Using Chinese / Mandarin in Restaurant – Part 4 - LAST

Here are a few vocabularies that might be useful during payment, not only in the restaurant setting, but as well as other service and retail industry:
1. Cashier Counter                      Shōu yín tái
2. Bill                                          Mǎi dān
3. Receipt                                    Fā piào
4. Tax                                          Shuì fèi
5. Government Tax                     Zhèng fǔ shuì
6. Service Charge/ Tax                Fú wù shuì
7. Exclude Tax                            LÌng fù shuì
8. Total                                        Zǒng gòng                              
9. Before tax                               Shuì qián
10. After tax                                 Shuì hòu
11. Change                                    Zhǎo qián
12. Tip                                           Xiǎo fèi
13. Collect/Take/Accept               Shōu
14. Credit Card                             Xìn yòng kǎ
15. Cash                                        Xiàn jīn
16. Rupiah                                     Yìn ní dùn
17. RMB (Chinese Yuan)             Rén mín bì
18. USD                                        Měi jīn
19. Dollar (general)                       kuài / yuán
20. Sign                                         Qiān míng
21. PIN                                         Mì mǎ
22. American Express                   Měi guó yùn tōng
23. Visa                                         Wēi shì kǎ
24. MasterCard                             Wàn shì dá

Translate the first scenario below:

Guest              : Fúwùyuán, qǐng jiézhàng. 服务员，请结账       
Waiter/Waitress: Hǎode. Qǐngshāo děng yīxià. 好的， 请稍等一下

Issueing bill…

Waiter/Waitress: Zhèshì nǐdě mǎidān. Qǐng chá yī chá . 这是你的买单，请查一查


Customer checking bill…


Guest              : Zhè shì shénme? 这是什么？

Waiter/Waitress : Zhè shì kǎoyā. 这是烤鸭

Guest                          : Hǎo la. Dōu duì le. 好啦，都对了。

Nǐmen shōu bù shoū xìnyòngkǎ? 你们收不收信用卡？

Waiter/Waitress         : Shōu. 收                               

Guest                          : Zhège. 这个


Waiter/Waitress         : Xìnyòngkǎ xūyào mìmǎ ma? 信用卡需要密码吗？

Guest                          : zhèzhāng xūyào. 这张需要。

Waiter/Waitress         : Nà, bùhǎoyìsi, 那不好意思，

Nín kě bù kěyǐ gēn wǒ dào shōuyíntái qù？您可不可以跟我到收银台去？

Guest                          : hǎo  好


Answer will be updated on this same post in a week time. Please do check back! :)

Here is the second scenario in explaining the bill (in case the customers are confused looking at all the numbers with so many zero in the bill and not familiar with the language printed on the bill):

Guest: I am sorry, what’s this?

顾客：不好意思， 这是什么？
Gùkè: bùhǎoyìsi, zhèshì shénme?

Waiter/Waitress: This is your beverages. There are 3 cups in total. This is the amount before tax, to be added to our government tax and the service charge. So the final total is IDR 853,000.

服务员：这是你们的饮料。 总共是三杯。 这个呢是税前。加上政府税喝服务税，所以税后是八十五万三（千）。
Fúwùyuán:  zhèshì nǐmen de yǐnliào. zǒnggòng shì sānbēi. zhègè ne sì shuìqián. jiāshàng zhèngfúshuì hé fúwùshuì, suǒyǐ shuìhòu shì bāshíwǔwànsān (qiān).

Guest: I think this dish is not serve.

顾客：这道菜好像没有。
Gùkè:zhèdàocài hǎoxiàng méiyou.


Waiter/Waitress: Hmmm, let me check for you. This plate is for that dish.
服务员：让我帮你查一下。这张盘是那道菜。
Fúwùyuán:ràng wǒ bāng nǐchá yīxià. Zhèzhāng pán shì nàdàocài.

Guest: Okay, got it.

顾客：啊，好的
Gùkè: a, hǎode.


Waiter/Waitress: Any other problems?
服务员：有没有别的问题？
Fúwùyuán: yǒu méiyǒu biéde wèntí?

Guest: That’s all. Do you take USD?
顾客：没了。你们收美金吗？
Gùkè:méile. Nǐmen shōu měijīn ma?

Waiter/Waitress: I am sorry, we don’t. We only take IDR and AUS$.

服务员：不好意思，我们不收。我们只收印尼盾和澳元
Fúwùyuán: bùhǎoyìsi, wǒmen bù shōu. wǒmen zhǐ shōu yìnnídùn hé àoyuán.

