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Introduce Myself (自我介绍)

Jan 6 2012

When learning a language, one of the first things you need to learn how to do is how to introduce yourself (自我介绍 – zì wǒ jiè shào). Whether you are making friends, chatting with co-workers, or looking for love, you’ll obviously have to be comfortable talking about yourself and sharing basic personal information. As a way to help you in your Chinese studies, here’s a short personal introduction about myself:

大家好，我叫Sasha。我姓Savinov。今年我二十六岁。我来自美国。我的老家是底特律。我家有九个人：爸爸，妈妈，四个弟弟，两个妹妹，和我。我们也有一只狗。现在我住在北京。我在这儿工作。我是英语老师。我也是视频制作老师。我有漂亮的女朋友。她也是美国人。我们在一起住。我的爱好是：旅行，看书，听音乐，做运动，什么的。周末的时候我们喜欢去玩儿。比如：爬山，看音乐会，去饭馆吃饭，去酒吧喝啤酒。我很高兴认识你！

明白了吗? (míng bái le ma?) – Got it?

OK, I know that’s a lot to digest, so let’s break down my introduction a little bit:

大家好 – dà jiā hǎo – Hello everyone!

我叫Sasha – wǒ jiào Sasha – My (first) name is Sasha.

我姓Savinov – wǒ xìng Savinov – My (last) name is Savinov.

今年我二十六岁 – jīn nián wǒ èr shí liù suì – This year I’m 26 years old.

美国! F*** yeah!

我来自美国 – wǒ lái zì měi guó – I’m from the United States.

老虎加油！(Go Tigers!)

我的老家是底特律 – wǒ de lǎo jiā shì dǐ tè lǜ – My hometown is Detroit.

我家很大 (My family is really big.)

我家有九个人：爸爸，妈妈，四个弟弟，两个妹妹，和我 – wǒ jiā yǒu jiǔ gè rén: bà ba, mā mā, sì gè dì dì, liǎng gè mèi mei, hé wǒ – My family has nine members: dad, mom, four little brothers, two little sisters, and me.

我的狗有点胖 (My dog is a little fat.)

我们也有一只狗 – wǒ men yě yǒu yī zhǐ gǒu – We also have a dog.

现在我住在北京 – xiàn zài wǒ zhù zài běijīng – Now, I live in Beijing.

我在这儿工作 – wǒ zài zhè’er gōng zuò – I work here.

我是英语老师。我也是视频制作老师 – wǒ shì yīng yǔ lǎo shī. wǒ yě shì shì pín zhì zuò lǎo shī – I’m an English teacher. I’m also a video production teacher.

我们在景山公园 (We're at Jingshan Park.)

我有漂亮的女朋友. 她也是美国人 – wǒ yǒu piào liang de nǚ péng yǒu. tā yě shì měi guó rén – I have a beautiful girlfriend. She’s also American.

我们在一起住 – wǒ men zài yī qǐ zhù – We live together.

我的爱好是：旅行，看书，听音乐，做运动，什么的 – wǒ de ài hào shì: lǚ xíng, kàn shū, tīng yīn yuè, zuò yùn dòng, shén me de – My hobbies are: traveling, reading books, listening to music, playing sports, and so on.

周末的时候我们喜欢去玩儿 – zhōu mò de shí hou wǒ men xǐ huan qù wán er – On the weekend, we like to go out and play.

延庆县 (Yanqing County - outside of Beijing city.)

比如：爬山，看音乐会，去饭馆吃饭，去酒吧喝啤酒 – bǐ rú: pá shān, kàn yīn yuè huì, qù fàn guǎn chī fàn, qù jiǔ bā hē pí jiǔ – For example: climb a mountain, see a concert, eat out in a restaurant, or go to a bar to drink beer.

我很高兴认识你 – wǒ hěn gāo xìng rèn shi nǐ! – I’m pleased to meet you!

Well there you go. Now you know how to introduce yourself in Chinese, so find a new 朋友 and get practicing!

What’s in a Chinese Character? (Vol. 1)

Posted by sasha 1 Comment

Dec 2 2011

For foreigners studying Chinese, one of the most difficult aspects can be reading and writing Chinese characters (汉字 – hàn zì), which number in the tens of thousands. Functional literacy in the language requires a knowledge of about 3-4,000 characters. If you know this many, you should be able to read a newspaper (报纸 – bào zhǐ) in Chinese. Used for thousands of years, Chinese characters are the oldest continuously used system of writing in the entire world. While they used to be written vertically from right to left, these days they are written horizontally from left to right. When studying Chinese characters, there’s also the difference between traditional (繁体字 – fán tǐ zì) and simplified (简体字 – jiǎn tǐ zì) characters. Since the 1950s, mainland China has used the simplified characters, while Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan continue to use the traditional style. Here’s an example of the difference between the two - China (traditional - 中國, simplified – 中国). As you can see, the character for “middle” remains the same, but the character for “country” is quite different. Either way, the name for China is pronounced the same, “Zhōng guó”, meaning “middle country.”

