Survival Chinese. Boye Lafayette De Mente

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      SURVIVAL

       CHINESE

      How to communicate without

       fuss or fear INSTANTLY!

      by BOYE LAFAYETTE DE MENTE

       Revised and Updated by Jiageng Fan

      TUTTLE Publishing

       Tokyo | Rutland, Vermont | Singapore

      CONTENTS

       Preface

       The “Language Wall” is Down!

       The National Language

       Introduction

       Chinese Written in “English”

       Those Notorious “Tones”

       Chinese is Easier than English!

       The Chinese “Alphabet”

       Running Words Together

       Pronouncing Chinese “in English”

       Pronunciation Guides

       PART 1

       Common Expressions & Key Words

       Greetings

       Personal Information

       Directions

       Air Travel

       Money

       Taxis

       Subways

       Trains

       Buses

       Rental Cars

       Hotel Vocabulary

       Toilet / Restroom

       The Seasons

       The Weather

       Eating

       Drinking

       Paying Bills

       Telephone / Email / Internet

       Shopping

       Business

       Post Office

       Health / Help

       Sightseeing

       Leisure

       Barber Shop / Beauty Salon

       Measurements

       Personal Titles

       Academic Titles

       Business & Professional Titles

       Homes

       Vogue Expressions

       PART 2

       Numbers and Counting

       The Cardinal Numbers

       The Ordinal Numbers

       Counting Things

       Counting People

       Counting Other Things

       Telling Time

       Days of the Week

       Counting Days

       Weeks

       Counting Weeks

       The Months

       The Years

       Giving Dates

       Holidays

       PART 3

       Exploring China

       China’s Provinces

       The Autonomous Regions

       Major Cities

       Famous Places in Beijing

       Famous Landmarks Near Beijing

       Shopping Districts in Beijing

       Famous Places in Shanghai

       Shopping Districts in Shanghai

       Famous Chinese Cuisines

       Famous Tourist Destinations

       Important Signs

       PART 4

       Making Your Own Sentences

       Part5

       Additional Vocabulary

      PREFACE

      The “Language Wall” is Down!

      There are at least eight primary Chinese languages, and although they belong to the same family and historically have been referred to as dialects, they are as different as French, Italian, Spanish and other so-called Romance languages. And that’s why they are sometimes considered as different languages by some people.

      Westerners have also traditionally regarded learning and speaking any of the Chinese “dialects” as especially difficult because they are all “tonal languages.” That is, changing the tone of voice in the pronunciation of words changes the meanings of the words.

      These circumstances, combined with the forbidding appearance of the “characters,” or logograms, used to write all of the Chinese languages, have long been viewed by Westerners as insurmountable barriers. Furthermore, many Chinese words have dozens of homonyms [words that are spelled the same and may be pronounced the same but have different meanings], further complicating matters.

      The National Language

      But this view of the Chinese language is outdated. In 1949 the newly established Communist government of Mao Zedong decreed that Mandarin Chinese, the “dialect” spoken in Beijing and the surrounding areas, was to be the official language of China, and thereafter would be taught in all of the schools throughout the country.

      Today, the majority of Chinese speak Mandarin Chinese, known as pǔtōnghuà (poo-tohng-hwah) 普通话 or “the common language,” as their first or second language. A further boon to foreigners taking up the study of the national Chinese language is the fact that Mandarin Chinese has only four tones. [Some of the other dialects have as many as eight tones.]

      Boyé Lafayette De Mente

      INTRODUCTON

      Chinese Written in “English”

      The transcription of Mandarin Chinese into Roman letters, known as pīnyīn (peen-een) 拼音, was reformed in 1958, making it easier for foreigners to study the language without having to learn the thousands of logograms.

      However, several of the letters used in the pinyin version of Chinese are still pronounced in what might be called the old way. These include c, q, x, z, and the combination of ch. C is pronounced more or less as “ts,” q as “ch,” x as “sh,” z as “dz,” and zh as “j.”

      There are also some variations (from English) in the pronunciation of vowels in Chinese words. U may be pronounced more like o, and e may be pronounced more like u. These and other variations in pronunciation are accounted for—to the extent possible—in