There are, dotted through the archives of this blog, a number of posts in Chinese. Though they probably never belonged on this blog and the idea never took off.

But the idea has some merit, I think, as a language learning device. I no longer live in China so have precious few opportunities to practice spoken Chinese. Most of my contact with Chinese speaking friends is online and therefore typed. This presents me with a problem as my reading / writing lags behind my less than fantastic speaking ability.

To this end, I have created a little blog over at Posterous and I’ll post about twice a week.

Now advance warning is given, these posts aren’t going to be edge of your seat stuff, my life isn’t that interesting and my ability with the Chinese language is a limiting factor.

What I’m really hoping for is for some good discussion with my Chinese speaking readers and maybe a few corrections / pointers.

As posterous (like every other site I could think to use) is blocked in China it’s also feeding into Google Buzz and I expect the discussion, if there is any, will happen there.

So if you speak a little Chinese and fancy a chat, to help me learn or to just have a laugh (we all do) then come on down to Posterous or Buzz.

要学就说 – 我的中文博客

Headlines

As I said in my previous post, Essential 20 – Czech, I was taken with the notion, in a twist on the Pareto Principle, that when acquiring a new language or moving to / visiting a new country the greatest value comes from having 20 key survival phrases.

Here again is my list, this time with translations to Mandarin Chinese (characters and pinyin).

Hello.
你好。
Nǐ hǎo.

Good bye.
再见。
Zài jiàn.

Yes.
是。
Shì.
Consider 对 duì ‘correct’ for agreement.

No.
不是。
Bùshì.
Consider 不对 bùduì ‘not correct’ for disagreement.

I want this…
我要这个…
Wǒ yāo zhè ge…

One glass of (beer / tea / water) please.
请给我一杯 （啤酒 ／ 茶 ／ 水）。
Qǐng gěi wǒ yī bēi píjiǔ / chá / shuǐ.

The bill, please.
请买单。
Qǐng mǎidān.

How much?
多小钱？
Duōxiǎo qián?

Where is … ? (person / place)
… 在哪里？
… zài nǎ lǐ?

Where is the bathroom?
洗手间在哪里？
Xǐshǒujiān zài nǎ lǐ?

I don’t speak Mandarin.
我不会说普通话。
Wǒ bù huì shuō pǔtōnghuà.

Do you speak English?
你会说英语吗？
Nǐ huí shuō Yīngyǔ ma?

I don’t understand.
我不懂。
Wǒ bù dǒng.

Can you repeat that please?
再说一边。
Zài shuō yī biān.

Can you help me?
你能帮我吗？
Nǐ néng bāng wǒ ma?

I’m sorry.
对不起。
Duìbuqǐ.

No problem / It’s ok.
没关系。
Méiguānxi.
Used following an apology.

Please.
请。
Qǐng.
Place at the beginning of a request.

Thank you.
谢谢。
Xiè xie.

You’re welcome.
不用谢。
Bù yòng xiè.

Excuse me.
请问。
Qǐng wèn.
Used to intrude, lit. may I ask.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10.
一， 二，三， 四，五，六，七， 八， 九， 十。
Yī, èr, sān, sì, wǔ, liù, qī, bā, jiǔ, shí.

上个星期六我们开了party。很多人来到我们的家，因为是我朋友的生日也是我来到中国四周年纪念。我们准备了很多小吃跟很多鸡尾酒。一个朋友带了她的儿子，他很好玩儿。他推着我的鼻字说“你的鼻字很长，我帮你能小一点！”

Rough Translation:

Last Saturday we had a party. Lots of people came to our house because it was a friend’s birthday and my four years in China anniversary. We prepared a lot of snacks and cocktails. One friend also brought her son, he was great fun. While pushing on my nose he said to me “Your nose is very long, I’ll help you make it smaller!”

This is a shameless plug. Shameless because I think they deserve it. ChinesePod is excellent. Not perfect (I still think that the ‘blog style’ organisation of the site is difficult to get your head around). However – that’s where the criticism ends and it’s worth noting that the people behind it are clearly responsive to community feedback.

Ultimately the core product of ChinesePod is the podcasts and they are without question the best thing about the site and they are free. I’m not a teacher; I’m not even a very good student. However the formula they’ve put together works, really well. I’ve listened to newbie lessons as a refresher, or just for fun and I’ve tackled lessons where most of the vocabulary was new and found that in both cases the system works as a learning tool for me. I’m about to re-subscribe to the full content having previously enjoyed the trial period and am looking forward to getting stuck into the extra resources now I’ve got some time again.

One of the best things about it as a learning resource is that there is no commitment beyond the fact that you want to do it. You can work at your own pace.

Another great thing about the site is that, at least for now, is that the comments on the blog posts (sorry can’t get past this view of the site) i.e. the community is brilliant.

Enough said, if you have a means to play mp3 files (and I don’t see how you can be reading this and not) and even the vaguest interest or requirement for some mandarin get stuck in.