Globalization has made familiarity with other people, cultures, and languages not only preferable but also essential in the 21st century. With the help of the Internet and a bevy of social media growing at a dizzying rate, reaching out and touching someone on the other side of the earth has become as easy as clicking a mouse, using a smartphone, or clicking on to RenRen (the Chinese equivalent of Facebook) or Weibo (the Twitter of China). And yet nothing quite beats the excitement of a face-to-face encounter with someone who hails from the other side of the globe in his or her own language. Communication in cyberspace doesn’t even come close.

Whether you’re an inveterate traveler, going overseas for business, studying abroad, adopting a child, interested in frequenting Chinatown, befriending a Chinese-speaking classmate or co-worker, or just plain curious about China, Chinese For Dummies, 3rd Edition, can help you get acquainted with enough Chinese to carry on a decent conversation on any number of topics. You won’t become fluent instantly, of course, but this book helps you greet a stranger, buy a plane ticket, talk to Chinese students, converse with business colleagues, and order some food. It also gives you some invaluable cultural tips so that you not only rattle off those newly acquired words and phrases but also back them up with the right behavior at the right time.

I designed this book to help guide you toward the successful use of one of the most difficult languages on earth. Chinese should also just be plain fun to learn.

About This Book

The good news is that you can use Chinese For Dummies, 3rd Edition, anytime, anywhere. No mandatory class sessions, no exams, and no homework assignments to dread. Need to get to a new city for a business meeting? Just turn to the chapters on travel or business to find out how to buy a plane ticket, get through customs, get to the airport on time, or do some negotiating. Have to make a sudden trip to the doctor? Turn to the chapter on your health and figure out in advance how to tell your caregivers exactly what ails you.

Pay attention to a few conventions that can help you navigate this book’s contents:

• Chinese terms are set in boldface to make them stand out.
• Pronunciations and meanings appear in parentheses immediately after the Chinese terms. The English translations are in italics.
• This book uses the pīnyīn 拼音 (pin-yin) (Literally: spelling the way it sounds) Romanization system of Chinese words. What does that mean? Well, if you go to China, you see signs in Chinese characters all around, but if you look for something in English, you may be hard-pressed to find it. Whatever signs you see in Roman letters will be of pīnyīn, the Romanization system developed by the Communists in the 1950s, so seeing pīnyīn in this book is good practice for you.

• In this edition of Chinese For Dummies, Chinese characters have been added in many places and appear after the initial transliteration from the pīnyīn. Chinese characters are fun to try to decipher. The Chinese have been working at precisely that for thousands of years, especially for the more complicated characters that took as many as 20 separate strokes of the writing brush to create traditional Chinese characters.

  Lucky for you, many of the more complicated Chinese characters were simplified in the early 20th century to make them easier to read and write, and these are used in mainland China today. (You can read more about Chinese characters in Chapter 2.) The original (or traditional) characters are still used in Taiwan. In this book, simplified characters appear first, followed in parentheses by the traditional characters. Characters that were never simplified don’t have any separate notation in parentheses.

• Another thing you should keep in mind as you begin to understand Chinese is that many of the English translations you see in this book aren’t exactly literal. Knowing the gist of what you hear or see is more important than knowing what individual words in any given phrase mean. For example, the Chinese phrase meaning so-so literally translates as horse horse tiger tiger even though you’re not actually talking about animals. Whenever I give a literal translation, I preface it with “Literally.”

The following elements in this book help reinforce the new terms and phrases you’re studying:

• Talkin’ the Talk dialogues: Nothing beats seeing and hearing an actual conversation to learn Chinese, so I intersperse dialogues throughout the book under the heading “Talkin’ the Talk.” They show you the Chinese words, the pronunciations, and the English translations, and I often put cultural do’s and don’ts into context, which should come in handy. Many of these dialogues appear in the accompanying online audio tracks so you can practice the sentences after you hear how they should sound. With the tonal nature of the Chinese language, this feature is indispensable as you learn Chinese.
• Words to Know: These boxes come after the Talkin’ the Talk dialogues and highlight useful additional words beyond the dialogue.
• Fun & Games activities: Working through word games, cracking crossword puzzles, or recalling some phrases to fill in the blanks can be a fun way to review the words and phrases you encounter in each chapter. This element is a great way to gauge your progress and tease your brain at the same time. Look for these activities at the end of each chapter.

