URLLesson Introduction
First impressions. Intent stares. Is he sizing up the map of your face--determining your future wealth, lack of it, sexual prowess, eyebrow hair luck factor? Or is he just trying to decipher your nin hao? In this lesson, get introduced to your friend's father, and learn the Chinese equivalent of a firm handshake, in Mandarin.
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johns says
September 29, 2008
This reminds me of my first Chinese lesson from my old friend here in Houston.
patmetheny says
September 29, 2008
that was good to hear vocabulary i didn't already know. you can never learn enough.....
Too bad the father didn't say under his breath, "I hope this melon head is better than the last one you brought home".
macallus88 says
September 29, 2008
Is it common for 您好 to be responded with 你好 and not 您好? Would that show any disrespect?
bababardwan says
September 29, 2008
As a father I would have liked to hear more shaking in his boots/trepidation from the boyfriend [but of course this would be hard to convey in his one word part],but was satisfied at least with the nin hao ,and loved the way he was called Xiao3...lol. Another great and very useful lesson.Glad to hear there will be a series on this as it's always good to get off to a good start with introductions and make a good impression.I'm sure the business folk will particularly appreciate it.
I was interested in the word for introduce as the first syllable jie reminded me of jie2 hun1 for marriage [an introduction to married life?] but I note both the tone and character are different.Is there ever an etymologic relationship between such homophones [if we put the tones aside for a sec...otherwise of course you'd say strictly speaking they're not homophones at all ]?
bababardwan says
September 29, 2008
pretzellogic,
We must have been writing our posts at the same time and I've just noticed yours.Your comment about melon head is spot on and made me laugh;very funny.
patmetheny says
September 29, 2008
bababardwan,
I didn't know you were a father too. I guess cpod listeners that are fathers are really ready to riff on this lesson. But then, years ago, we were also the melonheads ready to be riffed on, or at least I was. The cpod staff could have done way much more with this lesson, as you indicate!
patmetheny says
September 29, 2008
anyone,
how do you say, "I hope this melonhead is better than the last one you brought home."
wo3 xi1wang1 zhe4ge4 sha3gua1 bi3 shang4ge sha4gua1 ni3 dai4 jia1 lai2 le
bababardwan says
September 29, 2008
pretzellogic,
Using the word "riff" in this context is only vaguely familiar to me here in Oz[perhaps light or some other Aussie will step forward and show that I'm just outta touch;something that can also happen to dads].Think I have heard it before but not too commonly.But I'm pretty sure I get your sense on this .I presume it's something vaguely similar to sledging.Does it originate from the term riff-raff? Or do you mean we're all going to be singing the same tune on this one.Anyhow I think I know where you're coming from.Yes,the fact that years ago we were the melonheads and now can see it from both sides is one reason it is so funny.But I was being deliberately a bit harsh on CPod re doing more with the poor unfortunate chap just for the sake of a joke.This is newbie level after all and your level is obviously much higher than that.Thanks heaps for translating your statement into Chinese.I'll definitely have to try and memorise that one to the point where it will just roll off my tongue.I hope you have not copyrighted it.Thanks for the laugh anyway.Cheers :)
bababardwan says
September 29, 2008
Once again I love the intro on this one too.Yes,hopefully all these concerns and many more are going through the mind of the poor melonhead.
meilan723 says
September 29, 2008
Another good lesson Jenny & Ken!
Appreciated the explaination of 您好 and 你好.
谢谢!
patmetheny says
September 29, 2008
bababardwan,
yeah, you're right, this is a newbie level lesson, and it's got the right amount of content. somehow, putting in a couple of comments about the friend in a elementary or intermediate lesson could turn it into an episode of a comedy tv show (at least in the US).
