Learn how to ask someone to take your picture
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| All right, China is a unique country and you are going to want to have pictures of it. You might even want to have pictures of China with yourself in them just to you know prove that you actually went there and pictures maybe with you and your friends together, not just you taking a picture of your friend and then your friend taking a picture of you. In order to do this, we are going to need to ask somebody to take your picture. The way to say this is 请帮我照照片(Qǐng bāng wǒ zhào zhàopiàn.). Let’s break it down word by word, meaning by meaning. The first word is 请(qǐng) which means please. Then we have 帮(bāng) which means to help, 我(wǒ) is me, 照(zhào) is a verb which can mean to take pictures and 照片(zhàopiàn) means photograph. So altogether we have please help me take photograph. 请帮我照照片(Qǐng bāng wǒ zhào zhàopiàn.), one more time, 请帮我照照片(Qǐng bāng wǒ zhào zhàopiàn.). Now let’s go over the tones, 请(qǐng) is third tone, the falling, rising tone, 帮(bāng) is first tone, flat tone, 我(wǒ) is third tone again, the falling, rising tone, 照(zhào) is fourth tone, falling tone and 照片(zhàopiàn) is two fourth tones, both falling tone, 照片(zhàopiàn). So one more time, 请帮我照照片(Qǐng bāng wǒ zhào zhàopiàn.). All right, now if you want to make it more friendly, more casual, then you can add ba to the end of this. Putting 吧(ba) at the end of requests or statements makes them more casual and more friendly. So you say 请帮我照照片吧(Qǐng bāng wǒ zhào zhàopiàn ba.). So one more time, 请帮我照照片吧(Qǐng bāng wǒ zhào zhàopiàn ba.). One of the most fun things and something that will probably take you by surprise when you first get to China, when you are first going around to the tourist sites is Chinese people will often want to take pictures with you and so you will often have Chinese people coming up and asking you making this request 请帮我照照片吧(Qǐng bāng wǒ zhào zhàopiàn ba.). You might need to clarify, do they want you to take a picture of them or do they want you to take a picture with them. Many Chinese people, Chinese tourists in China do not get very many chances to meet foreigners and so seeing a foreigner is a very exciting experience just as exciting as seeing Tiananmen Square and so they want to take pictures to remember their experience. This can actually be a fun, fun thing to do, a good way to practice your Chinese and maybe you make some new friends that you wouldn’t otherwise meet. Once they ask you to take a picture, you can flip it around, practice this Chinese phrase and you say to them, hey 请帮我照照片吧(Qǐng bāng wǒ zhào zhàopiàn ba.), probably they said to you something like picture okay. You can really impress them by turning out the Chinese phrase and saying 请帮我照照片吧(Qǐng bāng wǒ zhào zhàopiàn ba.). One thing that all Chinese students love when they are first learning Chinese is the word that Chinese people use when they are taking pictures. Americans, we say jeez because it makes you smile. Chinese people, they say 茄子(Qié zi!), 茄子(qié zi) means Eggplant. So when they are taking a picture, they go 一二三(yī èr sān), 1 2 3, 一二三茄子(Yī èr sān qié zi.) and everyone laughs and they all say Eggplant. So let’s practice it together, 茄子(qié zi). So if someone is taking your picture, you will hear this and you should say it too and if you are taking someone’s picture, you should try saying it. |
| All right, to close our today’s lesson, we’d like you to practice what we’ve just learned. I will provide you with the English equivalent of a phrase and you are responsible for shouting it out loud. You will have a few seconds before I give you the answer. So 加油(Jiā yóu!). Please take my picture, 请帮我照照片(Qǐng bāng wǒ zhào zhàopiàn.). Now the same phrase but made a little bit more casual, 请帮我照照片吧(Qǐng bāng wǒ zhào zhàopiàn ba.). That Chinese version of jeez when you are taking a picture, 茄子(Qié zi!). |
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