M: Da jia hao, huanying dao xianzai xue hanyu, Learn Chinese Now!
S: We’re in my hotel room. Meeting some new people tonight, so now we’ll keep learning things like ‘what’s your name?’ ‘My name is’… Then I can have a rest.
M: Now listen and repeat. Remember, xing is ‘family name’, xing. mingzi is ‘given name’, mingzi. Kaishi!
S: 我是Stuart Parkins. Wo xing Parkins. Bai is my Chinese xing, which comes before the mingzi in Chinese names. 白是我的中文姓. Bai shi wo de zhongwen xing.
M: 我是赵曼丽. Wo shi Zhao Manli. 我姓赵. Wo xing Zhao. 我的名字是曼丽. Wo de mingzi shi Manli.
S: 我的中文名字是君士. Wo de zhongwen mingzi shi Junshi. So I am called Bai Junshi. 我叫白君士. Wo jiao Bai Junshi.
M: Hao. Let’s look at what we just said.
S: Wo xing Bai. Easy. My family name is Bai. Wo xing Bai.
M: Bai is his Chinese surname. Bai shi ta de zhongwen xing. The zhong in Zhongwen is the same one as in zhongguo, the Middle Kingdom, China. Wen WEN wen, 2nd tone, wen, means ‘language’. zhongwen means the ‘Chinese language’. Wo de zhongwen xing. My Chinese family name.
S: So what does this mean? Wo de zhongwen mingzi shi Junshi. Dui le. My Chinese given name is Junshi – meaning, appropriately, gentleman scholar. So, wo jiao Bai Junshi.
M: Ta jiao Bai Junshi. Wo jiao Zhao Manli. 叫 JIAO jiao, is a verb, meaning ‘name’ or ‘call’. Wo jiao Zhao Manli, ‘I am called ZML’, or ‘my name is ZML’.
S: So what does this mean? 你叫什么名字?
M: Ni jiao shenme mingzi?
S: Dui le! Literally, ‘You are called what name?’ In real English, ‘What’s your name?’ Here, the mingzi is understood to mean the whole name, xing and mingzi.
M: Ni jiao shenme mingzi?
S: Wo jiao Bai Junshi.
M: You say it at home. Ask the question, then answer yourself. What’s your name? My name is something something. Ready? With Stuart, go!
S: Ni jiao shenme mingzi? Wo jiao Fred Smith, or whatever. Again. …
M: Feichang hao! You’ve earnt a three second rest!
S: Now let’s be very polite. Remember the polite form of ni, you? Right, it’s nin.
M: And two lessons ago the lady at the front desk asked Stuart, Nin gui xing? Gui here means ‘noble’. Nin gui xing?
S: What is your noble family name? That seems pretty polite. Nin gui xing?
M: Wo xing Zhao.
S: You say it at home, use your own name.
M: Hen hao! But Stuart is looking a bit tired.
S: Dui, wo hen lei. Wo hen lei.
M: So let’s hear the Chinese again, then we’ll let Stuart have a rest.
M: Ni jiao shenme mingzi? Or, Nin gui xing?
S: Wo shi Bai Junshi. Wo xing Bai. Bai shi wo de zhongwen xing. Wo de zhongwen mingzi shi Junshi.
M: Wo shi Zhao Manli. Wo xing Zhao. Wo de mingzi shi Manli.
S:. Wo de zhongwen mingzi shi Junshi. Wo jiao Bai Junshi. Wo de zhongwen mingzi …
M: Tian a! Oh, dear! Stuart needs to rest. I’ll creep out. Zaijian.
(Source:english.cri.cn)
