1-Minute Chinese (Volume 1)

1-Minute Chinese

The Revolutionary New Method

Make learning Chinese fast, easy and fun!

Volume 1

Written and illustrated by Rowan Kohll
Cover illustration by Chen Hao

Published by Rowan Kohll
Smashwords Edition

Copyright Rowan Kohll, 2014

http://www.1-minutechinese.weebly.com

Licence Notes and Legal Disclaimer:
Thank you for downloading this book! Please remember that it is the
copyrighted property of the author, and may not be reproduced, copied or

distributed for commercial or non-commercial purposes.
If you enjoyed this book, please encourage your friends to download their

own copy.
Thank you for your support.

The information contained in this book is based on the author’s personal
experiences and observations. The author does not assume any liability
whatsoever for the use of or inability to use any or all information contained
in this book, and accepts no responsibility for any loss or damages of any
kind that may be incurred by the reader as a result of actions arising from

the use of information found in this book.
The author reserves the right to make any changes he deems necessary to

future versions of the publication to ensure its accuracy.



Chapter 1: Why learning Chinese is difficult – and how to
make it easy!

Welcome to 1-Minute Chinese!
This is a book that was written for two groups of people.
The first group is the people, all around the world, who are learning
Chinese. It’s a very large group, and growing all the time (an estimated
forty million non-Chinese people learning the language, at the time of
writing this book). It includes teachers and students in international schools,
families going on holiday in China, business people who want to develop
new markets, those who are simply curious about one of the oldest and
most fascinating cultures in the world, and many more.
The second group that this book was written for is very small. In fact, it
only has one person in it: me, the author.
Let me explain.
I have lived in China since 2003, and have always been very enthusiastic
about learning the language. I must admit, however, that when I started I
found it very difficult – especially learning Chinese characters! And I know
I’m not the only one. I’ve talked to friends and colleagues at schools all
over China, and have heard the same things again and again:

“I’d love to learn Chinese, but I don’t have time.”
“I’ve got a tutor, but the work is so hard!”
“I don’t seem to be making any progress!”

I understand. It really isn’t our fault. As languages go, Chinese is a hard one
to learn! For an English speaker, learning a language like French, German
or Spanish is child’s play by comparison. Chinese comes from a completely
different family of languages, with no shared roots or words in common
with English, so there’s nothing about it that you can “get a handle on”.
The fact that Chinese uses characters instead of the western alphabet is
another impediment to learning (by contrast, you may not be able to
understand a single word of, say, Italian, but you can at least read it aloud).
And then there are the tones! These give the same word multiple meanings
and are – as any student of Chinese will tell you – a real challenge. Take the

word “tang”, for example – with different tones it can mean, variously,
“hot” or “lie down” or “sugar” or “soup”, all depending on the inflection
you give it. Or take a look at this Chinese tongue twister:

sì shì sì, shí shì shí, shí sì shì shí sì, sì shí shì sì shí.
Translated, it means “Four is four, ten is ten, fourteen is fourteen, forty is
forty.” See how much difference the tones can make? And of course, this

adds a new layer of difficulty in learning Chinese

Well, this is how I felt for a long time. I really wanted to learn Mandarin
and worked hard at it, but my progress was slow and uncertain – and as for
reading and writing Chinese, for years I never even attempted it, as it
seemed an impossible task! But all of that changed when I came across a
remarkable idea: using mnemonics to learn Chinese!
Mnemonics (pronounced neh-MON-ics) are memory aids, which link words
together in your mind and make it easy to remember them. When I heard of
these, it seemed that this was a way in which I could learn Chinese!
Immediately, I began looking for books that could help me.
And I was disappointed.
There were plenty of books on learning Chinese. Loads of them! Books that
would show you how to write out characters one stroke at a time, over and
over and over again, until you finally managed to memorise them – dull,
rote learning, just like teaching a parrot to say “Polly wants a cracker!” But
that wasn’t what I was after at all. And so, because I couldn’t find the book
I wanted, I set about writing it myself. A book that would, in clear and
simple terms, show how to remember Chinese easily and enjoyably,
learning words and characters as fast as they could read. And, at last, here it
is. I hope you enjoy it!
This book will introduce you to the fifteen Chinese characters that people
starting to learn Chinese will find most useful; words that you can begin to
use immediately and in every situation. Each character taught comes with
mnemonics teaching you how to read it, how to say it and how to remember
the tone, and a “Fact File” full of useful tips for using it best. By the time
you have finished reading this book you will be light years ahead of where
you are now, with a whole new set of building blocks for learning Chinese

with. And that won’t take you a long time – because this is 1-Minute
Chinese!

