Dear Parents and Educators From its very beginning Sesame Street has promoted mutual respect and cultural understanding by featuring a cast of diverse and lovable characters Welcome to Mandarin Chinese introduces children to the wonderful wide world we live in In this book Sesame Street friends present handy and fun vocabulary in a language kids may not know These words can help young readers welcome new friends Have fun as you explore Sincerely The Editors at Sesame Workshop
Table of Contents WELCOME 4 28 Count It Oscar's Favorite Words Further Information 30 31
WELCOME Say huān yíng
How to Speak Mandarin Chinese Mandarin Chinese can be written in a special system called Pinyin Most letters in Pinyin sound the same as if you were reading English but a few of the letters have slightly different sounds For example if you see a c make the ts sound This is how you would say the English sounds in Pinyin c ts x sh e uh z dz u oo ui rway i ee q ch This is Lily She lives in China Hello nữ háo Pinyin also shows you what tones to use with special accents on letters ē flat tone a little higher than regular speech é rising tone like when you ask a question ě falling then rising tone e falling tone
