A very short, very easy, Chinese passage about a fictional teacher at Beijing University, suitable for newer readers. You’ll learn a couple of interesting Chinese abbreviations for some of the biggest and most famous universities in Beijing, and a few school-centric words.
王先生是北大的老教师，一九三八年五月二十四号出生， 今年五十八岁。 今天是他的生日。 他是一位非常有经验的法语老师。这个学期他教大三的学生现代法语语法。
王先生的一位老朋友是老年大学的老师， 他经常在这个大学教日语。
他的一个学生在师大工作。 他有汉语书，法语书和日语书。 他天天教留学生现代汉语。现在他有五个男学生，八个女学生。
Hover a word for its pinyin & meaning; click to pin it.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 王 | Wáng | surname Wang |
| 先生 | xiān sheng | teacher; gentleman; sir; mister (Mr.); husband; (dialect) doctor; CL:位[wei4] |
| 是 | shì | to be (followed by substantives only); correct; right; true; (respectful acknowledgement of a command) very well; (adverb for emphatic assertion); variant of 是[shi4] |
| 北大 | Běi Dà | Peking University (abbr. for 北京大學|北京大学) |
| 的 | de | of; ~'s (possessive particle); (used after an attribute when it modifies a noun); (used at the end of a declarative sentence for emphasis); (used after a noun, verb or adjective to… |
| 老 | lǎo | prefix used before the surname of a person or a numeral indicating the order of birth of the children in a family or to indicate affection or familiarity; old (of people); venerabl… |
| 教 | Jiào | surname Jiao |
| 师 | Shī | surname Shi |
| 一 | yī | one; single; a (article); as soon as; entire; whole; all; throughout; "one" radical in Chinese characters (Kangxi radical 1); also pr. [yao1] for greater clarity when spelling out … |
| 九 | jǐu | nine; 9 |
| 三八 | sān bā | International Women's Day 婦女節|妇女节[Fu4 nu:3 jie2], 8th March; foolish; stupid |
| 年 | Nián | surname Nian; grain; harvest (old); variant of 年[nian2] |
| 五月 | Wǔ yuè | May; fifth month (of the lunar year) |
| 二十 | èr shí | twenty; 20 |
| 四 | sì | four; 4 |
| 号 | háo | (bound form) to wail; to howl |
| 出生 | chū shēng | to be born |
| 今年 | jīn nián | this year |
| 五十 | wǔ shí | fifty |
| 八 | bā | eight |
| 岁 | suì | variant of 歲|岁[sui4], year; years old; classifier for years (of age); year; year (of crop harvests) |
| 今天 | jīn tiān | today; the present time; now |
| 他 | tā | (third-person singular) (since the early 20th century, usu. male) he; him; his; (bound form) other; another; some other (as in 他日[ta1 ri4] and 他人[ta1 ren2]) |
| 生日 | shēng rì | birthday; CL:個|个[ge4] |
| 位 | wèi | position; location; place; seat; classifier for people (honorific); classifier for binary bits (e.g. 十六位 16-bit or 2 bytes); (physics) potential |
| 非常 | fēi cháng | very; really; unusual; extraordinary |
| 有 | yǒu | to have; there is; (bound form) having; with; -ful; -ed; -al (as in 有意[you3 yi4] intentional) |
| 经验 | jīng yàn | experience; to go through; to experience |
| 法 | fǎ | variant of 法[fa3]; France; French; abbr. for 法國|法国[Fa3 guo2]; Taiwan pr. [Fa4]; old variant of 法[fa3]; law |
| 语 | yǔ | dialect; language; speech |
| 这个 | zhè ge | (pronoun) this; (adjective) this |
| 学期 | xué qī | term; semester; CL:個|个[ge4] |
| 大三 | dà sān | third year of university |
| 学生 | xué sheng | student; schoolchild |
| 现代 | Xiàn dài | Hyundai, South Korean company |
| 老朋友 | lǎo péng you | old friend; (slang) period; menstruation |
| 老年 | lǎo nián | elderly; old age; autumn of one's years |
| 大学 | Dà xué | the Great Learning, one of the Four Books 四書|四书[Si4 shu1] in Confucianism |
| 经常 | jīng cháng | frequently; constantly; regularly; often; day-to-day; everyday; daily |
| 在 | zài | to exist; to be alive; (of sb or sth) to be (located) at; (used before a verb to indicate an action in progress) |
| 日语 | Rì yǔ | Japanese language |
| 一个 | yī ge | a; an; one; the whole (afternoon, summer vacation etc) |
| 大 | dà | big; large; great; older (than another person); eldest (as in 大姐[da4 jie3]); greatly; freely; fully; (dialect) father; (dialect) uncle (father's brother) |
| 工作 | gōng zuò | to work; (of a machine) to operate; job; work; task; CL:個|个[ge4],份[fen4],項|项[xiang4] |
| 汉语 | Hàn yǔ | Chinese language |
| 书 | Shū | abbr. for 書經|书经[Shu1 jing1] |
| 和 | hé | old variant of 和[he2]; surname He; (literary) harmonious (variant of 和[he2]) |
| 天天 | tiān tiān | every day |
| 留学生 | líu xué shēng | student studying abroad; returned student; foreign student; international student |
| 现 | xiàn | to appear; present; now; existing; current |
| 五 | wǔ | five; 5 |
| 个 | gě | used in 自個兒|自个儿[zi4 ge3 r5]; variant of 個|个[ge4] |
| 男 | nán | (bound form) male; baron, the lowest of the five ranks of nobility 五等爵位[wu3 deng3 jue2 wei4] |
| 女 | nu:3 | female; woman; daughter |
Mr. Wang is an old teacher at Beijing University. He was born May 24, 1938, he’s 58 this year. Today is his birthday. He is a French teacher with a lot of experience. This semester he is teaching modern French grammar to 3rd year students.
One of Mr. Wang’s friends is an old university teacher, he often teaches Japanese at this university.
One of his students works at Beijing Normal University. He has Chinese books, French book and Japanese books. Every day he teaches foreign students modern Chinese. Right now he has 5 male students and 8 female students.