F2F Class Notes 20th April (Peter)

Corrections (original – corrected)

Cricket and me discussed – Cricket and I discussed

If you are me – if you were me

Vocabulary 词汇

Rich – when used to talk about people: having money; when used to talk about food: flavourful; when used to talk about culture: unique, historic, and valuable.

Ex. A good amount of China’s richest people live in Shanghai.

Ex. The chef served a delicious chocolate cake after our dinner, but I thought it was too rich and couldn’t take more than a few bites.

Ex. China has a rich history that dates back thousands of years.

Grammar 语法

Subject + past tense verb + adjective/noun + conditional phrase.

Ex. If you were rich, what would you buy?

Ex. If I was older, I would not eat so much fast food.

Ex. If I was a teacher, I would work in a middle school.

Expressions 成语

The phrase “in depth” simply means that something is being talked about at a deep way. For example, I can discuss the history of Shanghai briefly (简介), or I can discuss the history of Shanghai in depth.

Casual Introduction of Shanghai:

My hometown is Shanghai. People from Shanghai are called Shanghainese, and we speak our own dialect of Chinese that sounds different from standard Mandarin. In Shanghai, you can find a good amount (not few, not many) of foreigners living and working in the city. Many people come here to study because we have many famous universities. Although Shanghai has a pollution problem, it is not as bad as Beijing so you can often find people participating in outdoor activities. Shanghai is considered to be in the South of China; in this part of the country, we are famous for having sweet foods. One of our staple foods is Xiao Long Bao, which is a small soup-filled dumpling. Shanghai has two different areas that are separated by a river called the Huangpu. The part of the city that is east of the river is called Pudong, and is the newer and more developed region of Shanghai. The part that is west of the river is called Puxi and contains most of Shanghai’s history and culture. Shanghai’s population is estimated to be more than 25 million, which means the population of Shanghai is bigger than all of Australia. As such, buying a house in Shanghai takes a lot of money and Shanghai is the financial centre of the country. You might think this means that everyone is rich, but in reality most people are barely making ends meet and can’t afford to buy even a small house.