VIP Class Notes (Lily)[S/R]

Pronunciation

explain= ex Blane

dominant = DOH minant

empire= AM pie yer

tongue= tang

verge= Verge

claim= cl ame    (rain, claim, train, pain, brain)

Vocabulary

1.dominant=ruling

ex: Mandarin is the dominant language in Shanghai.

2. linguists= someone who studies or teaches the structure of languages

ex: Many linguists believe that Mandarin will become the number one language in the world.

3. mother tongue= main language that you learnt when you were a child

ex: My mother tongue is Mandarin.

4. verge= edge, close to

ex: on the verge of a nervous breakdown

ex: China is on the verge of becoming a new economic superpower

4. attempt= try

ex: (verb) to attempt an impossible task; to attempt to walk six miles.

ex: (noun) He made an attempt to swim across the lake.

My friend made an attempt to lose weight by cutting carbs, but he failed.

5. form= to produce something

ex: Everyone please form a circle!

Ice began to form on the window.

6. claim= 声称

ex: He claims that he is single, in fact he is married.

Grammar

I got 30 mark –> I got 30 percent 

Speaking exercise

I decided to go back to college last year, so I took an exam last October and I got into that university, so I will go to there this Sunday for opening ceremony.  I told Judy I want two days off together, because from next week I have to go to university for one day on the weekend.

I stayed at home for two days, cleaned my house. I found I have many book that I have already read them. My friend introduced me which we can sell books, so I went to that app and I sell 8 books, they will give me 100 kuai, they will call shunfeng to get the book, once they receive the book, they will send me the money by WeChat.

Revised

I decided to go back to college last year, so I took an exam last October and I got into that university. so I will go to there this Sunday for the opening ceremony.  I told Judy that I want two days off in a row, because starting next week, I have to go to university for one day on the weekend.

I stayed at home for two days and cleaned my house. I found out that I have many book that I have already read them. My friend introduced me an app to sell books, so I went to that app and I sold 8 books. The buyers will give me 100 kuai, they will call shunfeng to get the book, once they receive the book, they will send me the money by WeChat.

Reading Reflection

Yes I think Chinese will be more important than English, because we have more people than USA or UK. Recently, KongZi Academy they opened everywhere in the world. They teach Chinese in other countries, they are helping Chinese to get license which can teach foreigners Chinese. Since we were very young, we started to learn English. Like the first year of my primary school, we have been learning English for many many years. More and more foreigners will learn Chinese, and there are lots of foreigners in Shanghai looking for a job, if you can speak Chinese it will be very useful.

Revised

Yes I think Chinese will be more important than English, because we have more people than USA or UK added together. Recently, KongZi Academy they opened everywhere in the world. They teach Chinese in other countries, they are helping Chinese to get teaching licenses which can teach foreigners Chinese. Since we were very young, we started to learn English. Like the first year of my primary school, we have been learning English for many many years. More and more foreigners will learn Chinese, and there are lots of foreigners in Shanghai looking for a job, if they could speak Chinese it would be very useful/ it would be a big asset for them if they knew how to speak Chinese. 

Reading

Over the past centuries, English has become the dominant world language, mostly because of the British Empire and the rise of the United States as a global political and economic superpower. Many linguists say that Mandarin Chinese will become the new number one language, because it is the mother tongue of over 1 billion people. China is on the verge of becoming a new economic superpower and many international corporations already advise their workers to learn Mandarin.

In the past, some attempts have been made to create a global language for everyone. A Polish scientist, Ludwik Zamenhof, invented Esperanto at the beginning of the 20th century.  His goal was to form a neutral language with easy words and grammar that is not so difficult to learn. Linguists claim that up to a million people use and speak Esperanto today.

Languages that are not actively spoken any more die out over a period. Linguists claim that 90% of the world’s 7000 languages will become extinct within the next 50 years.  Other languages, like Latin or ancient Greek, died out centuries ago, but are still needed in fieldslike medicine, biology, history or archaeology.