And by riff, I meant in the musical sense, where a couple of bars of some melody might make a soloist further develop those couple of bars into a 2-5 minute solo or something: a riff. At least, that's the way i've heard it in the jazz circles. I'm sure that a professional musician on the cpod site will correct me if i'm wrong.
oh, and please don't assume that because I tried to translate the sentence into mandarin, that i did it correctly. I'm starting to realize that in order to improve my mandarin, I need to take these opportunities to create a sentence, and then have cpod staff and others check it. I'm willing to show my ignorance more these days.
bababardwan says
September 29, 2008
pretzellogic,
ah yeah;I have heard of that riffing in the musical sense.I just hadn't heard it used in the above context and so wasn't sure if you were using US slang .But it's all very clear now.Ming2bai2.Thanks.
Agree re being the stuff of good comedy.I always liked that Ben Stiller/Robert de Niro film from 2000 "Meet the Parents".The lie detector scene particularly stands out as being hilarious.I think de Niro gave us the role model here.
garry says
September 29, 2008
Hi macallus88,
您好 is a respectful greeting given to someone who demands your respect, someone who is your senior, for example. The correct response is 你好 as this acknowledges the respect that has been shown. Two equals would always use 你好.
wchan says
September 29, 2008
Dear Ken
您好！
John 的中文名字叫做潘吉。你的又叫什么？
可以告诉我们吗？
陈博士
everett says
September 29, 2008
I really like the way CP brings the situations alive in the lessons like this. A quick question:
Could someone help me understand this sentence from the expansion?
你给你们介绍一下。
ni3 gei3 ni3men jie4shao4 yi1xia4
(Please, introduce yourselves.)
I'm thrown by the pronomial subject and indirect object. I just can't fit it all together. It sounds like you (sing.) introduce to you (plural). What am I missing? Thanks for any help.
joannah says
September 29, 2008
The way i would understand that would be along the lines of "introduce yourself to everyone else" said to a new member of a group
changye says
September 30, 2008
Hi everett and joannah,
I thought that the expansion sentence was grammatically wrong when I read it for the first time this morning. I've been thinking about it since then, but I'm still not sure whether it's wrong or correct.
Probably you can't get the meaning of the "你给你们介绍一下" if you think the "给" means "give" or "toward". Instead, you need to define the "给" as "for" in this case to translate the sentence correctly.
你给(for, on behalf of)你们(yourselves)介绍一下
Would you please introduce yourselves on behalf of all of you!
I look forward to other guy's advice.
changye says
September 30, 2008
“介绍” (jie4 shao4, introduce) is a little confusing word (for me) since Korean and Japanese people use “绍介” (shao4 jie4, introduce), but not 介绍, in their languages. Of course, 绍介 is also one of those words imported from China in the past, but strangely enough, the branch houses use a back-to-front word of one used in the home house of Chinese characters. Interestingly, 现代汉语词典 lists “绍介” too and defines it as “介绍”. Why?
I hear that even 鲁迅 (lu3 xun4, 1881 - 1936) used both 介绍 and 绍介 in the same sense “introduce” in his writings. According to the information I’ve found on the Internet, the original meaning of “介绍” was “pass a message”, and it later changed into “mediate”, and again changed into “introduce” perhaps after the 10th century. On the other hand, 绍介 has been used in the sense of “introduce” since more than 2,000 years ago.
It went like this. The word “绍介” (introduce) was imported to Korea and Japan perhaps sometime during the fourth and ninth centuries, and the word took root in both Korean and Japanese languages. But after the 10th century, 介绍 also obtained the new meaning “introduce” and it gradually replaced 绍介 in China. This kind of word is not uncommon in the history of cultural transmission among East Asian countries.
China/Japan (all in Chinese simplified characters)
和平/平和，祖先/先祖，买卖/卖买，命运/运命，语言/言语，界限/限界，灭绝/绝灭，日期/期日，士兵/兵士，限制/制限，半夜/夜半，日后/后日，痛苦/苦痛
wjefferys says
September 30, 2008
@changye,
Thanks for the etymological lesson. Very interesting, that!
