Mandarin Training in Bali / Pelatihan Bahasa Mandarin di Bali

Other than maintaining this blog in teaching people how to learn Chinese step by step, I also conduct training session for organizations in Bali that serve the growing Chinese market and those colleges that prepare the students to be ready in this challenging service industry.

WHY MANDARIN? WHY CHINESE?
Mandarin/Chinese is one of the most spoken languages in the world. We cannot deny the growing market of Chinese tourists in Bali. In order to serve the market better, one of the best thing that company can do is to equip their human resources with language skill.

WHY ME AS TRAINER?

If you are looking for quality, customized and easy-to-understand training session for your staff, please contact me at contact number provided below. I will be handling all the training as well as the customized materials/handbook for the training session in your organization.

A bit of my background, I am an HSK, Level 6 certificate holder. HSK is certification issued by the Chinese government for those foreigners who learn Chinese to state their proficiency and credibility in the language. It is something like TOEFL/IELTS for English. There are 6 levels in total, Level 6 being the highest. 

CONTACT DETAILS
To discuss on your organization's need and what I can offer for your organization, please do not hesitate to contact me at:

Phone: +6287868920390

Email: linda_yunitan@yahoo.com

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Selain dari memaintain blog ini dalam mengajarkan cara mudah belajar Bahasa Mandarin, saya juga memberikan training Bahasa Mandarin kepada perusahaan ataupun organisasi di Bali yang melayani tamu/pasar Chinese yang semakin berkembang pada saat sekarang ini. Saya juga mengajar di pusat pelatihan yang mempersiapkan murid-muridnya agar siap untuk bekerja dan bersaing di industri pelayanan yang semakin menantang.

MENGAPA BAHASA MANDARIN? MENGAPA BAHASA CINA?

Bahasa Cina adalah salah satu Bahasa yang paling banyak digunakan didunia. Kita tidak bisa memungkiri perkembangan jumlah turis cina yang datang ke Bali beberapa tahun terakhir ini. Agar dapat melayani tamu/customer Anda dengan lebih baik, salah satu hal terbaik yang dapat dilakukan perusahaan/organisasi di Bali adalah dengan melakukan pelatihan/training Bahasa Mandarin untuk pekerja/staff nya.

MENGAPA SAYA SEBAGAI PELATIH/TRAINER?
Jika Anda mencari pelatih bahasa Mandarin yang berkualitas, materi pembelajaran yang dapat disesuaikan sesuai kebutuhan perusahaan dan juga cara mengajar yang mudah dimengerti, Anda dapat menghubungi saya untuk mendiskusikan lebih lanjut tentang rincian mengenai training Bahasa Mandarin ini. Saya sendiri akan menangai semua sesi training/pelatihan dan juga bahan/buku pegangan siswa yang telah dicocokan sesuai input ataupun kebutuhan dari perusahaan Anda.

Sedikit mengenai latar belakang saya, saya adalah pemegang sertifikat HSK, Level 6. HSK adalah sertifikasi yang diberikan pemerintah Cina untuk orang asing yang belajar Bahasa Mandarin, yang mana berfungsi menyatakan tingkat kemampuan si pelajar dalam menggunakan Bahasa Mandarin/Bahasa Cina. HSK seperti halnya TOEFL/IELTS untuk Bahasa Inggris. Secara total ada 6 level didalam ujian HSK, dimana Level 6 merupakan level tertinggi.

CONTACT DETAILS

Untuk mendiskusikan lebih lanjut mengenai kebutuhan dari perusahaan Anda dan bagaimana saya dapat membantu perusahaan Anda, silahkan menghubungi saya melalui kontak dibawah ini:
Trainer: Linda Tan (Ms)

Phone: +6287868920390

Email: linda_yunitan@yahoo.com


Best Regards,
Linda Tan

Greeting During Festive Seasons

It’s been almost a month since my last post. Things have been crazily busy and satisfying as after a year, I got to make a trip back to my hometown, and spent 2 weeks there.

So between the last lesson and this one, there have been a few “important days” that we had celebrated, or at least me and people around me. That includes Chinese New Year, The last day of Chinese New Year known as “Cap Go Meh” for Chinese Indonesian , and yesterday is a very loving day, known as “Valentine Day”.

Even though it has passed, let me show you how we greet people during those few “festive” days.

