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Lesson 2: Greetings

Lesson 2: Greetings

Homework

Question 1: Translate the following conversation by filling in the blank. Refer to the cultural note
on Chinese surname of people involved in the conversation.

Xiao Ming: Hello.

Ruo Xi: Hello.
Xiao Ming: What is your surname?
Ruo Xi: My surname is Li. What about you?
Xiao Ming: My surname is Wang, Mrs Li. What is your name?
Ruo Xi: My name is Ruo Xi, Mr Wang. What about you?
Xiao Ming: My name is Xiao Ming. Are you a teacher?
Ruo Xi: No, I am a student. What about you?
Xiao Ming: I am a student too.

小明：________________________________________________________________________

若汐：________________________________________________________________________

小明：________________________________________________________________________

若汐：________________________________________________________________________

小明：________________________________________________________________________

若汐：________________________________________________________________________

小明：________________________________________________________________________

若汐：________________________________________________________________________

小明：________________________________________________________________________

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Lesson 2: Greetings

Question 2: Introduce yourself by telling your name, nationality and your occupation.

你好。我叫__________。我是___________。我是__________。

Question 3: Ask any Chinese person name, nationality, whether he/she is a student and whether
he/she is a teacher. After that, fill in the blank. This can be done either in written form or vocally.
Kindly note that 他 means ‘he’ whereas 她 means ‘she’.

他叫__________。他是__________。他是/不是__________。他是/不是__________。

她叫__________。她是__________。她是/不是__________。她是/不是__________。

Question 4: Using any available resource, do research on how to translate each occupation to
Chinese. Then, fill in the blank.

Occupation Chinese Translation Pinyin/Bopomofo

Doctor
Engineer
Police officer
Country’s president

Question 5: Using any available resource, do research on how to translate each country to Chinese.
Then, fill in the blank.

Country Chinese Translation Pinyin/Bopomofo

United States
United Kingdom
Japan
Germany
France
Singapore

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Lesson 2: Greetings

Cultural note: Chinese names and surnames

A Chinese name comprises two components, namely surname and given name. Surname is
inherited from one generation to another generation, whereas given name is given by parents.
Surname commonly consists of one Chinese character, for examples, 王 (PY: Wáng; ZY: ㄨㄤˊ),

李 (PY: Lǐ; ZY: ㄌㄧˇ), 张 (TC: 張; PY: Zhāng; ZY: ㄓㄤ), 刘 (TC: 劉; PY: ㄌㄧㄡˊ; Liú; ZY:),

and 陈 (TC: 陳; PY: Chén; ZY: ㄔㄣˊ). Sometimes there are very few surnames with two

characters such as 欧阳 (TC: 歐陽; PY: Ōu yáng; ZY: ㄡㄧㄤˊ). In fact, there are hundreds of
Chinese surnames that exist. Given name usually consists of one to two characters, and most given
names in Chinese comprises two characters.

A full Chinese name usually comes with surname first, then followed by given name. This is
different to western names, where surnames are written last. To illustrate this, 王小明 (PY: Wáng

xiǎo míng; ZY: ㄨㄤˊㄒㄧㄠˇㄇㄧㄥˊ) is a Chinese name, where 王 (PY: Wáng; ZY: ㄨㄤˊ)

is the surname whereas 小明 (PY: xiǎo míng; ZY: ㄒㄧㄠˇㄇㄧㄥˊ) is the given name. In
English translation, it should be written as Wang Xiao Ming. However, in Malaysia and Singapore,
the translation would be different like Ong Sio Meng as ethnic Chinese in these countries give
their children names based on dialects such as Southern Min and Cantonese. Recently, a
combination of Hanyu Pinyin and dialect is used such as Ong Xiao Ming.

To issue a Chinese person, based on the example above, we should call him Xiao Ming or 小明

(PY: xiǎo míng; ZY: ㄒㄧㄠˇㄇㄧㄥˊ) in most of the cases. Calling someone full name would
be rude sometimes, but this is usually done in formal occasions such as teachers in the class or
government agencies. We can also issue someone with surname such as 王先生 (PY: Wáng xiān

shēng; ZY: ㄨㄤˊㄒㄧㄢㄕㄥ), 王女士 (PY: Wáng nǚ shì; ZY: ㄨㄤˊㄋㄩˇㄕˋ), and 王老师

(TC: 王老師; PY: wáng lǎo shī; ZY: ㄨㄤˊㄌㄠˇㄕ). 王先生 means Mr. Wang whereas 王老师

means Teacher Wang. Yet, we cannot just call the person with only 王 (PY: Wáng; ZY: ㄨㄤˊ).

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Lesson 2: Greetings

Figure 1: Top ten Chinese surnames [1]

Figure 2: Top ten Chinese female given names [2]

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Lesson 2: Greetings

Figure 3: Top ten Chinese male given names [2]

References

[1] 101 Most Common Surnames in China and Their Meaning (2023). Improve Mandarin.
https://improvemandarin.com/most-common-chinese-surnames/

[2] Most Popular Chinese Names (Trends in 2023 and Across the Decades) (2023). Improve
Mandarin. https://improvemandarin.com/most-popular-chinese-names/