Cornelia says
September 30, 2008
Hi, I have a cultural question about the sequence of introduction:
In a European context the person highest in rank (esteem) is in focus, which means you tell this person first who the other is, because he has the first right to know.
In the podcast situation this was reversed, as if it would be more important that first the lower-ranking ones get the hig rank publicly established. Only then the others are introduced.
Does this mean BEING INTRODUCED gives more face than being priviledged with first knowledge?
tinyrock says
September 30, 2008
@Cornelia, I think it does. You basically present that important person to all the others, indicating his superior rank. Getting to know the others is not the main focus. Furthermore, you will also have to greet the most senior/priviledged person first, don't even consider shaking the hands of the women present first (unless the aforementioned criteria apply to them, of course) as would be common in most European countries.
light487 says
September 30, 2008
I was going to ask the same as Cornelia.. I was under the impression that the higher ranking person should be introduced to the lower ranking person first. Everything I have read indicates this to be the case.
Also this 一下 yīxià chunk is used in so many situations. Before I learned the chunk, I didn't realise how many situations it was used in. It can be used in a store/shop situation where the shop assistant (or even a waiter in a restaurant) will ask you to wait "a moment".. or perhaps when you are at the bank withdrawing some money and they are counting the money out.
It seems like a simple little chunk but it had me confused for a fair amount of time because I only knew it in this "introducing someone/something" context... and then later started to see it in those other contexts.
I tried to come up with a sentence in a new context using this chunk: 我们让谈一下吧。。wǒmen ràng tán yīxià ba.. (Let's chat for a little while..). Not sure if that is the right way to use it.. but it looks right to me.
jive says
September 30, 2008
I'd say 聊 (liao 2) for chat. 谈 suggests something closer to a discussion.
我们聊聊天吧。
If you want to use 谈, the sentence should be:
让我们谈一下吧。 Let us have a talk.
vikram says
September 30, 2008
Great Newbie lesson. Even better expansion examples with commonly used sentences. Another reason why all freebie newbies should subscribe :)
dann says
September 30, 2008
great newbie lesson I love it!
changye says
September 30, 2008
Hi Chinesepod,
As you can see from a few postings above, some poddies, me included, are a little confused about the expansion sentence "你给你们介绍一下". I would appreciate your clarification on this matter. Thanks!
pchenery says
September 30, 2008
你给你们介绍一下。
ni3 gei3 ni3men jie4shao4 yi1xia4
To me, the literal translation is straight forward:
"You give yourselves a little introduction"
I'm not sure why this is unclear ?
changye says
September 30, 2008
Hi pchenery,
Come to think of it, as you said, there might be no "secret" in this sentence, but the problem is that I've never seen this kind of phrase, 你给你们介绍, so far in any of my Chinese textbooks and dictionaries.
Conversely speaking, I may be making a blind assumption that "介绍" should only be used just like "我给你们介绍" or "你给我们介绍". If "你给你们介绍一下" is correct, "让我给我们介绍一下" would also be OK by the same token.
kelinsheng says
September 30, 2008
In the expansion exercises when it says, "Let me first introduce myself" 我先介绍一下我自己。. I distincly hear jǐe instead of jǐ. Is this a local dialect?
everett says
September 30, 2008
Hi pchenery,
You wrote:
"To me, the literal translation is straight forward:
"You give yourselves a little introduction"
I'm not sure why this is unclear ?"
What's unclear to me is the switch from singular 你ni3 to plural 你们 ni3men. The two words seem to have different referents. I just can't put it all together. Of course I probably have just seen too few examples of using 介绍 jie4shao4.
Could this be a situation like this: a group of people have arrived somewhere, and someone there tells one member of the group to introduce the whole group?
Thanks to everyone else for the feedback as well.
changye says
September 30, 2008
Cassie, if you are hanging around here, please help us poor foreign leanrers of Mandarin!
Hi everett,
a group of people have arrived somewhere, and someone there tells one member of the group to introduce the whole group?
