Logistics
The language
Mandarin for "no shirt, no shoes, no service"
Mandarin is a tonal language, which makes it difficult to learn. Use the wrong tone and the word has a completely different meaning. I really struggled with learning the language, and ended up learning what I call survival skills, i.e., I can order dishes in a restaurant, buy train or bus tickets, find a hotel room and get around by taxi, but no conversation.
Even if you’re on a guided tour, learning a little bit of the language is a plus. Try to learn a few basic phrases, such as hello, please and thank you. The chart below is very simplified with phonetic pronunciations. It’s not 100 percent accurate pronunciations, but it’s close enough the Chinese will know what you mean.
English word Chinese word Phonetic pronunciation
Hello/good day ni hao Knee how
Good bye zai jian zai (rhynes with "why") gee enn
Please qing ching
Thank you xie xie shay shay
I don't understand ting bu dong ting boo dong (rhymes with "wrong")
No bu boo
Yes/OK keyi kuh yee
I don't want it bu yao le bu yow (rhymes with "cow") leh
Excuse me/pardon me duibuqi dway boo chee
United States Mei guo May gwo
American Mei guo ren May gwo ren
I want to go to ... Wo yao chu Whoa yow chew
You can also take online lessons in the Mandarin language. Many sites offer a few lessons free to entice you to sign up as a paying customer. Free works for me! Another site that I like is Travlang which offers exercises with basic words in Mandarin as well as numerous other foreign languages. They'll even email you a word a day in your preferred language. This is the site I use when I want to do a quick brush-up on my Chinese before our upcoming trip.
Even if you’re on a guided tour, learning a little bit of the language is a plus. Try to learn a few basic phrases, such as hello, please and thank you. The chart below is very simplified with phonetic pronunciations. It’s not 100 percent accurate pronunciations, but it’s close enough the Chinese will know what you mean.
English word Chinese word Phonetic pronunciation
Hello/good day ni hao Knee how
Good bye zai jian zai (rhynes with "why") gee enn
Please qing ching
Thank you xie xie shay shay
I don't understand ting bu dong ting boo dong (rhymes with "wrong")
No bu boo
Yes/OK keyi kuh yee
I don't want it bu yao le bu yow (rhymes with "cow") leh
Excuse me/pardon me duibuqi dway boo chee
United States Mei guo May gwo
American Mei guo ren May gwo ren
I want to go to ... Wo yao chu Whoa yow chew
You can also take online lessons in the Mandarin language. Many sites offer a few lessons free to entice you to sign up as a paying customer. Free works for me! Another site that I like is Travlang which offers exercises with basic words in Mandarin as well as numerous other foreign languages. They'll even email you a word a day in your preferred language. This is the site I use when I want to do a quick brush-up on my Chinese before our upcoming trip.
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Copyright 2012 by Cheryl Probst. All rights reserved.
Copyright 2012 by Cheryl Probst. All rights reserved.
