Standard Chinese, a modular approach.
Orientation Module Unit 3, Comprehension Tape 1.
In this tape you learn to understand questions and answers
about what country you're from
and what part of the country.
We should mention that in Chinese, more often than not,
these questions are really asking where you were from originally
or even where your family was from originally.
The proper answer for a first generation Chinese American
might well be that he's Chinese.
A lifelong peaking resident of Cantonese parentage
might well say that he's Cantonese.
Later we'll learn to refer specifically to current nationality
and residents, as well as to ethnic and regional origins.
First, let's take up questions about nationality.
Listen to the following exchange.
Are you an American?
你是美國人嗎?
你是美國人嗎?
I'm an American.
我是美國人.
我是美國人.
Here's the word for America in the sense of the United States of America.
美國
May was suggested phonetically by the second syllable of America.
May also has a complimentary meaning, beautiful.
國 means country,
so 美國 means the beautiful country.
Notice that 國 takes the neutral tone in a country name.
Listen to America.
美國
Here's the word for person.
人
The word for an American combines America,
美國, and person,
人 into America person.
Listen.
美國人
Listen for 美國人
an American.
Are you an American?
你是美國人嗎?
你是美國人嗎?
I'm an American.
我是美國人.
我是美國人.
Here it is live.
你是美國人嗎?
我是美國人.
Again.
你是美國人嗎?
我是美國人.
Here's a similar exchange.
Listen.
Are you Chinese?
你是中國人嗎?
你是中國人嗎?
I'm Chinese.
我是中國人.
我是中國人.
Here's the word for China.
中國
中 means middle.
中國 is often translated as the middle kingdom.
Here's the word for a Chinese,
literally China person.
中國人
Listen for 中國人, Chinese.
Are you Chinese?
你是中國人嗎?
你是中國人嗎?
I'm Chinese.
我是中國人.
我是中國人.
Here it is live.
你是中國人嗎?
我是中國人.
Again.
你是中國人嗎?
我是中國人.
Let's see if you can follow this new live exchange.
Listen carefully.
你是中國人嗎?
我不是中國人,是美國人.
Again.
你是中國人嗎?
我不是中國人,是美國人.
To check up on your understanding of this exchange,
here it is with the pause after each sentence and then the English.
Translate to yourself during the pause.
你是中國人嗎?
Are you Chinese?
我不是中國人.
I'm not Chinese.
是美國人.
I'm an American.
Notice that we translate 是美國人,
the same way we would translate 我是美國人,
I'm an American.
Even though the word war does not appear,
you know from the context that the subject is I,
and you can hardly leave it out in English.
Here's a new exchange.
Listen carefully.
Mr. Wang, are you English?
王先生,你是英國人嗎?
王先生,你是英國人嗎?
I'm not English.
我不是英國人,我不是英國人.
Here's the word for England.
英國,英國,英國.
And here's the word for Englishman.
英國人,英國人,英國人.
Listen for a英國人 in the following conversation.
Mr. Wang, are you English?
王先生,你是英國人嗎?
王先生,你是英國人嗎?
I'm not English.
我不是英國人,我不是英國人.
Here it is live.
王先生,你是英國人嗎?
我不是英國人.
Again.
王先生,你是英國人嗎?
我不是英國人.
It may have struck you that we've been asking what we call yes-no questions
without actually answering them with yes or no.
This is because there is no single word for yes or no in Chinese.
There are several ways to convey a yes or no response.
The closest Chinese equivalent to a yes or no
is an answer stripped down to its essentials,
often the verb alone for yes or the verb plus the negative for no.
Listen to this conversation.
Are you Chinese?
你是中國人嗎?
No.
不是.不是.
Are you an American?
你是美國人嗎?
Yes.
是.
是.
Literally, the answers are not am and am.
A compromised translation would be
I am not and I am.
Listen again live.
你是中國人嗎?
不是.
你是美國人嗎?
是.
Again.
你是中國人嗎?
不是.
你是美國人嗎?
是.
It's possible to strip a negative reply
down to 不.
Not.
without the verb.
But this is considered a bit too abrupt for polite usage.
However, following 不.
Not.
with the full sentence changes this.
Frequently,
a short answer like 是 or 不 是
is followed by the full answer.
Listen.
Is Miss Ma an American?
馬小姐是美國人嗎?
No.
She's not an American.
