Sunday, June 30, 2013

Summary of Pronoun

If you just started learning Chinese and you are not very familiar with the pronouns, this article should be an easy step by step learning progress for you. It's also good for beginners to do a nice review of what you've learned.
Compared to English, the pronouns in Chinese are much simpler. There are only three different sounds and five different characters that cover all the pronouns we need. Furthermore, they stay the same no matter the pronouns are the subject or object.
Click the following video to hear the sound.
Before we do more sentence practice, let's learn several verbs. 
Now let's try to say the following sentences:   :)
Click the following video to hear the sound.
How about the pronouns that represent a group of people? In English, we have "we, us, you, they, them".  But in Chinese, we only need to add a magic suffix(men) behind the pronouns we've just learned above to get the pronouns that represent a group.
Click the following video to hear the sound.
Let's try to say more sentences.  First, we will need a very important verb, that is (shì). 是 (shì)equals to all the forms of ' to be' in English. In English, we have " is, are, was, were". In Chinese, the (shì) covers all of them.
Then we need the following words to do the sentence practice:
Click the following video to hear the sound.

Click the following video to hear the sound.
As for the last sentence ' we are teachers', you maybe want to emphasize that 'we are ALL teachers.'  How to say that in Chinese?  'All', in Chinese will be ' , 全部' .  So is it correct to say, 我们是都 老师? No, that's not. That really sounds awkward.  When the sentence gets more complicated, the words sequence will be different in Chinese. First, let me say that in English, but in the Chinese way. That will be:
Click the following video to hear the sound.

Now it's your turn.  Please do some substitutional practice with the different new words we've just learned above.  
I am a student | doctor | nurse.
You are a student | doctor | nurse.
She is a student | doctor | nurse.
We are all students | doctors | nurses.

Sunday, June 23, 2013

新电影《中国合伙人》(About a new movie《American dreams in China》)

《锵锵三人行》是我最喜爱的谈话节目之一。主持人窦文涛。
《锵锵三人行》is one of my favorite talk show. The host is Dou Wentao.  The English name of this show is Behind the Headlines.

锵锵 literally means the clang, tinkle;  三人 means three people; 行 means posture in walking. I am guessing the name comes from the words “三人行,必有我师焉。” in the book 《论语》(the Analects of Confucius).  

三人行,必有我师焉。
Among any three people walking, I will find something to learn for sure.


这期节目谈论的是一部新近上演的电影《中国合伙人》。《中国合伙人》的英文译名为《American Dreams in China》,意为"中国的美国梦"。影片讲述的­是从上世纪80年代至今,30多年间大变革背景下,三个小人物为改变自身命运,最终实­现"中国式梦想"的故事。首周三天成功破亿,超越《钢铁侠3》成为周票房冠军。

This episode is about a newly released movie 《中国合伙人》, which is translated into English as American Dreams in China. On the background of 30-year reform since 1980s in China,  the movie talks about the story of how three ordinary people make their dream come true. Its first three day tally of more than 0.1 billion RMB is the best opening in this week, beating Iron Man 3.

虽然,该影片在国内很火爆,但是嘉宾们对其的评价并不好。请看下面这段视频中嘉宾的评论很有意思。
The guests in this show don't think highly of this movie, although it is very popular recently in China mainland.  Click the following link, you'll see how the guests critics it.

Youtube视频链接

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

The usage of 地道

Literally 地道 means tunnel, subway, or underpass. There was a classic movie called 地道战 (the War in the Tunnel) , which was about the story of Chinese soldiers and farmers dug tunnels underground to fight the Japanese invaders in the 1940s. 
But in our daily conversation, 地道 has quite a few different interesting usages. Let's see some examples:

她的普通话说得真地道。
She speaks perfect mandarin.
他干的活儿真地道。
His work is really well-done.
In above sentences, 地道 means perfect, or skill up to standard. 


那家中餐馆的饭菜很地道。
The food in that Chinese restaurant is really authentic. 
In this sentence, 地道 means authentic.


这是地道的龙井茶。
This is genuine Longjing tea.
Here, 地道 means from the place well-known for a certain product;


那人很不地道。
That person is not an honest one. He cheated. 
In this sentence, 地道 means honest, obey the common moral rules.



Thursday, June 13, 2013

Self-introduction 自我介绍


There are basically two different situations in which you do self-introduction. One situation is you need to introduce yourself to another person; another situation is you need to introduce yourself to a group of strangers.

A simple self-introduction includes: your name, the place where you come from, and then add some more pleasantry.

There are several different ways to tell your name. They are:

Since we are in such a busy world that everything needs to be done quickly, most people do prefer the first two ways. 


Next, you need to tell people where you are from, such as your homeland, home country, the company you are working for etc. 


At last, show the others more pleasantry.
If you are introducing yourself to another person, you need to say:
Another common way is: 








If you are introducing yourself to two or more people, you need to say:
Let's see some examples:
Example 1:
Mike is introducing himself to another person.


 

Example 2:
Mike is introducing himself to a group of people.














Or

Friday, June 7, 2013

Usage of 没有

Usage One:
没有 basically means 'not have'. Here 有 functions as a verb which means 'to have'; and 没 functions as an adverb to negate the verb.
For example,
A-- Do you have a pen?
       你有笔吗?
B-- I don't have a pen.
      我没有笔。

Click the following video to hear the sound:


Sometime, we shorten 没有 as 没. So the dialogue above can also be:
A-- Do you have a pen?
你有笔吗?
B-- I don't have a pen.
我没笔。
Click the following video to hear the sound:


Usage Two:
没有 functions as auxiliary to negate the verb in past tense and perfect tense. It can also be shortened as 没。
For example,
didn't eat breakfast this morning.
今天早上我没有吃早饭
or
今天早上我没吃早饭

haven't gone to China.
没有去过中国。
or
没去过中国。
Click the following video to hear the sound.



The phrase 没有关系 is highly frequently used in our daily life. It means 'it's okay/ it's alright '
For example,
(Person A stepped on person B's foot by accident.)
A--  Sorry.
对不起。
B-- That's alright.
没有关系
or
没关系。

Another example,
Student--  Sorry, I didn't do homework.
对不起,我没有做家庭作业。
or
对不起,我没做家庭作业。
Teacher -- It's okay.
没有关系。
or 
没关系。
Click the following video to hear the sound:




Monday, June 3, 2013

国人讲普通话闹出的笑话1 (Joke about Speaking Mandarin)

普通话中众多的同音字、近音字为学习者带来了不少的麻烦。不仅是外国人,国内一些省份的人在说普通话时也会闹出不少的笑话。   
Those homophones and characters that sounds very similar to each other cause lots of trouble for Mandarin learners. Not only the foreigners, even the people from some provinces of China will make a show of themselves when they speak Mandarin.

下面的一则笑话是关于广东人的。

The following joke is about Guangdong people.

一个广东地方干部陪同外地干部到城郊参观,兴高采烈地说:“坐在船头看郊区,越看越美丽”,结果外地干部们听成了“坐在床头看娇妻”,一个个掩嘴窃笑。因此有句俗话,叫“天不怕,地不怕,就怕广东人说官话”。

A local government officer of Guangdong province is accompanying some government officers from other place on visiting the suburban area. "The suburban area looks so beautiful when we are sitting in the fore and enjoying the scenery." He comments excitedly. But in the other officers' ear, he says, " She looks so beautiful when I watch my lovely wife in the bed." Everyone sniggers at him. So there is a saying, " Nothing is more scary than hearing a Guangdong person speaks Mandarin."  

Do you know why this funny things happened in this joke?

Because here are couple of words that sounds similar to each other: