Simple Mandarin-Chinese phrases for Firefly fans

POSTED BY: FarscapePKWars
UPDATED: Saturday, March 3, 2007 13:03
VIEWED: 36677
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FARSCAPEPKWARS

Tuesday, December 28, 2004 7:58 PM

Ok as all you people will be able to explain to me Firefly is a rich and complex universe, part of this complexity comes from the Chinese cultural influence in the show, the characters, the dress and the speech

So I thought I might start a thread with some basic China phrases and some Chinese symbols

Chinese characters
http:// eagleclaw.rso.wisc.edu/ images/Chinese1 . jpg

China symbols
http://www.jimmattern.com/characters.htm

Phrases and words

Nĭ hăo 你好 and 再见 zàijiàn mean "hello" and "good-bye", respectively. Ni hao 你好 literally means "you good," while the literal translation of zaijian is "see you again." Other ways to say hello include the popular Beijing early-morning greeting 您早 nín zăo. Asking someone if they've eaten 你吃了吗? Nĭ chīle ma? is also acommon way to 打招呼 dă zhāohu (greet someone). 再会 zàihuì is an alternative way to say good-bye. Or you could just say 拜拜 bàibài like all those Taiwanese and Hong Kong

谢谢 Xie Xie (Shay Shay) Thanks
不用谢 Bu yong xie (bu yon shay) Not at all - You're Welcome

一点 yi dian- a little

Where are you from? - Ni cong nali lai?
你从哪里来

大 da - big/great

太好了 tai hao le - great

I live in (New York)- Wo zhu zai (niuyue)我住在(纽约)

不可能 bu ke neng - impossible

朋友 péngyou, which means 'friend'
朋友 péngyou can also mean 男朋友 nán péngyou (boyfriend), 女朋友 nǚ péngyou (girlfriend) or even 亲人 qínrén (lover).

妈妈 mama - mother

喝 he - to drink

What is your name?- Ni jiao shenme mingzi
你叫什么名字

三 san - three

月 yue - month

How much is it? - Zhege duoshao qian?
这个多少钱

I can only speak a little Chinese
- Wo zhi hui shou yidian hanyu 我只会说一点汉语

I'm / I am... 我是～(Wo shi~)

先生 xiansheng Mr., sir, gentleman

They like to dance- Tamen xihuan tiaowu
他们喜欢跳舞

FARSCAPEPKWARS

Tuesday, December 28, 2004 8:07 PM

some more phrases and China words and links to Chinese characters here

1. 很高兴见到你。（hen gao xing jian dao ni )
=Nice to meet you.
2. 今天天气很好啊！（jin tian tian qi hen hao a )
=What a find day.
3. 你是哪里人？（ni shi na li ren?)
=Where are you from?
4. 我好像在哪里见过你。（wo hao xiang zai na li jian guo ni )
=Have we met each other somewhere?

http://bbs.chinadaily.com.cn/forumpost.shtml?toppid=4821&page=2

http://barney.gonzaga.edu/~chongls/CP/hanzik.htm

http://www.bunchoffun.com/html/rubber_stamp_bargain_bin.html

Quoted Letter translation

Quote:
Dear Dr. Ming,

Thank you and we will certainly consider coming to your hospital if we don't have successful treatment hear. So far the treatment has been quite good with Todd's muscles feeling stronger and his skin noticeably warmer. He is also doing deep breathing and strength exercises for his hands and muscles. We are very hopeful. I think I can find your city and hospital. I will write to you if I cannot find it. What types of treatment do you have in your hospital? Acupuncture? Tuina? Qi Gong?

Thanks again for your correspondence.

KI Italy

亲爱的明大夫！

谢谢你！我们肯定会考虑来你们的医院，如果这里治疗不成功。到目前为止，治疗非常地好，托德的肌肉感觉更强壮了，他的皮肤明显更温暖了，他正在做深呼吸和对手的力量锻炼。我们非常有希望我能够找到你的城市和医院。如果我找不到将给你写信，在你们医院的治疗方式是针炙、是推拿、还是气功？

谢谢你的回复！

意大利，KI

If any of you people know of any good Chinese links with good phrases then please put them in this thread

Let's make this one our Chinese phrase learning thread

cussin', foul or naught Chinese words should be put here also

CHANNAIN

Tuesday, December 28, 2004 8:11 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by FarscapePKWars:
Ok as all you people will be able to explain to me Firefly is a rich and complex universe, part of this complexity comes from the Chinese cultural influence in the show, the characters, the dress and the speech

So I thought I might start a thread with some basic China phrases and some Chinese symbols

A flan after my own heart!

The RP Gang also has a thread with phrases and such - That's not to say we don't need more than one, by any means, so please do carry on!

If you don't mind, I'll add these to the Gunrunner's list and post this thread in amongst the others.

