Lucy Liu teaches the 4 tones on David Letterman

That's cool that you're a big Laker fan too! I've been a big Laker fan too ever since Michael retired. Yeah, I love Kobe's style and athleticism. I am mainly hanging out with the Bucks as I am translating for Yi, but my friend and I snuck down by the Laker locker room for a while and just said good game to all of them and took a few pics and that was about it. I wish I got to talk to them more, but didn't want to take advantage of the situation too much. As far as business in China, I started working for Oakley as the Asia Territory Manager and took the Oakley brand into China and spoke at some press conferences over there, etc. and have also worked with a bunch of factories in the Apparel, Accessories, Footwear industries, etc. The whole sports brand community in China is pretty tight nit and even though it's a huge country, everybody sort of knows everybody else as most of them are selling into the same stores, and using the same factories, etc. I will email you some more info.

gregmcgrath,

So how is Kobe Bryant? He's been one of my Idols since 98 (it's been 10 years already!), when I first pegged him as a young Michael Jordan. All these years later seeing him play his 81 point game, his string of over 60 point games, his maturing into the leader of the team, it's gotta be cool to hang out in the locker room with the guys! What are Lamar Odom, Andrew Bynum, Luke Walton and D. Fish like? Did you get a chance to talk to them?

I noticed in your profile you mention you've been doing business with China for many years, so do you have any insight into how to establish those contacts and relationships? One of my goals is to open a company in China and any inroads and / or advice would be helpful and greatly appreciated for sure!

Yeah, it's been fun getting to know Yi Jian Lian and being able to go back with the team in the locker room, talking to Kobe Bryant, etc. when they played the Lakers a few days ago was fun. Translating for Yi is just a part time thing I do when he comes to L.A. Yi's English is improving a lot and his goal is to not have a translator next season which I think he's on his way to accomplishing. He is a very nice guy and a great basketball player.

Yeah, I too would be really interested in hearing all about it!

Wow getting such a terrific job through a referral...that's a major hookup!

greg, that is so cool. Do you do translating as a full-time thing or just on the side? I personally (and I'm guessing many others feel the same way) would love to hear any stories or insights you might have regarding the profession.

woops....I entered by mistake....

what I wanted to say is...

那 ABC 的 representative's 中文 and 我的中文 zai the same level. 好 thing 我能 practice 我的中文 before 我去台湾因为the next 人 chopping up the 语文会是我.

xiaohu,

that ABC 的 representative

xiaohu: as far as your question about how I got the Yi Jian Lian translating job, it was just through a friend of a friend. I don't have an agent or anything.

Bazza: What I found interesting is that she didn't correct Dave (or the rest of America) for always pronouncing it wrong. I'm guessing she lets it go, because Lucy Lu sounds cooler to most Americans than Lucy Liu. Very hip-hop.

Anyway, I, for one, refuse to say it wrong any more.

I don't think her Chinese sounds particularly "Ghetto" I thought it was fine and I've heard much worse in my neighborhood from 广东人 and the infamous ABC!

In fact was at Costco the other and an ABC was trying to sell some rewards program to the Chinese person in line ahead of me.

Her Chinese was SO broken it was unintelligible!

She approaches the Chinese person ahead of me and starts pitching the program.

The person in line asks her, "你会说普通话吗"

She answers, "可以" then goes into her speal...

"这个 rewards program 很好，而且很 save money 的。 如果你 spend 1000 块的话我们要把 10 percent return 给你!。 如果 at the end of the year 你觉得 你没有 save 很多的话我们要把这个 Memberhip fee return 给你， 所以 you can see 没有 risk 因为是 100 percent guaranteed!"

The person in line ahead of me politely declined after which I asked if they understood what she was saying, the Chinese person replied, "唉呀。。。我一点都不懂她什么意思？ 可烦人了!"

Compared with the ABC, Lucy Liu's Chinese is the best you've ever heard!

whoa...I actually thought her accent was kinda neat, but maybe it sounds a bit like ghetto chinese, 对不对？(I don't have a native ear so don't take me too seriously on that.)

gregmcgrath,

So how do you get into the translation game anyway? Do you need to get an agent or something?

Yeah, she definitely seemed nervous while explaining the Chinese and didn't do that great. I'm sure she grew up speaking Chinese with her family but it's definitely not native level or anything so I wouldn't analyze what she says too much. You'd probably be better off asking a native speaker. I am Yi Jian Lian's translator in the NBA when he comes to L.A. and I get nervous on TV too and I don't speak Chinese as well as normal with the camera in front of me so I'm sure she was experiencing those same feelings.

Bazza, 我觉得你写的对。 Wouldn't "你好吗?" usually be reserved for asking someone (whom you already know) how they're doing？ If so, it doesn't seem to fit with the formal "您贵姓?" Also, is it common to use "我的名字是..." rather than 我叫... (or 我的名字叫...)? I believe I remember hearing somewhere that "我的名字是..." was not as commonly used among native speakers. Is this true?

Have you noticed her surname is almost always pronounced wrong in English? I'm guilty of saying 'lu' instead of 'liu'.

I have found that one advantage of knowing Zhuyin, aka bo po mo fo, (and you can probably learn it in a day or so) is that many Chinese-language children's books and primary school readers out of Taiwan use it along with the characters. Such books seem much easier to find, at least in Vancouver's public library, than books with Pinyin and characters. A Pinyin-bopomofo comparison chart is here:

http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en-commons/thumb/2/21/200px-Zhuyin_by_similarities.png

Does she say?

你好吗？我的名字是刘玉玲。您贵姓？

Bryan - you clearly have succumbed to her charms!

Actually I might be susceptible too - best to look away.

I thought her Mandarin accent was pretty good.

scotts23, I agree that the questions were probably scripted. I guess she was trying to set it up with the rickshaw comment but it didn't flow too well...

MikeinEwshot, I had the same initial response as you did regarding the "phonetic alphabet", but in her defense, she was responding to Dave's use of the word "alphabet" and although I know very little about it, I believe Bopomofo (Zhuyin) is more popular in Taiwan and is thought of as a sort of phonemic alphabet. She surely could have explained it better, but as urbandweller mentioned, I think she was a bit nervous.

Scotts23

Yeah, Dave has definatley lost his lustre recently. He was at the top of his form when he first moved to CBS, now he seems like a mere shell of his former self.

天哪！I wondered why the question of languages was brought up in the first place here ... you know these interviews are generally choreographed. The question just seemed to be like 晴天霹雳 (qíngtiān pīlì -- a bolt out of the blue), not really related to anything preceding it or following it. Poor Dave, I used to really enjoy his shows when I was growing up.

Yeah, I definately thought the way she explained it was about as clear as 泥！ Maybe she just wanted to preserve the mistique surrounding the language. Chinese is the Ancient Chinese secret 对吧？

urbandweller: 你说得对， 她可漂亮了！

So the Chinese alphabet is phonetic - John: sit up and take notice!!

And everyone speaks English in China - Why are we bothering here??

She seemed a little nervous and was maybe caught off guard by the question. That could be why she didnt explain it very well. Ta hen piaoliang!

That was fun! Thanks for posting this!