And so, to begin our journey, we need to ask ourselves…

Chapter 2: How do mnemonics work?

The idea of using mnemonics to learn languages has been around for
centuries, and was most recently popularised by memory experts like Harry
Lorayne. Mnemonics bypass all of the hard, monotonous work of rote
memorisation and form mental “hooks” which link the meanings of words
together in your mind, turning hours of learning into minutes. And that’s
what this book is all about – giving you the mnemonics to make learning
easy, and teaching you how to make them yourself!
Mnemonics work best when you link them to some strong emotion, such as
humour. They don’t even have to make sense – indeed, sometimes it’s best
if they don’t, as ridiculous images often create the most vivid memories.
1-Minute Chinese uses mnemonics to teach three things. Let’s take a brief
look at each of them to see how they work.

Mnemonics for learning words in Chinese
This involves finding a word in English which sounds like the Chinese
word, and then linking that with its meaning.
Let’s look at an example to see how we do this. The Chinese word for
“tree” is “shù”. Since this sounds like the English word “shoe” you can
construct a mental picture of a tree that has shoes hanging from it.
Now, whenever you think of “tree” you’ll think of this image, and see the
shoes on it, and so remember the Chinese word “shù”. And whenever you
hear “shù” you’ll think of shoes on a tree, and remember what the word
means.
And that’s how mnemonics work!

Tones, and how to learn them with mnemonics
There are four tones in Chinese (or five, if you count words with no tone),
which means that words that sound almost identical can have different
meanings and characters. For example, the Chinese words for “book” and
“tree” sound almost the same – “shù” and “shū” – but their characters look
nothing alike.
As you can imagine, all of this creates lots of opportunities for
misunderstandings. I remember a time when my wife was putting our baby

to bed and asked me to fetch his “bèi zi”. I was a bit puzzled, but I went to
fetch his little drinking cup. It was then I learned that “cup” is bēi zi – she’d
asked me for his bèi zi, or sleeping blanket.
While miscommunications can sometimes be avoided by paying attention to
context these are still serious problems for foreigners learning Chinese. So
now let’s see how mnemonics can help us to avoid them!

1. The first tone is high and level. Whatever mnemonic you use,
make it about something high up or level – a plateau,
steadiness, or a straight line, and the mental picture you create
will be “hooked” to a level tone.

2. The second tone is rising. Think of the word you are learning
as rising, climbing or sloping up.

3. The third tone is falling and then rising again, so your
mnemonic can be about going down and up in some way, or
about bending or being crooked.

4. The fourth tone is falling, so your mnemonic can be about
going down, dropping, or walking downhill.

To see how mnemonics for tones can work, let’s use the word “tang” as an
example. “Tāng” (first tone, high and level) means “soup”, and “táng”
(second tone, rising) means sugar. Because the word for soup uses a high,
level tone, you could think of how level the surface of a bowl of soup is;
and because the word for sugar uses a rising tone, you could think of how
eating too much sugar can raise your blood pressure. Now, whenever you
think of soup you’ll think of a level tone, and whenever you think of sugar
you’ll think of a rising tone. You can do this with any word, and it need take
no longer than the time to think of the picture!
And finally, now that we’ve learned how to remember which tones to use,
here is an easy way to remember their order. It is, of course, a mnemonic,
and takes the form of this little story:
Think of going for a walk in the mountains.

1. First, you walk along a nice, flat road.
2. Second, you start climbing up towards the mountains.
3. Third, you walk down and up along the peaks.
4. Fourth, you walk down from the mountains again.

