Intermediate Spoken Chinese

It’s shortly after 1:00 P.M. at an English language “cram school” in downtown Taipei. Zeng Xianfen, a Taiwanese employee of the school, notices Donna Neal, an American teacher, at her desk in the main office and suggests they go out together for lunch. They go to a restaurant and have lunch, after which Zeng asks for the bill and insists on treating Neal.

Basic Conversation 16-1

1. ZENG	Hài, Donna!
	Hi, Donna!
	(after she returns some materials to a cabinet) Chīguo fàn méiyou?
	Have you eaten yet?
2. NEAL	Hái méi. Gāngcái bŭle yìtáng kè. Nĭ ne?
	Not yet. I just made up a class. And you?
3. ZENG	Wŏ yĕ hái méi chī. Zĕmmeyàng? Yào bu yào yíkuàir qù chī?
	I haven’t eaten yet either. How about it? Do you want to go eat together?
4. NEAL	Hăo a!
	Sure!
	(a bit later, at a restaurant)
5. RESTAURANT HOSTESS	Huānyíng guānglín. Jĭwèi?
	Welcome! How many?
6. ZENG	Liăngge.
	Two.
	(after they’ve started eating)
	Yú zĕmmeyàng? Hăo bu hăochī?
	How’s the fish? Is it good?
7. NEAL	Mán nènde, jiù shi cì duōle yidian.
	Very tender, it’s just there are a few too many fish bones.
8. ZENG	(to the waitress, when they’re finished) Măidān.
	The check, please.
9. NEAL	Duōshăo qián? Wŏ lái fù ba.
	How much is it? I’ll pay.
10. ZENG	Bù, jīntiān wŏ qĭngkè.
	No, today I’m treating.
11. NEAL	Hái shi wŏ lái ba!
	Come on, let me pay.
12. ZENG	Ài, bié kèqi. Yídùn biànfàn éryĭ.
	Oh, don’t be polite. It’s only a simple meal.
13. NEAL	Bù hăo yìsi, ràng nĭ pòfèile. Găitiān wŏ zuòdōng ba.
	How embarrassing to let you go to such expense. Next time I’ll be the host.

Build Up

1. Zeng
hài	“hi” [I]
Hài, Donna!	Hi, Donna!

-guo	(expresses completed action) [P]
Chīguo fàn méiyou?	Have you eaten yet?
2. Neal
gāngcái	just now, just [TW]
bŭkè	make up a class [VO]
táng	(for classes) [M]
yìtáng kè	a class
gāngcái bŭle yìtáng kè	(I) just made up a class
Hái méi. Gāngcái bŭle yìtáng kè. Nĭ ne?	Not yet. I just made up a class. And you?
3. Zeng
yíkuài(r)	together [A/PW]
yíkuàir qù chī	go eat together
Wŏ yĕ hái méi chī. Zĕmmeyàng?	I haven’t eaten yet either. How about it?
Yào bu yào yíkuàir qù chī?	Do you want to go eat together?
4. Neal
Hăo a!	Sure!
5. Restaurant hostess
Huānyíng guānglín. Jĭwèi?	Welcome! How many?
6. Zeng
Liăngge.	Two.
Yú zĕmmeyàng? Hăo bu hăochī?	How’s the fish? Is it good?
7. Neal
mán...de	quite [PT]
nèn	be tender [SV]
mán nènde	quite tender
cì	fish bone [N]
duōle yidian	there is a little too much
cì duōle yidian	there’re a few too many fish bones
Mán nènde, jiù shi cì duōle yidian.	Very tender, it’s just there are a few too many fish bones.
8. Zeng
măidān	pay the check, figure up the bill [IE]
Măidān.	The check, please.
9. Neal
fù	pay [V]
wŏ lái fù	I’ll pay
Duōshăo qián? Wŏ lái fù ba.	How much is it? I’ll pay.
10. Zeng
qĭngkè	treat (someone to something) [VO]
Bù, jīntiān wŏ qĭngkè.	No, today I’m treating.
11. Neal
Hái shi wŏ lái ba!	Come on, let me pay.
12. Zeng
ài	(indicates strong sentiment) [I]
dùn	(for meals) [M]
biànfàn	simple meal [N]
yídùn biànfàn	a simple meal
Ài, bié kèqi. Yídùn biànfàn éryĭ.	Oh, don’t be polite. It’s only a simple meal.
13. Neal
pòfèi	go to great expense [V]
găi	change [V]
găitiān	on some other day [TW]
zuòdōng	serve as host [VO]
Bù hăo yìsi, ràng nĭ pòfèile. Găitiān wŏ zuòdōng ba.	How embarrassing to let you go to such expense. Next time I’ll be the host.

1A. The interjection hài was borrowed from the English greeting “hi” and is now commonly used by students in the larger cities in both mainland China and Taiwan.

