Intermediate Spoken Chinese

After living in Beijing for a year, American student Randy Lewis is preparing to return to the U.S. The day before he leaves, he visits the home of his favorite Chinese teacher, Professor Ding, to say goodbye. Mrs. Ding opens the door to let him in.

Basic Conversation 19-3

1. LEWIS	Qĭng wèn, zhèr shi Dīng Lăoshī jiā ma?
	Excuse me, is this Professor Ding’s home?
2. MRS. DING	Duì, qĭng jìn.
	Yes, please come in.
	(calls to back room) Lăo Dīng, lái kèrén le.
	Old Ding, you have a guest.
3. PROFESSOR DING	(as he enters living room) Shéi a? Ài, shi nĭ a! Kuài qĭng zuò.
	Who is it? Oh, it’s you! Come on, sit down.
4. LEWIS	Lăoshī, wŏ xiàng nín gàobié laile.
	Professor, I’ve come to bid you farewell.
5. PROFESSOR DING	Nĭ shémme shíhou zŏu a?
	When are you leaving?
6. LEWIS	Xiàxīngqīsān.
	Next Wednesday.
7. PROFESSOR DING	Āiya, shíjiān guòde zhēn kuài! Zhuănyăn jiù yìnián le. Jìde nĭ gāng láide shíhou, lián yíjù jiăndānde Zhōngguo huà dōu bú huì shuō. Xiànzài yĭjīng néng duì-dá-rú-liúle.
	Gosh, time really passes quickly! In the blink of an eye a year has passed. I remember when you had just come, you couldn’t say even a simple phrase in Chinese. And now you can already converse fluently.
8. LEWIS	Duō kuī lăoshīde bāngmáng. Zhèyìnián wŏ kĕ zhēn méi shăo gĕi nín tiān máfan.
	It’s all thanks to your help. This past year I really have put you to too much trouble.

Build Up

1. Lewis
Dīng	Ding [SN]
Qĭng wèn, zhèr shi Dīng Lăoshī jiā ma?	Excuse me, is this Professor Ding’s home?
2. Mrs. Ding
Duì, qĭng jìn.	Yes, please come in.

lái kèrén le	a guest has come
Lăo Dīng, lái kèrén le.	Old Ding, you have a guest.
3. Professor Ding
Shéi a? Ài, shi nĭ a! Kuài qĭng zuò.	Who is it? Oh, it’s you! Come on, sit down.
4. Lewis
xiàng	toward, to [CV]
gàobié	bid farewell, take leave [V]
xiàng nín gàobié	bid farewell to you
Lăoshī, wŏ xiàng nín gàobié laile.	Professor, I’ve come to bid you farewell.
5. Professor Ding
Nĭ shémme shíhou zŏu a?	When are you leaving?
6. Lewis
Xiàxīngqīsān.	Next Wednesday.
7. Professor Ding
āiya	“gosh” [I]
shíjiān guòde zhēn kuài	time passes really quickly
zhuănyăn	blink the eyes, glance [VO]
jìde nĭ gāng láide shíhou	I remember when you had just come
lián	even [CV]
lián...dōu...	even [PT]
lián yíjù jiăndānde Zhōngguo	couldn’t say even a simple phrase of Chinese
huà dōu bú huì shuō
duì-dá-rú-liú	reply to questions fluently [EX]
Āiya, shíjiān guòde zhēn kuài! Zhuănyăn jiù yìnián le. Jìde nĭ gāng láide shíhou, lián yíjù jiăndānde Zhōngguo huà dōu bú huì shuō. Xiànzài yĭjīng néng duì-dá-rú-liúle.	Gosh, time really passes quickly! In the blink of an eye a year has passed. I remember when you had just come, you couldn’t say even a simple phrase in Chinese. And now you can already converse fluently.
8. Lewis
duō kuī	be thanks to [PH]
duō kuī lăoshīde bāngmáng	thanks to the teacher’s help
zhèyìnián	this year
tiān	add [V]
máfan	trouble [N]
méi shăo gĕi nín tiān máfan	didn’t cause too little trouble for you
Duō kuī lăoshīde bāngmáng. Zhèyìnián wŏ kĕ zhēn méi shăo gĕi nín tiān máfan.	It’s all thanks to your help. This past year I really have put you to too much trouble.