To learn more about Chinese tones and to hear them pronounced correctly,
visit
http://1-minutechinese.weebly.com/chinese-tones.html, where you will find
further explanations and audio recordings to help you.

In reading pinyin throughout this book (the Romanised Chinese or, broadly
speaking, “Chinese written in Western letters”) there are a few different
pronunciations you will need to be aware of. Without going into too much
depth at this stage, the letter sounds you will need to know are these:

"Zh" is pronounced "j".
"Q" is pronounced "ch".
"Xi" is pronounced somewhere between "shee" and "see".
"Ci" and some other sounds beginning with c are pronounced
"tsir" or "ts".

A fuller explanation, with audio examples to listen to, is given on the 1-
Minute Chinese website: http://1-minutechinese.weebly.com/pronouncing-
chinese-words-correctly.html

Mnemonics for learning Chinese characters
The best way to learn Chinese characters is to turn them into pictures.
Sometimes doing this is easy, as many of them bear some resemblance to
the things they portray. Unfortunately, this is much more difficult that it
used to be, however, as Chinese characters have evolved over the centuries
and are now much less likely to resemble the things they mean. Look at this
example: the characters for “horse”, from three different periods in Chinese
history.

You can see how the character from thousands of years ago (left) is
basically a picture of a horse, and that even the version from several
centuries ago (middle) is still recognisable. The third, character, however
(“horse” as it is written today) is merely a stylised version of the original
pictogram, and it’s doubtful that anyone seeing it for the first time would
guess its meaning.

There are quite a lot of characters which still look a little like their original
pictograms. But what about those characters which don’t? Not to worry! In
1-Minute Chinese you will find all of the hard work has been done for you,
with mnemonics to make even the most challenging Chinese characters
easy and even fun to remember.

So, let’s get started!

Chapter 3: The Fifteen Essential Chinese Characters

Here is a preview of the fifteen characters taught throughout this book. In
the following pages you will see each of them explained in full, learning
how to read them, say them and remember their tones.

And now, let’s begin learning Chinese with a word that is probably more
important to you than any other. Can you guess what it is?

Chapter 4: Set 1, Characters 1 – 5 (I, person, is,
not, have).

The 1st Character

wǒ

This sounds like “war”, although the “r” is unvoiced
English meaning: I, or me

As you can see, this is quite a complicated character to be starting with –
but here’s a mnemonic that will make it easy!
First, think of this character as an archer shooting an arrow (can you see
the bow, the string, and the arrows on the bow and in his quiver?)

Now that we’ve turned the character into a picture, the next step is to create
a story out of it to form a mnemonic.
Because this word sounds like “war” and its English meaning sounds like
“eye” you can think of that famous WAR, the Battle of Hastings (England,
1066) in which King Harold was killed by an arrow in his EYE. Now,
whenever you see this character you’ll think of the word WAR (wǒ) and
being shot through the EYE (I).
Finally, to remember that this character uses the third tone (falling-rising),
think of how the tone is curved, just like the bow.
And that’s how mnemonics work!

Fact File for wǒ

In English we can say either “I” or “me”, but in Chinese we
can use the word “wǒ” for both.
By adding the pluralising suffix “men” you can create “we”,
which is “wǒ men.”
By adding “de” (pronounced “duh”) you can create “my”,
which is “wǒ de”.
It is interesting to see that the character for “I” ( , wǒ) looks
so much like the character for “seek” ( , zhǎo) – can you see
the resemblance? To help you remember this, think of how the
search for knowledge begins with knowing yourself.

The 2nd Character

rén

English meaning: person, or people
This character is a simple pictograph of a person – see the two legs?

To remember that “person” in Chinese is “rén”, just think of the word for
money – rénmimbi – which means “the people’s money”.
Alternatively, you could think of the word “children” (child-ren) as
meaning “child-people.
For tones, to remember that this character uses the second tone (rising),
think of a person growing UP.