Guest: Hmmm. IDR then.

顾客：那印尼盾吧。
Gùkè: nà yìnnídùn ba.

Guest gives IDR 900,000

Waiter/Waitress: I am collecting from you IDR900,000. Please wait for your change.
服务员：我收了九十万。请稍等一下。
Fúwùyuán: wǒ shōu le jiǔshíwàn. qǐng shāo děng yīxià.

Guest: Okay.
顾客：好
Gùkè: hǎo.

Waiter/waitress comes back with change.

Waiter/Waitress: Here is your change, sir. Is that correct?

服务员：先生，这是你的找钱。对了吗？
Fúwùyuán: xiānsheng, zhè shì nǐ de zhǎoqián, duì le ma?

Guest: Correct. Thank you

顾客：对了。谢谢。
Gùkè: duì le. Xièxie.

Waiter/Waitress: Please come again next time. Be safe.

服务员：欢迎下次光临。慢走。
Fúwùyuán: huānyíng xiàcì guānglín. màn zòu.

Guest: Thank you.

顾客：谢谢。
Gùkè: xièxie.

Happy Digesting,

Linda Tan

Answer to Lesson 10: Love and Like

Here is the answer to Lesson 10 on Love and Like:

1. She loves talking
他爱说话
Tā ài shuōhuà

2. My mother likes roses
我妈妈喜欢玫瑰花
Wǒ māma xǐhuān méiguìhuà

3. Dogs like to eat bone
狗喜欢吃骨头
Goǔ xǐhuān chī gǔtou

4. My brother loves red car
我哥哥爱红车
Wǒ gēge ài hóngchē

5. We love travelling
我们爱旅游
Wǒmen ài lǚyóu

Hope you get all the above right :) Do not worry if you get some words different from mine, for example if you translate "travelling" as "旅行 Lǚxíng", that's fine too. If you use "讲话 - jiǎnghuà” instead of “说话 - shuōhuà" for talking, that's fine too. Don't hesitate to leave comment to confirm if your answer is acceptable. Will be more than happy to clarify.


Love,
Linda Tan

Lesson 10: Like and Love

Like is 喜欢
Love is 爱

"Like" can be followed by a noun or a verb. Same thing applies to the word "Love"

For example:
I like Banana = 我喜欢香蕉           Wǒ xǐ huān xiāng jiāo
Monkeys like to eat banana = 猴子喜欢吃香蕉       Hóu zi xǐ huān chī xiāng jiāo

He loves His Girlfriend = 他爱他的女朋友          Tā ài tā de nǚ péng yǒu
He loves Drawing = 他爱画画儿         Tā ài huà huàr

Try translating a few sentences below:

1. She loves talking
2. My mother likes roses
3. Dogs like to eat bone
4. My brother loves red car
5. We love travelling

Regards,
Linda Tan

Lesson 9: Adjective (Describing something or someone)

Adjective in Bahasa Indonesia is called: Kata sifat. Its purpose it to describe something/nouns.

For example: When we say "dog", we can add an adjective to describe the dog, such as: small!

The pattern is: Adjective + Noun

Small dog
Small (Adj) = 小     xiǎo
Dog (Noun) = 狗     gǒu

So, we say: 小狗 xiǎo gǒu

Black dog
Black (Adj) = 黑     hēi
Dog (Noun) = 狗     gǒu

In Chinese we say: 黑狗  hēi gǒu


When the adjective is long (it is more than just one word), we will normally add 的 de in the middle (after the adjective and before the noun)

The pattern is: Adjective + 的 de + Noun

For example:

We can describe the word "House" with a few adjectives below:

Beautiful    漂亮       lán sè
Blue            蓝色      piào liang

Because the adjectives above are more than one words, than we have to use 的 de  in the middle.

Thus we say:
蓝色的屋子             lán sè de wū zi                 Blue House
漂亮的屋子             piào liang de wū zi          Beautiful House

Try to digest the above before going on to the following explanation.

