Monopoly Board Game Vocabulary

[kudra]

I'm developing a "lesson plan" using the board game Monopoly.

The idea is to play Monopoly in Chinese with some kids who are learning Chinese. Obviously this involves limited vocabulary and patterns, with repetition. But it's useful vocabulary about numbers, buying/selling, money. And the game is "real" so the repetition is natural, not forced as in "repeat after me." The good part is that the kids already know how to play Monopoly in English.

I'm an intermediate/beginner level (whatever that means) speaker so I could get by playing with native speakers because I would pick up the relevant vocabulary and usage as it came up. But I don't have time to get a game together with the Chinese people I know.

As a start I am pumping the official rules in English through translate.google.com. Obviously one problem with this is, even if accurate this would probably yield formal written usage and vocabulary. Specifically I was wondering if anyone had played Monopoly in Chinese and could suggest some idiomatic vocabulary.

As a first pass, below is a list of phrases in English I was going to try to get spoken Chinese equivalents for:

I've filled in a bit based on 10 min of play with a native speaker. I'll fill in more based on dictionary lookup but if the native speakers want to make suggestions before I post, please do. To repeat: I'm looking for spoken usage appropriate for kids (age 5-12). If you have played and can think of some more useful phrases please post. Thanks.

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Where are the dice? -- 骰子在那里

(adso romanizes as touzi, while I typed shaizi into the google ime)

(pleco dict suggests 色子)

Roll the dice. 抛出骰子，掷色子(native speaker said zhi shaizi.)

I rolled a 7.

It's my turn. gai wo.

Who goes next?/Whose turn it is? gai shei? (google translate suggests 轮到谁了?)

Who goes first? shei xian?

Who is the banker?

Who want's to be the banker?

It is Dad's turn.

Move your piece.

What piece are you?

Do you want me to move your piece?

I landed on GO.

I passed GO. Give me $200.

Do you want to buy the property?

That is my property. You owe me rent. Pay me $10.

Give me the deed.

How much does that cost?

You landed on a Rail Road.

I own that Rail Road. 那个铁路是我的。

I like owning Rail Roads. 喜欢铁路。

I own 3 rail roads.

Will you sell me your rail road?

I'll sell you this property.

Do you want to trade your rail road for this property?

I own the Electric Utility. 公用电工(memory), 我拥有的公共电力公司(google)

I own the Water Works.

Wow, you have many properties!

I won! 我赢了。

I'm tired of playing.

I'm finished playing.

I don't want to play any more.

Let's take a break.

Let's put the game away. -- 收拾游戏吧。

[anonymoose]

骰子 (read touzi) is not a frequently used word. From my experience, many Chinese people do not know it.

色子 is frequently used to mean "die", and is read shaizi.

[LuBaerte]

http://www.hasbro.com/games/zh_CN/kid-games/monopoly/

maybe this can help?

[in_lab]

Re: dice, it depends on whether you are teaching them the vocabulary used in Taiwan. It's unlikely, but If so, then 骰子 as shaizi is correct.

From the link above, here is some of the vocabulary

购买豪宅 buy houses (mansions)

收租金 collect rent

买地 buy land

建酒店build hotels

借贷 take out loans

交租 pay rent

上税 pay taxes

公益福利 public welfare (community chest I think?)

入狱 go to jail

地产大亨real estate tycoon

富翁 rich person

破产 go bankrupt

[anonymoose]

Re: dice, it depends on whether you are teaching them the vocabulary used in Taiwan. It's unlikely, but If so, then 骰子 as shaizi is correct.

What do you mean by "骰子 as shaizi is correct"? Are you saying that the character 骰 is read as shai in Taiwan? Well, I can't say for sure about Taiwan, but I would find it surprising if this is true. In the mainland at least, look in any dictionary and you will see 骰子 listed as touzi, and a seperate entry for 色子 under shaizi.

[in_lab]

You might be right. I'll try to check some dictionaries. But when I type "shaizi" I get 骰子. On the other hand, if everyone makes the same mistake in language, that gives it authority. (Yes, that's a cop-out.)

[wai ming]

骰子

注音一式　ㄊㄡˊ　˙ㄗ

漢語拼音　ｔóｕ　ｚｉ

一種遊戲或賭博用的骨製器具。正方形，六面分刻一、二、三、四、五、六點，一、四漆紅色，其餘為黑色，以所擲在正上方的點數或顏色為勝負。此詞常混同「色子」一詞之音，讀為ㄕㄞˇ　˙ㄗ。亦作「色子」、「色數兒」。

So the official pronunciation is ｔóｕ　ｚｉaccording to the Taiwanese Ministry of Education, but it's often read as shaizi.

