A great piece of advice whenever you learn a new language is to listen to it. There is little use in theory, a.k.a. grammar, if you can't actually pronounce the words or at least imagine how they sound. The point is not to understand every single word but rather to get used to the melody, rhythm of the language, and get to know its speech patterns and the way it sounds. This especially applies to the Chinese language, stuffed with symbols and tones you can't yet say right, if at all.
Knowing Chinese ideograms and how to use pinyin will totally help you on your way to fluency in or basic understanding of Chinese but remember and make sure not to neglect the ultimate goal: speaking. So get the language into your system even if at this point of the process you don't understand the meaning or the rules behind it.
Have fun and try this song, made by a British rock indie band called "Transition", that celebrates mistakes one might make when trying their Chinese in real life situations. The lyrics are a typical conversation one would have when they are spotted as a foreigner in China! (3:46) But besides that, it's just catchy :)
Interested in the lyrics and want to learn a little more about the song? Check out its pinyin version here.
On this fun note, why not to learn something fun in the Chinese language with which you could surprise your friends right now? During our Langventure we used that trick in the languages that allowed for it: Portuguese with its short interaction of "Pó pô pó?—Pó pô!", German with "Na? — Na!", or even Finnish with a whole conversation of "Kokko, kokoo kokoon koko kokko. — Koko kokkoko? — Koko kokko."
Chinese, too, lets us for this kind of ruse due to a large number of words in the language that have same pronunciation but completely different meanings. Since we have already met them in Japanese, we know they are called homophones (or 同音字 —tóng yīn zì— if you were curious). In pinyin, homophones can be a source of ambiguity. Example is a quirky passage «Shī Shì shí shī shǐ» («Lion-Eating Poet in the Stone Den») composed of 92 characters written in Classical Chinese, or Literary Chinese, —the language of the classic literature used up until the early 20th century. Old-ish, but still fun!
Now repeat after me:
«Shī Shì shí shī shǐ»
Shíshì shīshì Shī Shì, shì shī, shì shí shí shī.
Shì shíshí shì shì shì shī.
Shí shí, shì shí shī shì shì…
Original Text:
《施氏食狮史》
石室诗士施氏，嗜狮，誓食十狮。
氏时时适市视狮。
十时，适十狮适市…
Translation:
«Lion-Eating Poet in the Stone Den»
In a stone den was a poet with the family name Shi, who was a lion addict, and had resolved to eat ten lions.
He often went to the market to look for lions.
At ten o'clock, ten lions had just arrived at the market…
There we have, besides a fun Chinese masterpiece to dazzle with, simple way to remember Chinese words and characters for "lion" 狮 (shī), "ten" 十 (shí), "city" 市 (shì), "hour" 时 (shí) —say, "10 o'clock" will be 十时,— and even "constantly" 时时 (shíshí). And these are the words you can use with success in this era!
Talking about 狮 (shī), lions, one of the Chinese New Year traditions to bring good luck and fortune is to perform the so called "lion dance", or 舞狮 (wǔ shī). You can recognize now the symbol for "lion", but the one for "dance" is new. The lower part of that character —舛— has meaning "steps" (isn't it what a dance made of?). And the character 舞 (wǔ) is actually the middle part of the Japanese word kabuki 歌舞伎 which I am sure you are familiar with. For an originally Japanese word, kabuki, to include this "dancing" symbol in it? I'd say, quite interesting.
Did you notice, by the way, that 狮 (shī) for "lion" or "lions" doesn't change depending on the quantity of mentioned lions? The "secret sauce" is the Chinese grammar. Don't get me wrong, it is as complex as grammar of most Indo-European languages, just the way they are complicated is different.
The good news is it carries straightforward logic and there are some things that make matters just a tad easier. Say, these top 3 facts:
- Chinese nouns don't change (no plural forms).
- Chinese adjectives don't change (don't have gender or number).
- Chinese verbs don't change (no verb conjugation).
If you are about to jump into Chinese grammar and feel a bit uneasy or even simply curious how one goes about learning it, check out this helpful article that will definitely leave you more hopeful. And remember, things make more sense over time the more familiar they get.
One of the most curious Chinese characters for me, as a Russian, is this one —中 (zhōng).
The reason is —it looks just like the Russian letter №22: Ф (ef). Doesn't it? Since China is so close to Russia geographically, I even suspected some influence between the languages and turned the internet upside down in search of the connection the two symbols might have had. Nothing. Whatever made the Chinese people to end up with that 中 (zhōng) symbol, the evolution of 中, was not in the slightest the same thing that guided the Russians to the Ф (ef).
Zhōng 中 is also important to the Chinese people. It is in the name of their country: 中国 (zhōngguó). Here come together these two symbols: 中 (zhōng) that means "in the middle" and 国 (guó) —"country". In other words, "Middle Kingdom", or "Central State", "Central Country". And just like this China suddenly becomes, you got it, the center of the universe, either because it was regarded as a civilized country surrounded by the barbarians, or because the Chinese people were actively working and living in a fertile land known as the middle land (中原, zhōngyuán) which every lord with ambition would be eager to rule over.
