need help cos my mandarin sucks :(

last SG · 2006-05-01T15:23:37+00:00

there will be guides and stuff. the whole point of needing to speak chinese is because what if there are kids who cannot speak english? oh well, here is a w...

^spidee^ SG

That's a huge burden! Shocked Ok, how can we help? Do you want to try practising using mandarin here first using Hanyu Pinyin? Just to see how much help we can give.

udontknowme SG

lol.
why do you say that?
china has been organizing this for 5 years already...

udontknowme SG

heh. thats really nice of you! Smile
thanks!!!
my sister agreed to lend me her sec 1 chinese textbook lah.
i'll use that and see how...

i do have this feeling that im worrying over nothing. Embarassed
gahhh...

wo de han yu pin yin zai xiao xue hen hao de!
(my hanyu pinyin was good in primary school)
haha...did i get that right?

skyfoo SG

y did u accept in the first place? cant u tell the organiser to change another person?

udontknowme SG

because i want to go to china. its an educational trip thats really a once in a lifetime thing.
i agreed to go.
its not a MUST to be able to speak chinese.
but i find it very embarrassing that mine sucks despite learning it for almost 10 years...

hellomotosxq SG

tong zhan xuan chuan ma

ok .buy the magazine i post

^spidee^ SG

No problem. Yea, you probably shouldn't worry too much, go with the flow. Mr. Green

That's a good start, ok, I'll ask you something in madarin.

Ni hao, wo jiao spidee, ni ne? Ni shi cong na er lai de?

hellomotosxq SG

na er ? u learn beijing accent ? i tihnk "na li" is good

kaobeikaobu SG

then play it safe…speak simple mandarin…but no matter what u do now, u still won’t be able to comprehend their slangs or jargons, let alone understanding what the words or phrases really mean.

udontknowme SG

wo jiao ***. wo shi jia na da ren, ke shi zai xin jia po zhang da de.
(i am ***. i am canadian, but i grew up in singapore)

^spidee^ SG

yea, you'll likely hear lots of accent over there, takes a while to get use to.

udontknowme SG

errr...what should you say if you dont understand what someone is saying?

hellomotosxq SG

oh .where is ur zhu ji ?

^spidee^ SG

hen gao xing ren shi ni, ***. ni jue de zhe ge xia ling ying zen me yang? ni hui zai zhe li dai ji tian ne?

(nice to meet you. how do you find this camp? how long will you be staying here?)

alexkusu SG

get a chinese speaking bf!

kaobeikaobu SG

just say ni bu zi dao woa. jk...

be a humble and polite singapo ran, ask the person what it means...

e.g. dui bu qi, woa ting bu tong, ni ke yi kao shu woa xxxx si she more yi shi mah, xie xie ni.

see, so simple... Laughing

^spidee^ SG

qing wen ni gang cai shuo de na ju hua de yi si, shi she me?

another way you can phrase it is: qing wen ni gang cai shuo de na ju hua shi she me yi si? (it may sound offensive though)

kaobeikaobu SG

or just say "ni she more yi si".... Laughing

[email protected] SG

hey no worries! my close friend just got back from china 2 weeks ago. His chinese is patchy as well, but to the PRC chinese, if u can speak english they worship u like a god. So u speak english 1st, AND THEN u speak a little bit of chinese and they're even more impressed!

He was in a queue for the toilet. The toilet attendent heard him speaking english and asked him to cut the entire queue. The serving staff in the restaurants are especially polite to him, while u see they are totally shite to the locals in the restaurants, even tho those are very posh and expensive restaurants, and the locals eating there are well to do locals!

Yup. If I were u, I wouldn't worry. The PRC chinese, sad to say, actually worship white men as gods, and overseas chinese who can speak english are worshiped as demi-gods. It was so.......... self discriminatory that it made me cringe.

^spidee^ SG

Laughing

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