Ideas from Isolation: Learn a Language. Chinese for Beginners.

Useful Chinese for beginners

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With the world in crisis it's more important than ever to connect with and respect our neighbours overseas, even if they do seem distant right now. Today, The 24hr Tourist is heading across to China to celebrate International Chinese Language Day.

With well over 1 billion speakers, Chinese Mandarin is increasingly used in international business, as well as being useful for tourism. Here are some key phrases and activities that can be enjoyed from home by all ages. So, whether you're home-schooling or simply looking for something to do on a working-from-home coffee break, I invite you to join me on my trip to Asia.

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Keeping it simple: Learning some key phrases for your travels can seem daunting, but it's hugely rewarding. It can open doors to people and experiences not availble to those who don't make the effort. This being said my top tip is don't bamboozle yourself by trying to get conversational. Pick 10 useful things that you can revise everyday in the weeks leading up to your trip - feel confident enough to actually give it a go as soon as you get the chance.

Basic Phrases

1. Thank you! (xiè xie) 谢谢！

2. You’re welcome. 不客气 (búI believe that when you travel to another country you should make the effort to learn some phrases. Don't bamboozle yourself by trying to get conversational, pick 10 useful things that you can revise everyday in the week leading up to your trip.

3. Hello (nǐ hǎo) 你好。

Hello in Chinese combines the words ‘you’ and ‘good’. To ask someone ‘How are you?’, just add the character ‘吗‘. This character is used when asking a question:

How are you? (nǐ hǎo ma) 你好吗?

4. OK/Good (hǎo) 好 / (hǎo de) 好的

5. Not OK/ Not Good (bù hǎo) 不好

6. May I ask… (qǐng wèn) 请问…

7. I’m sorry (duì bu qǐ) 对不起

The first character in this phrase, 对 (duì) also means ‘right’ and is often used in the same way we would use ‘yeah’ in English.

The 24hr Tourist Top 3 Chinese Phrases for Travelling

1. Do you speak English? (nǐ huì shuō yīng yǔ ma?) 你会说英语吗？

2. Where is the bathroom/washroom/toilet? (xǐ shǒu jiān zài nǎ lǐ?) 洗手间在哪里？

3. Please excuse me. (jiè guò yī xià) 借过一下。

For more great hints and tips for that future trip to China visit https://www.writtenchinese.com/

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Reading and Writing

Unlike English, Chinese is a pictorial written language and has it's own set of characters. The artistic among you might fancy giving it a go with the numbers below. Try writing how old you are, or the number house you live at.

There are rules around the order in which you write a Chinese character: Horizontal strokes are written before vertical, Left-falling strokes are written before right-falling ones, characters are written from top to bottom and from left to right (there are more!). But grab a pen and paper and give it a go.

Huge thanks to www.education.com for the worksheet.

Share your new skills with us on Facebook or Instagram by tagging @the24hrtourist #ideasfromisolation!