Also, I'd like to ask if you'd be available to translate phrases upon request? There was another flan who was doing that for awhile, but he/she seems to have vanished into the black.

Fans come and fans go...but zealots are with you until the bitter black end.
I draw...therefore I am. http://www.mnartists.org/artistHome.do?rid=7922
Minnesota Meetup - join us! http://firefly.meetup.com/45/

FARSCAPEPKWARS

Tuesday, December 28, 2004 8:13 PM

Oops I'm not sure if these phrases are simple, in fact some of this is hard to learn

One point to keep in mind when doing the Chinese thing is the Romanised or English spelt version of Chinese

People in China have a kind of unique pronunciation or accent, so it is often hard to describe a Chinese phrase with the English Romanised Alphabet

It might be best to check up each Chinese phrase looking at various methods, or alternative English descriptions for each phrase because sometimes the first alphabetical description may not describe it accurate enough for us to speak Chinese correctly

Catch my drift ?

FARSCAPEPKWARS

Tuesday, December 28, 2004 8:16 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Channain:
Quote:
Originally posted by FarscapePKWars:
Ok as all you people will be able to explain to me Firefly is a rich and complex universe, part of this complexity comes from the Chinese cultural influence in the show, the characters, the dress and the speech

So I thought I might start a thread with some basic China phrases and some Chinese symbols
A flan after my own heart!

The RP Gang also has a thread with phrases and such - That's not to say we don't need more than one, by any means, so please do carry on!

If you don't mind, I'll add these to the Gunrunner's list and post this thread in amongst the others.

Also, I'd like to ask if you'd be available to translate phrases upon request? There was another flan who was doing that for awhile, but he/she seems to have vanished into the black.

Fans come and fans go...but zealots are with you until the bitter black end.
I draw...therefore I am. http://www.mnartists.org/artistHome.do?rid=7922
Minnesota Meetup - join us! http://firefly.meetup.com/45/

Thanks for the links Channain
, I don't think I could work at translations as I don't know Chinese

but Firefly is so good that I plan on studying the language, how do you say 'obsessed' in Chinese ?

FANTASTICLAUGHINGFAIRY

Thursday, April 28, 2005 3:27 PM

Wow, thanks for that. Just having a teensy bit of trouble with the pronunciation. Do you think you could help me out there?
P.S. I am also thinking of learning the language. I think quite a few of us are. But what can I say?

...and we will call it...this land...

LITHI

Thursday, April 28, 2005 4:53 PM

is there anything in particular you need help with?

Lithi@EstateSerenity.net

FANTASTICLAUGHINGFAIRY

Friday, April 29, 2005 8:41 AM

Not specifically, it's sort of the x and q and stuff I need help with.

...and we will call it...this land...

LITHI

Friday, April 29, 2005 3:52 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by fantasticlaughingfairy:
Not specifically, it's sort of the x and q and stuff I need help with.

...and we will call it...this land...

Pinyin definite has some improvement over wade-giles, but it also introduced some rather strange spelling to people who are not studying Chinese... the X, the Q, the C, and the Zh.

I'll start with X.

You know how photographers would ask kids to say "cheese" to make them smile a certain way? Do that and say cheese, and hold your mouth/lips/teeth where they are. Now without changing the shape of your mouth, say "Sheeee", part your teeth slightly as you let air out.

Xie-xie would sound more like "sh'ay-sh'ay"

The Q produces a "Chi" sound.

Qi-Pao would sound like "Chi-Pao"

The C sounds like the "ts" in "Cats"

Cao-Cao would sound like Ts'ao-Ts'ao

The Zh sounds like the "dr" in "drove"

Zhou sould sound like "Dr'oh"

Another VERY important thing about Chinese is that it is a TONAL language. Pitch and tones greatly change the meaning and the character a particular sound may represent. That's why sometimes you see little marks or numbers accompanying the spellings.

Lithi@EstateSerenity.net

FANTASTICLAUGHINGFAIRY

Friday, April 29, 2005 4:15 PM

Thanks for that! It's a great help! See ya!

...and we will call it...this land...

FLAMETREE

Saturday, April 30, 2005 2:29 AM

Thanks for this thread.

I was inspired to study mandarin by the firefly show. It nice to know others are just as interested.

It has paid off because I can read many of your characters and that really made my day!

xie xie ni

CMONEY

Wednesday, May 4, 2005 10:08 PM

媽媽罵馬嗎? (mama ma ma ma?)

Chinese words are nothing without tones...

Also, zhongwen.com is a great resource. It's probably the best Chinese language resource I've ever seen.

