Intermediate Spoken Chinese

Sally Lee, who is spending her junior year in Beijing, has been invited to the home of a Chinese classmate. After dinner the two young women, who have only recently become acquainted, sit on the sofa and ask about each other’s hobbies.

Basic Conversation 20-1

1. CHINESE	Lĭ Wén, nĭ yŏu shémme shìhào ma?
	Sally, do you have any hobbies?
2. LEE	Wŏ xĭhuan yīnyuè. Cóng xiăo zài Mĕiguo xué gāngqín.
	I like music. From the time I was little, I’ve been studying piano in America.
3. CHINESE	Guàibudé cháng kàn nĭ yìbiān zŏu yìbiān hēng diàozi.
	No wonder I often see you humming a tune while you walk.
4. LEE	Shì ma?
	Really?
5. CHINESE	Chúle yīnyuè, nĭ hái yŏu qítāde àihào ma?
	Besides music, do you have any other hobbies?
6. LEE	Hái xĭhuan kàn xiăoshuōr huòshi cānguān bówùguăn. Nĭ ne? Nĭde shìhào shi shémme?
	I also like to read novels or visit museums. And you? What are your hobbies?
7. CHINESE	Huàhuàr, tèbié shi guóhuàr, hái yŏu xiàqí. Wéiqí, Xiàngqí, Tiàoqí, wŏ dōu xià.
	Painting, especially Chinese painting, also playing Chinese chess. Go, Chinese chess, Chinese checkers, I play them all.

Build Up

1. Chinese
shìhào	hobby [N]
Lĭ Wén, nĭ yŏu shémme shìhào ma?	Sally, do you have any hobbies?
2. American
cóng xiăo	from the time when I was little
gāngqín	piano [N]
Wŏ xĭhuan yīnyuè. Cóng xiăo zài Mĕiguo xué gāngqín.	I like music. From the time I was little, I’ve been studying piano in America.
3. Chinese
guàibudé	no wonder [MA]
hēng	hum [V]
diàozi	tune, melody [N]
hēng diàozi	hum a tune
yìbiān zŏu yìbiān hēng diàozi	hum a tune while one walks
Guàibudé cháng kàn nĭ yìbiān zŏu yìbiān hēng diàozi.	No wonder I often see you humming a tune while you walk.
4. American
shì ma	“really?” [IE]
Shì ma?	Really?
5. Chinese
chúle yīnyuè	besides music
àihào	interest, hobby [N]
qítāde àihào	other hobbies
Chúle yīnyuè, nĭ hái yŏu qítāde àihào ma?	Besides music, do you have any other hobbies?
6. American
xiăoshuō(r)	novel [N] (M: bĕn)
kàn xiăoshuōr	read novels
cānguān	visit [V]
bówùguăn	museum [PW]
huòshi cānguān bówùguăn	or visit museums
Hái xĭhuan kàn xiăoshuōr huòshi cānguān bówùguăn. Nĭ ne? Nĭde shìhào shi shémme?	I also like to read novels or visit museums. And you? What are your hobbies?
7. Chinese
huà	paint [V]
huà(r)	painting [N] (M: zhāng)
huàhuà(r)	paint paintings [VO]
guóhuà(r)	Chinese painting [N] (M: fú)
tèbié shi guóhuàr	it’s especially Chinese painting
xià	play (chess or checkers) [V]
xiàqí	play chess [VO]
Wéiqí	Go (a kind of chess) [N]
Xiàngqí	Chinese chess [N]
Tiàoqí	Chinese checkers [N]
Huàhuàr, tèbié shi guóhuàr, hái yŏu xiàqí. Wéiqí, Xiàngqí, Tiàoqí, wŏ dōu xià.	Painting, especially Chinese painting, also playing Chinese chess. Go, Chinese chess, Chinese checkers, I play them all.

1A. Lĭ Wén, nĭ yŏu shémme shìhào ma? “Sally, do you have any hobbies?” Remember that, because this sentence is already a question due to the ma at the end, the shémme must be interpreted as an indefinite (“some hobbies” or “any hobbies”) and couldn’t be interpreted as an interrogative (“what hobbies?”).

1C. Some Chinese speakers will cite smoking (chōuyān) as one of their “hobbies”! On the other hand, hardly anyone would name bicycle riding as a hobby, as they might in the U.S., since in China it’s an important means of transportation.

3A. GUÀIBUDÉ. Guàibudé “no wonder that” is gramatically a negative potential resultative compound composed of the verb guài “find strange,” -bù- “not,” and dé “can,” that is, “cannot find something to be strange.” Guàibudé expresses a sudden awareness of the reason why something is as it is. Guàibudé can function as an independent comment—for example, Guàibudé! “No wonder!”—or it can be followed by a sentence, which grammatically functions as the object of guàibudé. The meaning and use of guàibudé are similar to nánguài (7-3: 7A). The basic pattern involving guàibudé is:

Nĭ shuō tāmen chūqu lǚxíngle? Guàibudé wŏ zuìjìn méi kànjian tāmen.

