Mandarin: Talking about school

Learning Mandarin in school (学校 xué xiào) makes it a great place to practice the language.

The word for teacher is 老师 lǎo shī.

The word for pupil is 学生 xué shēng.

Greeting your teacher

To greet the whole class, your teacher might say:

• 大家好 Dà jiā hǎo - 'Hello, everyone'

You can then reply by saying:

• 老师好 lǎo shī hǎo - 'Hello, teacher'

(In China, pupils often stand up when greeting their teacher, as a sign of respect)

Addressing your teacher

To address your teacher, you say their family name + 老师 lǎo shī.

Example:

If their family name is 王 Wáng you would say:

• 王老师 Wáng lǎo shī

There are lots of objects around school that can be useful to know in Mandarin, including your school bag and what you might find inside it.

To talk about your own school supplies in Mandarin, you can use the phrases:

我有 Wǒ yǒu - I have

这是 Zhè shì - This is

Did you know?

To say ‘I have a pencil' in Mandarin you would not simply say ‘我有铅笔 Wǒ yǒu qiān bǐ’ - this misses out the ‘a’.

In Mandarin, measure words are used to describe the type of object being discussed.

For objects around school, these are:

So, to say ‘I have a pencil’ in Mandarin you would say:

我有一支铅笔 Wǒ yǒu yī zhī qiān bǐ - I have a pencil

Did you know?

You can switch out 一 yī (one) for any other number, eg 三 sān (three), 四 sì (four) etc. except for ‘two’.

When you want to say you have two of something in Mandarin, you don’t use 二 èr (two) - Instead, you use the Mandarin word 两 liǎng:

• 我有两本书 Wǒ yǒu liǎng běn shū - I have two books

When walking around school, try saying some of the common places in Mandarin.

To talk about places around your school in Mandarin, you can use the phrases 我在 Wǒ zài (I am at) or 我要去 Wǒ yào qù (I am going to).

For example:

• 我在食堂 Wǒ zài shí tang - I am in the canteen

• 我要去教室 Wǒ yào qù jiào shì - I am going to the classroom

Some common subjects studied in school in Mandarin include:

When talking about a lesson in school in Mandarin, you need to add '课 kè' (lesson) to the end of the subject.

For example:

• 数学课 shù xué kè - Maths lesson

• 英语课 yīng yǔ kè - English lesson

You can then combine this with the Mandarin phrase 我在上 Wǒ zài shàng (I am having).

For example:

• 我在上地理课 Wǒ zài shàng dì lǐ kè - I am having a Geography lesson

• 我在上 体育课 Wǒ zài shàng tǐ yù kè - I am having a PE lesson

There is no measure word needed here.