Articles About the Chinese Language

How to say "I don't care" in Chinese

 I am a fan of two ways of saying "I don't care" in Chinese.

You can say 我无所谓 = wo3 wu2 suo3 wei4 = "I don't care" or "I am indifferent" or "whatev".

The words are:

• 我 [wo3], which obviously means I. That one is easy.
• 无 [wu2], which means "without" or "to lack" or "don't have".
• 所 [suo3], which means "actually". (This word also means "place", as in 厕所= ce4 suo3 = "toilet place" = bathroom.)
• 谓 [wei4], which means "speak of".

So, 我无所谓 = "I lack actually speak of" = whatevs.

Another great way to say "whatever" / "I don't care either way" is to say 随便 = sui2 bian4:

•  随 [sui2] means "to follow", "to comply with", or "to allow". (It is also a common last name, but let's ignore that for now.)
• 便 [bian4] means "convenient", "handy", or "easy". (Of course just to make things complicated, this word also means "ordinary", "plain", "then", "so", "thus", and "to relieve oneself" - as in 大便 = da4 bian4 = "big"+ "relive oneself" = do a #2. To make things even more difficult to remember, the character 便 is also pronounced pian2 and means "advantageous" or "cheap", as in 便宜 = pian2 yi4 = inexpensive.)
  

 

So, 随便 means "whatever is cool", and it feels like sure, I'll "comply with easy", or I'll "follow convenient".

So, which one is better 随便 or 我无所谓?

Whatever.

Hurry up or I will bite you to death.

You are late. You are in a taxi, and you'd like to ask the driver to hurry it up. To say that, you say 快点 [=kuai4 dian3 = fast little = hurry it up]. If if you live in Beijing, you add an "rrrrrr" to this by adding a 儿, so it would be 快点儿. No the 儿 doesn't mean anything, it's just a sound we like in Beijing.

Next, you need to know how to say "otherwise". (It's very hard to threaten someone without knowing how to say "otherwise".) In Mandarin, you can say 要不然 = yao4 bu0 ran2 = otherwise.

Of course, to say "I will bite you to death" you simply say 我咬死你 = wo3 yao3 si3 ni3 = I bite death you.

So, to speed up that cab, just say 快点儿要不然我咬死你 =kuai4 dianr3 yao4 bu0 ran2 wo3 yao3 si3 ni3 = hurry little otherwise I bite death you = hurry up or I am going to bite you to death.

Use wisely, and happy biting.

Top 11 Things to do in Beijing

I am periodically asked by friends what stuff I recommend they do in Beijing. In the interest of efficiency, I decided to write my top ten list of eleven things I would do if I were a tourist in Beijing who only had time for eleven things:

1. Get a foot massage. There are lots of small massage parlors in Beijing, and for $5 or so you can get an awesome foot massage. Yes, they also do the lower legs. If you ask nicely, you and your friends can probably sit next to each other during the massage. (Note: I would eschew the full-body massage, but it's hard to get in trouble with a simple foot massage.)

2. Eat Beijing Duck. I wouldn't go to the fanciest spots since they are touristy and overpriced. Just find local duck restaurants and eat 北京烤鸭 = bei3jing1 kao3ya1 = Beijing Duck.

3. Go to the Great Wall. The great wall (长城 = chang2 cheng2) is awesome to visit. The best way to see it is to take a bus outside Beijing for about an hour to a town called huai2 rou2, and then get a taxi to take you to a small town where peasants who live at the foot of the wall will cook you dinner and rent you a room for almost no money. I wish I could remember how to find the peasants I stayed with last time I was there because they were great. They grew their own tofu. But I can't remember. This little jaunt is not for the faint of heart since you will be heading out without a place to stay.

4. Party at San Li Tun and Hou Hai. The nightlife in Beijing is interesting. I like the Chinese bars scattered throughout the touristy areas. One night, go to San1 Li3 Tun2 (三里屯 = "3 little villages") and go into anywhere that looks awesome and has lots of neon. Another night, go to Hou4 Hai3 (后海 = "back lake") - I haven't been there in a while, but last time I was in Beijing there were some good bars and restaurants. Get there around sunset.

5. Read the Beijinger. I used to read a monthly paper called That's Beijing because they pointed to great stuff to do, see and eat. According to wikipedia, though, the State took over That's Beijing. That sucks, but the folks at That's Beijing started a new publication called The Beijinger.

6. Buy Things at Silk Alley and Liu Li Chang. The silk alley (秀水市场 = xiushui shichang) is great for North Face and other knock offs. For antiques and random flea market stuff, visit Pan1 Jia1 Yuan2 (潘家园). In both places, no matter what the price is, just act shocked. Go ahead and over-act. Then say you'll pay 40% of the price. Then when they won't budge, walk away, and you'll likely get chased down to make the sale, often in a very secretive manor so other tourists don't see what a "great" deal you got.

7. Buy a bike and ride it around for the day. You can buy a mountain bike for about $20. Get a sturdy lock. Just find a local bike shop, buy a bike, and hit the streets. Try to stay blended in with Chinese cyclists so you don't get hit by any cars. The rule of thumb is: as long as there are Chinese people on bikes around you and they don't look scared, you probably are not about to get hit by a car or arrested.

