The Chinese Language

When someone ask me what language I speak, I say Chinese just to simplify things. I don't say Mandarin or Cantonese unless that person asks me. I find that most people don't know the difference or really don't understand the difference. The people who do know the difference would ask and I would then take the time to explain.

However, I start to wonder what is 普通話 [pǔtōng huà] and 中文 [zhōngwén]. 中文 [zhōngwén] included all Chinese dialects. If you say 普通話 [pǔtōng huà], you are referring to Mandarin Chinese. 普通話 [pǔtōng huà] is the official language in China.

Internal curiosity: Why is it 普通 [pǔtōng]? 普通 [pǔtōng] means common. Is it that the everyday common people should know the official language of China? Is it because the Han people makes up the largest ethnic group in the world?

Eating in the Wild

Sometimes - well maybe a lot of the times - you look at a sentence in Chinese. You may know each character in the sentence but you still don't know what the sentence means.

I found this: 野餐

野 [yě] wild
餐 [cān] a meal, or to eat

What do you think this means? Eat in the wild? You have a wild game meat meal? You are surprised by some kind of strange meal you hunted? No, none of the above.

This means picnic. Strange, but I guess I can understand why these two characters are together.

Noisy

What do you think of  when you hear the word "noisy"?
If you hear the sentence - "It is New Year and it is noisy."
Do you think the speaker is talking about the event in a festive sense? In Chinese there are at least two ways to say noisy.


熱鬧 (T) /热闹 (S) [rènao]
The meaning of this is noisy, but has a joyful festive undertone.


On the other hand if you hear 
吵 (T/S) [chǎo] It means noisy.

Experience action marker

Previous post was about double negative.
(T) Verb + 過 不 少
(S) Verb + 过 不 少
(pinyin) Verb + guò bù shǎo
Translation: Verb + [experience action marker] not few

You may be wondering about the character 過(T) 过 (S) [guò].
Is there a change to the meaning if it were 得 (T/S) [dé]?  YES!


If you use 過(T) 过 (S) [guò], you are implying that the task has been completed awhile ago and is done.

If you use 得 (T/S) [dé], you are implying that the task has been done but the task may also not be completed.

So if you replace with 吃(T/S) [chī]
using
T: 吃 過 不 少
S: 吃 过 不 少
Pinyin: chī guò bù shǎo
Translation and meaning: Ate a lot already and is done eating

T/S: 吃 得 不 少
Pinyin: chī dé bù shǎo
Translation and meaning: Ate a lot already and may continue to eat

Double Negative

Double negatives are confusing in English and do you remember your English teachers telling you not to use it? Do you remember why? It is confusing for the speaker and the listener.

I was reading my textbook and was faced with this sentence structure. It is not a double negative by definition, but it is confusing and may trip you up. At least it did for me, and wasn't intuitive at first.

(T) Verb + 過 不 少
(S) Verb + 过 不 少
(pinyin) Verb + guò bù shǎo
Translation: Verb + [experience action marker] not few

Let's replace the verb with 吃(T/S) [chī]
Direct translation : eat not few
This means: He ate a lot or he didn't eat a small amount

Another example. Let's replace the verb with to study 讀(T) 读(S) [dú]
Direct translation: study not few
This means: He studied a lot or he didn't study a small amount of time

Do you see why this sentence structure reminds of me of double negative?

Translating for daycare

Today my daycare provider asked me to do some translations for my 20 month old girl.
I thought about using the correct pinyin. However, I decided the best thing to do was make it as easy as possible so they don't have to worry about tones.

So here goes nothing.

* We walk inside. We can run outside.
nee-men zoh zoh. why men pow pow
Pinyin: nǐmiàn zǒuzǒu. wàimiàn pǎo pǎo

* We take turns with our toys.
ee-chee wan
Pinyin: Yīqǐ wán

*We use nice touches when playing with our friends
shaw-shing moh-moh
Pinyin: xiǎoxīn mōmō

It was very hard not to put in the chinese tones in and pronounce it with the sh sounds!

Using a rope

One night a little boy and his father were in the woods. The little boy walked fast and walked ahead of his father. He wasn't careful and felled down a hole. Luckily he wasn't hurt, but he still needed help to get out. The little boy called out for help and his father heard him. His father ran home and retrieve a rope. He rushed to his son and tied one end to himself and threw the other end into the hole. The rope was very long and was able to reach his son.

The little boy ties the rope around his own waist. He couldn't see very well but he can hear his father's voice. He made his way up the hole, touching and feeling the sides of the dirt wall. He was scared and wasn't very good climbing at first. However, with time he was able to fumble his way out of the hole.

Sometimes you don't have the experience to do a task or you are put in a situation where you have to learn on the spot. You grope your way and figure things out. That is what 摸索 (T/S) [mōsuǒ] means.

摸 (T) [mō] to touch
索 (S) [suǒ] large cable or rope

Confusion between do not have and do not want

I think for non Chinese speakers it is easy to mix the two together. Perhaps since the pinyin is similar it is easy to mix the two.

不要[búyào] Do not want
没有[méiyǒu] Do not have

Think of the yǒu has the u. The u is like a bowl. It holds items. When there are no items in the bowl then it is empty. When you don't have something you use 没有[méiyǒu].

Why not eat meat congee?

The direct translation of 何不食肉糜 (T/S) [hébù shíròu mí] is why not eat meat congee? Congee, in case you don't know, is rice porridge. It is very soupy rice and you put various garnishes on it.

What do you think this phrase mean and why would you use it? Do you think the speaker is actually asking you why not eat a meal that has minced meat on it? Here's another clue... if a homeless person use this phrase versus a person who is not homeless, do you think the tone or the meaning would be different?

Ok give up? When someone uses this phrase s/he is being sarcastic. Something that is affordable to you is not affordable to him or her. In this case a plain dish with rice on it is a very simple dish to you. You can whip that up without too much effort or money. However to him or her they don't have the resources or the money to afford that meal.