老师和同学
Lǎoshī hé tóngxué — Teachers & Classmates
The people in the room, and the phrases that let a student survive a whole lesson in Chinese — including the two most valuable sentences any language learner can have: “I don’t understand” and “please say it again.”
Unit objectives
- Address a teacher as 老师, with a surname
- Say 我不明白 and 请再说一次
- Ask 这是什么？ about anything they don’t know
- Read and write eight new characters
Key vocabulary
老师 同学 学生 明白 再 说 什么 问
The two sentences worth more than any vocabulary list
我不明白。 — Wǒ bù míngbai. “I don’t understand.”
请再说一次。 — Qǐng zài shuō yí cì. “Please say it again.”
A student who can say these two things can stay inside a Chinese-only lesson instead of falling out of it. They’re taught early and used constantly from here on.
Staying in the language
Teacher, student, classmate
The three words for people at school, plus how surnames work in front of 老师.
I don’t understand
The survival phrases, drilled deliberately — the teacher speaks too fast on purpose so students have to use them.
What is this?
这是什么？ turned loose on the classroom — students ask about anything they can’t name yet.
Surname first
Chinese names put the family name first and the given name second — so in 王小明, Wang is the surname and Xiaoming the given name. Teachers are addressed as surname plus 老师: Wang Lǎoshī. It’s the reverse of the English order, and it’s why Chinese names are sometimes written the “wrong” way round on Western documents. Worth mentioning to children that a friend whose name looks unfamiliar may simply be introducing themselves in their own order.
Unit 3 progress check
A light, no-pressure way to see what’s sticking:
- Does your child say 我不明白 instead of going quiet?
- Can they ask 这是什么？?
- Do they know that 老师 goes after the surname?
The first question is the important one. A child who asks for help in Chinese has crossed a real line.