8. Morning Exercises & Sunrise at 天安门广场. Some Chinese people do amazing and outlandish morning exercises. You owe it to yourself to head to a park early in the morning to experience it. A good morning in Beijing, maybe after clubbing all night (if you're into that kind of thing), is to head to Tian1 An1 Men2 Guang1 Chang0 (Tian An Men Square) at sunrise to catch the ceremony of raising the Chinese flag. From there, you can walk north to Bei3 Hai3 park and catch morning exercises.

9. Eat Chinese Food. Visit as many restaurants as you can. Eat dumplings and potsticker. Eat as many delicious chinese foods as you can. Some of the best meals you can eat are are 家常菜 = jia1 chang2 cai4 = "house regular food"= comfort food. Just look at Aaron enjoying dumplings and kung pao chicken at this restaurant.

10. Make dumplings. If you have the chance, find some expert dumpling makers who will let you "help" them cook up some fresh dumplings. You can prepare for this using our dumpling-making instructional video.

11. Visit the Summer Palace. The summer palace is pretty sweet. Head there for 4 hours to walk around. The view from the top of moonlight mountain on longevity hill is especially captivating:

What are your favorite things to do in Beijing?

Getting your hair cut in China - make sure you get skills

Hair in Chinese is called fa3 = 发. If you want to get a haircut in China, you should consider an awesome salon like this one:

 

Beijing Native Teaches Dumpling Making: 作 水 餃 Instructional Video

I shot this video in 2003 in Beijing during a period of intensive dumpling-making lessons taught by my friend's mom. We'd make 250 左右 (左 = zuo3 = left, 右 = you4 = right, 左右 = approximately) dumplings twice a week.

 

The scariest possible words to hear from a Beijing cop: 把 你 的 护 照 给 我。

China isn't generally a scary place.

But as a foreigner, it's mildly terrifying when a cop says 把 [ba1="with respect to"] 你 的 [ni3de0 = your] 护 照 [hu4zhao4="passport"] 给 [gei3="give"] 我 [wo3="me"].

It's especially upsetting if the line is delivered by a cop who is staring stonily at you becasue you tried to help your friend jump up on one of the podiums normally occupied by guards outside the Spanish embassy! 

CHALLENGE: Mandarin spoken by an unsuspecting Beijing local... Part 2: The Answer

This sentence was part of a phone conversation. it's a little hard to translate things out of context, but with some help, here's the sentence.

In English, is means "All day he's had nothing but free time. Quickly beep him for me."

The pinyin is: Ta1 zhe4 yi4 tian1 jing4 xian2 zhe0 mei2 shi4r. Ni3 gan2 jin3 gei3 wo3 hu1 ba.

The characters are: 他这一天净闲着没事儿。你赶紧给我呼吧。

Note that xian2 means "free" as in "free time".

Next challenge coming soon...

Please, Be Civilized!

Here's something you would ordinarily never see translated into English: 迎奥运，讲文明，树新风. This phrase is all over Beijing, posted on billboards, in the subways and even on TV commercials, so why wouldn't it be translated into English? I smile whenever I read these signs, knowing that many non-Chinese reading tourists are missing out on a good laugh. The first piece is straightforward enough, (迎Ying2)(奥Ao4)( 运Yun4) means to welcome the Olympics. (迎Ying2) is simply the second half of the word (欢huan1)(迎ying2) which means to welcome. Similarly, 奥运 is the first two characters of (奥ao4)(运yun4)(会hui4) which means the Olympic Games. The first character (奥ao4) is supposed to sound like the beginning of the English word, "Olympics." (运Yun4) is half of the word for athletics or sports, "(运yun4)(动dong4)." And (会hui4) means generally any kind of meeting, or party or event. But on to the funny part, the second piece of the slogan means, "Please Be Civilized," followed by the kicker, "Turn Over a New Leaf." Now it should be clear why the sign is not in English, people might take it the wrong way if you started telling them to turn over a new leaf by acting more civilized. To understand the Chinese, we can break it up word by word: (讲jiang3) is part of the word (讲究jiang3jiu) meaning to place a special importance on something. For example, at a hospital they really (讲jiang3), or stress the importance of sanitation. The word (文wen2)(明ming2) literally means civilization or civilized, either a noun or an adjective. As we can now see, 讲文明 is an indicative telling people to place greater emphasis on being civilized. The last part reads, (树shu4)新xin1)(风feng1), "Turn Over a New Leaf." This clearly indicates that being civilized would be like a change for some people out there. Again, to understand the Chinese, we break it up. The word (树shu4) is literally just a tree, but it is also part of the word (树shu4)(立li4), meaning to erect or set something set, like how a tree stands straight up in the ground. The word (新xin1) means new, easy enough, and (风feng1) is part of the word (风feng1)(尚shang4) which means, ‘social trends,' or ‘societal customs.' Thus 树新风 is easily translated as, "erect new social trends," or simply put ‘turn over a new leaf.'