Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Season 1, Lesson 2
Lesson notes
Introduction
Huānyíng láidào Coffee Break Chinese - welcome to Coffee Break Chinese! These are
the notes for lesson 2 in which you’ll be learning to greet people at different times of the
day, and also to introduce yourself and ask other people “what is your name?”
K Lesson notes
dàjià hǎo
hello everyone
kāishǐ ba
Review
Nǐ hǎo ma?
wǒ hěn hǎo
I’m well
wǒ fēicháng hǎo
Mark and Crystal put this language into a conversation, using the additional expression
also, too
wǒ yě hěn hǎo
wǒ hái hǎo
wǒ bú tài hǎo
While nǐ hǎo works at any time of the day, you can be more specific:
zǎoshang hǎo
good morning
Literally this means “morning good”. Note the tones: zǎo is 3rd tone and shang is
neutral.
xiàwǔ hǎo
good afternoon
good evening
wǎn’an
good night
The apostrophe in wǎn’an is used to indicate where one syllable (and character) stops
and the other starts. A learner may think that this word is made up of two syllables/
words, wǎ and nan, but this is not the case: it is made up of the syllables/words wǎn
and an. The apostrophe helps us to see how the word is made up.
Mark: It’s time to move on and we’re going to start looking at the topic of names.
Crystal: Duì.
Mark: Let’s look at some of the cultural aspects of names in Chinese because I’m
Crystal: You’re right, Mark. Crystal is a western name, and I was given this name when I
Mark: So which part of Pān Yǒngqìng is your surname, and which part is your given
name?
Crystal: Good question. In Chinese names we start with the family name first, so Pān is
my family name. Yǒngqìng is my given name and also Yǒng is what we call a
name, Yǒng. For example my elder brother is called Pān Yǒnggāng. His first
family?
Mark: What would your father’s generational name be, for example?
Crystal: My father is called Pān Kěwǔ, so the generational name is Kě, for example his
Crystal: But now it’s different: because of China’s One Child Policy in a family we don’t
have siblings like we used to anymore, so people tend to use just the given
name and family name, for example someone could be called Lǐ Hóng: Lǐ is
the family name and Hóng is the given name, so the generational name is
lost.
To say “what is your name?” you can use the following question:
Nǐ jiào shénme?
To answer the question you can use the word for “I”, wǒ and repeat the verb form jiào to
give:
Crystal helps Mark to choose a Chinese name. His family name is Pentleton, so Crystal
suggests a popular Chinese family name Péng. This is the surname of the current (2017)
first lady of China, Péng Lìyuán. Mark’s first name already has a Chinese version, Mǎkè.
qǐngwèn
may I ask … ?
Using this phrase before your question will help you sound more authentic! It certainly
hear the word xìng associated with names. You can use wǒ xìng to say “my family name
is …”.
wǒ xìng …
my family name is …
Note that you don’t need to repeat the wǒ in this construction: it’s fine to say wǒ xìng
“what is your name?”, the normal, full version of this question is as follows:
The complete version of the question then, including the question starter qǐngwèn is:
Mark: Wǒ xìng Péng, wǒ jiào Péng Mǎkè. Hěn gāoxìng rènshi nǐ.
In the bonus lesson we review the words and phrases we learned in the main lesson and
We’ve already learned wǒ xìng which is used to give your family name. A very polite
Nín guìxìng?
Note the word nín which is a formal version of nǐ and is used with people who are older
than you or with people who hold higher positions. Again, guì is used as a mark of
respect.
The traditional answer to this question is: miǎn guìxìng (Pān). The expression miǎn guì
means something like “do away with the noble”. The answer miǎn guìxìng (Pān) is like
countering the very polite question by saying “you don’t need to be so polite with me,
5. I’m not feeling great today / I’m not feeling well today.
6. Wǒ yě hěn hǎo.
你 ?
Nǐ ne?
what about you?
准备好了吗?
Zhǔnbèi hǎo le ma?
are you good to go?
始吧
kāishǐ ba!
let’s start!
也
yě
also
我也很好
wǒ yě hěn hǎo
I’m also well
早上好
zǎoshang hǎo
good morning
下午好
xiàwǔ hǎo
good afternoon
上好
wǎnshang hǎo
good evening
潘永庆
Pān Yǒngqìng
Crystal’s Chinese name
彭马克
Péng Mǎkè
Mark’s Chinese name
我好 了
wǒ hǎo jí le
I’m extremely good/well
我叫。。。
wǒ jiào…
my name is / I’m called
你叫什么?
nǐ jiào shénme?
what is your name?
请问
qǐngwèn
may I ask…
我姓。。。
wǒ xìng …
my family name is …
你叫什么名字?
Nǐ jiǎo shénme míngzi?
很高 认识你
hěn gāoxìng rènshi nǐ
pleased to meet you
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