Nowadays, for you and me 中国 (zhōngguó) means "China" or "Chinese". Put the symbol for "person" into the mix an you've got 中国人 (zhōngguórén) —"Chinese person" (without 国 (guó) it's just 中人 zhōngrén —a "middle man"). Add the character for "language" 文 (wén), and you get 中文 (zhōngwén), which you'll see a lot if you're learning 中文, or "Chinese language".
Interesting question: How do you say "Yes" and "No" in Chinese? Get this: there is no just a single word, like there is in English, that stands for either in the Chinese language. That Yes/No answer will actually depend on the context and/or grammar of the question. So how do you do it?
It simply goes like this: A positive answer to a question "Can you speak Chinese?" would be "I can" (会, Huì), where the negative one would be "I cannot" (不会, Bú huì). See 不 Bú (boo) there, or not, trying to scare you away? Just kidding. So you kind of have to repeat (for "Yes") or deny, most commonly with 不 Bú, (for "No") the "verb-in-charge" of a question... uhm... in question. :P
Let's see it in action using "Can you speak English?" as an example (4:16):
The word you should definitely turn into your mantra is Chinese "Thank you": 谢谢, Xiè xie. The proper sound for "x" here is something between [sh] and [s] sounds. You can also add at the end already familiar to you 你, Nǐ, for "You" (informal); 您, Nǐn, for "You" (formal) or 你们, Nǐmen, for "You" (plural) to make your "Thank you" even more polite.
The importance of this word is that it shows humility which is an important trait for the Chinese people. There are other ways to say "Thank you" that vary in shades of formality and depth of one's gratitude towards another and on situation, as to why there is "Thank you" in the first place. One of the examples would be 哪里哪里, Nǎ lǐ Nǎ lǐ, which is a humble expression denying a compliment, because taking praise is not courteous in China.
Some Chinese words, of Cantonese origin, you don't even have to learn because you use them already! That wrinkly doggie with a blue tongue, who still manages to look cute at all ages, comes from Cantonese 沙皮 (shā pèi), that literally means "sand skin". Yep, the Shar-Pei breed!
Obviously, the name of Chinese cabbage has Chinese origins —bok choy comes from 白菜 (bái cài), or "white vegetable". Same goes for dim sum —small bite-sized portions of food served in small steamer baskets. Again, the Cantonese pronunciation is used: 點心, dím sām. And the two characters the word is made up of (點 —"to touch briefly" and 心 —"heart") give you a hint that this dish will totally "touch your heart lightly".
On the other hand, mahjong carries the Mandarin pronunciation 麻將, má jiàng. In Chinese, the game was originally called 麻雀, máquè —meaning "sparrow"—which is still used in some southern dialects. It is said that the clacking of tiles during shuffling resembles the chattering of sparrows.
The revelation to me was the Chinese roots of the word "ketchup"! I always thought it was all-American, as in "catch up" —the sauce "catches up" with your food. Don't know, always made sense to me this way. Well, wrooong! Many theories exist on the subject where this word initially comes from. Of course, none of them proves my assumption, but one suggests Cantonese provenance: 茄汁 (ké zāp), or simply "tomato sauce".
Also, the phrase "Chop chop" is rooted in Cantonese: 速速, cūk cūk. Through Chinese workers at sea, it spread and was adopted by English seamen. The word "chopsticks" likely originates from this same root.
There is one Chinese phrase that will totally blow your mind! If you are doing "so-so" and your friends ask you a standard question of "How are you?", all you can say is, "Horse horse tiger tiger". If you are Chinese, that is. 马马虎虎 (mǎmǎhūhū) —easy to remember. Plus, adds a "horse" and a "tiger" to your Mandarin vocabulary. Btw, remember similar "Snake snake fish fish" response from the Thai language? Cute!
On this note, our Chinese Langventure comes to an end. To say the truth, I was dreading this language and writing 4 articles about it was the biggest emotional challenge on my journey through the languages insofar. But getting to know it closer, I realized that, although it tests your memory, Chinese is not that scary and pretty much learnable and doable.
And this revelation is more eye-opening than the downfall of ketchup's origin story. It is a completely different approach to a language, where one doesn't scan letters grouping them up into words, but rather symbols with vast meanings gathering them into a message guided by the context. And those symbols, that look weird and crazy at first encounter, start making more and more sense as you meet them more frequently. Suddenly, something you couldn't even begin to fathom becomes intelligible.
At least, on a mǎmǎhūhū level. Inside joke. :)
多保重！Duō bǎo zhòng! Take good care!
"Xiè xie for Langveturing in Chinese! Like me? Nǎ lǐ Nǎ lǐ"
Discover more about Chinese and other languages at langventure.strikingly.com!