1. Even though there is in Chinese a formal word for professor (jiàoshòu) that would be used, for example, as a title on a name card, the term lăoshī is commonly used for professors in direct address or when referring to them in front of others.

2. INVERTED SUBJECT AND VERB FOR UNSPECIFIED SUBJECTS. Consider the sentence Lái kèrén le “There has come a guest” or “A guest has come” or “Some guests have come.” In Chinese, unspecified, indefinite subjects sometimes follow rather than precede the verb. While the sentence Kèrén láile would also be correct, the meaning would be a little different; the latter sentence would mean “The guest has come” or “The guests have come,” in other words, specific guests that the speaker knows about. The pattern for subject-verb inversion with unspecified subjects is:

4A. Since Professor Ding is the only professor present, it’s sufficient (and actually more respectful) to simply say Lăoshī rather than to add the surname and say Dīng Lăoshī. Similarly, to address a university president, you’d normally just say Xiàozhăng without the surname unless, for example, you were at a meeting of university presidents, where you’d then have to distinguish among the different presidents by saying Zhāng Xiàozhăng, Lĭ Xiàozhăng and so on.

4B. The coverb xiàng, which means “to” or “toward,” is quite common. Besides in the pattern xiàng...gàobié “bid farewell to...,” xiàng can also be used by itself in expressions indicating direction toward, in place of wàng. Examples:

4C. Lăoshī, wŏ xiàng nín gàobié laile “Professor, I’ve come to bid you farewell.” Observe the position of laile at the end of this sentence. A more common way of saying this would be Wŏ lái xiàng nín gàobié. In Beijing speech, the verbs lái and qù can sometimes be repeated at the ends of sentences, for example, Wŏ lái xiàng nín gàobié laile “I have come to say goodbye to you” or Tā qù măi dōngxi qule “She went to buy things.” In the sentence under consideration here, the first lái in Wŏ lái xiàng nín gàobié laile has been omitted.

6. Examine xiàxīngqīsān “next Wednesday.” This could also be said as xiàge xīngqīsān; either way is correct. Grammatically, the word xīngqī “week” can function either as a noun (in which case it requires the measure ge before it) or as a measure (in which case you add a specifier like xià- directly). Similarly, you can say either shàngxīngqī or shàngge xīngqī for “last week.” The other word for “week,” lĭbài, can also function as either noun or measure. More examples:

Be aware that Chinese xīngqī and lĭbài are used more strictly than English “week” is. When Chinese people say “next week,” they mean “some time during the seven days that begin with the next Monday.” So xiàxīngqīsān means “Wednesday of the next whole week” (which starts on the following Monday), NOT the next day from now that happens to be a Wednesday. “Wednesday of this week” would be zhèixīngqīsān while “Wednesday of last week” would be shàngxīngqīsān.

7A. Zhuănyăn literally means “turn or revolve the eyes.” Zhuănyăn jiù yìnián le means “You turn your eyes and it’s a year,” that is, “In no time at all another year has passed.”

7B. LIÁN...DLU... AND LIÁN...YĔ.... The paired adverb pattern lián...dōu... and its synonym lián...yĕ... both mean “even.” The coverb lián literally means “link up” or “include.” Lián is placed before the element to be emphasized (which can be subject, object, or some other element), and dōu or yĕ is placed before the verb. The basic pattern is:

Xiăo Wáng fēicháng xĭhuan kàn diànshì, lián chīfànde shíhou dōu kàn.

“Even she can’t solve this problem, of course there’s nothing I can do.”

Tā shi Bĕijīng rén, búguò tā shuō Wànlĭ Chángchéng tā lián yícì yĕ méi qùguo!

“She’s from Beijing, but she said that she hasn’t even been to the Great Wall once!”