1. Chinese New Year

“新年快乐”            xīnnián kuàile  Happy New Year

“春节快乐”                        chūnjié kuàile  Happy Spring Festival

“鸡年机箱”                        jīnián jíxiǎng   Prosperous “Rooster” Year

(Based on Lunar Calendar, 2017 is rooster year. Rooster is one of the Sign in Chinese Zodiac. So every baby born from 28 Jan 2017 (first day of Chinese New Year) will be the “rooster” baby. )

“年年有余”                        niánnián yǒuyú            Abundance year by year

(The last word 余 yú means surplus, it has the same pronunciation as the Chinese word for fish (鱼), this is one of the reason why, some Chinese still like to prepare fish on the dining table, to represent that abundance and  the idea of wealth that will “never-finish”!)

2. The Last Day of Chinese New Year

Chinese New Year lasts for 15 days. The 15^th day is normally known as “cap-go-meh” for the Chinese Indonesian. That is hokkien language for the 15^th night.

            “元宵节快乐”             yúanxiāojié kuàile                   Happy Cap Go Meh

3. Valentine’s Day

“情人节快乐”        qíngrénjié kuàile                                  Happy Valentine’s Day

Hope you will find the above useful next year.

In conveying our greetings to others, we just have to know what is the festive name in Chinese and add “” kuàile = happy after it.

For example:

Happy Galungan (for Balinese)                      加隆安节快乐            jiālóngānjié kuàile

Galungan                                加隆安            jiālóngān

Festive Season                        节                    jié

Here are a few others:

1. Happy Teacher’s Day             教师节快乐                 jiāoshījie kuàile
2. Happy Mother’s Day              母亲节快乐                 mǔqīnjié kuàile
3. Happy Father’s Day                父亲节快乐                fùqīnjié kuàile 
4. Happy Halloween                   万圣节快乐                wànshèngjié kuàile
5. Happy Mid Autumn Festival  中秋节快乐                 zhōngqiūjié kuàile
6. Happy Children’s Day            儿童节快乐                 értóngjié kuàile
7. Happy Single Day                   光棍节快乐                guānggùnjié kuāile                                               (celebrated in China on November 11, for those who are single)

8. Happy National Day               国庆节快乐               guóqìngjiékuàile
9. Happy Birthday                      生日快乐                    shēngrì kuàile
10. Happy Wedding Anniversary   结婚周年快乐         jiéhūn zhōunián kuàile

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 5: Family Members & Addressing People (A & C)

This is intended for both adults and children. There are many ways to address a family member in English (Dad, Father, etc) and Bahasa Indonesia (Papa, Ayah) , so does Chinese.

Knowing what to address someone properly is important. From here, you will know how the relation between one person to another. This is the unique thing about Chinese, which also makes it a bit complicated. However, personally I would like to keep this tradition in my own family.

Here I will only show you the most common one :)
Father                             爸爸            bà ba
Mother                            妈妈            mā ma
Older Sister                    姐姐            jiě jie 
Younger Sister               妹妹            mèi mei 
Older Brother                 哥哥            gē ge
Younger Brother            弟弟            dì di 
Paternal Grandpa           爷爷             yé ye 
Paternal Granma            奶奶             nǎi nai
Maternal Grandpa          公公             gong gong 
Maternal Grandma         婆婆             pó po 
Uncle (from Dad's side, older than your dad)                 伯伯             bó bo 
Uncle (from Dad's side, younger than your dad)            叔叔            Shū shu
Uncle (from Mom's side)                                                舅舅             jiù jiu
Aunt (from Dad's side）                                                 姑姑             gū gu
Aunt (from Mom's side, older than your mom)              姨妈              yí mā
Aunt (from Mom's side, younger thatn your mom)        阿姨              ā yí
Niece                                侄女                    zhí nǔ 
Nephew                            侄儿 / 外甥        zhí ér / wài shēng

There are still more actually, like your uncle's wife is not just "aunt", but there is a proper way to address her, depending on whose wife she is. However, enough for now. It will be to overwhelming if I were to introduce all at once.

The purpose of knowing the above is that so that you can teach your children a proper way of addressing people. Together with this, introduce to her the greeting that you have already learnt before. So the next time they see their grandpa, they can say: “公公，早上好”  

gōng gong, zǎo shàng hǎo or “爷爷， 早上好” yé ye, zǎo shàng hǎo (Good Morning, Grandpa)。

Or teach them how to say thank you. When your husband's older brother buys a present for your childen, teach them to say “伯伯，谢谢” bó bo, xiè xie (Thanks, Uncle)

Another tips to address friends. If it is a female friend, we like to address them as “阿姨”   ā yí,  we assume she is a sister to us (wife). However, if it a male friend, we teach our kids to address him as “叔叔” shū shu , we assume he is a brother to our husband, if your male friend is older we use “伯伯”, bó bo.

