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Lesson Introduction
At the risk of subjecting our poor receptionist to an onslaught of telephone calls from Jenny fans trying out this newly-acquired language tomorrow morning, we publish this lesson on requesting a phone number. In this podcast, learn to improve your Mandarin skills by practicing how to request information. Learn how to improve your mental math skills by actually trying to memorize the 50 digit long number that gets spat back at ya!
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Out of consideration for our Newbie and Elementary users, English translations should be provided with any Chinese (characters or pinyin) written in Newbie and Elementary lesson discussion posts. New lesson idea? Please let us know on our contact page.
jlinchina says
你好ChinesePod. I am new here, so I am still exploring the site and making sure my computer can see characters. I am all set with Chinese, Korean, and Japanese now, thanks to your FAQ. However, my pinyin tones show up as boxes. Did I miss the FAQ about that? 谢谢， JoAugust 3, 2007
changye says
One of my Chinese friends has a funny telephone number. It is xxxx-xxx-5174(wu3yao1qi1si4), which just sounds to me like 我要气死!August 3, 2007
antoniov says
你的电话号码多少？ Is this sentence OK? Sometimes I've heard the previous question without using the verb "是".August 3, 2007
eileenblue says
你的电话号码多少？equals to 你的电话号码是多少？ Sometimes 是 is not necessaryAugust 4, 2007
bazza says
If you want to say that you already knew something would that be "我已经知道了。" (wŏ yĭjīng zhīdao le) ?August 4, 2007
hylith says
I am sure this lesson is probably one of the most ueseful for all those single males coming to China. This lesson might help many of them get a date!August 4, 2007
ronbaker5555 says
It's hard to determine which part of the lesson is more pleasurable: Learning new words or listening to Ken and Jenny's great sense of humour ...:--)August 4, 2007
bazza says
Yeah the Ken/Jenny chemistry is pretty unique when it comes to Chinese lessons.August 4, 2007
justshady says
Nice lesson.August 4, 2007
n0mm says
I really believe I am learning something here. Excellent presentation and like the "new features" now available on the ChipodAugust 4, 2007
antoniov says
Eileenblue, thanks for your answerAugust 5, 2007
RonInDC says
As Eileenblue pointed out 'Sometimes 是 is not necessary' in the question, but I'm fairly sure that it is needed in the answer, particularly if the subject is included. (wo de dianhua hao ma shi 88 888 8888).August 5, 2007
beamac says
I have no words to express such an amazing site like this one. I am a self taught girl, but with the help of this great couple I will certainly lengthen my stride. Xie xie ni. Wo ai ni.August 5, 2007
eileen says
Hi jlinchina, I've sent you a message on your conversation page. :-)August 5, 2007
masrie says
hi how are you very nice topicAugust 5, 2007
onemarky says
Will someone tell me why the number one, 一，is pronounced "yao"? My Chinese teacher says this is a Cantonese pronounciation.August 7, 2007
Lantian says
Hi onemarky, I don't know the technical rationale for yao, it has I think to do with the rhythm of the language when saying numbers, and for clarity, and maybe for whatever other historic reasons. It's kinda just like how U.S. English often says five-o-two, instead of zero. Except it's always so in Chinese when saying phone numbers and other strings of numbers. My knowledge of Cantonese says one is pronounce like 'yut', so I don't think it's similar. Clearly though, yao is now putonghua and used throughout China as standard.August 7, 2007
maxiewawa says
I heard that 'yao' began as a military term, a little like 'niner' in English. 'yi' sounds so similar to 'qi' so they changed it.August 7, 2007
abedo2007 says
this is my first comment her... i'd like to show my admire to this sit lessons that make me more motivated to learn mandarin ....... thanks to all participants.August 8, 2007
rich says
I heard that "yi" was changed to "yao" in honor of YaoMing the basketball player, as he is # one according to all Chinese people... before he was a star, they said "yi" (don't listen to me, I'm just full of 臭臭) I called the number in the dialog. It was Jenny's since she wrote the script, only could think of her own number. (again, full of it). But that was another great Ken-Jenny moment when they realized in the middle of doing this podcast "Hey, wait, this might be someone's actual number! Don't call it!" Oh, and for those of you that aren't familiar with Chinese phone numbers, that was a cell phone number. In China all cell phones that can be contacted nationally start with 13<#> (and now some are 15<#>). Also there are two cell phone companies, Chinese Mobile and China Unicom. I believe when the 3rd number (the <#>) is 6-9 it is China Mobile, the company I use. I can't remember which are CM and which are CU, but CM has more prefixes. Some useless trivia for your mind.... Well, don't just stand there.... go dial Yao Ming! Or go call Jenny (it may get you a Jenny on the line, but not our Jenny... or maybe a Lily or a Lucy or...)August 8, 2007
rich says
A question for Chinese: You know in Hollywood movies, or TV shows, whenever a phone number is used, it must be 555-####? Is that a practice in China? A question to non-Americans: How about other countries? In America there are no # with 555 as the prefix of a local number, all of them are just for Hollywood. Is there a law or something that they must use 555, or just good etiquette? I'm asking a lot of questions here, for people of all nations to give input.August 8, 2007
mattfifer says
Maxiwawa, my Chinese teacher said the same thing you did about yi and yao... he also said that it's difficult to distinguish how many yi's there are in a series... similar to confusing 15 and 50 in English.August 11, 2007
tuoni says
Is it okay to ask this way: 你的手机好马是什么August 11, 2007
amber says
tuoni, No, the correct way is to say: 你的手机号码是多少？ Nǐ de shǒujī hàomǎ shì duōshao？August 13, 2007
babliku says
maxiewawa is right, in that they pronounce 1 as yao1 rather than yi1 to avoid confusion with 7 (qi1). It's somewhat similar to the 'niner' example, but of course it's not just used in the military, but mostly for giving numbers like phone numbers. BTW I just checked my dictionary and found that 1 in Chinese is 幺 when pronounced yao1. haha new day new discovery.August 13, 2007
colour23 says
in fact,my telphone number is +8613297974646.August 25, 2007
mrdtait says
I am using the mobile version on these pages but I think the pinyin seems to bo missing from the dialogue page? ThanksOctober 16, 2007
eileen says
Hi Mrdtait, I can confirm that all the dialogue pages do not explicitly write the pinyin as they are already present in the rollovers. I believe that you will need pointer or a touch screen in order to hover over the pinyin in the mobile site.October 17, 2007
evelyne says
Wo hen xihuan putonghua, wo yiting zai Faguo xuexi hanyu soyi wo hen gaoxin !I yes...l like very much the lessons and discussions here to revise and improve but I would like to type directly in chinese characters in that box. Do you know how I can do under Windows XP which already recognizes the characters when receiving them? xiexie nimen evelyneJanuary 10, 2008
rjberki says
see help at chinesepod http://chinesepod.com/help#January 10, 2008
pecha17 says
hmm... posting a phone number for Jenny.... 555 numbers just being for Hollywood... why am I suddenly thinking of 867-5309? JENNY! Are you the one?February 8, 2008
texastochina says
Useful. ThanksFebruary 22, 2008
marc__d says
May 28, 2008
@pecha, CP should record a cover of "Jenny" (the 867-5309 song) in Mandarin. I will try it myself in hokey karaoke:
Jenny 知道你的号码 ／ 八六七五三〇九
There's just 1 extra syllable for 你的 instead of "your" that is easily absorbed into the beat.