Chinese Lesson of the Day - Archive

Well, if I'm going to have a Chinese Lesson of the Day, I suppose I should update occasionally. And, if I'm going to update it, I suppose I should save the previous update... So, that's what this is. This is what the lesson was, before I changed it to the new thing.

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English: Thank you.

Chinese: 谢谢你

Pinyin: xie4 xie ni3



Pronunication Guide for Westerners:

"Thank you"...

is a good thing to know how to say in as many languages as your brain can hold. Here's how to say it in Mandarin Chinese...


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The official way of writing it, using latin script is "xie4 xie ni3", but, I'm not going to bore you with the official stuff. Here's how you should think of it if you aren't really studying Chinese...

"sye sye knee"


Steps...

1) Say the word "yet". Now, leave off the "t" at the end.
2) Now, add a "s" sound before the "ye".
3) Now, say "sye" twice... "Sye sye". That means "Thanks."
4) Now, think of where your leg bends in the middle. That's your knee, right?
5) "knee" means "you"
6) So... Say "sye sye knee" and you have just said "Thank you"

Actually... It's a little harder than that. You need to put "oomph" on the first "sye", and then "bend" the "knee" so it starts at a high pitch, then goes low, and then goes back up. But don't worry about the tones right now. Just remember "sye sye knee", and Chinese speakers will understand.

And, most native Chinese speakers will honestly be impressed that you have learned even this little bit of the language.

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So there you go.