Comments on: Please speak slowly

By:

Connie
Supplementary vocab for this lesson: 再 (zài) again (future); once more 再说一遍。 (Zài shuō yī biàn.) Say it again. 你说得太快了。 (Nǐ shuō de tài kuài le. ) You speak too quickly. 听不懂 (tīngbudǒng) not understand (lit. "hear but not understand") 我听不懂。 (Wǒ tīngbudǒng.) I can't understand. 听清楚 (tīng qīngchǔ) hear clearly 我没有听清楚。 (Wǒ méiyǒu tīng qīngchǔ.) I didn't hear clearly. 好喝 (hǎohē) good tasting (of drinks) 好玩 (hǎowán) fun; interesting

By:

Ron Spencer
New York, New York Your course(s) and outline are terrific. I am terrible in language acquisision, but your Newbie(s) are a delight. Thanks Ken & Jen. Ron

By:

Mike in Jubei
Jenny and Ken A very useful lesson and "a must know expression" no matter your level. You will have to say it. I usually say: (simp) 你可以慢慢说吗? (trad) 你可以慢慢說嗎? nǐ kěyǐ màn màn shuō ma Which I hope is correct and has the same meaning. Yes? btw: since it is that time of the year and based upon the Saturday video maybe you can follow up with a show where the comment is : 'take that hairy crab out of your mouth I can't understand a word you are saying' As always Connie your supplemental words and expressions are very helpful. Mike in Jubei

By:

ChinesePod
Mike in Jubei, 你可以慢慢说吗? (Nǐ kěyǐ mànmàn shuō ma?) is an alternative way to say the same thing. -John

By:

Bazza 吴白锐
Good lesson. How do you say: 'It tastes very bad, I think I'm going to throw up.' ?

By:

amber @ chinesepod
Hello Bazza, Great question. In fact, we have a lesson coming up soon on that very note! You must be able to read our minds. You can say ‘It tastes very bad, I think I’m going to throw up.’ like this: 太难吃了，我快要吐了。 Tài nánchī le, wǒ kuài yào tù le. Have fun! Hope you don't need to say this anytime soon! amber :D

By:

Bazza 吴白锐
Thanks, amber. :) Maybe it's you that can read our minds. ;)

By:

Michelle
I really like the backline buildup method of remembering things. It really helps to make the phrases stick in the mind - excellent learning tool.

By:

Mark(马克）
Contrary to the introductory text, my experience is that 你好 and 谢谢 are not enough to make Chinese people think I speak Chinese. I find I have to say something more complicated before they will either stop trying to speak English with me (if they are comfortable to speak English) or stop trying to avoid conversation with me (if they are not). Do you have any tips on how to negotiate what language to converse in? ( Short of wearing a sign, "虽然我看起来我是西方人，但是我想要练习口语。“) Thanks, Mark

By:

ChinesePod
Mark, I wouldn't recommend using such a long sentence. It'll be harder to remember, leaving higher likelihood of mistakes, which could, in turn, undermine your efforts at convincing the Chinese person that you're capable of conversation in Mandarin. You could say: 我们说汉语，好吗？ (Wǒmen shuō Hànyǔ, hǎo ma?) Let's speak Mandarin, OK? Another option is: 我想说汉语。入乡随俗嘛！ (Wǒ xiǎng shuō Hànyǔ. Rùxiāngsuísú ma!) I'd like to speak Mandarin. "When in Rome..." right? -John

By:

liz goddard
I have just been away on holiday.....4 days in Hong Kong......it would be great to have a dialogue about holidays...where you went? What you thought? etc.....just a few basic questions and describing sentences....

By:

RightDone
i want to have some friends who speak English,i am from China,we can get some interchange

By:

RightDone
my msn is dengyong623@hotmail.com

By: chris

chris

Hi, I've just revisited this lesson and have noted a pinyin omission on the pdf. It currently says: "Ni3 ke3yi3 shuo1 yi1dian3 ma?" I think it should be: "Ni3 ke3yi3 shuo1 de man4 yi1dian3 ma?" Thanks Chris

By: f1b1

f1b1

How could I say "Please correct my mistakes."? I think this would be useful for me, as a newbie.

By: mlowe

mlowe

Can someone explain the use of the possesive "de" after shuo1 to me? I'm not sure why we would use shou1 de instead of just shou1 here. Thanks! Mike

By: f1b1

f1b1

I think it means "your speaking of Chinese language". I could be wrong, but this will at least keep the thread alive. :)

By: sadelux

sadelux

Since I am a Newbie, I might be wrong, but doesn't she say "Qĭng -> nĭ* <- shuō màn yī diǎn" at the "Please speak a little slower" Phrase in the Expansion set???

