{"id":5853,"date":"2019-11-17T07:54:44","date_gmt":"2019-11-17T07:54:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chinesemoment.com\/business-chinese\/lesson-027-whats-your-name\/"},"modified":"2019-11-17T07:54:44","modified_gmt":"2019-11-17T07:54:44","slug":"lesson-027-whats-your-name","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chinesemoment.com\/mm\/lesson-027-whats-your-name\/","title":{"rendered":"Lesson 027 What\u2019s Your Name?"},"content":{"rendered":"
M: Da jia hao, huanying dao xianzai xue hanyu, Learn Chinese Now!
S: We’re in my hotel room. Meeting some new people tonight, so now we’ll keep learning things like ‘what’s your name?’ ‘My name is’… Then I can have a rest.
M: Now listen and repeat. Remember, xing is ‘family name’, xing. mingzi is ‘given name’, mingzi. Kaishi!
S: \u6211\u662fStuart Parkins. Wo xing Parkins. Bai is my Chinese xing, which comes before the mingzi in Chinese names. \u767d\u662f\u6211\u7684\u4e2d\u6587\u59d3. Bai shi wo de zho<\/em>ngwen xing.
M: \u6211\u662f\u8d75\u66fc\u4e3d. Wo shi Zhao Manli. \u6211\u59d3\u8d75. Wo xing Zhao. \u6211\u7684\u540d\u5b57\u662f\u66fc\u4e3d. Wo de mingzi shi Manli.
S: \u6211\u7684\u4e2d\u6587\u540d\u5b57\u662f\u541b\u58eb. Wo de zho<\/em>ngwen mingzi shi Junshi. So I am called Bai Junshi. \u6211\u53eb\u767d\u541b\u58eb. Wo jiao Bai Junshi.
M: Hao. Let’s look at what we just said.
S: Wo xing Bai. Easy. My family name is Bai. Wo xing Bai.
M: Bai is his Chinese surname. Bai shi ta de zho<\/em>ngwen xing. The zhong in Zho<\/em>ngwen is the same one as in zhongguo, the Middle Kingdom, China. Wen WEN wen, 2nd tone, wen, means ‘language’. zho<\/em>ngwen means the ‘Chinese language’. Wo de zho<\/em>ngwen xing. My Chinese family name.
S: So what does this mean? Wo de zho<\/em>ngwen mingzi shi Junshi. Dui le. My Chinese given name is Junshi – meaning, appropriately, gentleman scholar. So, wo jiao Bai Junshi.
M: Ta jiao Bai Junshi. Wo jiao Zhao Manli. \u53eb JIAO jiao, is a verb, meaning ‘name’ or ‘call’. Wo jiao Zhao Manli, ‘I am called ZML’, or ‘my name is ZML’.
S: So what does this mean? \u4f60\u53eb\u4ec0\u4e48\u540d\u5b57?
M: Ni jiao shenme mingzi?
S: Dui le! Literally, ‘You are called what name?’ In real English, ‘What’s your name?’ Here, the mingzi is understood to mean the whole name, xing and mingzi.
M: Ni jiao shenme mingzi?
S: Wo jiao Bai Junshi.
M: You say it at home. Ask the question, then answer yourself. What’s your name? My name is something something. Ready? With Stuart, go!
S: Ni jiao shenme mingzi? Wo jiao Fred Smith, or whatever. Again. …
M: Feichang hao! You’ve earnt a three second rest!
S: Now let’s be very polite. Remember the polite form of ni, you? Right, it’s nin.
M: And two lessons ago the lady at the front desk asked Stuart, Nin gui xing? Gui here means ‘noble’. Nin gui xing?
S: What is your noble family name? That seems pretty polite. Nin gui xing?
M: Wo xing Zhao.
S: You say it at home, use your own name.
M: Hen hao! But Stuart is looking a bit tired.
S: Dui, wo hen lei. Wo hen lei.
M: So let’s hear the Chinese again, then we’ll let Stuart have a rest.
M: Ni jiao shenme mingzi? Or, Nin gui xing?
S: Wo shi Bai Junshi. Wo xing Bai. Bai shi wo de zho<\/em>ngwen xing. Wo de zho<\/em>ngwen mingzi shi Junshi.
M: Wo shi Zhao Manli. Wo xing Zhao. Wo de mingzi shi Manli.
S:. Wo de zho<\/em>ngwen mingzi shi Junshi. Wo jiao Bai Junshi. Wo de zho<\/em>ngwen mingzi …
M: Tian a! Oh, dear! Stuart needs to rest. I’ll creep out. Zaijian.
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