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Q: I will Survive
Do you remember when you first got to China and didn't know any Chinese words besides
"Ni Hao "
You found yourself pointing at things that you wanted and probably getting ripped off as you politely smiled as you hand over a wod of cash.
When Asking a stranger for anything the first question was "Do you speak English?" .
But after a day or so you started picking up a few phrases.
You started off with the ones that made survival that bit easier in China.
For me it was due to the food not sitting to well because I didn't always know what i was eating ..so my first survival phrase was "Na you Mai Dang lao" ..".where is MacDonald's ?"
What was your first Survival Words ?
You know the deal
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Cheers
5 years 18 weeks ago in Transport & Travel - China
I'll start by admitting that Chinese is impossible for me. I know some words, but even my wife laughs at my awful pronunciation, so I still (after a decade) point at things I want. That said, my first survival words were numbers, and "kuai qian" (as no one understood when I tried "duoshao qian?"). The first words I actually learned through intereactions with Chinese people was "mei you."
When I arrived one of the first things I picked up was 'tingbudong'. (hear but don't understand)
Lol funny thing about McDonalds was I knew where they were alright because it seemed to me like they were about the only place in China with public toilets and I always had a dodgy belly for the first month or so.
I'll start by admitting that Chinese is impossible for me. I know some words, but even my wife laughs at my awful pronunciation, so I still (after a decade) point at things I want. That said, my first survival words were numbers, and "kuai qian" (as no one understood when I tried "duoshao qian?"). The first words I actually learned through intereactions with Chinese people was "mei you."
Ordering la mian,,, haha
'yi ga Lanzhou la mian hu yi ga ji dan, da suan, la jiao',,, 'oh, yi ga co la, pin da. Xiexie'
*the 'oh' is still English,,,,, or maybe just Universal....
diverdude1:
haha, new Chinese colleague just the other day commented on my accent,,, which launched me into an impromptu lecture on the cultural/physical geography of the United States, which lead to a quick explanation of the 'Old South', and of course that lead to a bit of Texas history,,, it was funny,,,, she actually listened to me a little bit,,, somewhere up around 30% attentitiveness rate, where I usually only manage 15-20%.
The first chinese words i learnt were: 'arhhh', 'wooooar', 'aiya', and 'wa cao'...... language immersion experience completed!
diverdude1:
how about 'unhhhh' ? unhhh, unhhh, unhhh,,, I still hate that one to this day! sounds like a grunt to me,,, humans shouldn't grunt,,, or certainly shouldn't grunt as the primary means of expression.
The most useful sentence I have ever learned is "jichang zai nali?" ("where's the airport?") because it allowed me to escape this hellhole.
my Chinese is very bad,19 years in China and I still cant speak Chinese very well,cant even have a conversation with anyone.
Im not proud of this but I just cant make it stick inside my head.I know many words.
RandomGuy:
Conversing with random people out here is kinda pointless. I regret putting so much efforts into learning the language only to be systemically asked the same laowai targeted questions and told the same laowai targeted remarks. All the people I do business with either speak English or have a personal assistant who does. Learning Chinese is utterly pointless, I should have learned French or Spanish instead.