1B. -GUO TO EXPRESS COMPLETED ACTION. As we’ve already seen in earlier lessons, the verb suffix -guo can express experience, as in Nĭ qùguo Bĕijīng ma? “Have you ever been to Beijing?” A different use of -guo is to express completed action, much like verb suffix -le. The pattern is:

The answers to the above question would be either Wŏ chīguo fàn le “I’ve eaten” or Wŏ hái méi chīguo fàn “I haven’t eaten yet.” Context will usually make clear which of the two types of -guo is involved. When a non-Chinese person is asked Nĭ chīguo Zhōngguo fàn ma?, this would ordinarily be interpreted as “Have you ever eaten Chinese food?” On the other hand, Nĭ chīguo fàn le ma? would be understood as “Have you eaten (yet)?,” since it wouldn’t make sense to ask someone if they had ever eaten.

1C. Chīguo fàn méiyou? “Have you eaten yet?” is here a genuine question. In other contexts, especially around meal times, it’s merely a greeting that shows concern for the other person. Frequently, as here, the subject nĭ “you” is omitted. Also notice that, in the Basic Conversation for listening, chīguo is pronounced as *cīguo, a non-standard pronunciation used by many speakers in Taiwan and southern China.

2A. You’ve often seen hái méi “not yet” before a verb (e.g., Tā hái méi qù “She hasn’t gone yet”). Here in utterance 2 we see that Hái méi can occur alone to mean “not yet.” To emphasize that something is still in progress and hasn’t yet been completed, Beijing speakers would often add a final ne and say Hái méi ne “Not yet” or even just Méi ne, with the same meaning. Another example:

2B. Here are some more examples of the time word gāngcái “just now” or “just”:

In 9-3 you learned the adverbs gāng and gānggāng, which both mean “just.” Even though gāngcái, gāng, and gānggāng can all translate into English as “just” and are sometimes interchangeable, there are some differences in usage and also some situations where they aren’t interchangeable. The distinctions are as follows:

(1) Gāngcái always means not long before speaking, i.e., in the recent past, so we could translate it as “just now.” Gāng and gānggāng can indicate the recent past but can also be used for events that happened long ago, e.g., Nĭ gāng kāishĭ xué Zhōngwénde shíhou juéde hĕn nán ma? “When you had just started learning Chinese, did you feel it was hard?” Gāngcái couldn’t be used in the preceding sentence.

(2) As a time word, gāngcái can occur either before the subject or before the verb, but gāng and gānggāng are adverbs and can only occur before the verb. So you can say either Gāngcái Lăo Zhāng gĕi wŏ dă diànhuà le or Lăo Zhāng gāngcái gĕi wŏ dă diànhuà le “Old Zhang just called me;” but you can say only Lăo Zhāng gāng gĕi wŏ dă diànhuà le and NOT *Gāng Lăo Zhāng gĕi wŏ dă diànhuà le.

(3) As a time word, gāngcái can also function like a noun, which gāng and gānggāng can’t do. Examples:

“Now it’s a bit warmer than a moment ago; a moment ago it was too cold.” (e.g., someone has just turned on the heat)

(4) Gāngcái can be used with negative as well as positive verbs, e.g., Nĭ wèishemme gāngcái bù măi? Xiànzài yĭjīng màiwánle! “Why didn’t you buy it just now? Now they’re sold out!” On the other hand, gāng is usually used only with positive verbs.

2D. Gāngcái bŭle yìtáng kè “(I) just made up a class.” Since the context is clear, the pronoun wŏ “I” has been omitted. As we’ve seen before, this is very common in colloquial Chinese.

3A. Zĕmmeyàng? literally means “How?” The implication is “How would it be?” In better English, we might also say “How about it?” or “What do you think?” The question Zĕmmeyàng? here occurs before the proposal (Yào bu yao yíkuàir qù chī? “Do you want to go eat together?”) in order to introduce the proposal and render it less blunt.

3B. Learn the common Mandarin adverb yíkuài(r) “together,” e.g., Wŏmen yíkuàir chīfàn ba “Let’s eat together.” Yíkuài(r) can also serve as a place word, e.g., Jīntiān zámmen dōu zài yíkuàir “Today all of us are together” or Tā gēn tā nánpéngyou zŏuzai yíkuàir “She’s walking together with her boyfriend.” Yíkuài(r) is a synonym of yìqĭ, which you learned in 7-3. The main difference between the two is that yíkuài(r) is more colloquial and is used mostly in North China (even though the speaker who says it here happens to be from Taiwan), while yìqĭ can be used either in speaking or writing and is common throughout China.

6A. Instead of liăngge some speakers would say liăngwèi, even when referring to themselves, because of influence from the wèi in the preceding question Jĭwèi? Other speakers feel that wèi shouldn’t be used when speaking of themselves.

