Introduction To Chinese for Amharic Speakers: Recent Episodes

Dalu Media

This is the first course in the world that teaches Amharic speakers introductory Mandarin. Amharic is the official language of Ethiopia, a country with a population of 100 million. This course in Amharic shatters the language barrier and offers cultural contexts unique to these two cultures.

This podcast consists of 50 episodes, split across 25 unique chapters. Each chapter starts with a detailed description of vocabulary and usage in Amharic followed by dialogues between two native Mandarin speakers. You will know exactly how everything is pronounced. It is the best of both worlds!

The book accompanying this podcast can be found on Amazon under "DALU: Introduction to Chinese for Amharic Speakers" by Lina Getachew Ayenew

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These are dialogues that help you practice the various phrases that we have learnt in Chapter 25. As usual, each dialogue is repeated three times to make it easier to remember.  

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In this chapter, you will learn how to describe your symptoms, ask how someone is doing, and learn how to talk about taking medication.

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These are dialogues that help you practice the various phrases that we have learnt in Chapter 24. As usual, each dialogue is repeated three times to make it easier to remember.  

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This chapter will teach you how to say various colors and clothing items in Mandarin Chinese. This vocabulary is also useful when you go shopping.

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These are dialogues that help you practice the various phrases that we have learnt in Chapter 23. As usual, each dialogue is repeated three times to make it easier to remember.

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Now, we are going to learn how to construct sentences that have to do with talking on the phone, texting and emailing.This is important in this day and age of mobile communications!

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These are dialogues that help you practice the various phrases that we have learnt in Chapter 22. As usual, each dialogue is repeated three times to make it easier to remember.  

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In this chapter, you will learn the basics of how to describe your hobbies and activities. This will, of course, teach you what common hobbies are called in Chinese.

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These are dialogues that help you practice the various phrases that we have learnt in Chapter 21. As usual, each dialogue is repeated three times to make it easier to remember.  

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In this chapter you will learn how to ask for help when you are lost and how to ask if something is near or far.

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These are dialogues that help you practice the various phrases that we have learnt in Chapter 20. As usual, each dialogue is repeated three times to make it easier to remember.  

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This chapter teaches us how to ask for directions or where something is located.

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This chapter describes how to say what year it is in Mandarin Chinese.

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These are dialogues that help you practice the various phrases that we have learnt in Chapter 18. As usual, each dialogue is repeated three times to make it easier to remember.  

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This chapter teaches us the days of the week and the months of the year. Beyond that, we also learn how to tell what date it is in Chinese.

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These are dialogues that help you practice the various phrases that we have learnt in Chapter 17. As usual, each dialogue is repeated three times to make it easier to remember.  

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This chapter teaches how you can describe an even that never occurred. For example, you will learn how to say things like “She did not go.”

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These are dialogues that help you practice the various phrases that we have learnt in Chapter 16. As usual, each dialogue is repeated three times to make it easier to remember.  

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This chapter teaches you how to talk about events that happened in the past as well as ask the question “have you ever…?”

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These are dialogues that help you practice the various phrases that we have learnt in Chapter 15. As usual, each dialogue is repeated three times to make it easier to remember.  

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This chapter explains the correct grammar used in telling time. For example, in Amharic, we can simply say “3 o’clock yesterday.” or “yesterday at 3 o’clock.” But in Chinese, the order in that sentence matters.

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These are dialogues that help you practice the various phrases that we have learnt in Chapter 14. As usual, each dialogue is repeated three times to make it easier to remember.  

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This chapter teaches you the basics about time. For example, you will learn how to tell time and the various measures of time such as minutes and hours. In addition, you will also learn about routine things that happen at a particular time like meals and going to work.

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These are dialogues that help you practice the various phrases that we have learnt in Chapter 13. As usual, each dialogue is repeated three times to make it easier to remember.  

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This chapter teaches you the words you will need to use when you go shopping (e.g. money, price, quality).You will also learn the names of various currencies.

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These are dialogues that help you practice the various phrases that we have learnt in Chapter 12. As usual, each dialogue is repeated three times to make it easier to remember.

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In this chapter, you will learn about the names of various professions. You will also learn words associated with work like “busy” and “tired.”

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These are dialogues that help you practice the various phrases that we have learnt in Chapter 11. As usual, each dialogue is repeated three times to make it easier to remember.

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In this chapter, you will learn how to describe your family and how to talk about how old someone is. Did you know that in Chinese, you can’t just say “sister”? That is because there are different words for “younger sister” and “older sister.”

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These are dialogues that help you practice the various phrases that we have learnt in Chapter 10. As usual, each dialogue is repeated three times to make it easier to remember.

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Now you are going to learn how to order food at a restaurant as well as the names of more food items.

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This chapter teaches you about “measure words.” This concept does not exist in Amharic so it is important to follow along with the book and audio lessons.

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This chapter teaches you ordinal numbers in Mandarin Chinese. That is, you will learn how to say “first, second, third, etc.” You will also learn the pattern so that you can construct the ordinal numbers by yourself.

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This chapter explains how to count in Mandarin Chinese. It also teaches you how to recognize patterns in how the numbers are given names.

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These are dialogues that help you practice the various phrases that we have learnt in Chapter 6. As usual, each dialogue is repeated three times to make it easier to remember.

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This chapter teaches you what various food items are called in Mandarin Chinese and also explains some words related to food (eating, drinking etc). You will also learn how to say “I am hungry” and ask what someone likes to eat.

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These are dialogues that help you practice the various phrases that we have learnt in Chapter 5. As usual, each dialogue is repeated three times to make it easier to remember.

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This chapter teaches you how to say which languages you can speak, how to ask others what languages they are comfortable with and the names of various languages in Mandarin Chinese.

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These are dialogues that help you practice the various phrases that we have learnt in Chapter 4. As usual, each dialogue is repeated three times to make it easier to remember.

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This chapter teaches you how to say where you are from, how to ask others their country of origin and what various countries are called in Mandarin Chinese.

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These are dialogues that help you practice the various phrases that we have learnt in Chapter 3. As usual, each dialogue is repeated three times to make it easier to remember.

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This chapter tells you what you have to say when you receive a guest in your office. You will also learn how to say “I’m sorry,” and how to accept an apology.

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These are dialogues that help you practice the various phrases that we have learnt in Chapter 2. As usual, each dialogue is repeated three times to make it easier to remember.

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This chapter explains how you can introduce yourself and what is appropriate to say when you meet someone new. We also learn about titles such as “Mr.” and “Mrs.” as well as how to ask for someone’s name.

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Here we will practice how to greet and  how to say “thank you.” The sentences in this dialogue are repeated three times to make them easier to commit to memory.

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This chapter teaches basic greetings in Chinese. We also learn how to say “thank you” and “you’re welcome.” Did you know that the direct translation of the phrase “you’re welcome” in Chinese is “don’t be so polite!”  In addition, we will also mention how to say “you” in its various forms.

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Pinyin is a way of capturing the sounds of Chinese characters using the roman alphabet. This episode provides a basic description of this system. Because this course is intended for Amharic speakers, and because the Amharic alphabet is better at capturing Chinese sounds than the roman alphabet, our description is rather brief. But pinyin is […]

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Mandarin Chinese has four distinct tones. In this chapter, we try to distinguish what each of these tones sound like. Tones are very important because the same pronunciation will have different meanings based on the tones. And without tones, it will be very difficult to communicate in Chinese.

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In this episode we will take a look at how logical the Chinese writing system is. Chinese writing is very systematic and there are sometimes patterns we can follow to find the meanings they convey.

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Before getting into the language, we look at an extremely brief history of the Chinese language.