While studying Chinese characters can certainly be intimidating, it can also be fun, and it is definitely a good work-out for your brain. Let’s take a look at some examples of Chinese characters and where they come from:

Let’s start with the simplest Chinese character – one (一 – yī). It is simply one horizontal stroke of the pen, and it clearly represents the number one. Well, they say that one is the loneliest number, so why not add something to it?

That brings us to the character for two (二 – Èr). Simply add another stroke to one, and you’ve got two. Once you get beyond one stroke, you have to also consider the stroke order when writing Chinese characters. The character for two shows us that one element of stroke order is writing from top to bottom. Well, two is OK, but three’s company, right?

The character for three (三 – sān) is simply three horizontal lines. Notice that the middle line is the smallest, followed by the top line, and finally the bottom line. If only all Chinese characters were so simple! Unfortunately, they aren’t. From here on out, the characters just get more complicated. However, deciphering the meaning of other characters can be very interesting.

As Chinese characters have been around for thousands of years, many of the modern day, simplified characters have simply evolved from ancient pictographs. Take, for example, the character for person (人 – rén):

As you can see, this character has evolved over time to represent the side view of a person. It’s quite simple, and easy to understand. Here is another example, the Chinese character for woman (女 – nǚ):

This character has evolved from a picture of a woman sitting in a traditional posture in ancient times. If you look closely, you’ll see this character used as a radical in many others. Look at the Chinese word for mother (妈妈 – mā mā), and you see that the left part of the character is the radical for woman. Makes sense, doesn’t it?

The character for man (男 – nán) is made up of two components: on top is the character for field (田 – tián), and on the bottom is the character for power (力 – lì). Before the days of skyscrapers and big multinational companies in China, a man was someone who demonstrated his power by working in the field. Thus, we have the character for man.

Before we go, let’s look at two more simple examples of Chinese characters.

One of the easiest characters to learn, and also one of the most useful, is the character for sun (日 – rì). Evolving from an ancient pictograph, this characters also means day in Chinese, which makes sense, as the sun rises and sets in one day. It is used in many words, such as: birthday (生日 – shēng rì), holiday (节日 – jié rì), and Japan (日本 – rì běn). It is also commonly used as a radical. Some examples include: morning/early (早 – zǎo), star (星 – xīng), and crystal (晶 – jīng). As the light on a crystal looks so bright and brilliant, it resembles several suns, as you can see in the character, which is made up of three suns.

If we’ve talked about the sun, we might as well talk about the moon (月 – yuè). As the moon revolves around the Earth once a month, this character also means month. In Chinese, every month of the year uses this character; the format is (number + moon). For example, January (一月 – yī yuè), February (二月 – Èr yuè), and all the way to December (十二月 – shí èr yuè).

By combining the character for sun with the character for moon, we get the character for bright (明 – míng). This makes sense, as both the sun and the moon are very bright.

There you go, now you’re on your way to understanding the complex written system of the Chinese language. For more help in your Chinese studies, check out the Transparent Chinese word of the day.

Tongue Twisters (绕口令)

Posted by Steve No Comments

Nov 22 2011

On the first day of study abroad in Beijing, my Chinese teachers taught our class this little tongue twister to help us work with our tones：

老师是四十四，是不是？（lǎoshī shì sìshísì, shì bú shì）

Translation: The Teacher is 44, no (is this true/true of false)?

Why this seemingly innocuous sentence? Was it really all that important to repeat (over and over) how to ask a simple, age-related question to a teacher? No. It was all because of the tones and pronunciation involved. Our teachers were trying to accustom our tongues to the Chinese language.

For a bunch of US students just arriving in Beijing, acclimating your ear was difficult enough, but speaking the language? It was like trying to talk with cotton balls in your mouth. Our teachers were providing us with standards Chinese “tongue twisters” or 绕口令 (ràokǒulìng) to whip our voices into shape (like this laowai):

All the text books and character sheets in the world will not prepare your mouth for the litany of linguistic leaps levied at your lethargic laowai larynx (try saying that five times fast) when you first start speaking Mandarin. In the first weeks abroad, I would literally find myself tongue tied, that is, able to produce the sound and character in my head, or through recognition, but utterly unable to make the conversion from brain to mouth. As I soon realized, in order to speak Chinese, I had to create my own “chinese voice”.

Whether it was making sure that my tones would have the proper inflection, learning to create sounds that are non-existent within English, or finding a natural cadence and rhythm to my talk, all required practice and repetition. Language is often muscle dependent-you either use it or lose it. It takes a good amount of work training your tongue, but there are fun ways to practice. If you really want to master your spoken Chinese, try some of these tongue twisters out:

妈妈骑马，马慢妈妈骂马
mā mā qí mǎ,
mǎ màn, mā mā mà mǎ.
Translation: Mother is riding a horse. The horse moves slowly. Mother chides the horse

四是四，十是十，十四是十四，四十是四十，四十四只石狮子是死的
sì shì sì
shí shì shí
shí sì shì shí sì
sì shí shì sì shí
sì shí sì zhī shí shī zǐ shì sǐ de.
Translation: 4 is 4, 10 is 10, 14 is 14, 40 is 40, 44 small stones are dead

知道就说知道
不知道就说不知道
不要知道说不知道
也不要不知道说知道
你知道不知道？

zhīdào jiù shuō zhīdào
bù zhīdào jiù shuō bù zhīdào
bū yào zhīdào shuō bù zhīdào
yě bū yào bù zhīdào shuō zhīdào
nǐ zhīdào bù zhīdào
Translation: If you know, just say you know. If you don’t know, just say you don’t know. You shouldn’t know and say you don’t know. And you shouldn’t NOT know and say you DO know. You know?

