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| 22 March 2007 |
| Chinese Daily |
| The first edition of the Australian Chinese Daily was published in 1987 and it is now the most influential Chinese language daily newspaper in Australia. |
Today we look at one of Australia's Chinese language newspapers. Listen for the final 's' sounds. CHARLES NG: The Australian Chinese Daily is a Chinese language daily newspaper. The office and the printing's all in Sydney and it's distributed to most major cities all over Australia. The Australian Chinese Daily was first published nineteenth March 1987. We started with a very humble old unit in Chinatown in Sydney with about fifteen people. But now we own our own premises and we have over sixty people, regular and full-time working in the newspaper. We are probably the largest Chinese daily newspaper. First of all is the editorial office. We have chief editor, we've got daily chief, we've got reporters and translators. Charles has excellent English. He has learnt it as a second language. Charles uses a form of English that many ESL speakers use. Listen to the plurals. First of all is the editorial office. We have chief editor, we've got daily chief, we've got reporters and translators.If there were more than one chief editor and daily chief, you would say: We have chief editors. We have daily chiefs. But Charles is talking about only one chief editor and one daily chief. You need to use 'a' when talking about just one person. 'We have a chief editor, We have a daily chief.' There is more than one reporter and one translator, so he says: 'we've got reporters and translators'. In the next clip, Charles uses 's' on the end of ad and advertiser: Our advertising department actually needs to design ads for most of the advertisers because that's the way that we started. When we started most advertisers didn't know exactly how to design their ad. He is talking about more than one ad, so he uses the plural noun 'ads'. And he is talking about more than one advertiser, so he uses the plural 'advertisers'. But there's another use of 's'. Our advertising department actually needs to design ads… Be careful! The 's' on nouns means more than one, but the 's' on verbs refers to only one, when it goes with a singular noun. Our news, information come from (sic) a few major areas. First of all is the AAP, Australian Associated Press, which is providing us major Australian news. All of them needs (sic) to be translated.'Our department needs to make ads.' But when the noun is plural and has an s, the verb doesn't. 'Our departments need to make ads.' Listen for 'needs'. All of them needs to be translated. This is a very common mistake among English speakers. 'Them' refers to more than one thing. So it is plural. Remember the rule - plural noun, no 's' on the verb. So the correct sentence is 'All of them need to be translated.' The other important area is local Chinese community activity. Sydney and Melbourne and a few major cities have fifty or a hundred Chinese different community organisations - especially Sydney has a very wide range of Chinese communities.Listen for the plurals here. Cities. Organisations. Communities. The 's' at the end of these words is pronounced as a 'z'. The newspaper start off, you know, a very small newspaper, probably about, like, four thousand copies daily and the Tiananmen incidents happened to be at the time we estimate about forty thousand students stay on in Australia and also they are very eager to know day to day events unfolding in China and the only newspaper who actually actively participate in the students' groups and activities and providing all the information on day to day basis were our paper. So that they become our readers. Listen to the different final 's' sounds here. Final 's' sounds change according to the base word. We believe that the Chinese newspaper would continue for a long time to come. One of the elements is the exercise in multiculturalism. Secondly is that Asia is very vibrant, both economically and socially. The interaction between Australia and Asia is only increasing and the technology, the improvement of delivery of information and also there's the significant Chinese language schools for children, they seize the future of economic benefits for the children's career if they are bilingual. So I think that we will believe that the Chinese reading population will not diminish like in the past.- copies, activities, readers - students, groups. Why does Charles thinks the paper will continue. More children in Australia are learning Chinese, so there will be more people who can read the paper. And to watch the story again, and get all the information you need about the final 's' sound, visit the EB website. |
story notes |
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come from (sic) When you see (sic) it means that something has been copied exactly even though it is a mistake. He should have said either 'Our news and information come from a few major areas' or 'Our news, information comes from a few major areas'. We use the 's' on a verb when it refers to a singular subject in the simple present tense but don't use the 's' when the subject is plural . For instance we say: Example: The bread and butter come from the shops. But: Example: The bread comes from the shop. This is because bread and butter, like news and information, is a plural subject. News, even though it looks and sounds like a plural is always treated as singular: Example: The news comes to us from many sources. Information is also singular: Example: The information comes form many sources. And the phrase 'news, information' without the conjunction 'and' is treated as a singular subject: Example: Our news, information comes from a few major areas needs (sic) He should have said 'all of them need to be translated' because the basic form of the verb (need) without the 's' is always used with them and they (third person plurals), I, we, us (first person) and you (second person). Example: I need help. You need help. We need help. All of us need help. All of them need help. They need help. The 's' form (needs) is used with the singular third person personal pronouns she, he and it: Example: It needs help. She needs help. He needs a break. And, of course, the 's' form is used with singular subjects in the simple present tense: Example: The lion needs food. more information: personal pronouns
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