I suppose so.
jive says
October 1, 2008
We never say "你给你们介绍一下". When you introduce one person to a group, you say "我给你们介绍一下xxx".
If you have a group of people who don't know each other at all, you can say "大家互相介绍一下吧" (let's introuduce ourselves).
pinkjeans says
October 1, 2008
Can we say 你们自己介绍一下 when asking people to introduce themselves among each other?
chris says
October 2, 2008
Pretzellogic,
I love the "melonhead" post! For your suggested translation of "I hope this melonhead is better than the last one you brought home" I think you're missing a "hao3".
My Chinese is only lower intermediate - but I think that when you use the "bi3" (comparison) construct, if you want to say the first thing is better than the second thing you need a "hao3" at the end:
e.g. X bi3 Y hao3.
Regardless of the grammar - very funny.
Chris
cassielin says
October 2, 2008
hi changye,
let me give you those sentences that we will use when we want to introduce someone!
让我（给你们）介绍一下XXX
eg:让我（给你们）介绍一下我们的新同事！
Let me introduce you our new colleague!
eg:我来自我介绍一下。/让我自我介绍一下！/我(先)自我介绍一下！
Let me introduce myself（first）!
你给我们介绍XXX
eg: 你能给我们介绍一下你们的公司吗？
Can you introduce your company to us?
你能给我们详细介绍一下你们的产品吗？
Can you give us a detail introduction about your products?
By the way, we chinese never say你给你们介绍！
Hope that can help!
changye says
October 2, 2008
Hi Cassie,
Thanks a lot for your detailed answer. Some poddies, me included, have been “analyzing” the not-so-usual expression in the past few days.
At first I though it was outrightly incorrect, but actually I was not so sure about that because even the audio recorded by a native speaker also says “你给你们介绍一下”.
So, as you can see from our above postings, we tried to acrobatically interpret the example sentence. Now, owing to you, we have come to the conclusion. Thank you again.
cassielin says
October 3, 2008
Hi changye, 不用客气！ I am happy that I can help you guys！
Actually，I listened to the lesson twice, I was trying to find the sentence that you guys heard. Maybe I was not careful enough, can you please point out where is it?
changye says
October 3, 2008
Hi Cassie,
It's in the expansion. It says "你给你们介绍一下"
(Please, introduce yourselves.) Thanks.
cassielin says
October 3, 2008
ummm, still not get the sentence!
It also make sense if you say给你们介绍一下!
changye says
October 3, 2008
Hi Cassie,
In short, "你给你们介绍一下" (Please, introduce yourselves) is correct both grammatically and semantically, isn't it? Is it natural Chinese?
If so, I think that "让我给我们介绍一下" is also a correct Chinese sentence. Am I right? Please help us poor stray sheep in the sea of Mandarin, hehe!
cassielin says
October 3, 2008
uncle changye,
I am very sure that你给你们介绍一下is incorrect both grammatically and semantically!
tvan says
October 3, 2008
Well, when changye's calling for help, you know it's trouble in Newbie Land. I probably have no business here, but I would probably say:
"你介绍你自己，好吧/Nǐ jìeshào nǐ zìjì, hǎoba/Can you introduce yourself?" However, that seems too conversational.
Alternately, using Casselin's construction above, 你能给我们介绍一下你自己吗/Nǐ néng gěi wǒmén jìeshào yīxìa nǐ zìjì ma/Can you take some time to introduce yourself to us?" Would that be a more formal way to word it?
My better half says both sentences are fine, but I often find her to be too forgiving.
changye says
October 3, 2008
Hi tvan,
请你做一下自我介绍。
请做一下自我介绍。
你做一下自我介绍吧。
everett says
October 6, 2008
Thanks for the help cassielin, and thanks everyone for all the interesting examples. The sentence has been changed in the expansion, so now the first word is 我. Now it's clear and easy to understand, so thanks CP as well!