User Comments - light487

Posted on: 你好 (Nǐhǎo) is a Many-Splendored Thing

What I did in situations like that, as I mentioned in the most recent News and Features lesson is say:

你好.. then if they rattle off a whole bunch of Chinese, you can say:

我只会说中文一点儿.. (wǒ zhī huì shuō zhōngwén yīdiǎnr) to tell them that your Chinese is limited.. hehe.. :)

Posted on: Luke is Back! And So Are the Zombies!

I did have a phrasebook yeh.. but I didn't use it all that much. Hand gestures and basic vocab is all that was needed in many situations where I couldn't remember the proper word. I remember when I got back to Shanghai and I was exploring the city by myself, I couldn't think of the word for Subway Station (地铁站 dìtiězhàn) so I just walked up to a police officer type person and said "火车在哪里?" (huǒchē zài nǎlǐ?) and made the hand gesture for something travelling underneath something else.. 火车 means "train", which is the word I did know.. so I used that and the hand gesture technique to get my message across.. it's a very effective means of communication.. :)

On one of the occasions that I did consult my phrasebook, it was to look up the word for Airport (飞机场 fēijī chǎng) so I could buy a bus ticket on the Aiport Shuttle Bus. When I did go to buy the ticket I just said "我要飞机场票" (wǒ yāo fēijī chǎng piào). I was standing in the bus terminal at the time, so the context sorted out the rest of the sentence for me.. hehe.. :)

The trouble I had was actually regarding the time I wanted to depart.. I was saying to the lady "六点三分钟" liù diǎn sān fēnzhōng, which is not quite correct but roughly means 6:03.. hehe.. but of course there are no buses that leave at 6:03.. only at 6:00 or 6:30, which is what I meant. After (eventually) choosing a 6:00 departure, I went back to my hostel and discussed the language problem with them.. they alerted me to the fact that I was missing the word 十 shí in my sentence.. haha.. I could have just said 六点半 liù diǎn bàn (half past 6) but 六点三十分 is what I was trying to say.. :)

Posted on: Luke is Back! And So Are the Zombies!

Haha.. it's strange to hear my own voice on a ChinesePOD broadcast! :) It was extremely enjoyable to visit the Praxis Language offices on both occasions and they are (and will continue to be) some of my fondest memories of my visit to China. Like I said in my interview, I will be back in China very shortly but it feels like a lifetime away now that I am back in Sydney, Australia.

I'd like to elaborate on what I said in the interview for a moment. Basically, when I first stepped into China I tried to use my language on the very first day and I encountered a "language block" because I just didn't have enough practical usage of the language before that. I walked into a snack shop and wanted to order some dumplings for breakfast and I couldn't even remember the words for "I want".. all I could remember was the word for dumplings (饺子 jiǎozi) but I even pronounced that incorrectly so the lady had no idea what I was saying, especially since that was the only word I said and there was no other context.

After travelling around the country, I had bought food and other items many, many times (ridden buses, metro trains, taken taxis, asked for the location of things, gotten lost, joked around etc) so by the time I was back in Shanghai again, I had no trouble buying things that I didn't even know the words for.. like slippers (拖鞋 tuōxié). I didn't really learn all that many more words while I was there, may be 15 to 20 new words in total. What I did learn was how to use what I did know and how to pronounce that limited vocabulary better.

That is the main difference from the start to end: the confidence factor. Also there was the recall factor as well but I think that first you need to be confident in using the language and then as you use it more because you are more confident, the recall of words, phrases and usages comes more and more naturally.

Another thing I discovered while I was there is that there are sets of vocabulary that you use with certain types of people or situations. For example, the word 痛 tòng, which means "pain" was mainly used when I was getting a massage. I didn't use that word anywhere else because there just wasn't any need for it. Another word would be 给 gěi, which basically means "to give", was used only in situations where people actually give you things, like in a shop or bar. It may seem obvious when explained like this but you don't really realise it until you get out there and use the language. There are simply words you do and don't use with different people and in different situations. So they are what I like to refer to as Situational Vocabulary Sets..

Another thing that may seem obvious is the usage of basic phrases and words like 可以 kěyǐ, 你好 nǐhǎo, 不要了 búyàole etc. These words don't seem very useful by themselves and I have even seen discussions that some, like 你好, are not even used in real daily language.. but they are.. and all the time. I think I used 不要了 and 不用了 at least a hundred times while I was in China. These are definitely high frequency, key phrases in the language that should not be overlooked.

