Help me talk to a chinese shop keeper

[PhreakOut]

Hey, the city i live in has no chinatown, and has very few chinese library's (book store).

A friend of mine just told me of a good chinese library and i'd like to go and buy some books there, but i've been told that the shop keeper doesn't speak english or portuguese, which means that i'll have to speak mandarin to her...

If you guys would be kind enough to set me up with some chinese phrases about shoping, mainly shoping books, i'd much apreciate it.

Just think of what you normally would use in a chinese book store and write it down here, please.

(i'd much apreciate it if you could add some pinyin to the sentences as well...)

[abcdefg]

That's a good plan, and I hope it provides you with some good conversation opportunities. Be glad to help out.

But I want to add very early and prominently that it's possible the shopkeeper's native language is Cantonese or Minnan. They will still probably be able to handle some Mandarin with you, but it may not be terribly fluent and any communication problems encountered may not all be your fault.

I can't do Pinyin very well any more and find it extremely laborious, but will get you started and let others take it from there.

你好！我想买一本书。 nǐhǎo! wǒ xiǎng mǎi yī běn shū. Hello, I want to buy a book.

[PhreakOut]

thanks a lot abcdefg, that helps already, (btw whats the rule for triple 3rd tones? i think ure not suposed to do all three 4rth tones in a row are you? does it become 3 2 3?)

PS: i've had about an year of mandarin so far, so you can skip the "你好“ sentences... maybe "how much does it cost?"...

PSS: if you dont think you cant do pinyin then dont, i just remembered i can just copy paste it into google translator and it'll give me the pinyin, i prefer that than having the possibility of getting a wrong pinyin not that im saying your's is wrong...

[小梦玲]

I'm sorry, but I'm a person with limited imagination and buying stuff experience, so I don't actually know what other stuff you might need to know. But here's what you asked for:

How much is this book? 这本书多少钱? Zhè běn shū duō shǎo qián?

[li3wei1]

These phrases might be helpful:

有没有———— Do you have ___?

————在哪儿？ Where are the ___?

简体字 simplified characters

繁体字 traditional characters

字典 character dictionaries

词典 word dictionaries

课本 textbooks

成语故事 chengyu stories

other than looking for a specific kind of book, all your other transactions should be easy, and I'm sure the shopkeeper will have plenty of experience dealing with people who don't speak his language.

[Ruben von Zwack]

Phreakout, do you know the wonders of perapera? The firefox addon popup dictionary?

I'm positive there is a "Growing up with Chinese" episode on how to buy things. if you search these forums you will find an episode list + download links.

[PhreakOut]

@小梦玲， thanks that helps already...

@li3wei1 that helps a lot, maybe u can tell me how to say chinese grammar? i know novel is 小说 i think... right?

@Ruben von Zwack, no i do not know firfox addon popup dictionary. And no there isn't ONE "growing up with chinese" episode about shoping, there are TWO: http://english.cntv.cn/program/learnchinese/20101230/105241.shtml http://english.cntv.cn/program/learnchinese/20110104/104498.shtml

Thanks for the tip

[abcdefg]

@PhreakOut -- When I've been in your situation, namely wanting to get a quick vocabulary boost in one particular basic subject, what I've done is go to several textbooks at an appropriate, or lower, level. These books, especially elementary ones, all seem to have chapters on eating in a restaurant, going to a store, going to the doctor, visiting a friend and so on.

One way to do that is to use the Yellowbridge website. http://www.yellowbri.../flashcards.php

You can look through the table of contents of half a dozen textbooks at most levels. Then use their software to review the vocabulary of the "shopping" chapter in three or four of them. There will be repetition, which is a useful thing. You can put the words into you Anki deck or ZDT or Pleco or whatever flash card program you like if you want to do more review later.

[PhreakOut]

@abcdefg, i've got a begginer book somewhere in the house, i'll look for it, thanks for the tip. I guess i just posted this here because i thought i could get a more realistic feel then in the books, it's like if someone learns english from books only, they dont get a lot of a "less then formal" vocabulary english people use, and if they go to america or england, or any other english native language country, the person they are talking to has to make an effort to think "textbook phrases" in order for those people to understand... just dont want any of that to happen to me...

[Ruben von Zwack]

maybe u can tell me how to say chinese grammar

Haha, when you say "Chinese grammar" - 中文的 zhōngwén de or 汉语的语法 hànyǔ de yǔfǎ - to a Chinese person, be prepared to get the answer: "But Chinese has no grammar!"

I have resorted to answer by pulling out one of my books and saying, "Really? But this one has 240 pages and cost the bomb on Amazon!" Then they will skip through it, and admit that it does seem that Chinese indeed has a grammar.

[PhreakOut]

xD i get what you mean, the same thing happened with a friend of mine till i pulled out a 300 word pdf. unfortunatly i cant really concentrate looking at a screen for too long so i need an actual paper grammar...

[Ruben von Zwack]

For the very same reason, I got a printed book on the origin of hanzi, and also a printed grammar book. There are excellent online resources but sometimes it is just nice to have a real paper book.

Btw, the other day I got into a situation where I suddenly sold stuff to Chinese. I work in a book shop on the weekends, and about 40 little girls from some Beijing children's choir walked in and bought diaries, post cards, cute pencils. It was really uncomplicated. But some didn't even notice that I was speaking Chinese to them, or gave me that blank look, so I guess my accent sucks And then I said "ni hao" to the next Asian person who came in, and of course he was Korean and not amused

[PhreakOut]

well, i guess if you work in a place with little chinese influence, like europe, or america, your bound to be worst at chinese then someone that lives in china or neighbour countries (or at least you learn a lot slower) and that's just because u dont get the daily practice that is fundamental to "keeping" the language in your head...

When i went to Paris on spring break this year, and i know i am a good french speaker, but even so it took me 3 days toi train my hear for french and to really start to understand what they where saying, same happens when i go to spain, or to any other country where i speak the language for that matter...