Teach Yourself Beginners Mandarin Chinese by Elizabeth Scurfield, Lianyi Song (AlanPolyglot)

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teach yourself

beginner's mandarin chinese elizabeth scurfield and song lianyi

For over 60 years, more than 50 million people have leamt over 750 subjects the teach yourself way, with impressive results. be where you want to be with teach yourself

For UK order enquiries: please contact Bookpoint Ltd, 130 Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4SB. Telephone: +44 (0) 1235 827720. Fax: +44 (0) 1235 400454. Lines are open 09.00-17.00, Monday to Saturday, with a 24-hour message answering service. Details about our titles and how to order are available at www.teachyourself.co.uk For USA order enquiries: please contact McGraw-Hili Customer Services, PO Box 545, Blacklick, OH 43004-0545, USA. Telephone: 1-800-722-4726. Fax: 1-614-755-5645. For Canada order enquiries: please contact McGraw-Hili Ryerson Ltd, 300 Water St, Whitby, Ontario, L1N 9B6, Canada. Telephone: 905 430 5000. Fax: 905 430 5020. Long renowned as the authoritative source for self-guided learning - with more than 50 million copies sold worldwide - the teach yourself series includes over 500 titles in the fields of languages, crafts, hobbies, business, computing and education. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data: a catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: on file. First published in UK 1996 by Hodder Education, 338 Euston Road, London, NW1 3BH. First published in US 1996 by The McGraw-Hili Companies, Inc. This edition published 2003. The teach yourself name is a registered trade mark of Hodder Headline. Copyright © 1996, 2003 Elizabeth Scurfield and Song Lianyi

In UK: All rights reserved. Apart from any permitted use under UK copyright law, no part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information, storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher or under licence from the Copyright Licensing Agency Limited. Further details of such licences (for reprographic reproduction) may be obtained from the Copyright licensing Agency Limited, of 90 Tottenham Court Road, London, wn 4LP. In US: All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the United States Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Typeset by Graphicraft Limited, Hong Kong. Printed in Great Britain for Hodder Education , a division of Hodder Headline, 338 Euston Road, London, NW1 3BH, by Cox & Wyman Ltd, Reading, Berkshire. The publisher has used its best endeavours to ensure that the URLs for external websites referred to in this book are correct and active at the time of going to press. However, the publisher and the author have no responsibility for the websites and can make no guarantee that a site will remain live or that the content will remain relevant, decent or appropriate. Hodder Headline's policy is to use papers that are natural, renewable and recyclable products and made from wood grown in sustainable forests. The logging and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin. Impression number Year

20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006

about the course pronunciation guide 01 ni hao! ni hao rna? hello! how are you? saying hello and goodbye· exchanging greetings • saying please and thank you • making a simple apology· observing basic courtesies ni jiao shenrne? what's your name? 02 saying who you are • making simple introductions • asking who other people are • addressing people correctly • denying something ni shi na guo ren? where are you from? 03 saying where you come from and what nationality you are • asking for and giving an address • numbers 0-10 • asking for and giving a telephone number • filling out a form ni you xiiingdi jiernei rna? do you have 04 brothers and sisters? talking about yourself and your family • asking other people about their family • asking someone if they are married and/or have children • saying how old

vii xiv 1

11

21

32

you are· asking how old somebody is

iv

.... (')

0

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CD

05

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• counting up to 100 ji dian Ie? what time is it now?

12 43

days of the week • months of the year

06

• telling the time • asking what time it is • useful expressions of time • giving the date • making arrangements ni jTntiiin xiang zuo shenme? what do you want to do today?

13

14 55

saying what you want to do • understanding and asking for advice • expressing similarities

07

08

09

• comparing and contrasting duoshao qian? how much is it? asking for things (in shops) • asking the price • stating quantities • numbers 100-1,000 • expressing the distance between two points zenmeyang? what's it like? asking about sizes • talking about clothes and shoes· describing things • expressing likes and dislikes • making comparisons qu ... zenme zou? how do I get to ... ? asking for and understanding directions

68 15

83 16 95 17

• using public transport • asking people if they have ever done something • expressing how long something happens for

10

11

nln xiang chT shenme? what would you like to eat? ordering a meal and drinks· paying the bill • saying you have given up something (such as smoking) • more about verb endings women kankan Hanzi bar let's look at Chinese characters! the structure of Chinese characters • the rules of writing· writing the numbers 1-99, the days of the week, the date and the time

