1. Tom works with a woman whose name is Guō Jiā, which is close in pronunciation to “ɡuó jiā,” meaning “country” or “nation.” One day someone came into the office while she was out, pointed to her desk and asked who it belonged to. Glad to help, Tom replied confidently, “That desk belongs to the nation!”
The four tones in Chinese are often the most difficult thing for beginners. Tones are mainly used to distinguish different meanings. In other words, when a syllable with the same phonetic spelling is pronounced with a different tone, its meaning changes. Many interesting stories such as Tom’s result from mistakes related to tones.
2. Jack had just started his new job as an assistant editor for a Hong Kong newspaper. One day he needed to call the paper’s Taiwan office to clarify some things. When the other end picked up, he said:
“你好，我是香港的助理骗子” (助理骗子; assistant cheat) "Nǐ hǎo, wǒ shì xiānggǎng de zhùlǐ piànzi."
The other end went silent, followed by a huge wave of laughter as his Taiwanese colleague said, “Hey guys, I’ve got the Hong Kong assistant cheat on the line!!!
piànzi = 骗子 (cheat; imposter) biānjí = 编辑 (editor)
It’s often hard to tell the difference between the initials “b” and “p” in Chinese. To practice saying these two sounds, hold a piece of paper up in front of your mouth. As you say the “p” sound, the paper should move slightly. When you make the “b” sound, however, the paper should remain still.
Two other sounds often confused are that of the initials “z” and “j.” To pronounce the “z” sound, the tip of the tongue should first rest against the back of the upper teeth, whereas it rests against the front of your hard palette as you start to pronounce the “j.”
For more detailed explanations on how to pronounce different sounds, please visit www.targetchinese.com/courses/ and click on Chinese Essentials.
3. The first time Henry went to his girlfriend’s house to visit her parents, her mother asked him how he liked the “稀饭 (xīfàn; congee).” What he wanted to tell her was that he liked it, he just had to get used to eating something this liquidy with chopsticks. What he ended up telling her, with a big smile on his face, was that it was very “难吃 (nánchī; bad-tasting).” Luckily, Henry’s girlfriend was sitting next to him at that moment and was able to rectify the situation.
In Chinese, “难” can both mean “hard (to do something)” and “not good,” while “吃” means “to eat.” In most cases, the combination of these two characters is used to mean “bad-tasting.” Similarly, the combination of the character “难” with certain other adjectives like “听(tīnɡ)” and “闻(wén)” mean “bad-sounding” and “bad-smelling,” respectively. The other meaning of “难吃,” “hard to eat,” is rarely used and usually requires explanation in order to avoid a situation like Henry’s. For example, one might have to say, “It’s hard to eat with chopsticks. It might be easier if we had a spoon (用筷子太难吃了，如果有勺子就好了。; Yònɡ kuàizi tài nán chī le; rúɡuǒ yǒu sháozi jiù hǎole.).”
Tags:pronunciation chinese language
