Trips to Hong Kong, Singapore and across the mainland are a mainstay of life for most foreign professionals in Asia. Couple that with the fact that many of the best jobs for mandarin-speaking expats are with smaller and mid-sized firms, and you've got a recipe for the need to work on the go. Say goodbye to life in a cubicle and hello to rushing to find a power outlet in rural Guangxi in order to make your conference call on Skype.If you do business in Asia but are just learning to speak Chinese, join us in this lesson as we teach you how to ask for an electrical outlet for your laptop or phone. In addition to our regular Chinese podcast, we've also enabled our Speaking Practice hotline for today's lesson. If you're a premium subscriber, grab your personal ID number on our text page along with our telephone hotline number. Give us a call and practice reading the dialogue and vocabulary to us (add your own commentary, of course) and we'll get back to you in a day with personal feedback on how you sound.
jeff.harrols
said on February 24, 2010
Useful lessons. Enjoying it and the others, thanks.
Echo
said on February 24, 2010
@jeff,
很高兴你喜欢！(Hen3 gao1xing4 ni3 xi3huan1) -- Glad you like it :)
--Echo
luolin
said on February 25, 2010
Okay, I tell my students to 打开书。 So the question is to 打开or not to 打开，那是一个重要的问题。
Is there something I need to know when objects are closed?
We should probably avoid the 把字 sentence in a Absolutely Beginners podcast。But...when should you use that sentence structure over the simple subject-verb-object structure?
vindalsace
said on February 25, 2010
There seem to be a few lessons where your team stresses the 儿化音 (er hua yin), that it's standard Mandarin and not just a Beijing thing. My experience in China, outside Beijing, has proven otherwise.
Also, I've spoken Mandarin with native speakers overseas, in the UK and in the States and no one, not even native Beijingers use 儿化音 unless the group is only made up of Beijingers. In those groups where there are people from different parts of China, they always laugh at me when I use 儿化音. I really don't find it commonly used outside of Northeastern China.
trevelyan
said on February 25, 2010
@vindalsace - good point about the profusion of dialects, especially in overseas communities with close ties to Taiwan, Hong Kong and southern China. That said, I don't think you'd disagree that most non-native learners can't or don't differentiate between the Beijing dialect (a regional variant generally used only between common speakers) and standard mandarin (the national language).
For better or worse, there is standard erhuaization which is codified and promoted in mainland media and schools (even down south). We have some podcasts at the Advanced level which feature other dialects and aren't prescriptivists in the sense that we like (almost) all of them. That said, we do believe that teaching any non-standard dialect involves doing a major disservice to the student.
Cheers,
--david
Gail天堂的声音
said on February 25, 2010
@luolin,
good question. yes you are right. to 打开书 or not to 打开书,这是一个很重要的问题。
when you ask your students to close their books you can say：合上书。héshàng shū.
and "don't open your book" is 不要打开书。
but for TV，light or AC, to turn off is to 关上。
e.g.关上电视，关上灯，关上空调。。。
davidwilljack
said on February 25, 2010
I want to use 'my' laptop, surely? Unless of course you're referring to some kind of pooled laptop which no one individual actually owns.:)This is all great stuff, looks like I'm going to have to spend some money!
Echo
said on February 26, 2010
@davidwilljack,Yes, exactly like what you said -- everyone would know you want to use "your" laptop :)Thank you for your kind words about the site! 谢谢啦！很高兴你喜欢 :)--Echoecho@popupchinese.com
pilarbaigorri
said on February 26, 2010
Hi! I really like this site. I am learning new words, while having fun! Thanks guys!.
Pil@r
trevelyan
said on February 26, 2010
@davidwilljack,Just following up on your earlier comment, you're right that you can insert the first-person possessive 我的 before the laptop if you want to be precise: 我的笔记本儿 (my laptop). Alternately, you can also add a number and measure word before the noun to contextualize it, as in 我想用一个笔记本儿. You can get away without specifying ownership in this situation only because it's contextually obvious and the waitress is presumably not holding a computer. We kept the possessive out of this dialogue out of a desire to keep it simpler.Best,--david
Ian
said on February 28, 2010
大家好
Are there any ground rules where one applies 儿化音?
祝你好
伊恩
Echo
said on February 28, 2010
@Ians,
嗨，虎年快乐！！你最近怎么样？
There're no certain rules for using 儿化音. Sometimes when you are talking about something small and cute, you can use 儿化音. The best solution is to remember those words with 儿化音.
--Echo
echo@popupchinese.com
Ian
said on March 3, 2010
@ Echo也虎年快乐, 我很好, 谢谢I thought that was the best way, just to learn the words as they are.I'm all for the 北京话, learning as a local and one can also understand the locals, not just clinical clean 普通话.That's what makes your podcasts the best, down to earth as one would talk on the street.倍儿酷伊恩
