Learn how to greet someone and introduce yourself
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Victor: 你好 (Nǐ hǎo). This is Victor! 欢迎 (Huānyíng)! |
| Amber: Hi, and I’m Amber. And welcome back to ChineseClass101.com, the way to learn and love Mandarin. |
| Victor: Hello, everyone! Great to have you back! |
| Amber: And this lesson is Part 2 of our 3-Part Introduction Series on ChineseClass101. |
| Victor: So hopefully after our first intro lesson you went straight to a noodle shop and used your new Chinese skills to order! |
| Amber: Yes, we certainly did. So, noodles. Yeah, the noodle was great to learn about last lesson, and we also introduced to you some features of our learning system, and explained how you can use it to learn Chinese at your own pace. So today, we’re going to learn more, more Chinese, and we’re going to tell you few more features on our website! |
| Victor: Right, Amber, you lived in Taiwan, and the mainland for quite a long time, right? |
| Amber: Yes I did! I’m practically half Chinese now, I’m so Chinese-ified. |
| Victor: So what do you think, are Chinese people friendly to foreigners? |
| Amber: Ok, yes, extremely. In fact, when I arrived here back in the real world in New York City, I was wondering why no one was paying any attention to me anymore. Hey! Look at me! People used to talk to me and notice me, now I’m just like one of the norms. |
| Victor: Yeah, we Chinese love meeting foreign visitors, especially when you speak some Chinese. |
| Amber: Yes, so here’s the thing. Sometimes Chinese people might be a bit shy to speak to you at first, because they might assume that you don’t speak Chinese. |
| Victor But, we’re going to give you the chance to make the first move. |
| Amber: Yes, today's lesson, for example, if you can learn to be very outgoing in Chinese, you're guaranteed to make some friends right away. So, If you haven’t yet, go to ChineseClass101.com and sign up for a free lifetime account. |
| Victor: That way you can access all the extras, the lessons and grammar notes, and the line-by-line audio and review tracks. |
| Amber: OK, Victor, we’re going to save everyone from being tongue-tied when they meet someone for the first time. Today’s lesson saves the day. |
| Victor: You can have this little conversation with anyone you meet and want to get to know better… |
| Amber: Cute girl… cute boy... haha! |
| Victor: Yeah, Amber knows how it goes. |
| Amber: Ok, so let’s listen. |
| DIALOGUE |
| A: 你好。(Nǐhǎo.) |
| B: 你好。你叫什么名字？(Nǐhǎo. Nǐ jiào shénme míngzì?) |
| A: 我叫子安。(Wǒ jiào Zǐ Ān.) |
| B: 很高兴认识你。(Hěn gāoxìng rènshi nǐ.) |
| Victor: 重复一次，慢速。(Chóngfù yīcì, màn sù.) |
| Amber: One more time, a little slower. |
| A: 你好。(Nǐhǎo.) |
| B: 你好。你叫什么名字？(Nǐhǎo. Nǐ jiào shénme míngzì?) |
| A: 我叫子安。(Wǒ jiào Zǐ Ān.) |
| B: 很高兴认识你。(Hěn gāoxìng rènshi nǐ.) |
| Victor: 重复一次，加英文翻译。(Chóngfù yīcì, jiā yīngwén fānyì.) |
| Amber: One more time, with English. |
| A: 你好。(Nǐhǎo.) |
| Amber: Hello. |
| B: 你好。你叫什么名字？(Nǐhǎo. Nǐ jiào shénme míngzì?) |
| Amber: Hello. What is your name? |
| A: 我叫子安。(Wǒ jiào Zǐ Ān.) |
| Amber: I'm Zi An. |
| B: 很高兴认识你。(Hěn gāoxìng rènshi nǐ.) |
| Amber: Nice to meet you. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Amber: OK, I love Chinese and its simplicity! Generally, all you need, Victor, is a little hello like this, and it completely breaks the ice. |
| Victor: Yep, a little 你好 (nǐhǎo) is all you need. |
| Amber: None of this bowing, cheek kissing, formalities, etc. So what exactly is this ‘ni hao,’ what does it actually mean? |
| Victor: Well it literally means, ‘you good’. |
| Amber: ‘You’ in Chinese is 你 (nǐ), third tone. The second word we heard was 好 (hǎo) “good” |
| Victor: 好 (hǎo), 好 (hǎo) |
| Amber: Means ‘good’! And, this is a very good word because they use it for EVERYthing. In fact, we already learned it in the first intro lesson, do you remember where we heard it? |
| Victor: Mmmm noodles. |
| Amber: Of course. The noodles were ‘hao chi’ which meant ‘good eat’, literally. |
| Victor: So “hello” is 你好 (nǐhǎo), “delicious” is 好吃 (hǎochī)! |
| Amber: OK so next, the person, of course, will answer back with ni hao, because they definitely want to talk to you! |
| Victor: Yes, because I’m so handsome. |
| Amber: Right. Naturally, you can show interest by asking their name. So what was the phrase we heard for ‘What is your name’? |
| Victor: 你叫什么名字？ (Nǐ jiào shénme míngzì?) 你叫什么名字？(Nǐ jiào shénme míngzì?) |
| Amber: So… don’t panic! Let’s break it down word by word. 名字 (míngzì) is second tone, neutral tone. So rising, then normal. And it means |
| Victor: Name! |
| Amber: Now, another bonus! Because the word for ‘what’, we already learned. Think back, think back… to ‘What do you want to eat…’ |
| Victor: Yao chi shenme? |
| Amber: Yes, remember, ‘What do you want to eat?” “Yao chi shenme”. |
| Amber: Right. ‘What’, our question word here, is ‘shenme’. Second tone, neutral tone, again. So easy! |
