URLLesson Introduction
There are a lot of people here. They all have names. In this edition of Qing Wen, learn an essential tool for dodging name-forgetting embarrassment. But, more importantly, learn an essential part of interacting with Chinese people young and old. That is, the many-varied ways of properly addressing people. Listen in and learn how to keep everyone straight.
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foleadu says
August 2, 2008
Very useful review of all the titles. I was travelling in Yunnan recently and noticed that customers preferred to use 小伙子 xiao3huo3zi to address young male waiters in restaurants (as well as 小姑娘 xiao3gu1niang2 for the young girls). I don't know if you can use that everywhere in China. You're right that 服务员 is still the best all-around title.
houban says
August 2, 2008
Excellent tidbits of information. So much of this rang true for me. I just had this very lesson from my girl friend. I call her father babo or shushu. She lives in Fushun and you will on occasion hear xiaojie but it is usually fuwujuan. But to hear them pronounce it, it sounds more like fooya.
inland says
August 2, 2008
a) is fuwuyuan appropriate for salespeople in stores, other situations besides waiters?
b) is there a more elevated term for people like government clerks, police officers, and others who have some form of authority?
c) If xiansheng is equivalent to "sir", what's the equivalent to "Madam" or "lady:? That is, what's the BROADEST respectful address?
evasiege says
August 2, 2008
I think you can also say shou4huo4yuan2 for salesclerks, but I'm not sure how common it is.
suburbanite says
August 2, 2008
Inland,
Check out Dear Amber (http://chinesepod.com/lessons/gifts-chinese-people-like-and-chinatomy-premiere) to see the names for various officers.
I really liked this lesson. And it sounds like Amber and JP may have found a new BSR.
maoxian says
August 3, 2008
I miss the old days when you could use Comrade (同志）to address everyone. Apparently now it's only used ironically among homosexuals.
(Amber does bear a striking resemblance to Daisy Duke.)
laokan says
August 3, 2008
When do you use 老师? I have noticed that this form of address is used to non-teaching people.
john says
August 3, 2008
Suburbanite,
Hmmm, good point. Where is the BSR now? I don't even know. I feel so left out!
Enjoyed the 朱老板 thing. Heh.
rjberki says
August 3, 2008
John,
would it be 猪老板 instead of 朱老板? Is this a typo, or did I miss something here?
Useful lesson. I believe I have heard general managers addressed as simply surname 总. Is it acceptable to shorten the title from 总经理 this way or does this have another meaning? Maybe I am hearing it wrong?
john says
August 3, 2008
rjberki,
Well, "Boss Hog" would be 猪老板, yes, but Amber mentioned in the podcast that some bosses are surnamed 朱, which I guess is what was going through my mind when I typed 朱老板.
Sorry for the confusion! I wasn't really thinking...
marcdevincentis says
August 3, 2008
What about "gong gong" for paternal grandpa? That's what my wife's family uses. Is that 公公? And what's the grandma name using the same convention?
daizi says
August 3, 2008
marcdevincentis,
老老 lǎolao: maternal grandmother
奶奶 nǎinai: paternal grandmother
公公 gōnggong: maternal grandfather; husband's father; father-in-law
爷爷 yéye: paternal grandfather
rjberki says
August 3, 2008
thanks John, I understand. Zhu as a surname would not be 猪. This is an important point also.
bento says
August 3, 2008
how could I address my neighbour, for, say, "your dog pissed on my lawn", or "could you give me a cup of flour?" Neighbours of the same age call themselves 比邻 bi3 lin2?
off topic
John, don't feel left out, I would like to hear your high testosterone voice with JP's pedant's voice, it would be a fun dialogue.
wideruled says
August 3, 2008
hi chinesepod, i'm new and i dont know where to start and i'd like to download the lessons. Can anyone help me?
sfrrr says
August 3, 2008
Right click on the icons (musical notes and a pdf file) below the picture and save to disk.
wideruled says
August 3, 2008
sfrr, i'm downloading it now, tnx.
artkho says
August 3, 2008
I'm assuming that Connie is the youngest among the Qingwen trio. So has anyone addressed Connie as xiao cheng?
Amber, forget about writing Connie in to your version of Dukes of Hazzard. You and Connie should come up with your own version of Thelma and Louise! :)
connie says
August 3, 2008
Hi everyone, here are the words used in the podcast today:
服务员 fúwùyuán
小姐 xiǎojie
小姑娘 xiǎogūniang
先生 xiānsheng
师傅 shīfu
老板 lǎobǎn
王老板 Wáng lǎobǎn
经理 jīnglǐ
王经理 Wáng jīnglǐ
万经理 Wàn jīnglǐ
总经理 zǒngjīnglǐ
老师 lǎoshī
P老师 P lǎoshī
阿姨 āyí
叔叔 shūshu
奶奶 nǎinai
外婆 wàipó
姥姥 lǎolao
爷爷 yéye
外公 wàigōng
姥爷 lǎoye
小朋友 xiǎopéngyou
大哥 dàgē
大姐 dàjiě
妹妹 mèimei
弟弟 dìdi
sharesindavid says
August 3, 2008
my compliments to the podcasters; a pretty good lesson. think i knew most of it, but always useful to review. amazingly, chinese titles get even more complicated than what was covered, especially the family stuff.
penben says
August 4, 2008
When I first met my future in-laws, I had to learn 阿姨 and 叔叔 to address them. Then, when I got married, they asked me to call them 妈妈 and 爸爸 (didn't stick though, felt a little weird). But, then when my daughter was born, I then had to learn 姥姥 and 姥爷. Pretty soon I'll have mastered them all! Ok, perhaps I've got a long way to go, but it'll be a fun ride.
mikeinewshot says
August 4, 2008
Most of the time we just hear what young people should call their elders. At last in this lesson we did briefly hear what a 50 year old should call a 40 year old friend.