不是.
她不是美國人.
不是.
她不是美國人.
Is she Chinese?
她是中國人嗎?
她是中國人嗎?
Yes.
She's Chinese.
是.
她是中國人.
是.
她是中國人.
Here it is.
Again.
Live.
馬小姐是美國人嗎?
不是.
她不是美國人.
她是中國人嗎?
是.
她是中國人.
Again.
馬小姐是美國人嗎?
不是.
她不是美國人.
她是中國人嗎?
是.
她是中國人.
Now,
Professor Zhou is going over his class list for next semester with the dean.
He has heard that some of his students will be foreign students.
Listen to part of the conversation live.
馬小姐是美國人嗎?
不是.
馬小姐不是美人,她是中國人.
Oh,
他是中國人,
白小姐呢?
她是英國人嗎?
不是.
她不是英國人,
白小姐是美國人.
Again.
馬小姐是美國人嗎?
不是.
馬小姐不是美國人,
她是中國人.
Oh,
她是中國人,
白小姐呢?
她是英國人嗎?
不是.
她不是英國人,
白小姐是美國人.
Here it is with the English following. Use the pauses to translate to yourself.
马小姐是美国人吗?
Is Miss Ma an American?
不是,马小姐不是美国人。
No, Miss Ma is not American.
她是中国人。
She is Chinese.
哦,她是中国人。
Oh, she is Chinese.
白小姐呢?
And Miss Bai?
她是英国人吗?
Is she English?
不是,她不是英国人。
No, she is not English.
她是美国人。
She is American.
So far, we've only been asking yes-no questions about nationality.
Now listen to a question asking which country someone is from.
What's your nationality?
你是美国人。
I'm an American.
我是美国人。
The word for which is...
美,美,美。
The word for which,
美, is a bound word.
That is, it can't stand by itself.
If you add another bound word,国, meaning country,
you have a free word meaning which country. Listen.
美国,美国,美国。
Now add person,人, to which country,
美国,美国。And you have which country person?
美国人。
Notice that,国, loses its tone.
美国人,美国人,美国人。
Listen for,美国人,
which country person in the exchange.
What's your nationality?
你是美国人。
I'm American.
我是美国人。
Notice that, the idiomatic translation.
What's your nationality?
Has to be rather far from the word for word translation.
You are which country person?
Here it is live.
你是美国人。
Again.
你是美国人。
Here's a new live exchange.
你是美国人。
我是中国人。
Again.
你是美国人。
我是中国人。
Here it is with the English following.
你是美国人。
What's your nationality?
我是中国人。
I'm Chinese.
Here's another live dialogue.
Listen carefully.
马先生是美国人吗?
不是,他不是美国人。
他是哪国人?
他是中国人。
Try translating it.
马先生是美国人吗?
不是,他不是美国人。
他是哪国人?
他是中国人。
Try translating it.
马先生是美国人吗?
Is Mr. Ma an American?
不是,他不是美国人。
No, he isn't an American.
他是美国人。
What's his nationality?
他是中国人。
He's Chinese.
American,美国人,
and which country person,
美国人, are confusingly alike.
Sometimes you may not catch whether it was an M for mother
or an N for nephew.
But notice that,
are you an American?
is a yes-no question,
and so has the yes-no question
marga ma at the end.
While what's your nationality
is not a yes-no question,
and so doesn't have ma at the end.
The interrogative element in
what's your nationality
is the word 哪,which,in 哪国人,
which country person.
Let's compare the two questions.
The English will follow the Chinese after a pause
to give you a chance to decide for yourself
which question is being asked.
你是哪国人?
What's your nationality?
你是美国人吗?
Are you an American?
你是哪国人?
What's your nationality?
你是美国人吗?
Are you an American?
Once you've established someone's nationality,
you may want to ask what part of the country
it comes from.
For example,what province or major city of China?
Listen to this exchange.
Where are you from?
你是哪的人?
I'm from Shanghai.
我是上海人.
Let's look at the answer first.
It's easier.
You already know the word 人,person,as in 中国人,
literally China person.
You can also add 人 to the names
of these provinces.
Listen to 上海人.
What Miss Hu is saying is
I'm a Shanghai person.
Listen to her reply.
Where are you from?
你是哪的人?
I'm from Shanghai.
我是上海人.
It's an idiomatic but rather free translation
of the question 你是哪的人?
