你好吗？
Nǐ hǎo ma? — Greetings Again
Kindergarten’s greetings come back, but this time they go both ways. Students learn to ask as well as answer — and meet 吗, the little word that turns any Chinese statement into a question.
Unit objectives
By the end of this unit, students will be able to:
- Ask 你好吗？ and answer 我很好
- Use 吗 to turn a statement into a yes/no question
- Greet someone correctly for the time of day
- Hold a four-line conversation with a partner, unprompted
Key vocabulary
Nine items — mostly familiar sounds doing new work.
你好吗 很好 不错 不好 你呢 早上好 下午好 晚上好 谢谢你
The easiest question word in any language
To ask a yes/no question in Chinese, say the statement and add 吗 to the end. Nothing moves, nothing changes:
你好。 — You are well.
你好吗？ — Are you well?
What a Chinese character actually is
Next unit your student writes their first ten characters. Five minutes here will change how the whole year feels — because a child who knows what a character is is reasoning, and a child who doesn’t is copying shapes.
- A character is not a letter. Letters spell sounds. Each character is one syllable and a meaning, all at once.
- A character is not usually a picture, either. A famous few are — 山 really is a mountain. Most are not.
- Almost every character is built from reusable parts. Learn the parts and new characters get easier, not harder.
Two parts, one new character — a pattern your student will meet again and again:
女 woman + 子 child = 好 hǎo · good
There is one question worth asking every single time a new character appears, and you do not need to read Chinese to ask it: “What are its parts?”
How Chinese characters work →Three lessons, a real conversation
Morning, afternoon, evening
Three time-of-day greetings, sorted into a clock-face activity so students pick the right one.
Adding 吗
Turning statements into questions, then answering three ways — good, not bad, not good.
Your turn: 你呢？
Partner practice bouncing the question back and forth — the first conversation students run without the teacher.
Answering honestly is fine
English speakers answer “How are you?” with “Fine, thanks” whether or not it’s true — it’s a greeting, not a question. Mandarin’s 你好吗？ is a bit more literal, and among friends people do sometimes answer it truthfully. Teaching 不好 alongside 很好 gives children permission to mean what they say, which is a surprisingly good hook for keeping them interested.
Unit 1 progress check
A light, no-pressure way to see what’s sticking:
- Can your child ask 你好吗？ as well as answer it?
- Do they pick the right greeting for the time of day?
- Can they bounce a question back with 你呢？?
Asking is harder than answering and matters more — a student who can ask can keep a conversation alive.