But what about a (say) 60 year old? What should a 60 year old call their 'aiyi' who is younger than them? And indeed what should they call their relations, say their fathers and mothers in law and so on?
shitouguaiwu says
August 4, 2008
Did amber call JP “屁老师”? I'm pretty sure I heard a fourth tone in there :)
john says
August 4, 2008
bento,
"High testosterone voice"? Ha ha, I've never heard that one before...
ronk says
August 5, 2008
Qing wen, when I am a customer and I am saying hi to a manager of a restuarant or other establishmnet what would I use? Jing li hao? lao ban hao?
auntie68 says
August 5, 2008
Here's another question for QW: We've been training the Stunt Toddler (aged 3) to address older kids -- as well as younger adults -- as 姐姐 / 哥哥. I've seen ethnic Chinese Yummy Mummies in Singapore take this seniority thing seriously even if the age difference between the kids is only a matter of weeks.
Older adults are addressed as 阿姨 / 叔叔 (*whether in Chinese or English or Malay or Tagalog). The rule of thumb seems to be: If the grown-up is roughly the same age, or slightly younger than his parents, then it's 阿姨／ 叔叔.
Is this the same in China? The Stunt Toddler's social radar seems to have no problems detecting who is an "Ate" (姐姐) and who is a "Tita" (阿姨) or even an "Abuela" (伯母 or 婆婆). He does the same in Cantonese and in English. He knows it gets him a ton of brownie points, so he's learned to "work it" to the max. Just curious to know whether we are the only ones...
P/s: This is going to be totally OT for anybody except a fellow Overseas Chinese, but out of politeness, I call 阿梅姐, the lady in my avatar, who is a senior "retainer" of my family (the 姐 is perfectly traditional even though she's in her 90s), "姑婆" (gu1po2, in Mandarin) when referring to her in the presence of people who are NOT close family members.
We scratched our heads for a long time trying to decide what Stunt Toddler should call her, in view of the 90-year age difference, and came up with "姑婆娘" (or sometimes, in Cantonese, "gu porr zhou" where I think the "zhou" represents 曾 zheng4, meaning "great-grand-"; in my community it is our custom to invert it...).
Well, if we have got it all wrong, I hope that some kind person out there will suggest something better! Thank you SO much!
bingge says
August 5, 2008
auntie68, that is so interesting! Thanks for sharing.
This is maybe a good place to ask a question I've been scratching my head over for a couple of weeks. I have a new chinese teacher (online w/ skype) who always refers to herself in the 3rd person with her English name. She's probably a few years younger than me. Is this typical? It seems a little qi3guai4 to me. She's very nice but I don't know if I dare ask her why she doesn't just use wo3.
bento says
August 5, 2008
John,
So you've never heard "high testosterone voice" before? Don't you remember MM 13? Amber has even suggested a recording of your voice as the prize back then...
I'm glad you took no offence by this comment. If you don't remember your voice being described as "testosterone high" before, it does sound a bit strange to be addressed by a stranger like that.
john says
August 5, 2008
bento,
Oh, that voice... Yeah, I remember it. I always thought of it as more of a "used car salesman voice." Or something. Not sure what!
shiqiangdan says
August 6, 2008
bingge,
Honestly, I am stumped as to why your new teacher would refer to herself in the third person. Is it a cultural thing? Probably not. If she is Chinese and she refers to herself with her English name in the third person, it could just be that the name sounds foreign to her and she hasn't really embraced it, causing her to use the name as though it is not her own. That theory might be totally out there and it might seem that I pulled it out of... a hat, but that is all I can come up with :s Anybody else have any feedback?
Jordan
complexitydaemon says
August 16, 2008
博士 is doctor (of philosophy), and 医生 is doctor (medical). I gather (from seeing it in context) 医师 means medical doctor in a research context (or medical specialist?). Can anyone help clarify that for me?
cassielin says
August 16, 2008
auntie68,
yeah, we address our great-grand-mother曾祖母and great-grand-father曾祖父.
Since our dear auntie68 had mentioned some titles in a family, I think I should add some more! But it may confuse you!
The English word "uncle", which means 叔叔and 舅舅in chinese. But 叔叔and舅舅just are two general sayings. 叔叔refers to your father's brothers and 舅舅refers to your mother's brothers! If you want some details, there are大叔（大伯），二叔，三叔，四叔......and大舅，二舅，三舅，四舅......Same as the auntie. auntie can means姑姑and阿姨.姑姑refers to your father's sisters and 阿姨refers to your mother's sisters!
pinkjeans says
September 2, 2008
Talking about the generic form of address, in Singapore and Malaysia, it is common to address an elderly person as 阿公 or 阿婆 instead of the 爷爷 or 奶奶 that was mentioned in the lesson. And instead of 叔叔, it's often 阿伯 for an older 'uncle'. But for ladies, it is often safer (more flattering) for service providers or stallkeepers to address anyone who is not a 小妹妹 as 小姐 instead of 'auntie'.
BTW, I think the most common way of attracting a waiter's attention in Hong Kong is calling out at the top of your voice (much like JP's demo), "WAI-TAH!"