运动和爱好
Yùndòng hé àihào — Sports & Hobbies
What students do when nobody is making them. This unit also brings frequency words — often, sometimes, never — which let a sentence say how much rather than just what.
Unit objectives
- Name eight sports and hobbies
- Say how often they do something
- Use 会 for a learned skill — “I can swim”
- Ask a classmate about their hobbies and report back
Key vocabulary
运动 足球 篮球 游泳 跑步 画画 唱歌 常常 有时候 会
Frequency words go where time goes
Same rule as Unit 1 — before the verb, not after:
我常常跑步。 I often run.
我会游泳。 I can swim.
会 means specifically a skill you learned. For permission or possibility, Chinese uses 可以 instead — a distinction English blurs into one word, “can.”
What you do for fun
Sports
Four sports, and the useful observation that three of them end in 球 — ball.
Quieter hobbies
Drawing, singing, reading, music — for the students for whom “sport” is not the answer.
How often?
Always, often, sometimes, never — placed on a frequency line and then used about real habits.
Interview a classmate
Three questions asked, answers written down, then reported to the class in the third person.
Table tennis, badminton, and the parks at dawn
Table tennis and badminton are far more central in China than in most Western countries — played in schoolyards, on concrete tables in public parks, and at the highest competitive level. Equally striking is what happens in city parks early in the morning: groups of older people doing tai chi, dancing, practising calligraphy on the pavement with water and a giant brush. Exercise there is often social and public rather than private and indoors, which is worth comparing with how your students’ families do it.
Unit 4 progress check
A light, no-pressure way to see what’s sticking:
- Can your child name three things they like to do?
- Do they put 常常 before the verb?
- Can they say one thing they can do with 会?
Reporting someone else’s answer in the third person is the stretch goal here — it’s the first time students speak about a person who isn’t in front of them.