Is my writing understandable?

[geoffkhan]

Hey guys, hoping to get some help here. I'm looking for a Chinese tutor, and one of the things I'm doing is putting up some flyers at my university. Here's the rough draft of what I have written:

你会讲中文吗？

我寻找一个教师会教我讲普通话，写汉字，等等。我到中文学校为五个年。因为我是一个美国人所以学习中文很难的，但是我能学习努力。

如果你感兴趣，我电话号码是：................

非常感谢，

.......

Is that relatively understandable? I'm not sure if I should say "会" or “能” in the title, for example. Could someone clarify the difference for me?

Also, I'm sure there are better, more clear ways of saying the thiings I am trying to express. Any help would be much appreciated!

[skylee]

My suggestions -

你会讲中文吗？ -> if you are looking for someone who can teach rather than just speak Chinese, please consider replacing 讲 with 教.

The main body needs a bit of rearrangement of words ->

我在寻找一个会教我讲普通话、写汉字等等的教师。我到中文学校上课已经五年了(I suppose you are trying to say that you've been attending classes at a Chinese school for 5 years)。因为我是一个美国人所以学习中文很难（的 deleted)，但是我会努力学习。

I am not sure why 非常感谢 is needed at the end.

[geoffkhan]

Thanks for your help, Skylee. Your revisions make a lot of sense to me, as well as making it apparent I need work on my Chinese grammar.

Why 非常感谢 at the end? I guess I'm just thinking of what I would say in English... Being used to English, I feel like I need some sort of closing phrase, like 谢谢 or something. Any advice on that, or should I just leave a closing phrase out?

[ABCinChina]

I can understand as is with my poor Chinese reading skills. I'm pretty much at your level and can only type/read simple stuff like that. You don't want to make it look too good or else they'll think you don't really need help.

[Han-tiger]

Don't think too much. "非常感谢" is OK.

[geoffkhan]

Thanks to Skylee's advice it looks like I've just nearly got it ready.

I wanted to double-check that having 非常感谢 at the end before my name was an acceptable concluding phrase.

[Han-tiger]

寻找中文老师！

我在寻找一名老师，教我讲普通话，写汉字，和其它的语言技能 (and other language skills)。我在语言学校里学习汉语已经5年了。因为我是一个美国人，我的母语英语与中文是两种完全不同的语言 (my mother tongue English and Chinese are two completely different languages)，所以学习中文是很困难的。但是我将努力学习汉语。

如果你感兴趣，请联系我。我的电话是：****************

非常感谢！

Geoffkhan

2007年10月9日

teacher has two translations in Chinese, one is “教师”, another is “老师”, the same meaning but used in different occasions. “教师” refers to an occupation. For example, what is his occupation? He is a teacher.（他是一名教师）. While “老师” is a respectful appellation to a person whose job is a teacher. “Good morning, Sir!” In Chinese, “早上好，老师！”but we Chinese never say, “早上好，教师！”

“mother” and “mom”, the similar case. You usually say, “Good Morning, Mom!” But you never say “Good Morning, mother!” But when you are to introduce your mother to your friend, you can say, “Hey, Henry, This is my mother Grace.”

That is.

[geoffkhan]

I really like your revision, Han-tiger! You pretty much took it to the next step, making it a lot more logically organized.

Although when I originally posted this, I was expecting just little revisions and corrections to my grammatical mistakes, I'm tempted to just use this.

Thanks so much for explaining the 老师 / 教师 difference--it makes a lot of sense to me now.

[skylee]

I didn't know that the OP wanted to specify "and other language skills" and "my mother tongue English and Chinese are two completely different languages". I didn't notice that the OP wanted someone to almost rewrite the whole thing ... I feel so silly that I have even replied.

[geoffkhan]

No... I didn't write that. Maybe because I was limited in my writing abilities what I originally wrote was simpler.

So now I'm stuck between going with what I originally wrote (which you kindly offered some revisions, Skylee), and going with Han-tiger's rewrite, which I think is more well-written than what I wrote, or at least uses more advanced Chinese to my knowledge.

But as long as my original writing (with Skylee's revisions) is understandable and has no grammatical errors, etc. that's more true to my Chinese writing level, and I should probably go with that.

[Lu]

I don't think that explanation of laoshi/jiaoshi is completely correct. All the time I hear people say things like 我是老師 or 妳是老師嗎?, referring to occupation. There is a difference, but it's not really like stated in that post.

[hejmcn]

你会讲中文吗？

我寻找一个教师会教我讲普通话，写汉字，等等。我到中文学校为五个年。因为我是一个美国人所以学习中文很难的，但是我能学习努力。

如果你感兴趣，我电话号码是：................

非常感谢，

I'd like to revise yours flyer as below,

您会讲中文吗？

我急需找位老师来辅导我的中文，例如：会话能力以及口语等。我目前学习中文的学校为五年制，由于本人是美国人，所以学习中文感觉比较吃力，但我相信通过自己的努力学习可以达到熟练应用的水平。

如果您有兴趣的话，我的电话号码是。。。。。。。。

最后表示诚挚的谢意。

If you want to improve yours Chinese, why not make some Chinese friends and they can teach you, also maybe you can teach them English.

If you have interest, pls e-mail me hejm2008@yahoo.com.cn, maybe I can help me, but the pre-condition is you must teach me English。

[Han-tiger]

geoffkhan is an elementary language learner, so I thought this simple explanation was OK. But I agree with Lu. I’d like to make some modification on my explanation, and further to confirm the following points:

(1) there is definitely a difference between “教师” and “老师”.

(2) “教师” refers to an occupation. For example, what is his occupation? He is a teacher.（他是一名教师）

(3) “老师” is a respectful appellation to a person whose job is a teacher. For example, “Good morning, Sir!” In Chinese, “早上好，老师！”but we Chinese never say, “早上好，教师！”

(4) “老师” is so frequently used in daily oral communication that it trends to take the place of “教师” even in an occasion where people talk about occupations. For example, what is his occupation? He is a college teacher.（他是一名大学教师. It is OK.）

（他是一名大学老师. Also OK, or sounds better!）

(5) In no event shall “教师” take the place of “老师” in occasion “(3)”.

(5) “教师” can only be replaced by “老师” in daily oral communication. In an official or formal occasion, when referring to occupation, “教师” will of course be employed. For example:

Teacher’s Day------教师节

P.R.C. Teacher’s law-----中华人民共和国教师法

Certificate of Teacher’s Qualification------教师资格证书

。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。

[geoffkhan]

I think I understand what you're getting at regarding 老师 vs 教师.

Hejmcn, thanks for your revision. While I could understand Han-tiger's, this rewrite is above my head. I'm sure it's a better way to write what I intended, but as long as what I had written, with Skylee's revision (and I also used the "phone number" sentence from Han-tiger's) is understandable, and without grammatical errors, I'm fine.

Hejmcn, I'll send you an email about the English/Chinese exchange.

I've done online correspondence before, but it can't replace face-to-face interaction. However, I want to take every opportunity to improve my Chinese, so I'm going to contact you about that right now.

Thanks for all the input everyone!

[Li Yuzuo]

hey, guy, you do it quite well, as an Chinese he can undersatand you totally.

just think about it, if you write it so fluently, even more fluently than a Chinese do, then who dare to apply.