Elementary Chinese: Getting Taller, not Fatter #1

I have found the Shanghai podcast website ChinesePod to be an invaluable resource over the years. In this post, I'll begin a dissection of an elementary lesson called Getting Taller (Not Fatter). For this lesson, I'll assume that the reader has a basic understanding of Pinyin and pronunciation.

豆豆，这是叔叔，快说叔叔好

Pinyin: Dòudou, zhè shì shūshu. Kuài shuō shūshu hǎo.

Translation: Doudou, this is your uncle. Hurry up and say hello.

Literal translation: Doudou (nickname), this be Uncle (diminutive). Hurry say Uncle good.

The literal translation demonstrates much of the difficulty in learning Chinese. I'll cover some of the cultural considerations at the root of this translation in subsequent posts but for now, this is a statement from a parent to a child, Doudou. It's common for Chinese to address their small children by nicknames; Dou4 (豆) means "bean," and a syllable is typically repeated to add emphasis or to make it cute. In this case, Doudou would mean "little bean" or "cute little bean."

The term Uncle could refer to a literal uncle, or it could be a polite title for a man of an uncle's generation.

Well, that's it for today. I'll resume this lesson with the next post.

Jim

There’s an excellent Pinyin entry tool at http://de.mdbg.net/chindict/webime2_pinyin.php. Just enter a syllable in hao3 format. The editor converts it in real time to hǎo.

Visit ChinesePod.com at ChinesePod.

If you're a ChinesePod member, this lesson can be found at http://chinesepod.com/lessons/getting-taller-not-fatter.

Mdbg.net is another excellent resource for students of the Chinese language.