数字世界
Shùzì shìjiè — The Digital World
The unit where students learn to type Chinese — which turns out to be the single biggest practical unlock in the program. Plus the vocabulary of phones, apps and messaging, and an honest look at screen time.
How you type a language with no alphabet
You type the pinyin and pick the character from a list:
Type zhongguo → a menu appears → choose 中国
It has a useful side effect. Choosing the right character from a list of similar-sounding ones is pure recognition practice — a student who messages friends in Chinese is quietly drilling several dozen times a day without noticing. Handwriting continues alongside: typing is how they will use Chinese, handwriting is how they will remember it.
Unit objectives
- Set up and use a pinyin input method
- Type a short message in characters without help
- Describe their own device and app use
- Give an opinion about screen time, with a reason
Key vocabulary
手机 电脑 上网 发消息 打字 视频 游戏 社交媒体 屏幕时间 安全
Chinese on a screen
Set up the keyboard
Adding a pinyin input method on phone and laptop, and typing the first characters.
Send a message
Typing short messages to each other — and learning to spot when the input picked the wrong character.
Devices and apps
Describing what they use and what for. Chinese app names are readable once you know the characters.
How much is too much?
Screen-time opinions with reasons, and a class survey of actual daily hours.
Staying safe online
The vocabulary of privacy and safety — taught in Chinese, but the content matters in any language.
One app for everything
Chinese internet life is organised very differently. WeChat — 微信 — is messaging, payments, tickets, taxis, official documents and small businesses all at once, rather than a dozen separate apps. Short video, led by Douyin, is enormous. A quirk students enjoy: internet slang often works by numbers, because the digits sound like words. 520 reads as wǔ èr líng, close enough to 我爱你 — “I love you.” The same sound-play as lucky eight, three thousand years later.
Unit 4 progress check
A light, no-pressure way to see what’s sticking:
- Can your child type a sentence in Chinese unaided?
- Do they notice when the wrong character gets selected?
- Can they give a screen-time opinion with a reason?
Encourage typing in Chinese wherever it’s harmless. It’s the highest-frequency character practice available, and it doesn’t feel like practice.