Conversation – Acquaintance I

Conversation 1
玛 丽 ： 我 叫 玛 丽 ， 你 姓 什 么 ？
mǎ lì ： wǒ jiào mǎ lì ， nǐ xìng shí me ？
Mary : I’m Mary. What’s your surname?
王 兰 ： 我 姓 王 ， 我 叫 王 兰 。
wáng lán ： wǒ xìng wáng ， wǒ jiào wáng lán 。
WangLan : My family name is Wang. My name is Wang Lan.
玛 丽 ： 认 识 你 ， 很 高 兴 。
mǎ lì ： rèn shi nǐ ， hěn gāo xìng 。
Mary : Nice to meet you.
王 兰 ： 认 识 你 ， 我 也 很 高 兴 。
wáng lán ： rèn shi nǐ ， wǒ yě hěn gāo xìng 。
WangLan : Nice to meet you too. (me too.)

Audio clip: view full post to listen. Adobe Flash is required
Conversation 2
大 卫 ： 老 师 ， 您 贵 姓 ？
dà wèi ： lǎo shī , nín guì xìng ？
David : Could I have your surname, teacher?
老 师 ： 我 姓 张 。 你 叫 什 么 名 字 ？
lǎo shī ： wǒ xìng zhāng 。 nǐ jiào shén me míng zì ？
Teacher : My surname is Zhang. What’s your name?
大 卫 ： 我 叫 大 卫 。 她 姓 什 么 ？
dà wèi ： wǒ jiào dà wèi 。 tā xìng shén me ？
David : My name is David. What’s her surname?
老 师 ： 她 姓 王 。
lǎo shī ： tā xìng wáng 。
Teacher : Her family name is Wang.
大 卫 ： 她 是 老 师 吗 ？
dà wèi ： tā shì lǎo shī ma ？
David : Is she a teacher?
老 师 ： 她 不 是 老 师 。 她 是 学 生 。
lǎo shī ： tā bú shì lǎo shī 。 tā shì xué shēng 。
Teacher : No, she is not a teacher. She is a student.

Audio clip: view full post to listen. Adobe Flash is required
Notes
  1. “您贵姓？”, which means “May I know your name?”. This is a respectful and polite way of asking the name of a person. The answer is not “我贵姓…”, but “我姓…”
  2. “你叫什么名字？”, which means “What’s your name?”. It is used by elders when they want to know the names of young people or between young people. One shouldn’t use it, therefore, when one wants to know an elder’s name or when one needs to show respect and politeness to the other party.
  3. “他（她）叫什么名字？”, which means “What’s his(her) name?”. It is used for asking another person’s name. One shouldn’t say “他（她）贵姓？”
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August 8th, 2009 in Conversation, Weekly Activities | tags: , , ,

Comments (5)

KWMoonOctober 3rd, 2009 at 9:07 am

I suggest to remove the background music during converstaion in Benny’s lesson. This will enable us to hear the pronunciation much clearer (like in Sophie’s lesson).
rgds,

[Reply]

Min Min Reply:
October 4th, 2009 at 9:30 am

Hi KWMoon,
Benny’s video is from Youtube. And I could not edit the video.
Thanks.

[Reply]

parul siddhuApril 19th, 2010 at 4:36 am

Hi Min Min
Your efforts are praiseworthy for helping foreigners learn chinese. Could you please suggest me some way of practising my spoken chinese (conversation) on internet . As after 2 years of chinese learning i still cant understand the native accent. Please help. thanks.

[Reply]

Min Min Reply:
April 20th, 2010 at 6:11 am

Hi parul siddhu,
Have you learnt Pinyin, especially the 4 tones? You should get your pronunciation and tones correct so that you can understand the native accent. Try to look for a native Chinese language learning partner so that you can communicate with him/her through Skype or other messengers in Chinese language.

Besides, try to build your vocabulary. To understand 90% of the Chinese content, you have to know around 11,000 Chinese phrases/words.

I hope my website will help you in learning Chinese. Feel free to ask if you have any questions.

[Reply]

parul siddhu Reply:
May 14th, 2010 at 5:14 am

谢谢 min min。我每天都下列你的网站。它很帮我高我的词汇。 现在我知道四‘五千生词。 每天我跟中文人聊。我希望然顷说汉语很好.
对不起回信你!

[Reply]

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