This is a short guide for writing a personal letter. sorry kingmar for beating you to it. The personal letter is one of the most prevalent text types in VCE Chinese and therefore when it comes to exam time, the quality of your letter counts. Okay so here it is!
Structure:Introduction:
A Chinese letter has a similar format to that of any other normal letter. As shown above, the introduction should have the following:
• Salutation
• Greeting
• Introductory Sentence
Salutation:
In Chinese, a salutation is not required for a letter, i.e. writing a letter to your friend, classmate or relative is fine. You can just write their name at the beginning of the letter.
Example:
大卫:David,
小明:Xiaoming,
安娜:Anna,
小红:Xiaohong,
However, to more clearly show that you understand the structure of a letter you should include a salutation. For family members or close friends, you can write 亲(qin)爱的, meaning “dear”, followed by whoever you are writing to.
Example:
亲爱的妈妈:Dear Mum
亲爱的姐姐:Dear Older Sister
亲爱的大卫:Dear David
For more formal letters you should write 尊敬(zun jing)的, meaning “respected” followed by the person you are writing to.
尊敬的校长:
In personal letters, the greeting is normally consistent with every letter. The very first sentence of the introductory should normally be “你好or“你们好! depending on how many people you are writing to.
The next sentence varies from letter to letter. Here are some typical introductory phrases you can use:
好久没给你写信 I haven’t written to you for a long time
很久没有通信了 It’s a long time since we have written to each other
很长时间没给你写信了 It’s been a long time since I have written to you
近来怎么样?忙吗? How have you been? Busy?
你的学习忙吧? Are your studies busy?
我很高兴收到了你的来信 I very excitedly received your (last) mail
我非常想念你 I extremely miss you
告诉你一个好消息 Tell you some good news!
假期过得好吗? Were your holidays well?
You should then follow these phrases with one or two sentences about what you want to talk about in your letter. For example:
你来信希望我介绍一些澳大利亚人的业余生活…
You wrote to me asking me to introduce to you a little about Australians’ leisure time...
Most of the time, you can create these follow-up sentences by simply rephrasing or recycling the vocabulary used in the essay topic.
Body
Each paragraph should contain a topic sentence, followed by your supporting ideas. Normally the body should have around 3 paragraphs.
ConclusionTo end the letter, you can use one of the following phrases depending on what topic and writing style you are required to write in:
今天就写到这里,下次再谈 (That's it for today, talk later next time)
好了,不多写了,代问你家人好 (Okay, I won't write anymore, say hello to your family)
谢谢你!盼望着早日收到了你的来信 (Thanks, looking forward to receiving your letter)
Then have 祝 (wishing you) any of the below:
祝
好! (wish you well)
祝
身体健康! (wish you good health)
祝
学习进步! (wish your studies improve)
(or any of your own)
Then have your name on the right hand side and the date underneath your name!
Okay, hope you all understood it all! Happy Chinese Studies!
EDIT: All Chinese has been translated