Fact File for rén
You will often find places with “rén” in their names in China –
the People’s Hospital, the People’s Square, and so on. Other
words and phrases include:
“xíng rén” – pedestrian. To remember this, think of how it
sounds like “children” – and think of how we must make sure

children are safe pedestrians.
“rén mín” – people (of a nation). Remember, the Chinese call
their money “rénmínbì”, or “people’s currency.”

Note the resemblance of “rén” to another character: (rù),
meaning “entrance”. You’ll see it often, on signs outside car
parks and train stations. To remember it, think of it as a picture
of a person walking inside.

The 3rd Character

shì (rhymes with “sir”)

English meaning: the verb “to be” (I am, you are, he is...)
Can you see how this character looks like someone on a surfboard, standing
on one leg? Use this image to remember the character, while thinking of the
following mnemonic sentence:

“Are you SURE you can do that? It’s going TO BE difficult.”

To remember that this character uses the fourth tone (falling), think of the
person FALLING off the surfboard!

Fact File for shì
This is a good example of how simple Chinese grammar is
compared to English grammar. For one thing, there is no need
to conjugate verbs. You can say “wǒ shì, nǐ shì, tā shì …” as if
you could say in English, “I is, you is, he is, she is…” It’s the
same for every verb in Chinese - you only need to learn the
one word!
You can use this character as a question. Just say “Shì?”
meaning “Is it?” The answer will either be “bù shì” (no it isn’t)

or “shì de” (yes it is).
You may also find the original pictographical meaning
interesting: the character for “correct” is placed underneath the
character for “sun”, showing the noonday sun setting a
standard for the correct time by which all else can be
measured.

The 4th Character

bù (sounds like “boo!”)

English meaning: no, not, or negative

Think of this character as an arrow trying to point the way upward, but
being blocked and told “no.” This, by the way, is quite similar to the
original character in Ancient Chinese, a picture of a bird flying upwards
into a cloud.

Meaning: think of a child crying “BOO hoo!” and shouting “NO! NO!”
Tone (fourth, falling): think of how the arrow is trying to go up – but keeps
getting knocked DOWN!

Fact File for bù

You’ll see and hear this word all the time in Chinese. Although
in English we have many different negative prefixes
(impossible, unhappy, dissatisfied, demotivated, and so on) all
you have to do to create a negative in Chinese is add “bù”.
You can use “bù” with adjectives: “hǎo bù hǎo?” means “is it
good?” (literally, “Good-not-good?”). Other examples are “guì
bù guì?” (is it expensive?) “xǐhuan bù xǐhuan?” (do you like
it?), and so on. In English this is a sentence structure you’d use
if you were annoyed (“Do you like it or don’t you? Is it

expensive or isn’t it?”); but in Chinese it is a simple question,
with no negative connotation.
Another useful phrase is “bú cuò”, meaning “not bad” or,
literally, “not wrong.”
Although “bù” is pronounced with the fourth (falling) tone,
this changes when it is followed by another word using the
fourth tone. For example, the Chinese word for “correct” is
“duì”, and if you were to say “that’s not correct” it would not
be “bù duì”, but “bú duì” – a rising tone followed by a falling
one.

The 5th Character

yǒu (sounds like the first half of “YO-yo.”)

English meaning: the verb “to have”
This character looks like a hurdler. To remember it, imagine a man leaping
a hurdle and telling him: “YOU can HAVE a medal!”

Tone (third, falling-rising): think of the person going DOWN and UP as he
jumps the hurdles, one after another.

Fact File for yǒu
This is a most useful and versatile word. It can be used in reply
to any question about having something – “Do you have it?”,
“Was it there?” or “Is there any money on the bank card?” All
you have to do to say “yes” to questions like these is answer
“yǒu”.
The phrase “méi yǒu” (the negative form, “don’t have”) is just
as versatile. In my opinion, “yǒu” and “méi yǒu” are the most
useful things you can learn to say in Chinese, and once you do
learn them you will hear them being used everywhere.