Jiāzhōude tiānqi nèmme hăo, guàibudé Zhōngguo rén dōu xĭhuan bāndao Jiāzhōu qù.

“The climate in California is so good, no wonder Chinese all like to move to California.”

3B. Review yìbiān(r)...yìbiān(r)... “on the one hand..., on the other hand...” or “do one thing while you do another” (18-2: 5).

4. The idiomatic expression Shì ma? “Is that so?”, “Really?”, “You don’t say?” is extremely common in mainland China but less common in other Chinese speech communities.

5. Chúle yīnyuè, nĭ hái yŏu qítāde àihào ma? “Besides music, do you have any other hobbies?” In 15-4: 5B, you were introduced to the patterns chúle...yĭwài and chúle...zhīwài, both of which mean “besides...” or “except....” In this line of this Basic Conversation, the yĭwài or zhīwài that usually follows has been omitted. It’s not incorrect to omit the yĭwài or zhīwài, but we recommend you keep it in your own speech.

6. The verb cānguān “visit” can take only a place as its object, never a person. To express “visit a person,” say kàn yíge rén.

7A. Wéiqí “Go” (i.e., the Asian board game) is played by two people; the objective is to encircle more territory than the opponent.

7B. In Xiàngqí “Chinese chess,” which is also for two people, the aim is to take the opponent’s general.

7C. Wéiqí, Xiàngqí, Tiàoqí dōu xià literally means “Go, Chinese chess, and Chinese checkers, (I) play them all.” This is a good example of the Chinese preference to prepose objects, that is, to place objects at the beginning of the sentence, before the verb, rather than in the normal position toward the end of the sentence, after the verb.

SV1. Learn hăotīng “be nice-sounding.” As we noted in 6-1: SV3 when you learned hăochī “be good to eat” and hăokàn “be good-looking,” hăo can be prefixed to a number of verbs to create stative verbs meaning “be good to...,” “be pleasant to...,” or “be easy to....” Hăotīng is the word to use for describing songs or music that you like; you couldn’t use piàoliang “be pretty,” which describes only things that are seen.

SV3A. While taking photographs of typical tourist sites is no problem, it’s always best to ask for permission before taking photographs of individuals or when near sensitive places such as airports or military installations. The appropriate question is Kéyi zhàoxiàng ma? “May one take photographs?”

SV3B. Another common expression that means “take a photograph” is the verb-object construction pāizhào.

SV3C. In the U.S., when we’re taking a photo and want our subjects to smile, we often say “Say ‘cheese’!” In Chinese you try to get people to say the word qiézi “eggplant,” for which they must open their mouths and spread their lips.

AV3. Shūfă “calligraphy” literally means “way of writing,” since in Classical Chinese shū is a verb meaning “to write” and fă is a noun meaning “way” or “method” (10-3: 3F). In Modern Chinese, shū means “that which has been written” or “book.”

1. chàng	sing [V]
gē(r)	song [N] (M: zhī)
chànggē(r)	sing a song [VO]
hăotīng	be nice-sounding, pretty [SV]
Nĭ chàngde gēr zhēn hăotīng.	The songs you sing are really pretty.
2. kànshū	read [VO]
Wŏ mĕitiān kàn wŭge xiăoshíde shū.	I read for five hours every day.
3. zhào	take (photographs) [V]
zhàoxiàng	take photographs [VO]
bāng wŏ zhào yìzhāng xiàng	take a photo for me
Qĭng nín bāng wŏ zhào yìzhāng xiàng, hăo ma?	Please take a picture for me, all right?

1. xià Xīyáng qí	play Western chess [PH]
2. jíyóu	collect stamps [VO]
3. shūfă	calligraphy [N]
4. xiĕ dōngxi	write things, write [PH]
5. diàoyú	fish, go fishing [VO]
6. dăliè	go hunting [VO]
7. lùyíng	go camping [VO]
8. tīng yīnyuè	listen to music [PH]
9. tán	play (a musical instrument) [V]
tán gāngqín	play piano [PH]
jíta	guitar [N]
tán jíta	play guitar [PH]
lā	pull [V]
xiăo tíqín	violin [PH]
lā xiăo tíqín	play violin [PH]
Nĭ xĭhuan tán gāngqín, tā xĭhuan tán jíta, wŏ xĭhuan lā xiăo tíqín.	You like to play piano, she likes to play guitar, I like to play violin.

GUÀIBUDÉ	SENTENCE
Guàibudé	tā hĕn shăo lái.
“No wonder he rarely comes.”