The beauty of this book is that it can be all things to all people. You don’t have to memorize Chapter 5 before moving on to Chapter 6 if what Chapter 6 deals with is what you really need. Each chapter provides you with different bits of information about the Chinese language and highlights different parts of Chinese grammar. Read as much or as little as you want, as quickly or as slowly as you like. Whatever interests you is what you should focus on. And remember: You’re discovering a language that simultaneously represents one of the world’s oldest civilizations and one of its fastest-growing economies in the 21st century.

Foolish Assumptions

Some of the foolish assumptions I made about you while writing Chinese For Dummies, 3rd Edition, are that

• You don’t know any Chinese, except for maybe a couple of words you picked up from a good kung-fu movie or the word tofu, which you picked up while grocery shopping.
• Your goal in life isn’t to become an interpreter of Chinese at the U.N.; you just want to pick up some useful words, phrases, and sentence constructions to make yourself understood in a Chinese-speaking environment.
• You have no intention of spending hours and hours memorizing Chinese vocabulary and grammar patterns.
• You basically want to have fun while speaking a little Chinese.

Beyond the Book

This book is full of useful information, but you can find even more online! Check out this book’s Cheat Sheet, which contains useful questions, common expressions, phrases used in emergencies, the Chinese calendar, and Chinese numbers all in a handy portable format. Just go to www.dummies.com and search for “Chinese For Dummies Cheat Sheet.”

You can also hear all the Talkin’ the Talk dialogues provided in the book to get a better handle on correct pronunciation. Just go to www.dummies.com/go/chinesefd.

IN THIS PART …

Get the lowdown on all the essentials of Chinese.

Find out how to pronounce Chinese sounds (and tones) like a native.

Discover how to make sense of the Chinese writing system.

Practice stringing Chinese words together so that they make sense.

Figure out how to count in Chinese.

Try speaking Chinese around your home.

Communicate in Chinese with all the cultural trimmings.

Grasping Chinese Dialects

Give yourself a big pat on the back right now. Yup, right now — before you even begin to utter one iota of Chinese. If you don’t do it now, you may be too shocked later on when it sinks in that you’ve taken on a language that has hundreds (yes, hundreds) of dialects — each one mutually incomprehensible to speakers of the other ones. Practically every major town, and certainly every province, in China has its own regional dialect that folks grow up learning. Of the seven major dialects (outlined in Table 1-1), Shanghainese, Taiwanese, and Cantonese are the ones you may have heard of before.

And then you have Mandarin, dialect of the masses. Mandarin Chinese is spoken by more people on earth than any other language today. Pretty much a quarter of humanity uses it, given China’s immense population. So just why was this particular dialect chosen to become the official dialect taught in all schools throughout China, regardless of whatever additional dialects people speak at home or in their communities?

With only four tones, Guānhuà 官话 (官話) (Gwan-hwah) (Mandarin [Literally: the language of the officials, who were also known as Mandarins]) has served as the hybrid language of China since the 15th century because this dialect was based on the educated speech of the region around Beijing. Instead of referring to it as Guānhuà, mainlanders in China now call it Pǔtōnghuà 普通话 (普通話) (Poo-toong-hwah) (Literally: the common language). People in Taiwan, in Hong Kong, and in overseas Chinese communities call it Guóyǔ 国语 (國語) (Gwaw-yew) (Literally: the national language). You may also hear it referred to as Zhōngwén 中文 (Joong-wun) (the language of the Chinese people) and Hànyǔ 汉语 (漢語) (Hahn-yew) (the language of the Han people), because the Chinese have often referred to themselves as descendants of the Han dynasty (206 BCE–220 CE), one of the golden eras of Chinese history. Because Chinese is the language of ethnic Chinese and China’s minority groups, the more all-encompassing term Zhōngwén is preferred.

The term Pǔtōnghuà is used to refer to Mandarin in the People’s Republic of China, and the term Guóyǔ is the term used for Mandarin in Taiwan. You can simply say Hànyǔ anywhere.

Sounding Off: Basic Chinese Sounds

Don’t worry about sounding like a native speaker the first time you utter a Chinese syllable — after all, who can? But the longer you procrastinate about becoming familiar with the basic elements of Chinese words, the greater your fear of this unique language may become. After you begin to practice the sounds (and eventually the tones) out loud, you may wonder if you’ll ever come close to sounding like Bruce Lee in a gōngfū 功夫 (goong-foo) (kung-fu) movie or even like your local Chinatown grocer. Hearing Chinese spoken at a normal speed is definitely intimidating at the beginning, so you should enjoy taking plenty of baby steps and reveling in the praise from waiters who appreciate all your effort the next time you frequent a Chinese restaurant.