This shows us an exception to the rule about using “bù”
described above. To ask “Do you have it?” we do not say “yǒu
bù yǒu?”; the phrase is “yǒu méi yǒu?”
Although this character has changed somewhat over the
centuries, you can still see what it was originally intended to
be – a hand (or a pair of chopsticks) holding a piece of meat.
This is an image of possession – we HAVE food to eat.

It is also interesting to note two characters with similar
appearances to yǒu: “left” and “right”. Both of these also show
a hand holding something. Left ( zuǒ) depicts a hand holding
a carpenter’s ruler, and the character for right ( yòu) shows a
hand next to a mouth, signifying the hand which most people
use to eat with.

Reviewing the First Five Characters

Congratulations on having got this far! Now, why not take this little test
to see how well you’ve done? If you score full marks you can go on to
the next section. If there are still some characters you are uncertain of,
you can review them before proceeding.

Simply look at each character below, say what it means and then say the
word in Chinese. When you have finished (either mentally or on paper)
turn to the end of the book to see the answers.

Chapter 5: Set 2, Characters 6 – 10 (this, good,
give, small, big).

The 6th Character

zhè (sounds like the first part of the word “GERman”)

English meaning: this

Imagine that the “X” you see in the middle of this character is the X that
“marks the spot” on a pirate’s treasure map, and that the rough and jagged
lines around it are the edges of a desert island.
To remember how to say this word, note that “zhè” sounds like part of the
word “treaSURE”; you can then say: “THIS is where the treaSURE is!” to
remember this character.

Tone (fourth, falling): think of digging DOWN to find the treaSURE.

Fact File for zhè

In Chinese, “zhè” is followed by a “measure word” which
varies according to the type of thing concerned. Here are some
examples: “zhè gè píngguǒ” (this apple), “zhè jiā fàn diàn”
(this restaurant) and “zhè bĕn shū” (this book). Although there
are many such measure words, in practice, “zhè gè” is the most
common.

For the plural (“these” instead of “this”) change “zhè gè” to
“zhè xie”.
A related word is “zhèr” (meaning “here” and pronounced like
the English word “jar”. To remember it you might make a
mnemonic of the treasure in the treasure map above being
hidden in a JAR.

The 7th Character

hǎo (sounds like the English word “how”)

English meaning: good

If you look at this character you can see how it appears to be assembled
from three number sevens (one of them turned upside down). Three and
seven are both lucky numbers in the West – so a combination of three
sevens must be very lucky, which is of course good!

Meaning: think “HOW can I be GOOD today?”
Tone (third, falling-rising): think of how life sometimes goes DOWN, and
sometimes goes UP, with things being GOOD or bad.

Fact File for hǎo

You use this word every time you say hello in Chinese; “nǐ
hǎo” which, literally, means “you good”).
You can also use this as a simple one-word response, meaning
“Okay” or “Fair enough.” You can also say “hǎo de” or “hǎo
ba”.
Other phrases in which hǎo is included are:
hǎo chī – delicious (literally, “good eat”. To describe a drink as
delicious you say “hǎo hē” – “good drink”.)

hǎo kàn – “good-looking”. This can be used to describe many
things, such as a handsome or beautiful person, a well-made
object or something that looks nice.

People may ask “How are you?” Grammatically, it is incorrect
to answer “Wo hǎo” – “I’m good”. For correct Chinese, you
should say “Wǒ hěn hǎo (I’m very good”).

“Hǎo” can also mean “very”– “hǎo cháng”, very long, or “hǎo
dà”, very big. You would not, of course, use this for the word
good itself! You can’t say “Wǒ hǎo hǎo.”
This character is a combination of two other characters – both
of which will be in other books in the 1-Minute Chinese series
– “woman” and “child”. In ancient China a husband with a
wife and child was considered the definition of a good family.
It’s also thought that the two characters might mean “boy and
girl”, another stroke of good fortune in a family.

The 8th Character

gěi (rhymes with day)

English meaning: give
This sounds like the word “GAve” and it looks like people, hands
outstretched, in front of a house.

Meaning: imagine that they are beggars at the house of a rich man who
GAVE them something.
Tone (third, falling-rising): think of someone bowing or curtseying their
thanks as they are GIVEN something. Make it a really funny image,
bobbing DOWN and UP!

