Chinese for dummies

Chinese

3rd Edition

by Dr. Wendy Abraham

Chinese For Dummies®, 3rd Edition

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Library of Congress Control Number: 2018947818

ISBN 978-1-119-47544-6 (pbk); ISBN 978-1-119-47551-4 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-119-47550-7 (ebk)

Manufactured in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Contents at a Glance

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Part 1: Getting Started with Chinese . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

CHAPTER 1: Chinese in a Nutshell: The Spoken Word . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

CHAPTER 2: The Written Word: Checking Out Chinese Characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

CHAPTER 3: Warming Up with the Basics: Chinese Grammar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

CHAPTER 4: Getting Started with Basic Expressions: Nǐ Hǎo! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

CHAPTER 5: Getting Your Numbers, Times, and Measurements Straight . . . . . . . . . 65

CHAPTER 6: Speaking Chinese at Home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

Part 2: Chinese in Action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97

CHAPTER 7: Getting to Know You: Making Small Talk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

CHAPTER 8: Dining Out and Shopping for Food . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111

CHAPTER 9: Shopping Made Easy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137

CHAPTER 10: Exploring the Town . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157

CHAPTER 11: Taking Care of Telecommunications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169

CHAPTER 12: Chinese at School and Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187

CHAPTER 13: Recreation and Outdoor Activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207

Part 3: Chinese on the Go . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219

CHAPTER 14: Planning a Trip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221

CHAPTER 15: Making Cents of Money . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233

CHAPTER 16: Getting Around . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249

CHAPTER 17: Asking for Directions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267

CHAPTER 18: Finding a Place to Stay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281

CHAPTER 19: Handling Emergencies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297

Part 4: The Part of Tens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311

CHAPTER 20: Ten Ways to Learn Chinese Quickly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313

CHAPTER 21: Ten Things Never to Do in China . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317

Part 5: Appendixes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321

APPENDIX A: Chinese-English Mini-Dictionary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323

APPENDIX B: Chinese Verbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 355

APPENDIX C: Fun & Games Answer Key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365

Table of Contents v

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

About This Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Foolish Assumptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Icons Used in This Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Beyond the Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Where to Go from Here . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

PART 1: GETTING STARTED WITH CHINESE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

CHAPTER 1: Chinese in a Nutshell: The Spoken Word . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Grasping Chinese Dialects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Pīnyīn Spelling: Beijing, Not Peking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Sounding Off: Basic Chinese Sounds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Starting off with initials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Ending with finals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Perfect pitch: Presenting . . . the four tones! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Adding Idioms and Popular Expressions to Your Repertoire . . . . . . . 17

CHAPTER 2: The Written Word: Checking Out Chinese

Characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Perusing Pictographs, Ideographs, and the Six Scripts . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

The Chinese Radical: A Few Clues to a Character’s Meaning . . . . . . . 24

Following the Rules of Stroke Order . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Rule 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Rules 2 through 9 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Up, Down, or Sideways? Deciphering the Direction of Characters . . . 26

Traditional versus Simplified Characters: When to Use Which . . . . . . 28

Using a Chinese Dictionary . . . without an Alphabet! . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

CHAPTER 3: Warming Up with the Basics:

Chinese Grammar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

The Basics of Chinese Nouns, Articles, and Adjectives . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Nouns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Definite versus indefinite articles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Adjectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

Getting into Verbs, Adverbs, Negation, and Possession . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Verbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Adverbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

Bù and méiyǒu: Total negation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

Getting possessive with the particle de . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

vi Chinese For Dummies

Asking Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

The question particle ma . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Yes/no choice questions using bù between repeating verbs . . . . 47

Interrogative pronouns.....................................48

CHAPTER 4: Getting Started with Basic Expressions: Nǐ Hǎo! . . . . 51

Making Introductions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

Acquainting yourself . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

Introducing your friends and family . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

Asking people for their names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

Greeting and Chatting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

Addressing new friends and strangers........................55

Conversing around the clock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

Talking about the weather . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

Finding out where people are from . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

Taking (that is, rejecting) compliments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

Saying goodbye . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

CHAPTER 5: Getting Your Numbers, Times, and

Measurements Straight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

Counting in Chinese . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

Numbers from 1 to 10 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

Numbers from 11 to 99 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

Numbers from 100 to 9,999 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

Numbers from 10,000 to 100,000 and beyond . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

How ’bout those halves? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

Ordinal numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

Asking how many or how much . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