| Victor: 什么 (shénme), 什么 (shénme) |
| Amber: Almost done! The question started with, 你 (nǐ), third tone, again, which means ‘you’, and 叫 (jiao4), fourth tone, the falling tone, which means ‘to be called’. Put it together and you get... |
| Victor: 你叫什么名字？(Nǐ jiào shénme míngzì?) |
| Amber: Literally, You called what name? |
| Victor: Now they will know they are dealing with a pro. |
| Amber: And, just so you know, this is not very formal. In a future lesson we will teach you how to ask someone’s family name more formally. |
| Victor: Yes, but this is a good method to use for every day. |
| Amber: So, now, the question is |
| Victor: Of course, it’s easy! The answer to the question will simply be, as in the dialogue |
| Victor: 我叫子安。(Wǒ jiào Zǐ Ān.) |
| Amber: Yes, actually that’s me… Zi an. A little conceited I know, giving myself a cameo in the lesson, but hey it’s only the second lesson, everyone needs to get to know me… |
| Victor: Of course! |
| Amber: But we all know you are the real star of the show Victor,! |
| So again we hear the verb 叫 repeated in the response. Literally, ‘I called Zi An’. So let me ask you now, 你叫什么名字？(Nǐ jiào shénme míngzì?) |
| Victor: 我叫(Wǒ jiào) Victor。(Wǒ jiào) |
| Amber: Excellent. Now of course me and allll the listeners are very happy to meet you, Victor, so how can we say that? |
| Victor: Well, just like in the dialogue, we say |
| Amber: Right. Again we have the ni3, which means |
| Victor: You |
| Amber: Then we have the verb, “to know,” which is 认识 (rènshi), which is fourth tone, neutral tone. |
| Victor: 认识 (rènshi), |
| Amber: So ‘know you’ and before that, we need the ‘happy’ |
| Victor: 高兴 (gāoxìng), first tone, neutral tone. 高兴 (gāoxìng). And I’m so happy to meet you I throw in a little 很 (hěn) third tone first, which is a little like ‘very’. |
| Amber: So, ‘very happy to meet you’ or ‘very happy to know you’, literally, is, altogether |
| Victor: 很高兴认识你。(Hěn gāoxìng rènshi nǐ.) |
| Amber: The best part is, you’re never going to forget this little conversation, you’re going to use it so often. |
| Victor: But be careful… if you’re too good the person next launches into a 5-minute barrage of Chinese…. |
| Amber: Right. And don’t forget, to really burn these phrases into your brain, you can go to the Learning Center, where we also have Line-By-Line audio of the conversation. It’ll help you perfect your pronunciation, memorize the vocab, and master the patterns. |
| Victor: Another thing I want to remind everyone to do is to go to the Pinyin pronunciation chart we have on the website. |
| Amber: There are audio files that will help you learn all the initial sounds and final sounds in the language. It will make listening comprehension a lot easier. |
| Amber: Yeah you know there really aren’t that many different words in Chinese, so once you master the approximately 400 combinations on the pinyin chart, you can say anything! |
| Victor: So anyway, Amber/Zi An… your Chinese name is a little … different. How did you get that Chinese name? |
| Amber: Ah, good question. Well, this is another great thing about Chinese. You get to have an alter-ego! |
| Victor: Yes, Chinese people will insist that you have a Chinese name. |
| Amber: Yes, don’t try to fight it. Now, my only advice is to make sure you don’t try to pick your own name… |
| Victor: Definitely not. |
| Amber: Now you may ask why or think you want to pick something that sounds snazzy to your ear, but trust me, it won’t sound snazzy to Chinese ears. They might laugh. |
| Victor: Yes, not every Chinese word can be a name, plus certain name combinations are for men, others more for women. |
| Amber: If you choose your own Chinese name you’re going to end up like my old English students in Taiwan who would pick names in English for themselves like ‘Raining’, or ‘Cash’. |
| Victor: Cash?? |
| Amber: Yes! And I just remembered… his dad’s English name was ‘Money’!!! |
| Victor: So our advice is to get a trusted Chinese friend to help. Or, if you need some help, you can leave us your name in the comments section and we’ll try to help you pick something. |
| Amber: Yeah, we have a great online community here at chineseclass101. If you have any language questions, our teachers and your fellow learners are always on the boards, answering questions, and helping everyone practice their Chinese. |
| Victor: We also have a forum where you can talk about anything Chinese and find other people who have similar interests to you. |
| Amber: Like Chinese music. Food. KTV! |
| Victor: Ah yes, one of my personal favorites. |
| Amber: OK, you’re going to have to demonstrate for us one day Victor. Our forums are a great place on the Internet to find out information and talk about Chinese and China. |
Outro |
| Victor: So, I guess we’ll see our listeners at ChineseClass101.com! |
| Amber: I think so. See you there! |
| Victor: 再見 (zàijiàn) |
| Amber: 下次見 (xià cì jiàn) |
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