A couple of cool phrases that I used throughout my trip, which helped with the language barrier in the smaller cities, are:

我会说中文一点儿
wǒ huì shuō zhōngwén yīdiǎnr
I can speak a little Chinese

我听懂一点儿
wǒ tīngdǒng yīdiǎnr
I can understand a little Chinese

I suppose I could have added in a 只 zhī (only) there but it wasn't really needed as it was implied by the sentence. These two little phrases made both myself and the other person a little more relaxed in many of the situations I was in. The biggest barrier is fear/nerves, so if you can throw something like this at them at the very start (or near the start) of the conversation/interaction, it puts everyone at ease and you can definitely see a big difference in their face when they know you have taken the time to learn some of their native language.

Ok this is a really long post now.. sorry for that.. but one last thing.. here is a picture of that strange, dessert-like dish I was given at the end of my meal in Xi'an:

Posted on: 你好 (Nǐhǎo) is a Many-Splendored Thing

I also find that if you start your conversation with a Chinese person, especially in service industries or in western countries where people readily speak English, it also introduces the fact that you are wanting to speak Chinese from that point forward.

I have found that in many these cases, if I just say something in Chinese, that the people will not understand what I am saying because they are expecting me to speak English as I am obviously a westerner. As soon as I started using the "ni hao" at the beginning of the interaction, they were ready for the next bit in Chinese. It's especially useful when you are in a hurry and quickly need to ask someone where the toilet is, or which train/bus goes to a certain place etc.

Posted on: Asking the Bus Destination

I have to admit that riding the bus in China can be a bit 害怕 hàipà (scary) but if you do a bit of preparation and have someone write or SMS you the destination in Chinese characters for you, then everything becomes extremely simple. Most hostels/hotels will assist you with the Chinese characters for the destination if you don't have friends to SMS you the destination, and if all else fails then you can use this lesson to ask people while you are still at the bus stop itself. People, who know the destination of course, will point at the sign for you and then you will know which characters to keep an eye out for. :)

Posted on: Napkins

I did notice that you couldn't smoke inside the little buildings along the wall but I sparked up a few times along the 40km journey around them.. hehe.. :) I didn't notice any of the "alight from bike" signs though.. wouldn't have bothered me anyway.. but yeh, there was a definite feeling of separateness from the world below as I rode around.. :)

Posted on: Napkins

You can read about my Xi'an experience for more detail here: http://daily.lukeparsons.info/?p=408

And yeh.. I am going to write the rest of the blog posts eventually :)

Posted on: Napkins

To be honest, I lugged around both the LP China Guide and the Phrase book. I used the phrasebook only a few times throughout my entire 4 week adventure but it was just to look up a word that I was going to use.. I never actually used the phrases from the book itself but it served as a much more useful dictionary than a standard dictionary because it had examples of usage etc

The guidebook I didn't even take out of the bag and it ended up at the very bottom of my ruck-sack by the end. I did however use it a lot during the ideas and planning stage of my trip, so it wasn't a complete waste. My trip was what I like to refer to as "language tourism".. so the guide (and phrasebook for that matter) itself was contrary to my goals for the holiday. I "wanted" to be put in situations where my language skills weren't up to scratch simply to find out which parts of my language skills needed improvement, for example my restaurant skills were (and still are) severely lacking. :)

Posted on: Napkins

Lonely Planet have a great book and it is printed in quite a few languages.. The next edition (#11) is going to be published in May 2009, so you should definitely wait for that to come out. Here is the link for the book although the site defaulted to the English version for me but I am fairly sure I have seen other languages:

Lonely Planet China Travel Guide

Posted on: Napkins

I took the opportunity, when I was still in Australia, to buy some of those wet-wipes toilet paper before leaving. They are great for wiping the western-style toilet seats and you feel a lot less violated when leaving a stinky public toilet.. hehe.. :)

Beijing definitely had more public toilets than Shanghai.. about one every 50 metres or so. In Shanghai, you really need to search for them.. hehe.. and the signs leading to them aren't always that obvious. It was in Shanghai that I had to pay to use them for the first and only time. It is the toilet near the Pearl Tower and they charge you 5 jiao (10 jiao = 1 yuan) to use it. Most of the public toilets near tourist centres and bus stations actually have little booths where you can buy the toilet paper as well, so that makes things easier I guess.. :)