LITHI

Friday, May 6, 2005 3:35 PM

We should start a new thread on chinese tongue twisters

Lithi@EstateSerenity.net

FLAMETREE

Tuesday, May 10, 2005 3:50 AM

I'd like to see that, more chinese tougue twisters please

:)

MYSTICOTALA

Monday, October 17, 2005 9:18 AM

Old thread...but I thougt I would add to it. I'm in Beijing studying chinese, so we learn a lot of them. This is probably the most well known after the 'ma' one :P

四是四，十是十，十四是十四，四十是四十。你不要把十四说成四十，四十说成十四。

si4 shi4 si4
shi2 shi4 shi2
shi2 si4 shi4 shi2 si4
si4 shi2 shi4 si4 shi2
si4 shi2 si4 zhi1 shi2 shi1 zi3 shi4 si3 de.

4 is 4, 10 is 10, 14 is 14, 40 is 40, 44 stone lions are dead

RAISTLIN

Sunday, October 23, 2005 1:47 AM

Can someone teach me to swear in mandarin.
plz and thank you
Xie Xie

ITSAWASH

Saturday, October 29, 2005 8:20 AM

That was so helpful. Thank you for taking the time to post it all.

DEEPKEY

Wednesday, January 11, 2006 12:47 AM

My wife and I really got into Firefly when we saw Serenity at the Cinema, went out and bought the box set.

Being from China, she said she liked the Chinese influence on it.

I asked her a couple of times on the more complex insults the crew traded "What did they just say?"

I always got the reply "I don't know!"

Eventually she turned and asked "Why are you asking me?" - The Pronounciation was often so bad she never realised they were speaking Mandarin.

Fortunately, My Chinese is so bad I can get half of what they say.

Here's one of my favourites:

"Ni Shi yi zhe Houzhe pigou"
-You are a monkey's bottom.

Superb.

Lets' send a cargo ship to BBC, Channel four or even Channel five and threaten them with it until they show it on UK tv.

-Deepkey.

(...something that's not been quoted before...)

MOSTSKILLZ

Wednesday, January 11, 2006 1:02 AM

This site ought to be helpful to everybody:
http://fireflychinese.home.att.net/

____________________________________________________
Check out my blog!
http://wongblogger.blogspot.com

QUEENSMESSENGER

Sunday, September 17, 2006 3:18 AM

does anyone know what the word and (how to pronounce it)Inara uses in Mandarin in the scene just before she and her female client make love. They say: let's just forget about ? today and enjoy ourselves"

Also are there any other mandarin words that pertain to Inara's calling?

Thanks

FFYING2

Monday, September 18, 2006 3:04 AM

queensmessenger wrote:
Saturday, September 16, 2006 17:18
does anyone know what the word and (how to pronounce it)Inara uses in Mandarin in the scene just before she and her female client make love. They say: let's just forget about ? today and enjoy ourselves"
-----------------------------------

Actually, that was English.

INARA
So no show. Let's just enjoy ourselves.

Ying

Firefly Funsite http://fireflyfunsite.home.att.net
Firefly-Serenity Chinese Pinyinary http://fireflychinese.home.att.net
Browncoats.com http://www.browncoats.com

Blog http://languageandhumor.net

FEI

Monday, September 18, 2006 11:39 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by mysticotala:
Old thread...but I thougt I would add to it. I'm in Beijing studying chinese, so we learn a lot of them. This is probably the most well known after the 'ma' one :P

四是四，十是十，十四是十四，四十是四十。你不要把十四说成四十，四十说成十四。

si4 shi4 si4
shi2 shi4 shi2
shi2 si4 shi4 shi2 si4
si4 shi2 shi4 si4 shi2
si4 shi2 si4 zhi1 shi2 shi1 zi3 shi4 si3 de.

4 is 4, 10 is 10, 14 is 14, 40 is 40, 44 stone lions are dead

speaking about tongue twisters there is this one I learned in school it's actually very famous:

i got this tongue twister off http://www.uebersetzung.at/twister/zh.htm they have english meanings and pinyin.

this is a book that is good to show you why the characters are the way they are (I think it's traditional though. I used it before, it's fun, it is actually in english)
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1932457003?v=glance

Chinese poems can be good to learn with too, such as from the author 李白 very famous.

I kind of teach beginner chinese, but my chinese (in my school) is consider regular 1 (beginner - intermediate).

"Dear Buddha, please bring me a pony and a plastic rocket..."

CRUITHNE3753

Monday, September 18, 2006 12:08 PM

I'm currently stuck in a warehouse job I hate... I've recently taken to writing 吃屎 (eat shit) in dust around the place...

Just wondering, how many regs to this website have their browser set up to displace Chinese?

RAINMAKER

Saturday, March 3, 2007 1:03 PM

Haha. I'm learning chinese and we never do those tongue twisters. Different techniques I guess. Although they would help, my tone is terrible. Tone is one of the biggest things that prevents Chinese speakers from understanding non-native speakers.