Now see how you compare to Jackie Chan:

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The Bǎ Construction (把)

Posted by Steve No Comments

Nov 20 2011

With few prepositions in the Chinese language, adding depth to your conversations is often difficult for non-native speakers. That’s why learning the bǎ construction (把) is a helpful way to improve your sentence formation and add grammatical complexity to your conversations. Instead of sticking to basic (and often boring) Subject-Verb-Object sentence patterns, the ba construction gives native English speakers something we’re used to: a bit more freedom in our sentence formation.

The bǎ construction is essentially a light-verb construction, similar to a preposition. In a bǎ construction, the object of a verb is placed after the function word ”把 (bă)”, and the verb placed after the object, forming a subject–object–verb (SOV) sentence. This contradicts the more standard grammatical constructions of Chinese sentences that follows a pattern of subject-verb-object (SVO).

The bǎ construction is only used in certain contexts, generally those in which the verb expresses “disposal of”, or action upon/in relation to a direct object. The direct object of a bǎ construction must meet certain requirements however. The object is usually a definite, meaning that it is specific and unique (as in phrases beginning with the equivalent of this, that, these, or those). For this to occur, both the speaker and the listener must be actively “aware” of the object in question (as it has an immediate relationship to both).

Generally speaking, the ba construction highlights the object in question, making it the focus of the sentence. Ba is thus often used in relation to a previous discussion or past conversation, with implied meanings. When used properly, the ba construction allows speakers to elevate their grammatical complexity and enhance their expressive abilities. It is also very helpful when you need to emphasize the importance of the object in question.

See the chart below for a more in-depth explanation and examples of how to use the ba construction:

	[subject]	[bǎ]	[direct object]	[verb]
	你	把	他的意思	讲出来了
Transcription	nĭ	bă	tā-de yìsi	jiăng-chū-lái le
Gloss	you	BA	he-POSSESSIVE meaning	speak-out-come CRS
Translation	You have explained what he meant. (Literally: “You have spoken out his meaning.”)

*Charts courtesy of Charles Li and Sandra Thompson (1981)

	我	把	这三本书	都卖了
Transcription	wŏ	bă	zhè sān-bĕn shū	dōu mài-le
Gloss	I	BA	these three-CL book	all sell-PERFECTIVE
Translation	I sold all three books.

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Using the “的” Modifier for Possessive Construction

Posted by Steve 2 Comments

Nov 17 2011

As your Chinese improves, adding complexity to your sentences can be tricky without the proper grammar tools. Especially when it comes to descriptions of particular nouns. Fortunately for you, showing ownership or possession in Chinese is quite easy to do grammatically using the modifier “的”.

The Chinese particle “de” (的) is most commonly used as a possessive modifier. It can be used between two nouns to indicate a relationship of possessor / possession. It is roughly equivalent to the contraction “X’s” in English (his/hers, yours, mine, my ours), where X is the subject. I liken it to the Spanish “de” (del or de la) in which it refers to “of the”, but remember the modifier precede the “de” not follows it.

The most basic example of which uses “mine” with a possessive 的:

English: My friend.

Chinese: 我的朋友.

Pinyin: Wǒ de péngyou.

This works for nouns in general, including pronouns, people, places and objects. Simply insert the “的” between two nouns or subjects and first subject modifies the second. “的” can be used in varying complexities of sentences with multiple subjects, nouns and even adjectives:

“的” can also be used as a descriptor for nouns by placing the “的” between the adjective (first) and the noun/subject (second). Think of it as “noun of adjective”. A basic example of which pertains to colors:

English: Blue clothing

Chinese: 蓝色的衣服

Pinyin: lánsè de yīfu

Lastly, The “的” particle can be used for emphasis or affirmation by placing it at the end of a sentence (following Subject-verb-object construction). While not used all too often, placing “的” at the end of a sentence (often with a “是” at the beginning) really helps to get your point across, especially if a Chinese speaker is haranguing you. Here’s a simple example:

English: I am going！

Chinese: 我会去的！

Pinyin: Wǒ huì qù de!

Please note however, that with proper nouns and in particular instances of a strong relationship between two people, the “的” modifier is often dropped for speed and ease of language, so long as the context is understood by both the speaker and listener. For example you can say: 他大学 instead of 他的大学（his university) and people won’t bat an eye.

Give it a try, 我(的)朋友们 (my friends)!

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