Fact File for gěi
Knowing how to say “give” is of course useful in any
language, but it’s particularly so in China, whose culture places
considerable importance in connections, favours and gift
giving.
“Gěi” is also used to represent doing something to or for
someone or something. Here are some examples:
Wǒ gěi nǐ kàn – “I want to show you”.

Māma gěi bǎobǎo xǐ zǎo – Mother gave baby a shower.
Tā gěi wǒ zuòle fān – he made her a meal.

You can use this word on its own as a one-word response.
Simply say “gěi” when you give something to someone; it’s
like saying “here you are” in English.

The 9th Character

xiǎo (sounds like “sheeyow”)

English meaning: small
To create a mnemonic for this, we need to think of three elements.

1. The meaning of the word is “small”.
2. The character looks like a sad face.
3. The word “xiǎo” sounds like “She…ow!”

These can be used to create a mnemonic story about a woman who bought
some shoes, and felt sad. SHE said “OW, they’re too SMALL!” And there
you go – she, ow, small.

Tone (third, falling-rising): think of a SMALL person trying to jump as high
as they can. First she crouches DOWN, then she jumps UP.

Fact File for xiǎo
You will find this word in lots of Chinese phrases. Here are
some of them:

xiǎo xīn – careful. You often see these characters ( ) on signs
by wet floors, building sites, and so on.
xiǎo shí – hour
xiǎo chī – snack (literally, “small eat”)
xiǎo chǒu – clown (literally, “small ugly”)
dà xiǎo – size, as in the size of your shoes or clothes (literally,
big-small).

The Chinese word for “less” is “shǎo”, and looks like this: .
The meaning, the sound of the word and its character are all
very similar to “xiǎo”. This character, however, has the
addition of a curved line underneath, which seems to change it
from a sad face into a resigned grimace. Perhaps the person is
thinking that having LESS may not be so good but that it’s
better than nothing?

The 10th Character

dà (its “à” sound is between “bad” and “far”)

English meaning: big
This character looks like a man standing with his arms outstretched.
Imagine it is a father (Dad, or Da) who has been fishing, and is talking
about the one that got away, telling you how big it was.

Tone (fourth, falling): think of DAd looking DOWN into the river for fish.

Fact File for dà
You will find this character in many different places. Apart
from the character being a component in forming many
compound words it is also used in a number of phrases. Some
of these include:
dà jiā (everyone). “Dà jiā hǎo” is how you say hello to a large
group of people, when making a speech
dà rén – adult (literally, “big person”)
dà gài – probably

In English we ask how old a child is, but in China you ask how
big they are: “Tā duō dà?”

Reviewing the Second Set of Five Characters

Good work! Now you’re two thirds of the way through the book. Here is
the second test you can take to see your progress. Again, if you score full
marks, go on to the next section.
Look at each character below and say it in Chinese and English. When
you have finished, turn to the end of the book to see the answers.

Chapter 6: Set 3, Characters 11 – 15 (go, come,
follow, outside, water)

The 11th Character

qù (sounds like “choo”)

English meaning: go
Think of how the character looks like a railway track – see the lines
receding into the horizon, the wooden sleeper rails, the signpost?
This makes you think of where you GO on the train. And what sound do
trains make? CHOO-CHOO!
You may also prefer to remember the character by its original
pictographical meaning of a bottle and its lid – meaning “to go” because
that’s what happened to the contents!

Tone (fourth, falling): think of a train falling DOWN from a bridge; or, if
you’re thinking of the bottle, think of the level of drink in it going DOWN
as it’s drunk.

Fact File for qù
This is another example of how simple Chinese grammar is.
As we saw earlier, there is no need to learn to conjugate the

verb. It’s as if you could say in English “I go, you go, he go,
she go, they go, we go”. “Qù” is used for all of them.
To go back is “huí qù” (literally, “return-go”).
“Put it back” is “fàng huí qù”.
“Qù nián,” means “last year” (that is, “the year gone by”).

