11 Responses to “CLO_113: Do you need a smoking section?”

1. Adam Says:
   June 18th, 2007 at 2:46 am

   The first version of this lesson incorrectly displayed the text from an upcoming lesson. So those of you who downloaded this version just got a free preview! The lesson has since been updated with the proper text.

2. Orapin Says:
   December 7th, 2007 at 1:29 am

   Ａ：　欢　迎　馆　林　．　请　问　几　位？
   Ｂ：　两　位．
   Ａ：　你　需　要　吸　烟　吗？　
   Ｂ：　不　需　要　
   Ａ：　少　等　我　一下　．　我　帮　你　带　位．
   　　　这　边　请．　

   Ｉ　ｄｏｎ＇ｔ　ｕｎｄｅｒｓｔａｎｄ　ｈｏｗ　ｔｏ　ｕｓｅ　ＤＡＩ４　　带　　代　　待　　呆　　　　　

3. Adam Says:
   December 7th, 2007 at 1:37 am

   Hi Orapin, the actual characters are:

   A: 欢迎光临. 请问几位？
   B: 两位
   A: 你需要吸烟区吗？
   B: 不需要
   A: 稍等我一下. 我帮你带位. 这边请

   The 带 here refers to leading the customer to his seat.

4. Ruide Says:
   March 21st, 2009 at 12:19 pm

   Luise/Adam,
   a bit of background if i may, i’m living in a canadian city speaking/writing english and french every day. i have chosen mandarin as a 3rd language because i enjoy all things chinese and it’s a way to keep my mind active(66yrs old) my goal is only to learn every day(on the street) conversation on my own time. close by is the city china town but i mostly hear cantonese in market and restaurant . i have used chucks of words(from level1) sparingly but succesfully. i see Orapin using caracters at this level(i’m envy).
   my question is :
   can i continue to the next levels with just pinyin in order to improve my sentence structures,vocab and chuck of expressions. to your knowledge as any student achieved some fluency of spoken mandarin(no reading-no writing) on pinyin only. summer time in canada is outdoor activities meaning less time on the computer. Adam, Luise as been very helpful and professional that has encouraged me to continue forward. i’m just about to takle reviews level2 >it’s getting challenging and i know you are having a chuckle.
   in my case should i consider cantonese >is it available?
   looking forward to your comments

5. Daniel Tynan Says:
   March 21st, 2009 at 10:39 pm

   Ruide: First of all I applaud your initiative to learn Chinese in your 60’s! I have a feeling you might live in Montreal, but if you do live in Toronto, I suggest you go to the Pacific Mall rather than the original Chinatown. The Pacific Mall and surrounding area is where most of the mainland (mandarin speaking) Chinese immigrants live and shop. Also you can go to www.meetup.com and find a Chinese language learners group, in most major cities.

6. Adam Says:
   March 21st, 2009 at 11:00 pm

   Hi Ruide, Like Daniel I too applaud your initiative to learn Chinese. If your goal is to just develop a basic conversational fluency, then it is certainly possible to do so with pinyin alone. Certainly all the texts on our course are available in pinyin for you to follow along.

   If you want to achieve complete fluency however, then at some point I highly recommend learning characters. In most languages, the majority of learning comes from reading, and being able to read Chinese characters then gives you access to plenty of new learning resources from children’s storybooks to songs and newspapers. Having said that, learning to read in Chinese takes a lot of dedication and unlike other languages, most people (learning it as a second language) develop their reading skills later than their listening and speaking skills. The good news is that we certainly provide you with enough resources on this site to develop your reading skills. Just pick your character set (simplified or traditional), then begin with the earlier lessons and follow along with characters.

   It looks daunting, but you will find that 20% of the characters are used 80% of the time, so if you begin working on these characters first, your level of recognition (and confidence) should increase quite quickly. That’s how it was for me.

   Regarding your final question of Cantonese of Mandarin, around 15-20 years ago, the majority of Chinese immigrants to Canada came from the Hong Kong area so most China towns were populated with Cantonese speaking immigrants. Since then however, due to the rise of the middle class in China, the number of Mandarin speaking Chinese has increased dramatically. As well, once Hong Kong was handed back to China in the late 90s, Mandarin became a required language in Hong Kong as well, so lot of Hong Kong residents were now required to learn Mandarin (especially if they wanted to do business with the new influx of customers from mainland China). If your goal is to be able to communicate with Cantonese speakers you already know, then certainly learning some Cantonese would be the way to go. However if your goal is to learn the Chinese that people are likely to be speaking, then in my opinion, Mandarin is definitely the way to go.

   Hope that answers your questions!

7. Ruide Says:
   March 22nd, 2009 at 8:23 am

   Daniel, thanks for info(pacific mall area) and the link. unfortunately non of the two above cities. i’m in Ottawa

   Adam, i thank you for your professional reply and insight into chinese history in canada.
   my goal is still basic conversational fluency but, i’m curious about ‘20% of the characters are used 80% of the time, so if you begin working on these characters first, your level of recognition (and confidence) should increase quite quickly’ i should be 3/4 past level3 by Nov. possibly be ready then! i will follow your’make sense approach’ and stay with mandarin. is taiwanese versus mainland a simular history? when you speak with rafael/luise is it your same level mandarin or did you need to learn new/add. words? bǎozhòng

8. Adam Says:
   March 23rd, 2009 at 6:52 am

   Hi Ruide,

   I began my focus on the most characters first which meant my comprehension initially looked like this:

   The ___ went to the ___ to get a ___ for his ____, but he wasn’t very ___ because his ___ was too ____.

   Technically I recognized 17 of 24 words, which sounds great, but the important (less common) words were missing so my actual comprehension was much less. However with a little guess work, slowly it became 20 of 24 and then 22 of 24 and so on. You can use that same approach on our site, because in our lessons, the same words are constantly being used over and over so it’s just the new vocabulary that you have to work on in each lesson. We also make special effort to highlight new characters in each lesson, since some words may be made up of characters you already know whereas others feature new characters that you haven’t seen before.

   Regarding Taiwanese, every province and major city in China has its own local dialect, just like Taiwan has Taiwanese and Hong Kong / Guangdong province has Cantonese. It’s what the locals speak to each other. However Mandarin is still the national language, so when a Chinese person is meeting another Chinese person in a place other than his local town, then Mandarin is the language that is used.

9. Ruide Says:
   March 23rd, 2009 at 11:18 am

   Adam, excellent approach/info for all beginners using your site.
   a bit difficult with start of summer but eventually i will use your resourses (possibly starting level3) your insights/suggestions were very clear.

10. Wang Zi Says:
    May 14th, 2012 at 3:07 am

    hi adam,

    in mainland china the common term for smoking is 抽烟 ‘chou yan’

11. Adam Says:
    May 14th, 2012 at 6:52 pm

    Hi Wang Zi,

    Thanks - that term is also used here in Taiwan.

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