There are times where the description about something consist of adjective + noun
For example: We would like to describe "Girl" with the adjective phrase "big eye"
"big" is an adjective, while "eye" is a noun

So, in Mandarin to translate "The girl with Big Eyes" we can say:
大眼睛的女孩

dà yǎnjīng de nǔ hái

眼睛           yǎnjīng        = eyes                     ==> the first noun
大               dà                = big                       ==> adjective that explains the first noun
女孩           nǔ hái          = girl                      ==> This is the second yet the MAIN noun


If you notice, there are two parts of adjective in the above phrase "The girl with big eyes".
a. the first is "big" that explains the "eyes"
b. the second is "big eyes" that explains the main noun, "the girl"

In this case, the eyes are being explained by an adjective word "big". Thus in the phrase "the girl with big eyes" the adjective is now 大眼睛 dà yǎnjīng (more than one word), therefore we need 的 de after the adjective and before the word "girl" - 女孩 nǔ hái. Same thing apply to the third phrase below!

The girl with black hair
黑头发的女孩

hēi tóufa de nǔ hái

黑                 hēi           = black           ==> the adjective to explain the first noun

头发             tóu fa      = hair              ==> the first noun
女孩             nǔ hái     = girl               ==> the main noun

Try the following:

The room on the left side

left                 左        zuǒ                     ==> the adjective to explain the first noun

side                边       biǎn                    ==> the noun

room              房间   fáng jiān            ==> the main noun

You should get:

左边的房间

zuǒ biǎn de fáng jiān

Please translate the following by applying the above:

1. Beautiful flower

2. Good Teacher

3. High mountain

4. Square Table

5. Delicious dinner

Good day!

Linda Tan

Answers to Lesson 7

Here are the answers to the previous exercise in Lesson 7

1. House                 家                         jiā

2. Car                     车                         chē 

3. Pen                     笔                         bǐ 

4. Dog                    狗                         gǒu 

5. Cat                     猫                         māo    

6. Handphone        手机                     shǒu jī 

7. Laptop                笔记本电脑        bǐ jì běn diàn nǎo           

8. Children             孩子                    hǎi zi    

9. Daughter            女儿                    nǚ ér  

10. Son                   儿子                    ér zi

Now the sentences!

1. Ms Linda has an older sister

Linda xiǎo jiě yǒu yī gè jiě jie

NOTE:  "gè" is used to measure the number of people/things in general. So if I would like to say 3 older sister, I say: sān gè jiě jie (三个姐姐）

2. Her sister is Casandra

Tā de jiě jie shì Casandra

3. My dog is Blacky

Wǒ de gǒu shì Blacky

4. Her house is big

Tā de jiā dà

NOTE: verb to be (is/am/are) doesn't have to be translated as "shì" if it is followed by adjective.

5. Our father is Mr Chen

Wǒ men de bà ba shì Chen xiān sheng

6. Their mother is Mrs Li

Tā men de mā ma shì Li nǚ shì

7. They have 2 dogs

Tā men yǒu liǎng zhī gǒu

NOTE: "zhī" " is the unit of measure for most animals, such as cat, dog, lion, etc. There are some that use different unit of measure. For example: fish. They use: "tiáo"

8. That kid do not have a grandfather (maternal / paternal)

Nà gè hái zi méi yǒu gōng gong /  yé ye

NOTE: "Nà" means That. "hái zi" is kid. Literally when we translate "That Kid" you will probably say "Nà hái zi", however we need to add unit of measure for kid "ge" after the demonstrative pronoun, such as "this" and "that", in this case, unit of measure of kid is "gè", 个。

When we want to say: ”That dog“, we say "那只狗“ - Nà zhī gǒu

To say "This fish", we translate it s "这只鱼" - zhè zhī yú

Listen to the following:

Happy Learning,

Linda Tan

Lesson 7: Expressing Posession in Mandarin (Adult)

To show possession in English, we often use have/has or there is/ there are something.... 

In Mandarin, have/has is translated as 有 yǒu

For example:
I have younger brother
我有弟弟                  Wǒ  yǒu dì di

However, in English we can also use possessive adjective (such as, my, your, her, etc).

In Chinese, the character that shows possession is 的 (de)

The owner + 的 de + the possession
He has older sister, we say:
他有姐姐
tā yǒu jiě jie

or if we use possessive adjective, we can  also say:
His older sister
他的姐姐

tā de jiě jie

Example in sentence:
I have older brother
我有哥哥
Wǒ yǒ gē ge

Mr. Li is my older brother
李先生是我的哥哥

Lí xián sheng shì wǒ de gē ge

The negative form of have and has can be don't have or have not got / has not got. In Chinese, it is "没有" méi yǒu.

