Blog

  S: Da jia hao. xiànzài Huānyíng nǐ  lái xué Hanyu, Learn Chinese Now. Wǒ shì Stuart.
M: Wo shi ML.
S: And we dive right in. At the end of the previous lesson we asked you to say the numbers from 1 to 99.
M: Let’s try a few. You say the Chinese. 28 – dui le. èr shí bā. 44– dui le, sì shí sì. 56 – wǔ shí liù.
S: Feichang hao. Wonderful. Time to get back to the Youyi Bin’guan – the Friendship Hotel.
M: Lots of time to practice numbers and money in the bar later.
S: Taxi fare’s paid. Where do I check in? 我在哪儿登记? Wo zài nǎr dēngjì?
M: There. 在那儿。Zài nǎr.
S: Ok, I’ll go register. 我去登记. Wǒ qù dēngjì.
M: Stuart goes to the front desk. They speak English, so we’ll have a very brief check-in. Then we’ll go over the new stuff.
S: Ni hao!
DESK: 您好. Your family name, please. 您贵姓? Nín guì xìng?
S: Wo xing Parkins. Wo xing Parkins. My given name is Stuart. 我的名字是Stuart. Wǒ de míngzi shì Stuart.
DESK: Let’s have a look. 我看一看.Wǒ kàn yī kàn. Found it. 找到了. Zhǎo dào le. Your room number is 1 4 8 9. 您的房间号码是幺四八九. Nín de fángjiān hàomǎ shì yāo sì bā jiǔ.
S: Great. I have a room. A fángjiān!
M: Now let’s translate.
S: Wǒ qù dēngjì
M: Dēngjì DENG JI dēngjì, to check in, or register, dengji.
S: I go to check in.Wǒ qù dēngjì.
DESK: 您贵姓?
M: Nín guì xìng? Guì GUI guì here means ‘noble’. Xìng XING xìng, 4th tone, is ‘family name’. Nin gui xing. A polite way to say, ‘What is your family name?’ Nín guì xìng?
S: My family name ‘Parkins’. Wǒ xìng Parkins. My given name is Stuart. Wǒ de míngzi shì Stuart.
M: Míngzi, MING ZI, ming zi. Given name.
S: My given name is Stuart. Wǒ de míngzi shì Stuart.
DESK: ‘Let’s have a look’, or ‘I’ll check’. Wǒ kàn yī kàn.
M: kàn KAN kàn, is to ‘see’ or ‘look’. I’ll check, wo kan yi kan.
DESK: 找到了.
M: Zhǎo dào le. The zhǎo is like the zhǎo in zhǎo shéi, ‘who are you looking for?’. Zhǎo, to ‘look for’, zhǎo dào le. Found it! Zhǎo dào le!
DESK: Nín de fángjiān hàomǎ shì yāo sì bā jiǔ.
M: ‘Room’ is fángjiān FANG JIAN fangjian. Remember ‘telephone number’? Duì le, diànhuà hàomǎ. So what is ‘room number’? Right, it’s fángjiān hǎomǎ. Fangjian haoma.
S: So, my fáng jiān hào mǎ is 1489. Wǒ de fángjiān hàomǎ shì yāo sì bā jiǔ.
M: And to finish, try to follow the dialogue again:
S: Wo zài nǎr dēngjì?
M: 在那儿.
S: Hao, wǒ qù dēngji. Ni hao!
DESK: 您好. Nín guì xìng?
S: Wo xing Bái. 我的名字是Stuart. Wǒ de míngzi shì Stuart.
DESK:我看一看.Wǒ kàn yī kàn. 找到了. Zhǎo dào le.您的房间号码是幺四八九. Nín de fángjiān hàomǎ shì yāo sì bā jiǔ.
S: Great. But no key, 没有钥匙， méi yǒu yàoshǐ.
M: Will Stuart get yàoshǐ, a key yàoshǐ, next lesson? Let’s wait and see.
S: zaijian.