The Chinese is actually something like
you are a person of where.
The word for where is 哪,哪,哪.
Listen for 哪, meaning where.
Where are you from?
你是哪的人?
I'm from Shanghai.
我是上海人.
Be sure to associate the low tone
with the word for where 哪,
since the word for there is 哪 in the falling tone.
This is one of the best illustrations
of the importance of tones in Chinese.
The possibilities for confusion
between 哪,where and 哪
there are obvious.
Here's the word for where again.
哪,哪,哪.
The weak syllable 德 in 哪的人
is a marker of the possessive.
We translated 哪的人 as a person of where
using of for the possessive marker 德.
But in the process we reversed the order.
In Chinese the word for where comes first
and the word for person last.
So a closer although even less idiomatic
translation is with the English possessive
possessive apostrophe s,where's person.
Here's a somewhat more straight forward example
of the possessive marker 德.
You need to know that 先生 can mean husband
as well as mister and sir.
Listen.
He's Fang Baolan's husband.
他是方保兰的先生.
他是方保兰的先生.
In the phrase 方保兰的先生.
方保兰's husband.
It's clear that the marker 德 is working
with the possessive apostrophe s.
Now let's go back to the exchange with 哪的人
where's person or a person of where.
Listen.
Where are you from?
你是哪的人?
I'm from Shanghai.
我是上海人.
Listen to the exchange again.
Where are you from?
你是哪的人?
你是哪的人?
I'm from Shanghai.
我是上海人.
我是上海人.
Here it is live.
你是哪的人?
我是上海人.
Again.
你是哪的人?
我是上海人.
Here's a similar exchange.
Listen.
Where is he from?
他是哪的人?
He's from Shandong.
他是上东人.
Shandong is one of the provinces in north China.
Listen to Shandong person.
Shandong人.
Shandong人.
Shandong人.
Here's the exchange live.
他是哪的人?
他是上东人.
Again.
他是哪的人?
他是上东人.
If the question
Where are you from?
is asked of an American,
the expected answer is the name of a state.
In Chinese, there's a phonetic approximation
for the name of each American state.
Here's California, for example.
佳理佛尼亚.
佳理佛尼亚.
佳理佛尼亚.
Several states, among them California,
have abbreviated names consisting of the first syllable
of the phonetic version and the syllable 中 or state.
Here's the abbreviated name for California.
佳州.
佳州.
佳州.
Listen to this exchange.
Where are you from?
你是哪的人?
你是哪的人?
I'm a Californian.
我是佳州人.
我是佳州人.
Here it is live.
你是哪的人?
我是佳州人.
Again.
你是哪的人?
我是佳州人.
On this tape, we've covered yes-no questions such as
are you an American?
and the questions, what's your nationality?
and where are you from?
Here they are for review.
Are you an American?
你是美国人吗?
你是美国人吗?
What's your nationality?
你是哪个人?
你是哪个人?
Where are you from?
你是哪个人?
你是哪个人?
Let's see if you can tell them apart.
Here they are in random order.
With a pause between the Chinese and the English.
Try translating to yourself during the pause.
你是美国人吗?
Are you an American?
你是哪个人?
What's your nationality?
你是哪个人?
Where are you from?
你是哪个人?
What's your nationality?
你是哪个人?
Where are you from?
你是美国人吗?
Are you an American?
你是美国人吗?
Are you an American?
你是哪个人?
Where are you from?
你是哪个人?
What's your nationality?
Now let's review both questions and answers in the same format.
Chinese, pause, English.
你是哪个人?
What's your nationality?
我是中国人.
I'm Chinese.
你是哪个人?
Where are you from?
我是上海人.
I'm from Shanghai.
你是美国人吗?
Are you an American?
是,我是美国人.
Yes, I'm an American.
你是英国人吗?
Are you English?
不是,我不是英国人.
No, I'm not English.
你是中国人吗?
Are you Chinese?
是,我是中国人.
Yes, I'm Chinese.
你是哪个人?
What's your nationality?
我是美国人.
I'm an American.
你是哪个人?
Where are you from?
我是加州人.
I'm a Californian.
他是哪个人?
What's his nationality?
他是中国人.
He's Chinese.
他是哪个人?
Where is he from?
他是山东人.
He's from Shandong.
你是英国人吗?
Are you English?
我不是英国人.