Man, this kid Kong Rong (孔融 [pinyin][/pinyin]). What a cutie. What a humble little guy. This is a kid that knows all about r-e-s-p-e-c-t. He knows that you gotta save all the best pears for the older kids. No one told him, he just knew. He probably also learned to tie his shoes before everyone else, and got nothing but gold stars on his homework, and started chewing with his mouth closed while he was still breastfeeding.

... Wait, you know what, actually? I take it all back. I'm not into it. Those Kong Rong kids made the rest of us look bad. Get a life, Kong Rong. Grab the big pear for yourself next time. Live a little. 

<h3>When... 的时候</h3>
<strong>When</strong> we talk about things that happened in the past or might happen in the future, we typically start our sentence with "when". 

"When I was ten years old, I got my first dog."
"When I go to the store, do you want me to get you something?"

In Chinese, the "when" is placed after the time, using 的时候 [pinyin]de5 shi2 hou4[/pinyin]. The same sentences, following a Chinese pattern, would be sound like this:

"I was ten years old when, ...."
我十岁<strong>的时候</strong>，

"I go to the store when, ...?"
我去商店<strong>的时候</strong>,

Make sense?

<h3>So much togetherness 一块儿</h3>
Depending on how long you've been studying, you may or may not have run across the word 一起 [pinyin]yi1 qi3[/pinyin], which means "together", as in "We ate dinner together." (我们<strong>一起</strong>吃了晚饭).  一块儿 [pinyin]yi1 kuai4 er5[/pinyin] actually has two meanings. The first meaning is "a block (of something)", so like "A block of cheese" or "A . But its second definition is very similar to 一起: in this case it also means "together" or more precisely "<strong>as a block</strong>". 

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<div class="chinesetext">
<h3>Chinese text:</h3>
1) 从前，有个孩子叫孔融。他四岁<strong>的时候</strong>，有一天和哥哥<strong>一块儿</strong>吃梨。盘子里的梨有大的，也有小的，孔融拿了一个小梨。

2) 爸爸看见了，问道：“你为什么不拿大的呢？”

3) 孔融说：“我是弟弟，应该吃小的。”

<a href="http://www.1010jiajiao.com/yuedu_page_20986/" target="_blank">See source</a> 
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1) Once, there was a child named Kong Rong. When he was 4 years old, one day he and his brother were eating pears. On the plate were big pears, and small pears, and Kong Rong grabbed a small pear. 

2) His father saw this and asked him, "Why didn't you take a big pear?" 

3) Kong Rong said: "I'm the little brother, I should eat the small one." 
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