Learn about special events
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| Hey guys, today we are going over phrases that you can use with Chinese people even when you are not in China. These are fun phrases for certain events. We are going to talk about happy birthday, happy New Year and congratulations. So let’s get started. Happy birthday is 生日快乐(Shēng rì kuài lè), the tones for this are first tone 生(shēng), fourth tone 日(rì), fourth tone again 快(kuài) and then no tone on the 乐(lè), 生日快乐(Shēng rì kuài lè). Literally 生日(shēng rì) means birthday and 快乐(kuài lè) means happy. So it’s birthday happy but in English of course happy birthday, 生日快乐(Shēng rì kuài lè). So somebody has a birthday you say to them oh 生日快乐(Shēng rì kuài lè), very simple guys and like I said, you can use this anywhere in the world. You meet some Chinese people in New York and it happens to be their birthday 生日快乐(Shēng rì kuài lè). The next one is happy New Year. The most important holiday in the Chinese year is the Chinese New Year or the spring festival. The way to say Chinese New Year in Chinese is 春节(chūn jié). Literally this means spring festival, 春(chūn) means spring, it’s first tone 春(chūn) and 节(jié) means festival or holiday, 节(jié) second tone. So 春节(chūn jié), first tone, second tone, 春节(chūn jié). So if Chinese people start talking to you about the spring festival, what they are talking about is what Americans usually call Chinese New Year 春节(chūn jié). The proper thing to say on 春节(chūn jié) is 恭喜发财(Gōng xǐ fā cái). This wishes them good luck and good fortune for the next year, 恭喜发财(Gōng xǐ fā cái). First tone 恭(gōng), third tone 喜(xǐ), first tone again 发(fā) and then second tone 财(cái), 恭喜发财(Gōng xǐ fā cái). This is really useful because there are Chinese people all over the world and Chinese New Year is really important for them. So if you say 恭喜发财(Gōng xǐ fā cái) to somebody on Chinese New Year, you will definitely bring a smile to their face. Let’s try it couple of more times, 恭喜发财(Gōng xǐ fā cái). The last one we are going to do is congratulations. The way you say congratulations is 恭喜(Gōng xǐ). Again this means, it is actually wishing somebody good luck or good fortune but it’s used at good events when you want to offer somebody congratulations like at a graduation. So you say to people 恭喜恭喜(Gōng xǐ gōng xǐ). The tones for this are first tone, third tone, 恭喜(Gōng xǐ). So like I said, if your friend’s son is graduated from college and you go to meet with them, the thing to say with them is 恭喜恭喜(Gōngxǐ gōng xǐ) or if somebody gets a new job, you say oh 恭喜恭喜(Gōngxǐ gōng xǐ). |
| 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)！ Phrase 1, happy birthday, 生日快乐(Shēng rì kuài lè). Phrase 2, Chinese New Year, spring festival, 春节(chūn jié). Phrase 3, the phrase used during Chinese New Year, 恭喜发财(Gōng xǐ fā cái). Phrase 4, Congratulations, 恭喜(Gōng xǐ). |
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