6B. SPECIAL MEANINGS IN NUMBERS. When guests enter Taiwanese restaurants and announce how many persons there are in their party, it has become the custom when referring to parties of four people not to say sìge rén or sìwèi but instead to say sān jiā yī “three plus one.” The reason is to avoid the word sì “four,” which is considered by some Chinese to be inauspicious since it sounds somewhat like the word sĭ “die.” For the same reason, some hospitals and apartment buildings in Taiwan and Hong Kong lack a 4th floor and 14th floor; and red envelopes with gifts of money (called hóngbāo) never contain the sum of 400 or 4,000 kuài. To give some examples of auspicious numbers, the number liù “six” is considered lucky because it sounds somewhat like the word liú “to flow” and the word liūliū “smooth”—which are considered lucky words for business. The number bā “eight” is considered a lucky number because it rhymes with the verb fā “get rich,” and the number jiŭ “nine” is thought to be auspicious because it’s a homonym with the jiŭ in yŏngjiŭ “forever.”* In the various Chinese-speaking societies, special meanings are often found in numbers, as demonstrated by the thousands of dollars sometimes bid on specially numbered license plates or telephone numbers, or the many hours a bride and groom will queue at the marriage registry for an auspicious wedding date, or the many computer passwords that contain the numbers 6, 8, and 9!

7A. MÁN...-DE. While the adverb mán “quite,” which is similar in meaning to tĭng, can occur alone, it’s very often used in the pattern mán...-de, which surrounds stative verbs or other types of verb phrases. The pattern is:

Instead of mán...-de, some speakers give the syllable mán a Tone Three and say măn...-de.

7B. Depending on the context, cì can mean “(fish) bone,” “thorn,” “splinter,” or “sliver.” If you need to be more specific, you can say yúcì “fish bone.”

7C. STATIVE VERB + LE + (YI)DIAN(R) TO EXPRESS EXCESS. Examine the phrase in this line jiù shi cì duōle yidian “it’s only that the fish bones are a little too many” or “it’s just that there are a few too many fish bones.” A stative verb like duō followed by le plus yidian(r) can indicate “too many” or “too much.” The basic pattern is:

“The things in that store are good enough, they’re just a bit too expensive.”

Zhèitiáo kùzi chuānqilai yòu shūfu, jiàqián yòu piányi, jiù shi duănle yìdiăndiăn.

“This pair of pants is both comfortable and inexpensive, it’s just that it’s a tiny bit too short.”

8. PAYING THE CHECK IN A RESTAURANT. The expression măidān “pay the check” is a borrowing from Hong Kong Cantonese but has become very common in Taiwan and mainland China. More traditional equivalents would be Zhàngdān! “The bill!”, Jiézhàng! “I’d like to pay the bill” (lit. “Clear the bill”), and Qĭng suàn yixia zhàng “Please add up the bill.” In this Basic Conversation, Zeng asks for the bill because she is the one who originally proposed going out to lunch, and also because she is Taiwanese and, after all, the other person is a foreigner. Chinese tradition knows no such thing as Dutch treat. Nothing looks worse to Chinese people than for several Americans to go out to eat, figure out how much each of them owes, and then throw some money in the middle of the table. Even in cases where Americans have lived in mainland China or Taiwan a long time, Chinese people who go out to eat with them will oftentimes still consider themselves the “host” and the American the “guest” and will try to pay, even when it was the American who proposed going out to eat in the first place. Nevertheless, you should insist on inviting your Chinese friends about as often as they invite you. Once you’ve gotten to know a Chinese person well, they may start allowing you to invite occasionally. This is often a sign that they have begun to consider you a real friend and not just a “foreign guest.” When the time comes to pay the bill, it’s considered a real honor to be the one who ends up paying. One useful strategy for achieving this goal is, toward the end of the meal, to say you’re going to the bathroom but actually to go to the counter and secretly pay the bill. If you offered to pay but the other person insisted on covering the tab, you should say something like the first sentence in utterance 13 below: Bù hăo yìsi, ràng nĭ pòfèile “Very embarrassing, I let you go to great expense.” It’s important to keep track of who owes whom. It would not be appropriate to accept an invitation more than two times in a row without reciprocating in some manner—whether by inviting the person to a meal, giving them a gift, or providing help of some kind. The preceding information applies to working adults who have an income. In the case of Chinese students who are eating together at a restaurant, they will often split the bill evenly.

9. Wŏ lái fù ba “I’ll pay” (lit. “Why don’t I come and pay?”). This lái indicates the speaker’s intention to do something, a little like English “allow me to” or “let me.” Some more examples:

10. The verb-object compound qĭngkè can have two different meanings. In this sentence it means “invite someone as a guest” or “treat” them, that is, pay for them. However, qĭngkè can also mean “invite guests,” in other words, have a dinner party. Some examples of both usages:

11. The lái in this sentence is a verb substitute that substitutes for a more specific verb, the meaning of which depends on the context (15-2). In this case, the lái substitutes for fù “pay.”