Teaching kids how to address people properly is still something conventional yet part of teaching them good manner, at least for the Eastern. In our family, it is something that is important. When our parents are talking to their friend, even if we do not know them, we will have to address that uncle/aunt. We do not just stand there quietly or walk away without greeting them. Raised in that kind of family, I expect a lot from the kids nowadays too.

What if we meet someone about our age or not in a "Personal" context, working environment, for example. It might not be too appropriate to call your boss (who you assume from their appearance is older than you) as 伯伯. For this purpose, we have the following:

Mr.     先生     xiān sheng     

                   e.g. Mr. Lee       李先生        lí xiān sheng

Mrs./ Madam  (Married woman)        女士       nǚ shì     

                  e.g. Madam Kwan     关女士         guān nǚ shì 

(Note: If we know exactly that woman is married to Mr. Li and she takes after his surname, we can then use 夫人 (fū ren).

Addressing them as: 李先生 & 李夫人       lí xiān sheng & lí fū ren        Mr & Mrs. Li)

Ms.     小姐      xiǎo jiě 

                   e.g. Ms. Chen          陈小姐     chén xiǎo jiě

Try to apply this as much as possible and you will get use to it before you know it. :)

Your kids can call me,

Linda 阿姨   (Aunt Linda)

Tips!

I normally do not memorize the meaning, I will use it in one situation where I know for sure it is correct and always refer back to the use of each word in that situation to get the meaning.

For example: I have many uncles whom I address as 舅舅 jiù jiu. Therefore, when I need the meaning of the word "舅舅", I will always refer back to that person. And start thinking, "who does the person relate to?" Then, I know that he is my mother's brother. Thus I got my answer 舅舅  jiù jiu refers to uncle from mother's side, can be older or younger.

Answers for Lesson 3

Here is the answers for some new vocab which you are supposed to translate in Lesson 3. I believe you have found your answers.


1. 头            tóu               head / kepala

2. 目            mù               eyes / mata       (Most characters / phrases that come with this Chinese character has something to do with eyes. See below:
（+）眼睛      yǎn jīng      eyes / mata (when we use it in a sentence, this is my eyes)
Look at the left side of each character, it has the character of 目 mù

3. 口            kǒu              mouth / mulut   (Most characters/phrase that comes with this Chinese character has something to do with mouth)

4. 嘴巴        zuǐ bā        mouth / mulut     (when we use it in a sentence, e.g. this is my mouth)

5. 耳朵        ěr duo         ear / telinga

6. 足 / 脚     zú / jiǎo     feet / kaki   

7. 大            dà                big/ besar

8. 小            xiǎo             small / kecil

9. 多            duō              many / banyak

10. 少          shǎo             little / sedikit

Translating to Mandarin

1. Sun             日  / 太阳           rì / tài yang     

2. Moon          月           yuè

3. Mountain    山                      shān

4. Field           地           dì

5. Rock           石头         shí tou

6. Water          水           shuǐ

7. Fire             火           huǒ

8. Soil            土           tǔ

9. Wood           木          mù

10. I / Me           我         wǒ

11. You             你          nǐ

12. We /Us         我们       wǒ men

13. He/She/It (same pronunciation different characters)            他 /她 /它     tā

14. They / Them            他们      tā men

The above (except subject pronoun) are the basic words that you might need to know to ease your learning of Chinese characters. As I mentioned before, although Chinese characters might look complicated, most of the time it is a combination of a few characters. By introducing the basic/simple character, I hope will allow you to look at Chinese character from different angle.

Although, it will allow you to "guess" the meaning of the word. For example: 火huǒ means fire. So most of the characters that come with that will have something to do with fire/light/hot temperature. E.g. 烧 (shāo) burn, 灯 (dēng) lamp / light, etc.

As of the introduction to subject pronouns will allow us to create sentence (simple ones) in near future :)

Revisit this over and over again, until you have them all on your finger tips :)

Happy Learning,
Linda Tan

Lesson 3: New Vocabs + Greetings (A)

In this post, I would like to start with exercise. I want you to find the meaning for the following basic vocabs. If it is possible, you can try to recognize the Chinese characters too. Although speaking might be your goal in learning the language, however recognizing words (know how to read and the meaning) will come handy one day. It also helps you to understand it better.