The 12th Character

lái (sounds like “lie”)

English meaning: come
The central vertical line of this character is like the line painted in the
middle of a road, with the distant beams of car headlights on the horizon. To
remember this, think of how a car is COMING – best not to LIE down on
the road!

Tone (second, rising): think of a car COMING UP over a hill.
It’s interesting to see that, just as “come” and “go” are opposites, so they
have opposite tones, with “go” going DOWN, and “come” coming UP.

Fact File for lái
This word is used in many other phrases. Some of these are:
huí lái – to come back
chū lái – to come out
lái zì – to come from
fàng huí lái – this is another way of saying “put it back”.

Another way to remember this character is to know its original
meaning: a picture of plants growing. When you see this, you
can remember how the people of Ancient China were grateful
for the crops COMING from the ground as a gift from heaven.
You could also remember that plants LIE (sounds like “lái”) in
a garden bed until they COME up.

The 13th Character

cóng (sounds like “tsong”)

English meaning: follow, or come from
This character is a simple one to remember; it really does look like one
person following another!

As “cóng” sounds like a mixture of “song” and “conga” you can remember
it by thinking of the two people you see listening to a SONG as they
FOLLOW each other and dance the CONGA.
Tone (second, rising): For this one, try making a scary mnemonic! Imagine
a monster RISING up from a pit and FOLLOWING you.

Fact File for cóng
The word cóng is especially useful for us foreigners, as we will
often hear it when people ask us “Where do you come from?”
In Chinese, the word order is slightly altered –“ Wŏ cóng
Yīngguó lái” (“I-from-Britain-come”) not “Wŏ lái cóng
Yīngguó.”

You will also hear this word in Chinese fairy tales, as “Cóng
qián” is the equivalent of the English “Once upon a time”.

The 14th Character

wài (sounds like “why”)

English meaning: out

To remember this character, see how it looks like a man with a dog; perhaps
the dog is wondering WHY they have to go OUTside.

Another way to remember the meaning of “wài” is to make it into a joke,
like this:
“Knock, knock.”
“Who’s there?”
“Wài.”
“Wài who?”
“Wài won’t you let me in, I’m stuck outside!”
Tone (fourth, falling): think of someone going OUTside, tripping and falling
DOWN.

Fact File for wài
Although this is not the most common of Chinese characters it
is an important one because it will be used to describe you!
Chinese people will refer to you as either a “wài guó rén”

(literally, “out-of-country-person”) or, less formally, a
“lǎowài.”
“Wài” is also included in many other phrases. Some of these
are:

wài guó – foreign country (literally, outside country)
wàixingrén – an alien (literally, “out-planet-person.”)
wài miàn – outside. Sometimes pronounced “wàimiar”. The
opposite word, inside, is “lĭmiàn”, pronounced “lee-mee-en”.
A good mnemonic would be to think of someone saying “Let
me in (lĭmiàn)! I want to be inside!”
wài mài – takeaway food. Literally, “out buy.” To remember it,
think of someone saying “WHY is MY food cold? It’s because
I got a takeaway.”
wài tào – overcoat.

The 15th Character

shuǐ (sounds like “shway,” to rhyme with “day”)

English meaning: water

To remember this character, see how it looks very much like the number 7
next to the letter “k”. Think of a river, seven kilometres (7k) long.

To remember the word “shuǐ”, think of how a river twists and turns,
SWAYing as it goes – this way, that way…thisSWAY, that way…
The meaning, water, is easy to remember if you are familiar with the term
“feng shuǐ” – the art of arranging furniture and living quarters. It means
“wind and water.” You’ve now learned two new words for the price of one!
Tone (third, falling-rising): think of how the river twists and turns, this way
and that way.