13A. Găi tiān “change the day” or “on some other day.” This is a very useful phrase if you want to propose an alternative to a speaker’s suggestion. For example, if someone suggests you and they do something together but you have no time or interest, you could say:

It would be rude and cause the other person to lose face if you were to turn them down flat.

13B. The verb găi means “change.” As regards the difference between găi and the verb biàn which you learned in 10-1 and which also means “change,” biàn mostly refers to a spontaneous change on the part of a person or thing, e.g., Tiānqi biànle “The weather has changed” or Shínián méi jiànle, nĭ yìdiănr yĕ méi biàn! “I haven’t seen you for ten years, and you haven’t changed a bit!” On the other hand, găi and the related verb găibiàn, which often take an object, mean “cause someone or something to turn into someone or something else.” Here are two more examples with găi:

Bĕijīng zhèige chéngshì găiguo jĭcì míngzi; 1928 nián Guómíndăng zhèngfŭ bă “Bĕijīng” gáichéng “Bĕipíng,” 1949 nián “Bĕipíng” yòu găihuí “Bĕijīng” le.

“The city of ‘Beijing’ has changed its name several times; in 1928 the Guomindang government changed ‘Beijing’ to ‘Beiping’; in 1949 ‘Beiping’ was again changed back to ‘Beijing.’”

13C. While it isn’t necessary to tip in restaurants in Taiwan, it’s customary to round off the amount of the bill. For example, given a bill of NT 387, you might say:

Also, while no service charge is added in smaller restaurants such as the one in this conversation, in higher-class establishments a service charge of 10% is automatically added to the bill. The Chinese word for “tip” is xiăofèi and for “service charge” it’s fúwùfèi.

SV1. A bŭxíbān or “cram school” is a privately run supplementary school or class designed to help students score well on examinations. Bŭxíbān range from small, home-based operations, sometimes run by the students’ regular teachers as a way to supplement their income, to huge institutions with hundreds of instructors and thousands of students. They are common in all the Chinese-speaking societies, and in Japan and Korea as well.

SV2. A common way to call a waiter or waitress to your table in mainland China is by calling out fúwùyuán. In Taiwan, you’d usually just call out xiānsheng or xiáojie.

SV3. Jīntiānde niúròu hĕn lăo “The beef today is very tough.” In English, stress often gives a syllable a high or falling pitch pattern (e.g., “The beef today is VERY tough”). But in Chinese, while the tone of a syllable may be exaggerated or the syllable it’s part of may be lengthened due to stress, the tone doesn’t change: Tone One is still level, Tone Two still rises, Tone Three is still low, and Tone Four still falls. Be very careful to guard against the tendency that native speakers of English have to pronounce stressed Chinese syllables with English stress. For example, the Chinese equivalent of “The beef today is VERY tough” must never be pronounced with a high or falling pitch on hĕn! The hĕn is still Tone Three (which here changes to Tone Two because of the following Tone Three syllable lăo.) In class when practicing with your teacher and when working on your own with the audio and video recordings, note carefully where the stresses fall and try to imitate them in your own speech.

AV4. In recent years, afternoon tea has become quite popular among well-to-do people in larger cities such as Taipei, Hong Kong, and Shanghai.

1. bŭxíbān	cram school [N]
2. fúwùyuán	attendant, waiter, waitress [N]
3. lăo	be tough (of food) [SV]
Jīntiānde niúròu hĕn lăo.	The beef today is very tough.
4. fùqián	pay money [VO]
Shì bu shi yào xiān fùqián?	Are you supposed to pay first?

1. zăocān	breakfast [N]
2. zăodiăn	breakfast [N]
3. wŭcān	lunch [N]
4. xiàwŭ chá	afternoon tea [N]
5. wăncān	supper [N]
6. xiāoyè	late night snack [N]

Tā gāngcái láiguo.	“He was here just a moment ago.”
Nĭ gāngcái dào năr qùle?	“Where did you just go?”
Gāngcái shì bu shi yŏu rén chōuguo yān?	“Did someone just smoke?”

mán lèide	“quite tired”
mán bú cuòde	“quite good”
mán yŏu yìside	“quite interesting”

Wŏ lái kànkan.	“Let me take a look.”
Wŏ lái măi ba.	“Let me buy them.” (e.g., tickets)
Wŏ lái jiē.	“I’ll answer.” (e.g., the telephone)

STATIVE VERB	LE	(YI)DIAN(R)
duō	le	yidianr
“a little too much” or “a little too many”

MÁN	VERB	-DE
mán	hăochī	de
“quite tasty”

Footnote