Here is the example on how to do this to get the maximal benefit, write it down on a piece of paper, better if you have a book dedicated for this:

E..g 人 rén  human/people

1. 头

2. 目

3. 口

4. 嘴巴

5. 耳朵

6. 足 / 脚

7. 大

8. 小

9. 多

10. 少

This will give you the chance to practice using Pleco too :)  And of course, do not forget to pronounce it out loud when you have found the pinyin and the meaning. And stop for a while and digest the new vocab before you move on.

Next, I want you to translate from English to Chinese (you can choose to write the characters or just stick to the pinyin)

1. Sun

2. Moon

3. Mountain

4. Field

5. Rock

6. Water

7. Fire

8. Soil

9. Wood

10. I / Me

11. You

12. We /Us

13. He/She/It (same pronunciation different characters)

14. They / Them

Try finish the above, read your answer out loud so that it sticks. Revisit them regularly :)

Now, I am going to introduce you to some simple greetings in Chinese.

The most universal greeting that we use is Hello/Hi. In Chinese we say:

“你好” nǐhǎo   Hello

This literally means "you are good." It is something like saying I wish you good / good things.

Just the same as when how we response to "Hello." We say "Hello" too in return.

A: “你好”                  nǐ hǎo 

B: “你好”                  nǐ hǎo 

More specific greeting, depending on the time of the day:

1. Good Morning                            早上好            zǎo shàng hǎo       OR  早安   zǎo ān 

2. Good Noon (12PM - 1PM)         中午好            shàng wǔ hǎo       OR 午安    wǔ ān

3. Good Afternoon                          下午好            xià wǔ hǎo           OR 午安    wǔ ān    

4. Good Evening                             晚上好            wǎn shàng hǎo

5. Good Night                                 晚安                wǎn ān 

Another reminder, video can only be played on a desktop or laptop.

To avoid confusion, you can just try to memorize one version, for now. However, you have to know both, because certain countries, like Singapore and Taiwan like to use zǎo ān  /  wǔ ān / wǎn ān, while Mainland Chinese like to use the first that end with ... hǎo. So at least when someone say it, you know what they means. Most of the time, we reply to someone's greeting with the same version that they use. However, it is not wrong too when someone says: "zǎo ān", you reply with: "zǎo shàng hǎo." It is acceptable.

Apart from  the above, here are a few more phrases that beginner should know

1. Thanks                                        谢谢                   xiè xie

2. You are welcome                        不客气              bú kè qì

3. Sorry                                           对不起              duì bu qǐ

4. No worries / No problem            没关系              méi guān xi

5. Goodbye / See you again             再见                 zài jiàn

If you are on you handheld and can't play the video, you can always practice the correct pronunciation with the help of recorded audio on Pleco! =)

Again no need to rush to finish, revisit lesson 1 when you have time and before you know it, you will have them all on your fingertips :)

xiè xie,

Linda Tan

Answer for Exerises in Lesson 1 (A)

Here is the answers for the 2 exercises on lesson 1 (A)

Exercise 1

The missing numbers are:

Fifteen (15)                 shí wǔ              十五

Sixteen (16)                shí liù               十六

Seventeen (17)            shí qī                十七

Eighteeen (18)            shí bā                十八

Nineteen (19)             shí jiǔ                十九

Exercise 2

Twenty Four (24)         èr shí sì               二十四

Twenty Five (25)         èr shí wǔ             二十五

Twenty Six (26)           èr shí liù              二十六

Twenty Seven (27)      èr shí qī                二十七

Twenty Eght (28)        èr  shí bā               二十八

Twenty Eight (29)       èr shí jiǔ               二十九

Thirty One (31)          三十一          sān shí yī

Thirty Two (32)          三十二         sān shí èr

Thirty Three (33)       三十三          sān shí sān

Thirty Four (34)        三十四           sān shí sì  

Thirty Five (35)         三十五          sān shí wǔ

Thirty Six (36)          三十六           sān shí liù

Thirty Seven (37)      三十七          sān shí qī

Thirty Eight (38)       三十八          sān  shí bā     

Thirty Nine (39)        三十九         sān shí jiǔ

If you notice, the only character that is changed is the first, When we are in 20ish, all start with 二 (èr), when we are in 30ish then we change it to 三 (sān).

I believe you can do the 40 - 99 yourself by now.

We will stop at 100 which is 一百 （yī bǎi）

Hope you get all your answer right. :)

Happy Counting,

Linda Tan