Furthermore, in English we knows about possessive pronouns (such as: mine, hers, theirs, yours, etc)

Look at how we do this in Chinese:

1.  I have an elder brother

我有一个哥哥

2.  That is my elder brother

那是我的哥哥

3. This is his elder brother，That is mine.

这是他的哥哥， 那是我的
(We do not have to mention "My elder brother" anymore, because, the first part of the sentence we have already introduced someone else's elder brother, so we assume that everyone knows that when I say MINE, in this context I am talking about "MY Elder Brother"

Another example:
That house is belong to Mr. Li
那个屋子是李先生的

which means
That's house is Mr Li's house
那个屋子是理想生的屋子

In order for you to be able to form more sentences to show your possession, first you need to know the Mandarin for things that you own, for example car, house, handphone and more.

Here are a few things that you might own, please translate it to Mandarin (feel free to add more):
1. House
2. Car
3. Pen
4. Dog
5. Cat
6. Handphone
7. Laptop
8. Children
9. Daughter
10. Son


Now you can try to translate the following simple sentences:
1. Ms Linda has an older sister
2. Her sister is Casandra
3. My dog is Blacky
4. Her house is big
5. Our father is Mr Chen
6. Their mother is Mrs Li
7. They have 2 dogs
8. That kid do not have a grandfather

Have a good day,
Linda Tan

Lesson 6: Day and Date in Mandarin (A)

If you first visit this blog, you should know that it will only be useful if you know how to read hanyu pinyin (the phonics in Chinese), so feel free to learn in our first post!

For those who have been following, how is the learning going? So far, we have covered the following:

1. Numbers

2. Greetings

3. Addressing Family Members

If you have committed every 20-30 minutes to review the lessons for the past month, you should be able to greet your family member and people around you in General.

Here is some example:

Moving on, let's learn about date:

Here is a few words that you need to know to be able to tell day and date in Mandarin.

星期           Xīng qī               .... day

1. Monday               Xīng qī yī             星期一

2. Tuesday              Xīng qī èr             星期二

3. Wednesday         Xīng qī sān           星期三

4. Thursday             Xīng qī sì             星期四

5. Friday                  Xīng qī wǔ           星期五

6. Saturday              Xīng qī liù            星期六

7. Sunday                Xīng qī tiān/rì      星期天 / 星期日

However, when we say;

一个星期          yī gè xīng qī            One Week

How about date???

In English we will write Date as the following:

1st Aug 2016 or Aug 1st, 2016

In Chinese, we have to start from the year, then month, then end with date. Here are a few words you will need:

1. 日                rì                       Date (use only in writing)

2. 号               hào                     Date (use in spoken language)

3. 月               yuè                      Month

4. 年               nián                    Year

How to say 2nd of Aug 2016?

2016年    8月    2日

        nián    yuè      rì

OR

二O一六年  八月   二 日

               nián    yuè        rì

In spoken language... we say:

Simple right?

Here is a few words that you should know to be able to form a full sentence in telling day/date.

Today (Hari ini)                                  今天              jīn tiān 

Tomorrow (Besok)                             明天              míng tiān

Yesterday (Kemarin)                          昨天              zuó tiān

Day after tomorrow (Lusa)                后天               hòu tiān 

2 days ago (2 hari lalu)                       前天              qián tiān 

verb to be, is/am/are  (adalah...)        是                  shì 

Asking amount (berapa)                    几                   jǐ     --> It can also means "a few" or "some"

So you can form a sentence to say:

Today is Tuesday, 2nd of August

今天是星期二，八月 二号

jīn tiān shì xīng qī èr, bā yuè èr hào

Tomorrow is Wednesday, 3rd of August 2016     

明天是星期三，2016年  八月  三号

míng tiān shì xīng qī sān, èr ling yī liù nián bā yuè sān hào

To form a negative sentence, we use 不是 bù shì

For example:

Today is not Friday.

今天不是星期五

jīntiān bùshì xīngqīwǔ

When you need to ask QUESTION, here is the example:

What date (and month) is today?
今天是几月几号？
jīn tiān shì  jǐ yuè jǐ hào?

What if you are would like to ask for a date only (assuming you are aware what month we are in now)?
Yup! You can say:

What date is today?
今天几号？
jīn tiān jǐ hào?

What day is tomorrow?
明天星期几？
míng tiān xīng qī jǐ?

Listen to the following:

Please translate the following:
1. What date is the day after tomorrow?
2. The day after tomorrow is Thursday.
3. What day is yesterday?
4. Yesterday is Sunday
5. What date and month is 2 days ago?
6. 2 days ago was 31st of July

(Answer to be revealed in next post by the end of this week)

Happy Tuesday,
Linda Tan

Lesson 4: Activities for Kids (C)

How is your counting activity with your child for the past week? Can they count 1 - 3 already? or maybe more...? Keep up the good work. No matter how slow the progress is, make sure you keep moving! Consistency and commitment is the key.