108

18

19 121

zai IOguan at the hotel checking into a hotel • saying if something is wrong • making requests • making complaints huoche, piao he chiiziiche trains, tickets and taxis asking for and understanding information about trains • understanding train announcements • buying train tickets • useful time expressions yuh'! hu6dong free time and entertainment saying what you like doing in your free time • asking somebody what they would like to do • sports and hobbies • making arrangements • summer and winter, indoor and outdoor activities zai y6uju he huan qian at a post office and changing money buying stamps • sending and collecting a parcel • making a long distance call • sending a fax • numbers above 1,000 zuo ke being a guest making a toast· making appropriate remarks and responses during a meal kan yTsheng seeing a doctor describing your symptoms to the doctor or pharmacist· understanding the instructions on the medicine bottle • acupuncture, Chinese herbal medicine, taijlquan and qigong duifu went! coping with problems asking for help • key expressions to describe your problem • expressions required in an emergency • the basic Highway Code in China xuexi Zhongwen learning Chinese basic vocabulary to describe the characteristics of a language • talking about your future plans • responding to compliments or forthright remarks

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20

lilxlng he tianqi travel and weather

21

• regional differences • talking about the weather tan ganxiang experiences, feelings and reflections talking about things that happened in the past

saying how to get somewhere • Chinese festivals

0

0

... ... :::J

it fandian, binguan de tiao;i~n ~Iliig~an, !u~!an d~ •.•• '11 .111 h.io duole. Dangran tamen ye bl luguan , ludlan gUt a, .. .1,-

when ... (10) tai ... le (7) not any more (10) to do something for somebody (6) to be in the middle of doing something (6)

*JAii.~

:fv-t~1i

CHANGCHENG FANDIAN

HE PING BTNGUAN

""lguan/fandiim/hlguanllfidian ci fan gezhong geyang de tiaojian weishenrne? xuanze yiban yuanyJn

*fit~1i

hotel word food; meal all kinds of condition why? to choose usually reason

DONGFENG LlJGUAN

In Chinese, there are several words for something that has just one word in English. Read the following passage and find out what those words are and what they mean. Furthermore, if you go to China as a foreigner can you stay in just any hotel so long as you can afford it? (Words in italics are explained in the box below the passage.)

1 Read the opening passage twice. Then answer .Jlowing questions in Chinese. You may ne~d to read the . ' •. q :!" ;\ few more times to answer all the questIOns.

• " " I\C

"" t, I

t

are some of the Chinese words for hotel? " ( . 111 foreigners stay in any hotel m Chma? ,I I), It'S the passage tell you why this is the case? I ' \\ 'Iut is the position for Chinese people themse ves. •

\\11.11

t.

\\11.lt do they mean?

Key words and phrases

Fimdiim

Xuanze IOguan

Hotel

Choosing a hotel

Hotel zhei ge ci de Zhongwen keyr shi binguan, fandicm, lfiguan he lfidian. Fandian he binguan yiban hen da, liiguan he liidian yiban btl qa. Guan he dian dou sill 'house' de yisi. Bin de yisi shi 'guest', Iii de yisi shi 'travel'. Pan shi 'food' de yisi. Zai Zhongguo hen duo liiguan he liidian bu rang waiguo-ren zhU. Weishenme? You gezhong geyang de yuanyin. Yiqian hen

anjing Bao zaocan rna? -zaocan/zaofan biao biede bijiao buguo cesuo chao ci da dilmhua danren/shuangren fangjian •• , de shihou dianshi fUwu

quiet Is breakfast included? breakfast form other relatively but, however toilet noisy time, occasion to telephone single I double room when television service

135

fuwutai gaosu haiyou huan huzMo jian jingli Ilnyu meiyuan neng ruguo shenme shlhou? shu! tian wantan xiang yao xiaoshl x!zaojian xiii yaoshi Ylding you wenti zhao zhengzai zou

136

reception (lit. service platform) to tell another thing (lit. still have) to return something to passport (measure word for rooms) manager shower US dollar to be able to, can if when? / what time? water to fill in (a form) dinner, supper would like hour bathroom to repair key certainly, definitely to have problems to ask for, to want to see at this moment to leave

t '~""lIyufln

t .....

