EASC Study Tour 2006
Topic of the Week

Welcome to the "Topic of the Week" series! Each week we will discuss areas of interest or things that need your attention in preparing for the Study Tour to China.

Week 4: Language

Held aloft as one of the most challenging languages for Westerners to learn, Chinese is not a single language, but rather a varied collection of dialects connected through a common cultural heritage. The Chinese are able to communicate, even if their dialects differ, through the official language of Putonghua (common speech) Mandarin and a common written language. A discussion of the various aspects of the Chinese language follows:

Regional Dialects:

Chinese is spoken differently in provinces throughout China (much like English in our country), but the alternative pronunciations make it difficult for Chinese people of different regions to understand each other. Areas where dialects are spoken include: Shanghai (Wu dialect), Hong Kong/Guangdong (Cantonese dialect), Fuzhou (Minbei dialect), Taiwan (Minnan dialect), as well as among various ethnic minority groups inside China . To solve the problems that the language barrier could create, national education requires all students to learn the national language, Putonghua Mandarin. This form of Mandarin is the fusion of Beijing and Northeastern China dialects.

Written Language:

All dialects write Chinese the same way, thus avoiding many of the possible language problems created by different forms of speech. Chinese is written in characters (sometimes called pictographs) which are intended to be highly specialized pictures of the character's meaning. For instance, the word for China, Zhong Guo, means Middle Kingdom and its character form is . The first character translates as center, and the second as country.

An estimated 65,000 characters exist in Chinese, but the contemporary educated person in China will know only 6,000-8,000 characters. Knowing 2,000-3,000 characters will allow you to read a newspaper and knowledge of around 1,200 characters is enough to understand the main ideas of most writing.

The Pinyin System:

This is a system of writing Chinese using the Roman alphabet. Created in the late 1950s to make learning Chinese easier, it has fallen out of favor in China among adults, but remains a valuable learning tool for foreigners and is being used in primary education throughout the country to assist children speaking different dialects with Mandarin. Through pinyin a person can sound out Chinese words, which can often assist the traveler in figuring out where she or he is. Most cities and businesses will have pinyin translations of Chinese characters, but the system is rarely used in the countryside. A word of warning: most Chinese citizens do not understand how to read pinyin, for they were taught the language through the characters alone.

The pronunciation chart for Pinyin is:

a: as in "f a ther"

ai: like English "eye," but a bit lighter

an: as in "c an" if following "y," as in " un believable" otherwise

ar: like a, but pronounced with the tongue curled up against the palate

ao: as in "c ow ;" the a is much more audible than the o

b: unaspirated "p," like the English "b" but with a bit more pressure

c: like "ts"

ch: as in "ch in"

d: unaspirated "t," like the English "d" but with a bit more pressure

e: a backward, unrounded vowel, which can be formed by first pronouncing a plain continental "o" and then spreading the lips without changing the position of the tongue; when followed by "n," it is pronounced more like the first sound in "a n"

ê: as in French " e cole"

ei: as in "h ey "

er: like e , but pronounced with the tongue curled up against the palate; similar to the vowel in rhotic her in English

f: as in English

g: unaspirated "k," like the English "g" but with a bit more pressure

h: like the English "h" if followed by "a;" otherwise it is pronounced more roughly (not unlike the Scottish "ch")

i: like English "ee," except when preceded by "c," "ch," "r," "s," "z" or "zh;" in these cases it sounds similar to e (described above)

ie: the initial i sounds like English "ee," but is very short

iu: pronounced like iou

j: like zh

k: as in English

l: as in English

m: as in English

n: as in English

o: an open continental "o," as in German " H o f "

ong: o is a sound somewhere in between English "o" as in "s o ng" and English "u" as in "b u sh"

p: as in English

q: like ch, but not as "full," about halfway between ch and Pinyin c

r: similar to the English "r"

s: as in " s un"

sh: as in " sh inbone"

t: as in English

u: like English "oo", except when preceded by y , x , j or q ; in this case it is pronounced like ü

uo: the u is pronounced shorter and lighter than the o

ü: as in German " ü ben" or French "l u ne"

w: as in English

x: like sh , but not as "full", about halfway between sh and s

y: as in English; not pronounced at all if followed by i or ü

z: like ds , but with more pressure

zh: as in English " j ungle", but with more pressure

While pinyin seems difficult to pronounce and to read - give it a chance as you can make quick progress!