By: jacob

jacob

Just wondering, what’s the difference in meaning (if any) between: 你可以说慢一点吗？　and 你会说慢一点吗？

By: franch

franch

Jacob, 你会说慢一点吗 would not be used, huì indicates a capability (am I speaking English here?), it would mean "Are you able to speak a bit slower?" cf 你会说中文吗? Can you / Are you able to speak Chinese? 他会说两个小时说得不休 tā huì shuō liǎng ge xiǎo shí shuō de bù xiū : "He can / He is able to speak two hours without pausing" HIH

By: ewilc773

ewilc773

I have a Chinese teacher that I'll be using this lesson a lot with! Very useful!

By: trustymutsi

trustymutsi

Question: I don't remember the "de" in "shuō de" being explained. What's "de" mean?

By: soulman2001au

soulman2001au

there are many 'de'. one is 的，得， and 地. here 得， goes after verbs and adjectives, and indicates the result, possibility or degree of that verb. so in the sentence 你说得太快了. you speak, but how fast? the word(s) after 得 is how you speak. in this case very fast. i hope that makes sense.

By: soulman2001au

soulman2001au

compare it to the phrase, 你说太快了. with the 得, it would mean, "you said, 'too fast'". So the 得, while it has no meaning, changes the entire meaning of the phrase.

By: trustymutsi

trustymutsi

Thanks, that helps, except I can't read chinese characters. Should I be learning that too?

By: julesong

julesong

Well, the focus on Chinesepod the podcast is on spoken language. I'm doing the best on spoken language that I can. At some point, however, you might want to look toward the written. The PDFs help with that. But still, Chinesepod.com podcasts from their beginning were stated to focus on the spoken language.

By: trustymutsi

trustymutsi

Cool, thanks:)

By: triphazard

triphazard

I was wondering, is there a difference between 一夏 (yi1 xia4) and 一点(yi1 dian3)?

By: triphazard

triphazard

Woops, I forgot to add this in also, is there a difference between "ke3yi3" and "neng2" ?

By: amber

amber

hi triphazard, There is a little difference in the usage. Here are a few set sentence patterns, to show you how they are used differently: V + 一下 (yīxià): 请你等一下。 Qǐng nǐ děng yīxià. 我可以试一下吗？ Wǒ kěyǐ shì yīxià ma？ V + 一点 (yīdiǎn) + N: 我会说一点汉语。 Wǒ huì shuō yīdiǎn Hànyǔ. Adj + 一点 (yīdiǎn): 有大一点的衣服吗？ Yǒu dà yīdiǎn de yīfu ma？

By: triphazard

triphazard

So you use yīxià when it is just a verb before it, and yīdiǎn in other cases?

By: amber

amber

Hi triphazard, As a general rule, yes.

By: triphazard

triphazard

Thanks amber.

By: chenggwo

chenggwo

The podcast omits discussing the "de" for a very good reason. Its use is almost impossible for an English speaking newbie to understand, even though it is a very common contruction in Chinese. In this context it is the most natural way for a Chinese person to say it.

"Ni3 ke3yi3 shuo1 de man4 yi1dian3 ma?"

"nǐ kěyǐ màn màn shuō ma"

The second way is the most natural way for us, but is incorrect in the sense that it is not the most natural way for a Chinese speaker to put it. The way I think of using "de" is that it changes a verb to a different part of speech, but I don't try to understand which part of speech that would be.

I learned "de" while studying Cantonese (duk1). Translated to Mandarin, this is the phrase I learned.

"Wo3 Zhong1 wen2 shuo1 de bu2 hao3"

"I don't speak Chinese well."

Which is an excellent phrase to know considering that saying "I only speak a little Chinese." can be taken to mean that you are already fluent.

By: chenggwo

chenggwo

"Wo3 Zhong1 wen2 shuo1 de bu4 hao3"

OOPS!!! bu4 does not change to second tone in front of a third tone, only in front of another fourth tone, I believe.

See

http://chinesepod.com/lessons/tone-rule-changes-for-bu

By: houban

houban

'no data' error on the Dialogue and expansion tabs.

By: jim_parker

jim_parker

I don't want to bog down my learning with a bunch of grammar, but the "de" after "shuo" surprised me, as it did some others. A couple of earlier posts explained this usage as a grammatical construction that indicates that you are speaking about the degree of the verb (not just the fact that you speak, but HOW you speak). This sounds to me like it just means that there will be an adverb modifying this verb. Is this basically correct?

By: amber

amber

hi jim,

说得慢一点
Shuō de màn yīdiǎn

is a verb/adj.+得+complement structure in Chinese. What comes after the 得 (de) expresses an evaluation, judgment or description related to the verb or adj. that is being complemented.

By: jim_parker

jim_parker

Thanks, Amber.

ps Love your show!

By: cjd60

cjd60

Hi Love the discussion bits! Am I the only one who got the same list of words for both parts of the vocabulary? Usually it seems you get the vocab from the podcast as well as supplementary words.

By: misteregg

misteregg

This is my first post. I too am confused with the pinyin in the pdf and the repeated words in the vocab.

Maybe when the dialogue was translated they spoke too fast!