Would you like to come over for dinner?

light487

September 17, 2008, 10:21 PM

This is probably very wrong.. but I thought I would have a crack it to try and practise my Chinese sentence making skills. I am still a beginner.. so don't go and say this to anyone because they might not understand you.. haha.. :)

我的妈妈请吃饭的。你来我的家园吗？

wǒde māma qǐng chīfàn. nǐ lái wǒde jiāyuán ma?

I think I am missing something between mama and qing chifan.. may be a 如。。 or something?

 

barryb

September 18, 2008, 01:43 AM

Thanks, Frances and Auntie.

Interesting about level. I happily kneel/sit/lie on the floor to play with small children. I happily run around on my hands and knees pretending to be a train/dog/farmyard animal (that comes naturally to me!). Friends are used to this, but it seems to shock Chinese visitors.

calkins

September 17, 2008, 10:38 PM

I'm cheating here because I'm stealing most of this sentence from the Checking Baggage lesson, but this is how I'd say it if I had Chinese neighbors!

歡迎你來我們家吃晚饭。
huānyíng nǐ lái wǒmen jiā chī wǎnfàn.

You are welcome to our home to eat dinner.

frances

September 17, 2008, 10:51 PM

I think that 欢迎 (huānyíng) is only good for welcoming, not inviting. That'll be valuable too, assuming the invitation is accepted!

calkins

September 17, 2008, 10:59 PM

Thanks frances, that makes sense!  欢迎你的更正。

auntie68

September 17, 2008, 11:18 PM

This is fun! Here is how I would say it (I'm not a native speaker): 

你喜欢吃西方菜吗？ 明天晚上你们有空的话，请来我家，我们可以一起吃饭。妈妈很想给你吃她煮的菜。

"Do you like to eat Western food? If you are free tomorrow evening, please come to our place, we can all eat together. Mother wants very much to let you try her cooking." 

The reason why my version is so convoluted is that most Chinese person understand "请你吃饭“ to mean buying somebody a meal in a restaurant. It is very rare for Chinese people to have friends over for dinner; that's why I found myself struggling to figure out how to phrase such an invitation!

Let's see what Amber and Connie can give us as the "correct" answer...

frances

September 17, 2008, 10:35 PM

You could also say,

请你来我家吃晚饭。好马？

Qǐng nǐ lái wǒ jīa chī wǎnfàn. Hǎo ma?

I'm pretty sure that's correct.

If you want to explicitly say "My mother invites you...", I'm not sure. It might just be:

我妈妈请你来我家吃晚饭。好马？

Wǒ māma qǐng nǐ lái wǒ jīa chī wǎnfàn. Hǎo ma?

barryb

September 18, 2008, 12:25 AM

Auntie, interesting about Chinese rarely inviting each other to their homes for dinner. I'm wondering why? Is it because they don't have space? Because restaurant food is so good and cheap, they can't compete?

The Chinese I know in the UK do invite each other. Is this because restaurants here are expensive and not so good (there are world class Cantonese restaurants in Manchester, but that's a couple of hours away, and they're relatively expensive)?

My main problem with Chinese dining at home: the hostess (and probably several friends) never sit down, all through the meal, they're so busy (or maybe they're avoiding English people talking about football).

frances

September 18, 2008, 12:44 AM

Yes, Eyux, that's the reason. Most people won't have enough space at home to entertain, so they'll do their entertaining in restaurants and other public spaces. I've heard this said of Chinese culture in general, but I have also found it to be the case in crowded American cities, like New York.

auntie68

September 18, 2008, 12:55 AM

Hi eyux. Here in Singapore, it's definitely a question of (i) restaurant food being so good and cheap; (ii) cramped housing conditions; and (iii) a "cultural" thing which makes Chinese people feel shy to open their homes to people who aren't relatives or close friends.

My mother's family are Chinese (ie her parents were born in China). In their home, the "lazy susan" in the middle of the table was permanently covered -- completely -- with tupperware, plastic bags of stuff, and dishes of leftover food under a food cover.

When we went over for dinner, they would simply shift all the stuff to another part of the house, or even leave it there and eat "around" it! Most Chinese people I know change out of their street clothes the moment they reach home, and then lounge about in ragged T-shirts, singlets, or pyjamas.

In contrast, my father's family was Peranakan Chinese (meaning, no longer quite authentically Chinese), so I would have friends over for drinks or for a meal or a sleepover.

And the Malay culture we had adopted meant that anybody who turned up was automatically included in any meal. It think that Malays are more laid-back, and nothing was too humble to offer a guest as long as it was the same as what we were eating. Whereas for a Chinese family, you really needed a specific invitation so that the host could prepare.

I remember that when I was a young girl, my mother hated having my friends visit! It was a source of unbelievable stress for her.

changye

September 18, 2008, 12:57 AM

Hi guys,

I’ve found the song titled “来我家吃饭” sung by 陈庆祥. I don’t know why there are Malay phrases in the lyrics, but anyway, I believe that auntie68 would love this very much. These lyrics are very beneficial for us Chinese learners.

欢迎来我的家啦！
欢迎来我的家
请你吃nasi lemak
吃完了吃 laksa
再来一杯 kopi o……
欢迎来我的家
请你吃roti canai
我们的最爱…一起来分享
沾上curry，
又辣又香…放点白糖吃起来甜蜜蜜
像我和你 永不分离
一人一口吃起来笑嘻嘻 selamat datang
欢迎来我的家
请你吃otak otak
吃完了吃 satey
再来一盘kaya kuih
nasi lemak是椰浆饭
laksa 就是酸酸辣辣的面条
那kaya kuih 它不是kuih
是糯米糕吃起来甜蜜蜜
像我和你 永不分离 一人一口吃起来笑嘻嘻
*那 otak otak 和 kopi o 叻
otak otak 和 kopi o 你来我家才能够告诉你
la la la la la la la la 一人一口吃起来甜蜜蜜
la la la la la la la la一人一口吃起来笑嘻嘻
欢迎来我的家

auntie68

September 18, 2008, 01:15 AM

@changye: You are right, I do love it! Thank you! "Selamat datang" means "Welcome" / "欢迎" in Malay.  In English -- "Good arrival!". 

To me, the Malay notion of hospitality is a bit more like Greek and Italian ideas concerning guests. Chinese hospitality is more stressful; there is a lot of "face" at stake and you are under pressure to show an appropriate level of hospitality. On the very few occasions when I have been lucky enough to visit a Chinese family at home, the "tidbits" were always already arranged neatly at the coffee table when I arrived. In my Peranakan Malay family, I would have brought the things myself, and maybe knelt down to transfer the things to the coffee table or pour drinks... that degree of advanced planning seems to be a very "Chinese" thing!

But that's Asia for you... it's such a vast and diverse region. I remember inviting some Thai family friends back to our hotel suite during one visit to Bangkok. They were sitting around the coffee table. At one point I slid onto the carpet (in my family, a signal that we could all be more informal), and was stunned when all the Thais practically threw themselves off the sofa to join me on the floor. Because they didn't want their heads to be so far above mine... 

calkins

September 17, 2008, 11:35 PM

Excellent, thanks for the cultural tip Auntie!  It's little (but important) tidbits like this that make learning on CPod a million times more beneficial than learning from a book.