Posted by Jonah Lopin on Sun, May 02, 2010 @ 02:43 PM
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.
Posted by Jonah Lopin on Sun, Jun 29, 2008 @ 12:57 PM
If you have ever taken a taxi in Beijing then you've probably noticed that when the driver flips on the meter a recorded female voice rattles off a message in Mandarin. I personally find this message extremely entertaining.
The lady says:
乘客,您好.欢迎你坐北京出租汽车.清对我们的服务进行监督.
Or in pinyin:
Cheng2 ke4, nin3 hao3. Huan1 ying2 ni3 zuo4 Bei3 jing1 chu1 zu1 qi1 che1. Qing3 dui4 wo3 men2 de0 fu2 wu4 jin4 xing2 jian1 du1.
Let's translate word by word.
乘客passenger, 您好hello. 欢迎welcome 你you 坐ride 北京beijing 出租汽车taxi. 清please 对with respect to 我们的our 服务service 进行carry out 监督close inspection.
Entertaining aspects of this sentence:
- I am referred to directly as "passenger"
- The term 服务fu2wu4 (service), is very, very broad and funny. it is used in lots of places in Mandarin. Consider the word 特别te4bie2, which means "special". 特别服务 means special services, which usually means prostitution. A janitor might also be referred to as 服务员 (fu2wu4 yuan2), or "service person". Anyway, fu2wu4 is a very broad term for "service" and it cracks me up.
- I also love being instructed to 进行监督. "carry out a close inspection" is so formal that it's funny.