’ll hear them talk about sports, ask for directions, buy things, order food in a restaurant, invite someone to dinner – or simply share their experience of learning Chinese. You’ll also find a track to help you with pronunciation and the use of tones. Finally, there’s the chance to listen to interviews in English about Chinese-speaking cultures. Our guide to the language and culture of mainland China is Dr Kan Qian, who is chair of The Open University course: L197: Beginners’ Chinese
You can also download transcripts for all the tracks.
Track 8: Beginners Chinese: Describing people
Describing someone’s name and profession.
© The Open University 2010
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Originally published: Friday, 4th June 2010
Copyright information
- Body text - Content : Copyright The Open University
- Audio/Video tracks: Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0 The Open University 2010
- Image 'Beginners’ Chinese' - Copyright: The Open University 2010
- Image 'Getting started with Chinese 1' - Copyright: Toa55/iStock / Getty Images Plus
- Image 'Tourist' - Copyright: Dreamstime
- Image 'The number two in Chinese' - The Open University under Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0 license
- Image 'Portales: beginners' Spanish' - Copyright: The Open University 2008
- Image 'Could you be a Super Linguist?' - The Open University under Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0 license
- Image 'European day of languages poster 2015' - Copyright: Council of Europe
- Image 'Cànan nan Gàidheal' - Copyright: Used with permission
- Image 'Intermediate Italian: describing people' - Copyright: Hans F Meier/iStock
- Image 'Hairy Bikers with baker' - Copyright: BBC
- Image 'tea being poured into a cup' - Copyright free: MorgueFile
- Image 'Beginners’ Italian: food and drink' - Copyright: © Robert Harding Picture Library Ltd/Alamy
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Publication details
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Originally published: Friday, 4th June 2010
Copyright information
- Body text - Content: Copyright The Open University
- Audio/Video tracks: Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0 The Open University 2010
- Image 'Beginners’ Chinese' - Copyright: The Open University 2010
- Image 'Getting started with Chinese 1' - Copyright: Toa55/iStock / Getty Images Plus
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- Image 'The number two in Chinese' - The Open University under Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0 license
- Image 'Portales: beginners' Spanish' - Copyright: The Open University 2008
- Image 'Could you be a Super Linguist?' - The Open University under Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0 license
- Image 'European day of languages poster 2015' - Copyright: Council of Europe
- Image 'Cànan nan Gàidheal' - Copyright: Used with permission
- Image 'Intermediate Italian: describing people' - Copyright: Hans F Meier/iStock
- Image 'Hairy Bikers with baker' - Copyright: BBC
- Image 'tea being poured into a cup' - Copyright free: MorgueFile
- Image 'Beginners’ Italian: food and drink' - Copyright: © Robert Harding Picture Library Ltd/Alamy
- Image 'Hairy Bikers making a choice between sausages in French shop' - Copyright: BBC
- Image 'Hairy Bikers talking with female baker via an interpreter' - Copyright: BBC
- Image 'Map of Europe with flags and bakery window in Italy' - Sifu Renka under CC-BY-NC-ND licence under Creative-Commons license
- Image 'Beginners’ German: Food and drink' - Copyright: © Rocky69/Getty Images
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