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Posts: 7204

Emperor

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Q: I will Survive

Do you remember when you first got to China and didn't know any Chinese words besides
"Ni Hao "
You found yourself pointing at things that you wanted and probably getting ripped off as you politely smiled as you hand over a wod of cash.
When Asking a stranger for anything the first question was "Do you speak English?" .
But after a day or so you started picking up a few phrases.
You started off with the ones that made survival that bit easier in China.
For me it was due to the food not sitting to well because I didn't always know what i was eating ..so my first survival phrase was "Na you Mai Dang lao" ..".where is MacDonald's ?"
What was your first Survival Words ?

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4 years 45 weeks ago in  Transport & Travel - China

 
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Governor

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I'll start by admitting that Chinese is impossible for me. I know  some words, but even my wife laughs at my awful pronunciation, so I still (after a decade) point at things I want. That said, my first survival words were numbers, and "kuai qian" (as no one understood when I tried "duoshao qian?").   The first words I actually learned through intereactions with Chinese people was "mei you."

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4 years 45 weeks ago
 
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Posts: 5321

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When I arrived one of the first things I picked up was 'tingbudong'. (hear but don't understand)

 

Lol funny thing about McDonalds was I knew where they were alright because it seemed to me like they were about the only place in China with public toilets and I always had a dodgy belly for the first month or so.

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4 years 45 weeks ago
 
Posts: 62

Governor

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I'll start by admitting that Chinese is impossible for me. I know  some words, but even my wife laughs at my awful pronunciation, so I still (after a decade) point at things I want. That said, my first survival words were numbers, and "kuai qian" (as no one understood when I tried "duoshao qian?").   The first words I actually learned through intereactions with Chinese people was "mei you."

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4 years 45 weeks ago
 
Posts: 4495

Emperor

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Ordering la mian,,,  haha 

 

'yi ga Lanzhou la mian hu yi ga ji dan, da suan, la jiao',,, 'oh, yi ga co la, pin da.  Xiexie'

 

*the 'oh' is still English,,,,, or maybe just Universal....

philbravery:

In a Texan accent no less...lol

4 years 45 weeks ago
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diverdude1:

haha,  new Chinese colleague just the other day commented on my accent,,,  which launched me into an impromptu lecture on the cultural/physical geography of the United States, which lead to a quick explanation of the 'Old South', and of course that lead to a bit of Texas history,,,  it was funny,,,, she actually listened to me a little bit,,,  somewhere up around 30% attentitiveness rate,  where I usually only manage 15-20%.

4 years 45 weeks ago
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4 years 45 weeks ago
 
Posts: 157

General

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The first chinese words i learnt were: 'arhhh', 'wooooar', 'aiya', and 'wa cao'...... language immersion experience completed!

diverdude1:

how about 'unhhhh' ?  unhhh,  unhhh,  unhhh,,,    I still hate that one to this day!  sounds like a grunt to me,,,  humans shouldn't grunt,,,  or certainly shouldn't grunt as the primary means of expression.

4 years 45 weeks ago
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philbravery:

Er ...um...nah ..... im not going to touch this

4 years 45 weeks ago
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4 years 45 weeks ago
 
Posts: 1095

Shifu

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The most useful sentence I have ever learned is "jichang zai nali?" ("where's the airport?") because it allowed me to escape this hellhole.

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4 years 43 weeks ago
 
Posts: 1059

Shifu

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my Chinese is very bad,19 years in China and I still cant  speak Chinese very well,cant even have a conversation with anyone.

Im not proud of this but I just cant make it stick inside my head.I know many words.

RandomGuy:

Conversing with random people out here is kinda pointless. I regret putting so much efforts into learning the language only to be systemically asked the same laowai targeted questions and told the same laowai targeted remarks. All the people I do business with either speak English or have a personal assistant who does. Learning Chinese is utterly pointless, I should have learned French or Spanish instead.

4 years 43 weeks ago
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4 years 43 weeks ago
 
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