The main thing to remember about the Chinese language is that each morpheme (the smallest unit of meaning in a language) is represented by one syllable, which in turn consists of an initial sound and a final sound, topped off by a tone. This rule applies to each and every syllable. Without any one of these three components, your words may be incomprehensible to the average Chinese person. For example, the syllable mā 妈 (媽) is comprised of the initial m and the final a, and you pronounce it with what’s called a first tone. Together, the parts mean mother. If you substitute the first tone for a third tone, which is written as mǎ, 马 (馬) you say the word horse. So be careful not to call your mother a horse when you practice the initials, finals, and tones. The following sections break up the three parts and give each their due.

Before you can participate in sports or play games, you must become familiar with all the rules. The same goes for practicing a new language. Do your best to understand the basic rules of pronunciation, and keep practicing over and over to begin feeling comfortable speaking Chinese.

Adding Idioms and Popular Expressions to Your Repertoire

The Chinese language has thousands of idiomatic expressions known as chéngyǔ 成语 (成語) (chung-yew). Most of these chéngyǔ originated in anecdotes, fables, fairy tales, or ancient literary works, and some of the expressions are thousands of years old. The vast majority consist of four characters, succinctly expressing morals behind very long, ancient stories. Others are more than four characters. Either way, the Chinese pepper these pithy expressions throughout any given conversation.

Here are a few chéngyǔ you frequently hear in Chinese:

• àn bù jiù bān 按部就班 (ahn boo jyoe bahn) (to take one step at a time)
• hú shuō bā dào 胡说八道 (胡說八道) (hoo shwaw bah daow) (to talk nonsense [Literally: to talk nonsense in eight directions])
• huǒ shàng jiā yóu 火上加油 (hwaw shahng jyah yo) (to add fuel to the fire/to aggravate the problem)
• mò míng qí miào. 莫名其妙. (Maw meeng chee meow.) (Literally: No one can explain the wonder and mystery of it all.) This saying describes anything that’s tough to figure out, including unusual behavior.
• quán xīn quán yì 全心全意 (chwan sheen chwan ee) (wholeheartedly [Literally: entire heart, entire mind])
• rù xiāng suí sú. 入乡随俗. (入鄉隨俗.) (Roo shyahng sway soo.) (When in Rome, do as the Romans do.)
• yì jǔ liǎng dé 一举两得 (一舉兩得) (ee jyew lyahng duh) (to kill two birds with one stone)
• yì mó yí yàng 一模一样 (一模一樣) (ee maw ee yahng) (exactly alike)
• yǐ shēn zuò zé 以身作则 (以身作則) (ee shun dzwaw dzuh) (to set a good example)
• yì zhēn jiàn xiě 一针见血 (一針見血) (ee jun jyan shyeh) (to hit the nail on the head)

Another fact you quickly become aware of when you start speaking with chéngyǔ is that the expressions are sometimes full of references to animals. Here are some of those:

• chē shuǐ mǎ lóng 车水马龙 (車水馬龍) (chuh shway mah loong) (heavy traffic [Literally: cars flowing like water and horses, creating a solid line looking like a dragon])
• dǎ cǎo jīng shé 打草惊蛇 (打草驚蛇) (dah tsaow jeeng shuh) (to give a warning [Literally: to beat the grass to frighten the snake])
• duì niú tán qín 对牛弹琴 (對牛彈琴) (dway nyo tahn cheen) (to cast pearls before swine [Literally: to play music to a cow])
• gǒu zhàng rén shì. 狗仗人势. (狗仗人勢.) (go jahng run shir.) (to take advantage of one’s connections with powerful people [Literally: The dog acts fierce when his master is present.])
• guà yáng tóu mài gǒu ròu 挂羊头卖狗肉 (掛羊頭賣狗肉) (gwah yahng toe my go roe) (to cheat others with false claims [Literally: to display a lamb’s head but sell dog meat])
• huà shé tiān zú 画蛇添足 (畫蛇添足) (hwah shuh tyan dzoo) (to gild the lily/to do something superfluous [Literally: to paint a snake and add legs])
• hǔ tóu shé wěi 虎头蛇尾 (虎頭蛇尾) (hoo toe shuh way) (to start strong but end poorly [Literally: with the head of a tiger but the tail of a snake])
• xuán yá lè mǎ 悬崖勒马 (懸崖勒馬) (shywan yah luh mah) (to halt [Literally: to rein in the horse before it goes over the edge])