Telling Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

Asking and stating the time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

Specifying the time of the day . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

Save the Date: Using the Calendar and Stating Dates . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

Dealing with days of the week . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

Naming the months . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

Specifying dates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

Celebrating Chinese holidays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80

Sizing Up Weights and Measures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81

CHAPTER 6: Speaking Chinese at Home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

Hanging Out at Home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

Hunting for an Apartment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

Decorating Your New Digs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

Appointing Your Rooms, Fēngshuǐ Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

The bedroom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

The bathroom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92

Table of Contents vii

The kitchen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92

The living room . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93

The basement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94

The attic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

PART 2: CHINESE IN ACTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97

CHAPTER 7: Getting to Know You: Making Small Talk . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

Establishing a Connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

Posing simple introductory questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102

Chatting about family . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103

Making small talk on the job . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105

Talking about where you live . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108

CHAPTER 8: Dining Out and Shopping for Food . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111

All about Meals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112

Satisfying your hunger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112

Sitting down to eat and practicing proper table manners . . . . . 114

Getting to Know Chinese Cuisines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115

Dining Out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116

Understanding what’s on the menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118

Placing an order and chatting with the waitstaff . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125

Dipping into some dim sum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127

Finding the restrooms.....................................128

Finishing your meal and paying the bill . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129

All the Tea in China . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130

Taking Your Chinese to Go . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131

Making comparisons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131

How much is that thousand-year-old egg? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132

CHAPTER 9: Shopping Made Easy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137

Going to Stores . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137

Getting What You Want at a Department Store . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140

Just browsing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141

Asking for help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141

Shopping for Clothes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143

What’s your size? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143

Comparing quality: Good, better, best . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145

Comparing two items . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146

What are you wearing? Chuān versus dài . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149

Asking about the color and material . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150

viii Chinese For Dummies

Shopping for Other Items . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151

Hunting for antiques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152

Getting a Good Price and Paying . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153

Negotiating prices at the night market.......................153

Paying for your purchase (or demanding a refund) . . . . . . . . . . . 154

CHAPTER 10: Exploring the Town . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157

Attending a Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157

Exploring different types of music . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158

Buying a ticket . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160

Asking whether someone has done something . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160

Exploring Museums and Galleries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161

Visiting Historical Sites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163

Going to the Movies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165

Hopping Around Bars and Clubs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167

CHAPTER 11: Taking Care of Telecommunications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169

Getting Familiar with Telephone Terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169

Going Mobile with a Cellphone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171

Making a Phone Call . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172

Calling your friends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173

Ringing hotels and places of business . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174

Phoning a client . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175

Sorry, I Can’t Take Your Call Right Now . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177

Listening to messages that people leave you . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177

Recording and understanding greeting messages . . . . . . . . . . . . 177

Leaving messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178

Checking Your Email . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180

Going Online . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182

The Great Wall . . . Firewall, That Is . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183

CHAPTER 12: Chinese at School and Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187

Going to School . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188

Schools and supplies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188

Teachers and subjects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189

Exams and semesters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190

Degrees and diplomas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191

Settling into Your Office Digs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192

Conducting a Meeting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195

Scheduling and planning a meeting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195

Making the initial greeting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196

Starting the meeting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198

Making a presentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198

Ending the meeting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199

Discussing Business and Industry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201

Table of Contents ix

CHAPTER 13:Recreation and Outdoor Activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207

Naming Your Hobbies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208

Exploring Nature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210

Tapping into Your Artistic Side . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213

Striking Up the Band . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213

Playing on a Team . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215

PART 3: CHINESE ON THE GO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219

CHAPTER 14: Planning a Trip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221

Talking about When You Want to Travel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221

Celebrating the Chinese Holidays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222

Where To? Deciding on a Destination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223

Passports and Visas: Don’t Leave Home without ’Em . . . . . . . . . . . . 227

Packing for Your Trip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228

Enlisting the Help of a Travel Agency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229

CHAPTER 15: Making Cents of Money . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233

Staying Current with Chinese Currency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234

Rénmínbì (RMB) in the PRC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234

Xīn Táibì in the ROC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235

Hong Kong dollars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236

Singapore dollars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236

Exchanging Money . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236

Spending Money . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239

Using cash . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240

Paying with plastic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241

Doing Your Banking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242

Making withdrawals and deposits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243

Accessing an ATM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244

Tips on Tipping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244

CHAPTER 16: Getting Around . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249

