中秋快乐！

Mid Autumn Festival (Moon Festival) takes place on the 15th day of the 8th month of the lunar calendar. That's today, September 30th, 2012!

for an overview of Mid Autumn Festival, follow the links here below. they'll take you to some helpful articles on the subject:

http://taoism.about.com/od/holidays/a/MidAutumn_Festival.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon_Festival

Important Festival Vocabulary:

中  zhōng - center, middle
秋 qiū - autumn, fall
节 - jié festival
中秋节 zhōng qiū jié - mid autumn festival
快乐 kuài lè - happy, joyous
中秋快乐 zhōng qiū kuài lè - happy mid autumn festival
月亮 yuè liàng - the moon
光亮 guāng liàng - bright
赏月 shǎng yuè - to admire the moon
月饼 yuè bǐng - moon cake
红豆 hóng dòu - red bean
莲子 lián zi - lotus seed

这个周末的功课

"You are the Apple of My Eye" - Trailer

www.fluentflix.com

enter the log-on info:
sarita.epperly@gmail.com
pswd: chsbkp

On the left side you will see a link to "favorites."  You'll find the clip there!

Strategies for Listening:
- watch once
-study vocabulary and watch again
- listen, adding pauses to study individual characters and sentences
- try to repeat the speech yourself
- listen until you know and understand

我们星期一第一个活动是听写小考！

周末的功课！

CHANGE IN PLANS!  looks like there have been some changes to fluentflix... instead of our 3 videos, please just watch this one:

"A Family Introduction"

at www.fluentflix.com enter the log-on info:

sarita.epperly@gmail.com
pswd: chsbkp

On the left-hand side you will see a link to "Favorites."

Strategies for Listening:
- watch once
- study vocabulary and watch again
- listen again, pause to pay attention to individual sentences
- try to repeat the speech
- listen until you know and understand!

星期一有一个听写小考。
We'll have a listening comprehension quiz on Monday!

Q1,W2: Recap of Chinese Characters - Stroke Order

Stroke Order for Chinese Characters:

Writing characters in the correct order is essential for the character to look correct. Two basic rules are followed:


Stroke Order

1. Top before bottom


2. Left before right


These rules conflict whenever one stroke is to the bottom and left of another. Several additional rules resolve many of these conflicts.

3. Left vertical stroke (usually) before top horizontal stroke


4. Bottom horizontal stroke last



5. Center stroke before wings



6. Horizontal strokes before intersecting vertical strokes


7. Left-falling strokes before right-falling srokes


A final rule can contradict the others:

8. Minor strokes (often) last
 

Despite these conflicts between rules most students quickly acquire a natural feel for the proper stroke order.

Radical Order  -  Most Chinese characters are combinations of simpler, radical components. 

Usually the two parts are written at top and bottom

or left and right

so that the main two stroke order rules readily apply. Occasionally these rules also conflict with respect to components. 

When one component is at the bottom-left, and the other at the top-right, the top-right component is sometimes written first.


When there are several components, top components are written first.


These rules usually imply each component is written in its entirety before another component is written. 

Exceptions may arise when one component divides another,

encompasses another,

or the individual components are no longer discernible in modern writing.

(source: www.zhongwen.com)

Remember! most online dictionaries offer stroke order animations, so check there when you're not sure how to write a character.  

----

Visual Aid: here

A Calligrapher's Stroke Order: video

The Most Complicated Character: video

Q1, W2: Recap of Chinese Characters: Radicals

An introduction to Chinese Characters: video

Flashcards:
Top 40 Radicals
Best 100 Radicals
All 214 Radicals

Radical Stories 1: video
Radical Stories 2: video
Radical Stories 3: video

这个周末：Zhe4 Ge Zhou1 Mo4: This Weekend

Again our 功课 is listening!  Here is the link to, "FluentFlix." 

Use the email: sarita.epperly@gmail.com 
Pswd: chsbkp

Under "My Videos" and "Favorites" you will find the video of the week:
Making Plans for a Birthday Party

Step 1: watch the video, listen to the speech
Step 2: study the vocabulary list
Step 3: watch the video again
- watch several times until you feel comfortable with the content -

On Monday you will have several graded questions in Chinese, based on your listening / studying!