Tones:

Tones are very tricky to learn and the source of much frustration for those learning Chinese. Learning tones is a process of time and error and eventually your brain will remember how to say a word with the right tone.

Tones are important in Chinese because several words will have the same pronunciation but have different meanings. The tones are what distiguishes each word from others pronunced the same way. Tones, in essence, are changes in pitch as various syllables are spoken. There are five tones in Putonghua Mandarin: constant (1st tone), rising (2nd tone), falling-rising (3rd tone), falling (4th tone), and neutral (5th tone - which you can ignore). 1st tone is easy for anyone to pick up, as it requires the pronunciation of a word in a constant monotone. The 2nd tone requires your pitch to go up when the word is spoken (the most difficult tone for English speakers). The fall and rise of the 3rd tone is fun to say as your voice starts high, goes low, then returns to high. The 4th tone, called by many Chinese students as the angry tone, starts high and goes low.

As an example of how vital tones are to speaking Chinese, take a look at the various meanings of the word "ma."

Ma: constant tone (mother)

má: rising tone (hemp, numb)

ma: falling-rising tone (horse)

mà: falling tone (scold, swear)

Remember: it takes years before you can feel comfortable with tones.

Simple Words and Phrases:

Below is a list of various words and phrases that can assist you while we are in China. These phrases are not too difficult to learn and almost all Chinese can recognize them. (So do not be afraid to practice them!)

Yes
Shì (4th)

No
Bú (2nd) shì (4th)

Thank you
Xìexìe (4th)

You're welcome
Bú (2nd) yòng (4th) xiè (4th)

Please
Qíng (2nd)

Excuse me
Duì (4th) bù (4th) qi (3rd)

Hello
Ní (2nd) hao (3rd)

Goodbye
Zài jiàn (4th)

I do not understand
Wo (3rd ) bù (4th) dong (3rd)

How do you say this in [English]?
Yòng (4th) ying (1st) wén (2nd) zem (3rd) me shuo (1st)?

I
Wo (3rd ).

We
Wo (3rd) mén (2nd)

You (singular, familiar)
Ni (3rd)

What is your name?
Ni (3rd) jiào (4th) shén (2nd) me míng (2nd) zì?

How are you?
Ní (2nd) hao (3rd) ma?

Good
hao (3rd)

Bad
bù (4th) hao (3rd)

Wife
qi (1st) zi

Husband
zhàng (4th) fu

Daughter
nu (3rd) ér (2nd)

Son
ér (2nd) zi

Mother
mama (1st)

Father
bàbà (4th)

Friend
péng (2nd) you (3rd)

Where is the bathroom? Where is the toilet?
Xí (2nd) shou (3rd) jian (1st) zài (4th) na (3rd) er?

zero
líng (2nd)

one
yi (1st)

two
èr (4th)

three
san (1st)

four
sì (4th)

five
wu (3rd)

six
lìu (4th)

seven
qi (1st)

eight
ba (1st)

nine
jiu (3rd)

ten
shí (2nd)

twenty
èr (4th) shí (2nd)

thirty
san (1st) shí (2nd)

forty
sì (4th) shí (2nd)

fifty
wu (3rd) shí (2nd)

sixty
liù (4th) shí (2nd)

seventy
qi (1st) shí (2nd)

eighty
ba (1st) shí (2nd)

ninety
jiu (3rd) shí (2nd)

one hundred
yì (4th) bai (3rd)

one thousand
yì (4th) qian (lst)

How much does this cost?
Zhe (4th) ge duo (1st) shao (3rd) qián (2nd)?

What is this?
Zhè (4th) shì (4th) shén (2nd) me?

I'll buy it.
Wo (2nd) mai (3rd)

I would like to buy ...
Wo (3rd) yào (4th) mai (3rd) ...

Do you have ...
Ni (2nd) you (3rd) méi (2nd) you (3rd) ...

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EASC Study Tour 2006 Topic of the Week