",...,.,yuiln t • ., ... t ......llyw'ln

"'.,,10 ''''...."yuiln

"'./110 t ...... llyuan

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'''''III/yuan

"./110 tltwuyuan "./lk

'1\,.I(r) placed after the " ,I ," t l'r instructions or I ,.

II I

verb softens the meaning; it is often advice as in the example above.

~c 2 Are these statements about Dialogue 1 dul or bu

.1.11 '

4

I.

.1

Dialogues

KeyL Yi ban du6shao qian? Danren fangjian mei ban wushi meiyuan. Bao zaocan ma? Dangran bao. You xizaojian ma? You. Buguo zhl you Ifnyu he cesuo. Hao ba. Qing xi an tian Ylxiar zhei zhang biao .... 01ng gei wo ninde huzhao. Nin zou de shfhou huan gei nino Zhe shi wOde huzhao. Ninde fangjian shl er-ling-yao, zai er lou. Zhe shi yaoshi. Xiexie. Ruguo nin you wenti, qing gei fuwutai da dianhua. Bu hul you wenti ba.

dUI

bu dUI?

I Ill' price does not include breakfast. I h.. guest can take a bath in his room. I h.. hotel keeps the guest's passport

0 0

0 0

.luring his stay. I he guest's room is on the first floor. Ihe guest is asked to ring reception II he has any problems.

0 0

0 0

0

0

D Dialogue 1 Frank is checking into a hotel. Listen to or read the dialogue betw~en Frank and the fuwuyuan (attendant), and then do ExerCise 2. Fuwuyuan Frank Fuwuyuan Frank Fuwuyuan Frank

Nin hao! NT hao! WO xiang yao yl jian danren fangjian. Nin yudlng Ie ma? Mei you. Nfn yao zhu ji tian? San, sl tian. WO mingtian gaosu nT wo shenme shihou zou, keyT ma?

Fuwutai

Reception

137

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~

CD

S [

-a. I'\)

138

...a

::T CD ::T

i

a Dialogue 2 Frank is ringing reception from his hotel room to make some complaints. What are his complaints and how are they resolved? Fuwuyuan Frank Fuwuyuan Frank Fuwuyuan Frank Fuwuyuan Frank Fuwuyuan Frank

,I

You

(Say the football match will be starting in half an hour!) (Use after half an hour)

139

......

II)

::T CD ::T

Key words and phrases

Nfn hao. Fuwutai. Woshi (zhu) er-Ifng-yaofangjian de Frank. Wodefangjian tai chao Ie. Neng bu neng huan yl jian anjing yidianr de? DuibuqT, mei you biede danren fangjian Ie. ZhT you shuangren fangjian. Shuangren fangjian yi wan shang duoshao qian? Bi danren fangjian gui ershi meiyuan. Tai gui Ie. Ruguo mfngtian women you biede danren fangjian, yfding gei nfn huan. Hao ba. 0, hai you, wode IInyu zenme mei you re shuT? Dulbuqi, xianzai zhengzai xiu. WU ge xiaoshf yihOu jiu you Ie. WU ge xiaoshf yihOu? Bu xing. WO yao zhao nimende jTnglT.

[

restaurant, canteen canting something to eat chide something to drink he de ham huotui to add jia to (call to) wake up jisoxing chicken (meat) jirou coffee kafei (to) trouble mafan milk nai cheese nail so beef niurou to get up qi sandwich sanmingzhl what kind? shenme yang de? to send over (to the speaker) song lai to send over (away from the song qu speaker) sugar tang Good night! Wan'an! now xianzai a short while yihui(r) drink(s) yinliao

You know how to say A is much more expensive than B: A hi B gui deduOl duole. If you want to say exactly by how much A is more expensive than B, you use: A hi B gui + (by how much) Shuangren fangjian hi danren A double room is US$20 more fangjian gui ershi miiyuan. expensive than a single. Exercise 3 You are staying in a hotel in China. The following dialogue is between you and the hotel receptionist (fUwiIymin). You are ringing to complain:

Dialogue 3

Fuwuyuan a You

i'Llllk gets back to his hotel very late and finds the bar (jiiiha) l losed. Read the dialogue and find out why.

