Nǐ hǎo!
When traveling in another country, a good way to make friends is to know how to speak in their language. In such a short time, I know I cannot learn to speak Chinese, but I can learn to say a few things.
So far, I’ve learned to say things like:
Hello. Goodbye. Please. Thank you.
and
I am a teacher. My name is Mr. Wood. I’m an American.
and of course…
Where’s the bathroom?
Shì is Shì
In English we use many different forms of verbs like:
I am. You are. He is. We are. They are.
In Chinese the verb stays the same…
Wǒ shì. Nǐ shì. Tā shì.. wǒmen shì.. Tāmen shì.
Maybe this is going to be easier than I thought!
If you’d like to learn Chinese with me, here’s a website with some words and phrases:
Word of the Week from the Asia Society.
And here are two books with CDs that I have been using to learn Chinese:
Get Talking Chinese from DK Publishing
Chinese for Dummies from Wiley Publishing, Inc.
That all for now!
zàijiàn,
Mr. Wood