Shanghainese

Aside from Ni Hao, Shie Shie, Zai Jen, and keeping the card with the chinese name of your hotel with you, it seems the following words may be useful to travelers in China:

Bu = No
Bu Yao = Don't want
Mien Fei? = Is it free? (when asked what tea you want)
Duo Shao? = How much?
Hao = Good

And of course, Tse Suo = Toilet room

Kathie

"Is it free? - I love it - lol.

Kathie

And the one I always need is "Do you have anything more expensive?"

Shanghainese

Kathie: You are precious and deserve only the best! Zai Gui?

Kathie

Thanks, Shanghainese! ;-)

thursdaysd

Being virtually tone-deaf I'm never going to master the tones, but I love the characters, and I picked up a neat book before I left for China the first time: "I Can Read That" by Sussman, that has some of the basic characters.

Shanghainese

thursdaysd: I'm going to try to heal you out of tone-deafness using the character "Ma".

1st tone = mom
2nd tone = marijuana/hemp/linen
3rd tone = horse
4th tone = curse

Big trouble if one doesn't get the tones correct!

thursdaysd

Shanghainese - thanks for trying. I know the problem. But I've tried taking Mandarin lessons twice, and I just don't hear the difference. And let's not talk about my ability to produce the tones myself! I think it would be a lot safer if I tried to learn writing instead of speaking!

rkkwan

C'mon, the 4 tones in Putonghua/Mandarin is easy. Now, try Cantonese, which has 9 tones.

thursdaysd

rkkwan - yes, truly horrendous! Unfortunately, tone deafness is like color blindness - you're stuck with it.

LostinChina

I wish I knew the Is it free phrase before we went. Would have come in handy!!

Cicerone

I think “bu yao“ is the better phrase to use in the situations most posters will find themselves in (i.e. in a shop or restaurant). The word “bu” alone does not really mean “no”, it is only a prefix to be used with a modifier, at least that is what I have always been taught. Chinese, like most Asian languages, does not really have its own word for “no”, as English does. You can say “not interested” , “not now”, “not ready”, “not yet”, "don't want" “don’t have” “don’t know” etc.; but really it is not correct or polite to just say “no”. It is considered impolite and involves a lost of face to both speaker and listener to just say a bold-face “no”. It is a subtle but IMO very important cultural difference. You would not say “no” in Indonesian or Malay either, you would use a modifier. I believe that Japanese and Thai are the same.

baaj

Great suggestions Shanghainese!

As always Cicerone is right with the "bu yao" being the most useful when you want to say no.

Another good one when bargaining is "kai wan xiao (pronounced she-ow)" which means "you must be joking" Very effective when they quote you $20 for a $2 item.

Shanghainese

Thanks, Cicerone, we should speak polite and correct Chinese, not like babies who say "bu" when throwing a tantrum.

rkkwan

One way to make basically all responses and expressions less blunt is to add <b>&quot;la&quot;</b> at the end. Works for Mandarin and Cantonese.

fuzzypuppy1234

Tai(4) Gui(4) le(neutral)

Pronounced:
ti(long i sound) gway le

Translation:
Too expensive

Zhe(4) shi(4) jia(3) de(n)

Pronounced:
je (j sound with the tongue rolled back) shi (sh sound with the tongue rolled back, sounds more like 'sure') jia de

Translation:
This is fake

Both very useful when bargaining!

easytraveler

I'll agree to one &quot;bu&quot; being impolite, but

&quot;bu bu bu bu bu bu bu&quot; in a series is quite acceptable.

If you hear a speaker stuttering like that it means definitely he/she doesn't agree.

If the speaker ends the series with a sigh: &quot;Hai...&quot; that means he/she has given up on you.


On the other hand, if the speaker is Cantonese, &quot;hai&quot; means &quot;yes&quot;.

Which is also usually spoken in a series:

&quot;hai hai hai hai hai&quot;

If the speakers ends the series with a &quot;le&quot;, that means that the speaker definitely agrees with you.

Pretty simple language- no tenses, no genders, just remember not to say anything as a single syllable and you'll be fine.

petitepois

This is quite useful, but without tones I agree that it may be difficult for the untrained ear (untrained to foreigners speaking Chinese, that is) to understand. Easytraveler -- I disgree with: &quot;Pretty simple language- no tenses&quot; -- Chinese is not caveman-speak &quot;Me Want Eat!&quot; There is grammar, and there are tenses. They may be simple, but there is a way to express past, present and future!

easytraveler

Of course there is!

with adverbs:

I go yesterday

I go today

I go tomorrow

I might go yesterday

I thinking go tonight


easytraveler
ugh, ugh, me cavewoman ugh

(I'm just kidding! Please don't take me so seriously!)

rkkwan

I think what easytraveler means is that you don't need to conjugate verbs. Same word for all tenses and no gender for that verb. Doesn't mean there is no tense or gender for everything.

That's one reason why Chinese people find verbs in English and other Latin or Germanic languages so difficult.

In Chinese, we'll say the equivalent of:

Today I eat, tomorrow you eat, last night he eat, everyday they eat, and so on. Same word &quot;eat&quot;. No need to know ate, eaten, eats, etc...