[An addition to the Taijiese section of TaiChiNotebook.com]
While I haven’t attempted to learn conversational Chinese, a little bit is helpful in the context of Tai Chi practice. This short section is especially tailored for the situation (in which I have found myself more or less continuously for years now) where you have the opportunity to meet and practice tai chi with a group of people who do not speak any English.
I make no effort here to provide grammatical niceties. This is pure vocabulary, which when strung together with some pantomime and good will can facilitate friendly relations across the language barrier.
Perhaps the most important phrase in any language:
谢谢 Xièxiè Thank you
As a greeting, ni hao works in all circumstances, among both friends and strangers. Literally, “you good” I suppose it’s like “How do you do?” But it’s not really a question. If you add me, it becomes an actual question, “Are you good?” to which you could reply, “Hen hao!” Very good! We also say Zao shang hao for good morning.
你好 Nǐ hǎo General greeting
吗 Ma Suffix forms interrogative
你好吗 Nǐ hǎo ma? How are you?
早上好 Zǎoshang hǎo Good morning
It is very useful to know the personal pronouns. They are not declined. Relax: You don’t even have to know what declension is! I say no more.
我 Wǒ I, me
你 Nǐ You
他 Tā He/she/it
Form the plurals by adding the suffix, men.
们 Men Indicates plurality
我们 Wǒ men We, us
你们 Nǐ men You (plural) (Y’all!)
他们 Tā men They, them
Good to know the possessive form as well, which is also formed with a suffix: de.
的 De Suffix to indicate possession
我的 Wǒ de My, mine
你的 Nǐ de Your, yours
他的 Tā de His/hers/its
Plural possessive is just as you would suspect:
我们的 Wǒ men de Our/ours
你们的 Nǐ men de Your/yours
他们的 Tā men de Their/theirs
Exchanging names:
名字 Míngzi Name
是 Shì is
什么 Shénme What
Now you can say:
我的名字是 Wǒ de míngzì shì My name is
你的名字是什么? Nǐ de [your] míngzì [name] shì [is] shénme? [what?] What is your name?
他的名字是什么? Tā de [his/her] míngzì shì shénme? [what?] What is his/her name?
My name, Elizabeth, has been quite difficult for the Chinese people I’ve met. Apparently it is very long and strange-sounding to a Chinese person who speaks no English. Fortunately, there is a Chinese equivalent for a number of English names. Mine is Yi Li Sha Bai, which everyone finds easy to say. You might check whether your name has a Chinese equivalent. Google Translate works:
伊丽莎白 Yīlìshābái Elizabeth
托马斯 Tuōmǎsī Thomas
苏珊 Sū shān Susan
大卫 Dà wèi David
莉莉 Lìlì Lily
Since we’ve got the possessive, it might be good to know this and that:
这个 Zhège This, this one
那个 Nàge That, that one
Zhege shi ni de? This is yours? Add me to make a question:
这个是你的么 Zhege shi ni de me? Is this yours?
不是 bù shì Is not
Bu shi wo de. It’s not mine.
扇 Shàn Fan
Zhege shan bu shi wo de. That fan isn’t mine.
And I like knowing this word:
朋友 Péngyou Friend
Zhege shi wode Taiji pengyou. This is my Tai Chi friend.
For good-bye, bye and bye-bye work, but this is good to know:
再 Zài Again
见 Jiàn See you
The informal zai jian works as a friendly good-bye:
再见 Zàijiàn See you again
Below I have given the common English translations for the Chinese words, but everyday English tells you nothing. For example: Diǎn means point. But if you don’t know Tai Chi sword and I tell you to point the sword, you will not do diǎn! Because the English word point does not carry the right meaning for swordplay. If you spoke Chinese and didn’t know Tai Chi sword, I could tell you to diǎn the sword, and you still would not know what to do. Diǎn is a term of art. Why learn an English translation? When you can learn two or three dozen Chinese words and speak the language of Tai Chi?
It might seem odd that the movement called the Big Dipper is also called the Major Literary Star, but in Chinese, they are the same name: Kuíxīng [phonetically, kway-shing]. In English, Orion is both the mythical hunter and the constellation; in Chinese, Kuixing is like that.
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