Fuwuyuan

h c

You Fuwuyuan You Fuwuyuan

Nin hao. Fuwutai. (Say your name and that you are in room 301 and your room is too small. Ask if it is possible to change to a bigger one.) Duibuqi, mei you biede danren fangjian Ie. Zhi you shuangren fangjian. (Ask how much a double room costs.) Bi danren fangjian gui ershf meiyuan. (Say that's too much. Another thing. Ask why there is no television in your room.) DuJbuqT, dianshi xianzai zhengzai xiu. Liang ge ban xiaoshi yihou jiu xiu-hao Ie.

Fuwuyu{m Frank

Nin hao. FuwUtai. , WO shi er-IIng-yao fangjian ~e ~rank,~~o?way. ~en~ bu neng mafan nimen gei wo song lal Yldlanr chi de. WO e Ie. • hV Duibuqi, canting xianzai guan men Ie. Women z I you sanmingzhl he yTnliao. _ , '? Keyi. Nimen you shenme yang de sanmlng~hl.., , Women you nailao de, huotui de, jTrou de ~e ~IU~?U_de. Wo yao yi ge nailao de, yi ge niurou de. he yl bel kafel. v

Fuwuyuan Frank Fuwuyuan Frank

140

Fuwuyuan Frank Fuwuyuan Frank Fuwuyuan Frank Fuwuyuan Frank Fuwuyuan

...6.

I\,)

Hao de. KiHei yao jis nai, jis tang ma? Yao jis nai, bu jis tang. Xfng. Women ylhuir jiu song quo Hai you . Mfngtian zaoshang wo yao qi-de hen zao. Nimen neng bu neng da dianhua jiaoxing wo? Keyi. Ji dian? QT dian ban. Mei wentL Xiexie ni. wan'an. Wan 'an.

I

I\e 4 Make the following requests in Chinese using ~he N eng bu neng gei wo ... ? If you want to be more polite, 'f V( ) gel wo ....'Th . 11 ,.\11 say neng bu neng Il1:a an. m ~en : e " hillt' word for each object IS wntten 10 brackets after it. , h· \ .\11 you send me up samet mg to eat. something to drink? a cup of tea, with milk but no sugar? two sandwiches, one cheese, and one ham? \Ill

, , II, ' Ill: I

v·

v

.

,,~ rt~ / lm~MM B J ~

"'jgjl!tf?~

f

-Jiuba

The Chinese language is much more specific about the direction in which things are said or done by the speaker than English. This means that you will often find the little words qit (go) or hii (come) at the end of a sentence: qit indicates away from the speaker and l:ii indicates towards the speaker: Neng bu neng mMan nimen gei wo song lai yldianr chi de? Women ylhuir jiu song quo

Could I trouble you to send me up something to eat? We'll send it up as soon as we can (lit. in a moment).

II

IAIIII (tiilO) weishengzhi (juan) xiangzao (kuai) nuanshuipfng (ge) I,

{.\11

you give me a wake-up call? give me a phone call? buy me a bottle (ping) of wine? give me another blanket/roll of toilet paper? give me a bigger piece of soap? give me a thermos flask (of hot water)?

D bcrcise 5

Listen to the recording and fill in the following k·s. You need to remember the words fuwit (service) ~nd 11111.10 (to be polite!courteous). If you ~aven't ~ot the recordm?, " ,Id the dialogue which comes after this exerClse and then fill 10 , I,,· hlanks .

! .llll

I'Ltnk now stays at Hotel. I'he conditions in the hotel are - - - - Ihe service there is _ __ ,I The staff are _ _ _ __ I Ie has changed his hotel - - - -

.1

It

Qing wu darao!

o

Do not disturb!

Rooms in small hotels in China are usually equipped with thermos flasks containing hot water for you to make tea. These are emptied and refilled every morning often quite early so if you don't want to be disturbed at say 7am, remember to put the 'Don't disturb' notice on your door. When you leave your room, you can put the thermos flask(s) outside your door so that they can be refilled before your return.

UII I ronk UII Fronk lIli Frank lIli

Frank

NT xianzai zhu zai nar? D6ngfsng BTnguan. Til' .

p ~;eating in Chinese cinemas and theatres: as you can see in t .lIrcise 6 below, all the even seat numbers are grouped together on ,ft" ';Ide and all the uneven ones on the other. Only seat numbers 1 ,II" t ;> are next to each other sequentially. This means that when you ./" Illto a Chinese cinema you need to check whether your seat ,,, ",,hers are shuanghao (even) or danhao (odd). If they are even, o