In lián...dōu... and lián...yĕ... sentences, if there is an object and if the sentence is affirmative, then the object cannot be modified by yī “one.” For example, in English, we could say “You’ve got everything, even a swimming pool!” But in Chinese this would have to be Nĭmen shémme dōu yŏu, lián yóuyŏngchí dōu yŏu! You could NOT say: *Nĭmen shémme dōu yŏu, lián yíge yóuyŏngchí dōu yŏu!

8A. Note the phrase duō kuī “thanks to” as in Duō kuī lăoshīde bāngmáng “Thanks for your help.” Some more examples of duō kuī:

“My being able to return home safely is all thanks to her lending me some money.”

Duōkuī nínde bāngzhù, yàoburán zhèipiān bàogào wŏ kĕ xiĕbuchūlai!

“It’s all thanks to your help, otherwise I would never have been able to write this report!”

8B. Wŏ kĕ zhēn méi shăo gĕi nín tiān máfan literally means “I indeed really didn’t too little for you add trouble,” that is, “I really did add a lot of trouble for you” or “I really have put you to too much trouble.” This is a good example of the Chinese predilection for indirectness (i.e., if you didn’t add too little trouble, then you probably did add a lot of trouble). Two more examples with méi shăo:

“He sure did spend quite a lot of money.” (lit. “He also didn’t spend too little money.”)

“I really did serve him quite a lot.” (lit. “I also didn’t serve him too little.” This was said by an elderly woman recollecting the care she had provided to her husband while he was still alive; cìhou means “wait upon” or “serve.”)

SV2. In China, where many people speak Mandarin with an accent, it’s considered praiseworthy to be able to speak “standard” Mandarin. Therefore, if your pronunciation is reasonably good, you may be told Nĭde Pŭtōnghuà shuōde hĕn biāozhŭn or Nĭde Guóyŭ shuōde hĕn biāozhŭn, both of which mean “Your Mandarin is very accurate.” Similarly, you could praise your Chinese friends by saying Nĭde Yīngyŭ shuōde hĕn biāozhŭn!

1. fāyīn	pronunciation [N]
yŭfă	grammar [N]
cíhuì	vocabulary [N]
Tāde fāyīn gēn yŭfă hái bú cuò, kĕshi cíhuì bú gòu.	Her pronunciation and grammar are pretty good, but she doesn’t have enough vocabulary.
2. biāozhŭn	be standard [SV]
liúlì	be fluent [SV]
Tāde Pŭtōnghuà shuōde yòu biāozhŭn yòu liúlì.	She speaks Mandarin both correctly and fluently.
3. shēngchăn	produce [V]
Nĭmende gōngchăng shēngchăn shémme ne?	What does your factory produce?

Nàr sĭle bù shăo rén.	“A lot of people died there.”
Láile yíwèi Zhāng Xiānsheng.	“A Mr. Zhang has come.”
Nàr xīn kāile yìjiā Rìbĕn guănzi.	“A Japanese restaurant has newly opened there.”
Yòu zŏule yíge.	“Another one has departed.” (e.g., talking about old friends who have passed on)

xiàng dōng zŏu	“walk toward the east”
xiàng qián kāi	“drive toward the front”

xiàxīngqī	“next Monday”
xiàge xīngqīwŭ	“next Friday”
xiàlĭbài’èr	“next Tuesday”
xiàge lĭbàiliù	“next Saturday”
shàngxīngqītiān	“last Sunday”
shàngge xīngqīsān	“last Wednesday”
shànglĭbàisì	“last Thursday”
shàngge lĭbàiyī	“last Monday”

VERB	SUBJECT	SENTENCE FINAL PARTICLE
Lái	kèrén	le.
“A guest has come.”

LIÁN	(ELEMENT TO BE EMPHASIZED)	DŌU/YĔ	VERB PHRASE
lián	yíjù jiăndānde Zhōngguo huà	dōu	bú huì shuō
“couldn’t speak even a simple phrase of Chinese”