New for me: "store" (noun), "open" and "closed" (i.e. store hours), "why," and "because."
Hello, is the store open right now?
No, the store is not open right now.
Why?
Because it is too late, but the store will be open tomorrow.
Brushing up on some old vocabulary, with only one new word: Hong Kong dollars.
I want to buy something, I want to buy anything, but I don't have any money. You should give me a lot of money. You should give me $2,000 Hong Kong dollars ($257).
Lots of new words for me here: the measure word for roads, plus "on the right," "on the left," "should," and "then" as it relates to things procedural (e.g. giving directions).
Which road should we take?
You all should take the road on the right.
And then?
And then go straight ahead, and then take the road on the left.
Do you (singular) understand?
I understand. We should take the road to the right, and then go straight ahead, and then take the road to the left. Is that correct?
Correct.
Very good. Thank you.
Goodbye.
New for me are the Chinese word for "thousand," and using the verb "go" as a command.
Can you give me $3,000 USD?
Impossible! I don't have $3,000 for you. Goodbye. Go away!
One of my first tongue-twisters in Mandarin: The phrase, "It takes 14 hours."
I want to take a plane to Hong Kong. Is taking a plane in China expensive?
It's not expensive. This plane goes to Hong Kong. Go straight ahead.
How long will it take (literally: Going, how many, hours)?
It takes 14 hours.
New for me is the Chinese word, "far." I also did some basic practice of the two ways to ask questions in Chinese: via the question word (ma), and using the yes/no approach.
Is Hong Kong very far? / [Said with question-word structure.]
No, Hong Kong is not very far.
Is Hong Kong very far? [Said with yes/no structure.]
Yes, Hong Kong is far. Hong Kong is very far. It is too far.
New for me are the words for "this flight," "that flight," and "go straight ahead."
Which flight goes to Hong Kong? I would like to take a plane to Hong Kong?
In that case, go straight ahead. This flight goes to Hong Kong.
Thank you.
Don't mention it.
Goodbye.
To ask somebody, in Chinese, how long something is going to take, you say, translated literally, "Go (i.e. going to be), how many hours?"
Tomorrow, I will go to the airport, and I will take a plane to Hong Kong.
How long will it take?
It will take nine hours.
To ask somebody in Chinese how many people are in their family, you say, translated literally, "You, home, inside, how many people?"
How many people are in your family?
There are four people in my family. How about you (plural)?
Our family is very big. Our family is really very big. We have nine people in our family.
New for me is the Chinese phrase for, "Wait a moment."
Can you eat dinner with us now?
Yes, I can eat dinner with you (plural) now, but, wait a moment.
I recorded this video in the airport, which seems appropriate.
New words for me: airport, airplane, Hong Kong.
Hello. I am Big Dragon (my Chinese name). I am at an airport, and I want to take a plane to Hong Kong, but right now I am going to take a plane to San Francisco.
This is my first attempt at using a rhetorical question in Mandarin Chinese (a.k.a. Putonghua).
I didn't learn this from any of my lessons. I just put it together based on what I already know. Grammatically it doesn't make any sense, and I doubt it would be understood the way English speakers would understand the rhetorical phrase, "Don't you know it," but, literally, in Chinese this final phrase translates as, "You don't know, yes or no?"
My wife and I have nine kids. We have daughters, and four sons.
Your family is big. Your family is really very big.
Correct. Don't you know it?!*
Two new words for me: family, really.
My wife and I have nine kids. We have seven daughters, and two sons.
Your family is very big.
Our family is really very big.
I'm not sure why I'm speaking so slowly and so awkwardly in this video; the only 'new' words for me here are "younger/smaller" and "older/bigger," which for me aren't really new at all, because my Chinese name is Dàlóng [Big Dragon (as in big sibling, i.e. older/bigger)], and my dog's name is Xiǎolóng [Little Dragon (as in younger sibling, i.e. younger/smaller)]. So I should've been able to say all of this with a bit more confidence. But sometimes it's a bit awkward to stare at the webcam, even more so because I don't write anything down beforehand.
Do you know where the children are?
Yes, I do know where the children are: the younger son is here; the older son is here.
What about the younger daughter?
I don't have a younger daughter, but I do have an older daughter; however, I don't know where she is.
"Bathroom" is all that's new here.
Excuse me, please let me ask you a question. Where is the bathroom?
The bathroom is not here. The bathroom is over there.
Recently I learned how to say "we," and "you" (plural); now, I also know "our," and "your."
How many children do you (plural) have?
My wife and I have four children. We have two sons, and two daughters.
Your children, where are they?
Our daughters are here, in America, in San Francisco, but our sons are in China, in Beijing.
What I said is technically correct, but awkward, because it's not what I meant to say: I meant to say that "I" live with my wife, not that "we" live with my wife. Not my best work. Sigh.
Hello. Where do you (plural) live?
We live in America, in San Francisco. We live with my wife.
New Chinese words for me: children, son, daughter, they, "grown up" (literally "big," but in this case, with the "la" ending, it refers only to maturity, not physical size), and "how many" (which in this case refers only to people, whereas other ways of saying "how many" or "how much" refer to other things; e.g. money).
You, and your wife, do you have kids?
Yes, we have kids.
How many kids do you have?
We have two sons and one daughter. How about you?
I have one daughter, but I don't have any sons; but, I don't have a wife. Your children, are they grown up?
They are not grown up.
Probably my longest video yet. Lots of new things for me here, and some refreshers too.
Mr. Chen, please come in.
Hello, Mr. Chen.
Hello.
Do you want to drink something with us?
Yes, I would like to drink something with you (plural).
What would you like to drink?
I would like to drink beer. What about you (singular)?
We would like to drink water, or tea, but we don't want to drink beer.
But I want to drink beer.
I want to drink beer - I too want to drink beer, but we don't want to drink beer.
OK. Thank you.
The new words for me in this video are "live" and "he," the latter of which is also the same word that you'd use for she/it. The words for "Mrs." and "Mr." are the same as those used for wife and husband, respectively, and it just depends on the context.
So, now, if you're ever in China, you can ask where to find Yao Ming's wife.
Where does Mrs. Yao live? I don't know where she lives.