[in_lab]

My print dictionaries are all boxed, but I have three electronic ones. Dr. Eye and the Chinese Gene dictionary list 骰子 as shaizi. The MOE dictionary lists it as touzi. I think this is one of the more pedantic entries in the MOE dictionary, such as listing 牛仔 as "niuzi".

Edit: The ABC dictionary lists 骰子 and 色子 under the entry for "shaizi". Yahoo.com.tw's dictionary lists "shaizi" but that's probably the same data source as Dr. Eye.

[kudra]

Thanks everyone.

Someone also pointed me at the baike entry, but perusing it, there seem to be some differences from what I know from the link in the OP. Specifically about whether one must own all of a color group before building any houses.

This might be better.

Edited October 24, 2009 at 09:04 AM by kudra

[in_lab]

If only you were in China you get a knockoff Monopoly, which is printed in Chinese with rules in Chinese for only $1.50 to $3. (You get a printed piece of piece of paper instead of a real game board.)

[kudra]

Having now played a few times with a native speakers, my 5 yr old and myself, I think this works pretty well. To teach myself some vocabulary and help others learn, I ran the baike page through adsotrans to generate pinyin, then put it through the adsotrans translator to get a rough English translation. I then pasted together the results sentence by sentence to generate the following format:

地产大亨（Monopoly，又名大富翁、强手棋）是款多人策略图版游戏。

dìchǎn dàhēng (Monopoly, yòu míng dàfùwēng, qiáng shǒu qí) shì kuǎn duō rén cèlǜe tú bǎn yóuxì.

real estate magnate (Monopoly, again zillionaire, strong hands chess) to be kind many people tactic diagram edition game.

参赛者分得游戏金钱，凭运气（掷骰子）及交易策略，买地、建楼以赚取租金。

cānsàizhě fēnděiyóuxìjīnqián, píng yùnqi (zhītóuzǐ) jí jiāoyìcèlǜe, mǎi dì, jiàn lóu yǐ zhuàngqǔ zūjīn.

ballplayer obtain game money, to rely on luck (crap) and exchange tactic, to buy land, to build building to use to earn rent.

英文原名（Monopoly）意为「垄断」，因为最后只得一个胜利者，其余均 破产收场。

yīngwén yuánmíng(Monopoly) yì wèi 「lǒngduàn 」, yīnwèi zuìhòu zhǐdé yī ge shènglìzhē, qíyú jūn pòchǎn shōu chǎng.

English original name (Monopoly) Italy for 「monopoly 」, because last to be obliged to 1 victor, additionally equally to go bankrupt to receive courtyard.

...

* 两粒六面骰子。

* liǎng lì liù miàn tóuzi.

* 2 six to face dice.

* 物业地契。地契上列明物业价钱、抵押价钱、建屋费用、地租详情。物业包括：

* wùyè dìqì. dìqì shàng liè míng wùyè jiàqian, dǐyájiàqian, jiàn wū fèiyòng, dì zū xiángqíng. Wùyèbāokuò:

* goods and services title deed. title deed on clear goods and services price, mortgage price, to build room cost, land to rent detailed intelligence. goods and services to include:

* 22条街道（分成八组）

* èrshíèr tiáo jiēdào (fēnchéngbā zǔ)

* 22 street (to divide into eight group)

The full link is here (except I did not do the history section)

I am thinking of having a once/twice a month club for families whose kids are learning Chinese. Some of these parents might not speak Chinese, some might. I'm assuming the kids already know how to play Monopoly. In playing with other native speakers, turns out some Chinese didn't know the rules, but the kids did. Kids will be ages 5-12. I'll try to recruit native speaking friends or teachers. I'm hoping the study guide will be useful to the parents, and more advanced learners. I don't expect the kids to read it.

A couple things I'd like to ask of readers.

1. I'd be interested in people's reaction to the format and if this kind of study guide is useful. Have you ever used something like it?

2. If people find it useful, perhaps the folks at adsotrans might try for a button to auto generate this format?

3. The Chinese strikes me still as a bit formal, i.e. written. Any comments by native speakers on words or phrases that need revision to be spoken in an informal context? Especially when there are kids 5-12 yrs old playing too?

Thanks.

Edited December 4, 2009 at 02:45 AM by kudra