Flying Around the Airport . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249

Making it past the check-in counter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250

Boarding your flight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253

Going through customs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254

Navigating Around Town . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257

Hailing a cab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257

Hopping on the bus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260

Riding the rails . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262

x Chinese For Dummies

CHAPTER 17:Asking for Directions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267

Avoiding 20 Questions: Just Ask “Where?” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267

Different strokes for different folks: Saying nǎr

versus saying nǎlǐ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269

Getting direction about directions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270

Understanding the answers to “where” questions . . . . . . . . . . . . 271

Expressing Distances (Time and Space) with Lí . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274

Using Ordinal Numbers to Clarify Points of Reference . . . . . . . . . . . 276

Specifying Cardinal Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276

CHAPTER 18: Finding a Place to Stay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281

Making a Room Reservation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282

Checking In Before You Hit the Pool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285

Taking Advantage of Hotel Service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287

Counting on convenience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287

Getting problems fixed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288

Checking Out Before Heading Out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292

CHAPTER 19: Handling Emergencies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297

Calling for Help in Times of Need . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297

Receiving Medical Care . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298

Deciding whether to see a doctor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299

Describing what ails you . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300

Discussing your medical history . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305

Making a diagnosis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306

Treating yourself to better health . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308

Calling the Police . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308

Acquiring Legal Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309

PART 4: THE PART OF TENS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311

CHAPTER 20: Ten Ways to Learn Chinese Quickly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313

Listen to Chinese Being Spoken . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313

Check Out a Peking Opera Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314

Cook with a Wok . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314

Shop for Food in Chinatown . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314

Search Online . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315

Watch Kung-Fu Flicks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315

Exchange Language Lessons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315

Make Chinese Friends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316

Study Chinese Calligraphy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316

Be Curious and Creative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316

Table of Contents xi

CHAPTER 21: Ten Things Never to Do in China . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317

Never Accept a Compliment Graciously . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317

Never Make Someone Lose Face . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318

Never Get Angry in Public . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318

Never Address People by Their First Names First . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318

Never Take Food with the Wrong End of Your Chopsticks . . . . . . . . 319

Never Drink Alcohol Without First Offering a Toast . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319

Never Let Someone Else Pay the Bill Without Fighting for It........319

Never Show Up Empty-Handed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 320

Never Accept Food, Drinks, or Gifts Without First Refusing

a Few Times . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 320

Never Take the First “No, Thank You” Literally . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 320

PART 5: APPENDIXES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321

APPENDIX A:Chinese-English Mini-Dictionary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323

APPENDIX B:Chinese Verbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 355

APPENDIX C: Fun & Games Answer Key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359

INDEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365

Introduction 1

Introduction

Globalization has made familiarity with other people, cultures, and lan￾guages not only preferable but also essential in the 21st century. With the

help of the Internet and a bevy of social media growing at a dizzying rate,

reaching out and touching someone on the other side of the earth has become as

easy as clicking a mouse, using a smartphone, or clicking on to RenRen (the

Chinese equivalent of Facebook) or Weibo (the Twitter of China). And yet nothing

quite beats the excitement of a face-to-face encounter with someone who hails

from the other side of the globe in his or her own language. Communication in

cyberspace doesn’t even come close.

Whether you’re an inveterate traveler, going overseas for business, studying

abroad, adopting a child, interested in frequenting Chinatown, befriending a

Chinese-speaking classmate or co-worker, or just plain curious about China,

Chinese For Dummies, 3rd Edition, can help you get acquainted with enough Chinese

to carry on a decent conversation on any number of topics. You won’t become

­fluent instantly, of course, but this book helps you greet a stranger, buy a

plane  ticket, talk to Chinese students, converse with business colleagues, and

order some food. It also gives you some invaluable cultural tips so that you not

only rattle off those newly acquired words and phrases but also back them up with

the right behavior at the right time.

I designed this book to help guide you toward the successful use of one of the most

difficult languages on earth. Chinese should also just be plain fun to learn.

About This Book

The good news is that you can use Chinese For Dummies, 3rd Edition, anytime,

anywhere. No mandatory class sessions, no exams, and no homework assign￾ments to dread. Need to get to a new city for a business meeting? Just turn to the

chapters on travel or business to find out how to buy a plane ticket, get through

customs, get to the airport on time, or do some negotiating. Have to make a sud￾den trip to the doctor? Turn to the chapter on your health and figure out in advance

how to tell your caregivers exactly what ails you.