Again, I suggest verbal counting only to younger kids below 4 years old, while you can point or show them the Chinese character while counting.

By doing this there is chance that your child might be able to read the words in the long run. However, if they can't now, do not get frustrated.  It is okay. Focus on counting fingers. Lead by example! You have to show them how to count using your fingers as assistants. They will copy you for sure. This helps the fine motoric skill for the young :)

Anyway... Always find the chance to practice the counting, anytime and anywhere.

You can even do it in 2 or 3 languages.

yī, one, satu
èr, two, dua
etc...

Moving on..

One of the most important part in learning language is to know as many vocabularies as you can. Same thing applies here. Since we are not rushing for anything. You can mix the Chinese lesson with some art. The most basic art that anyone can do is COLORING. Coloring (with crayons or any other wide tip coloring pencil) may also help children to train the strength of their grip, this will come useful when it is time for them to really hold pencil and write letters/words. If you are asking why and how? Try to hold a pencil now, do you need strength to do it? Yes, you do, we all do. That's why we get tired of writing sometimes. If your hand is weak, you can't even hold the pencil properly, let alone trying to form shapes of alphabets. That's why and That's how Coloring may help your little ones.

So, what I used to do with my preschool (age 3 - 5) is ask them to color 1 or 2 things in every session. KEEP the final result and FILE them. DO NOT chuck it away. One item a day means one new vocab every day. Imagine doing it everyday for a month. Voila!

Here is the thing that you need:
1. Blank Paper (A4 is fine), always use the same size for neat filing.
2. Crayon or coloring pencil of your choice (don't choose the thin/slim type, choose the crayon which is "fat", wider in diameter (easy to hold) and wide tip (finish coloring faster, since most kids get bored fast, or rather have shorter attention span)
3. Printer (you may need or not need this). I used to hand draw the items. Keep it SUPER simple. Not too much detail on the thing:

Here is the sample of the page that you need to create for your kids before let them start the coloring:

Write the Chinese Character, the Pinyin, the English/Indonesia on the paper with the picture

The reasons for keeping are:

1. You can use them like a flash card (just bigger in size)

2. With the Chinese character written on the paper, they will get exposure to the shape of the character, every time you "flash" this paper to them. One day you will be surprise to know that your child is reading the character in addition to recognizing the object.

I usually start introducing the vocabularies that are going to be used often in our daily life. In classes, they will have lots of encounter with books, pencils, bags, tables, chairs, etc. So learn those words first. Remember to stick to NON abstract object, something that you can actually show. "Table" is easy to show, but "kind" is not, "Pencil" is tangible, while "heavy" is not. So stick to common nouns for now.

Here are 5 words that I want you to create for your child:

1. 书         shū                     Book / Buku

2. 笔         bǐ                       Pencil / Pensil

3. 书包     shū bāo              Bag / Tas

4. 椅子     yǐ zi                    Chair / Kursi

5. 桌子     zhuō zi                Table / Meja

Aim for them to master this in a week along with the counting. :)

So this is how you do it:
1. First day:
- Let them color a book and then ask them to say the word "shū"
- When they are finish coloring, show them the final product and ask them to say the word "shū" again

2. Second day
- Before start, show the book picture that they colored yesterday and then say the word in Chinese. If they forget, help them!
- Then let them color pencil and teach them the word in Chinese. Ask them to repeat after you or repeat after the audio in Pleco. :)
- When they are done, show them the pencil and ask them to say it in Chinese. Then, refreshing memory on book + pencil.
They now know 2 new words :)

3. Third day
- Refresh memory of "pencil" and "book"
- Color a bag (remember to keep the drawing simple) and not too big. Something that they can finish in 10 - 15 mins max. You know your child best! If they are the type who get bored easily, aim for something super simple! :)
- Show them the picture and ask them to say the Chinese word for "bag"
- Refresh "book" + "pencil" and "bag"

4 & 5. Fourth & Fifth day
Apply the same things.

So each day, they will have more "flash card" to recognize and read from.

If you would like to add more words, since your kids is a fast learner and not able to wait for my next lesson for children, then, please feel free to find the words in Pleco. :)

Drop a comment or email me if you need printable materials that you can use for the above activities.


Fun Learning,
Linda Tan