Fact File for shuǐ
A very helpful word! Try surviving in the blazing hot weather
that China suffers throughout much of the year (especially in
the south) and you’ll see how useful it is to know.
First, the thing you may one day need to ask for most urgently:
bīng shuǐ, meaning “iced water”, and very welcome in the hot

Chinese summers! People don’t really ask for “leng shuǐ” (cold
water); if you do, you’ll probably get iced water. If you just
want a plain glass of water you should ask for “liáng shuǐ”
(cool water).
In winter – which can be very cold in both north and south
China – you may want to ask for “rè shuǐ” – hot water. Chinese
people like to drink hot water at dinner (an unusual custom to
us Westerners) and, if you simply ask for water in a restaurant,
this may be what you are given. You will also find hot water
machines on trains and in stations, where special machines
dispense it for passengers to make tea or instant noodles.
There are also a number of phrases which include the word
“shui,” such as:

shuǐ guǒ (fruit)
shuǐ shǒu (sailor – literally, “water hand”). The cartoon
character Popeye the Sailor Man, in Chinese, is “Dà lì shuǐ
shǒu” (literally, “Big-power-water-hand”, or “Powerful
Sailor”)
shuǐjīng means “crystal”. Think of water and crystal both
being clear, and of how crystal makes a “jing jing” sound when
tapped.

The character for “ice”, as you might expect, is very similar to
the character for water. A couple of extra marks denoting water
dripping and then becoming an icicle as it freezes: (bīng).
You will also find it useful to know “bīng qí lín” (“bing tshee
lin”), which means ice cream, and “bīng xiāng” (“bing
sheeyang”), which means refrigerator.

Reviewing the Third Set of Five Characters

So, how well did you do with the eleventh to fifteenth characters?
Here is your final test. When you have finished, turn to the end of the
book to see the answers.

Now that you have learned all of the characters in this book you can also
go to
http://1-minutechinese.weebly.com/1-minute-chinese-1-games.html to
review the vocabulary in this book with the 1-Minute Chinese games –
Cannonballs, Platform, Wordshoot, Flashcards and Matching Up. Have
fun!

Chapter 7: Conclusion – the end, and the beginning

Congratulations on completing this book! You now know fifteen of the
most useful words and characters in Chinese. You’ve made a great start, and
it is my hope that it has helped to make your first steps in learning Chinese
as big as possible.

If you have enjoyed reading this book and found it useful, please tell your
friends about it and/or write a review. Feedback is very welcome and will
be taken into account in further editions.

And if you liked Book 1 of 1-Minute Chinese, you will love Books 2 and 3!
As well as teaching many more of the most useful Chinese words and
characters, these also come with chapters on living and working in China,
Chinese culture, phrasebooks, videos and games, and much more!

Finally, please come and visit me at http://www.1-
minutechinese.weebly.com, where you will find articles, videos and
recordings to help support you in learning Chinese, as well as information
about my books.

Appendix 1: The First Fifteen Characters

How were the characters for this book chosen?

When I first began to write this book I intended to simply show the fifteen
most common Chinese characters. However, it soon became clear that not
all of them were immediately useful to someone who was just starting to
learn Chinese. You can see this from the table below, in which the fifteen
most common words in Chinese are presented. You will recognise that
many of them are words you have learned already, and the rest will be
taught in later books in the 1-Minute Chinese series.

Characters 1-5

Characters 6-10

Characters 11-15

Appendix 2: Resources for Further Learning

Now that you have finished reading this book I am sure that you will want
to continue your journey in learning Chinese. Over the years I have come
across many different resources for learning Chinese, and I now share these
with you in the hope that you will find them useful.

Online Resources

The 1-Minute Chinese website has many useful resources to
accompany this book, including games, videos, audio
recordings and writings:
www.1-minutechinese.weebly.com
Games4Primary is my own personal teaching website. It has
a huge selection of games and links for learning all subjects,
including an excellent set of resources for learning about China
and Chinese:

http://games4primary.weebly.com/6mii-china--chinese.html

Lingo Hut has a comprehensive selection of topics, with
different tools for learning Chinese in each one:

http://lingohut.com/en/chinese/vocabulary/

Chinese Tools has lots of excellent ways to learn Mandarin:

http://www.chinese-tools.com

Learning Chocolate is a great website for learning
vocabulary. Each section has six different games to practise
reading, writing and listening to the Chinese vocabulary
learned in it: