Lesson 14 - Chinese places around town

Here is the last of the lessons in the first flashcard file. To see all the lessons and all the files click on the Flashcard link at the top of this page.

zhong1 guo2 cheng2 - China town

zhong1 guo2 hua1 yuan2 - Chinese gardens

zhong1 guo2 fan4 guan3 - Chinese restaurant

ni3 qu4 na3 li3 - Where are you going?

wo3 qu4 zhong1 guo2 cheng2 - I'm going to China Town.

wo3 qu4 zhong1 guo2 hua1 yuan2 - I'm going to the Chinese Gardens.

wo3 qu4 zhong1 guo2 fan4 guan3 - I'm going to a Chinese restaurant.

ni3 men qu4 na3 li3 - Where are you(plural) going?

wo3 men qu4 zhong1 guo2 fan4 guan3 - We are going to a Chinese restaurant.

gong1 gong4 qi4 che1 - Bus

huo3 che1 - Train

chuan2 - Boat

ni3 zen3 me qu4 - How are you getting there?

wo3 zuo4 gong1 gong4 qi4 che1 qu4 - I am going by bus.

wo3 zuo4 huo3 che1 qu4 - I'm going by train.

wo3 zuo4 chuan2 qu4 - I'm going by boat.

chang2 zhi1 - Orange juice

ping2 guo3 zhi1 - Apple juice

chao3 fan4 - Fried rice

chao3 mian4 - Fried noodles

ni3 yao4 he1 shen2 me - What do you want to drink?

wo3 yao4 he1 cheng2 zhi1 - I want to drink orange juice.

wo3 yao4 he1 ping2 guo3 zhi1 - I want to drink apple juice.

ni3 yao4 chi1 shen2 me - What do you want to eat.

wo3 yao4 chi1 chao3 fan4 - I want to eat fried rice.

wo3 yao4 chi1 chao3 mian4 - I want to eat fried noodles.

kuai4 zi - Chopsticks

ni3 hui4 yong4 kuai4 zi ma - Can you use chopsticks?

chang4 ge - Sing

ni3 hui4 chang4 ge1 ma - Can you sing?

bu2 hui4 - Can't

hui4 - Can

wo3 hui4 chang4 ge1 - I can sing.

tiao4 wu3 - Dance

ni3 hui4 tiao4 wu3 ma - Can you dance?

wo3 men tiao4 wu3 hao3 ma - We should dance. OK?

ta1 men hui4 tiao4 wu3 - They can dance.

A new Flashcard lesson

I haven't added any new flashcard lessons for a while, so I figured it was about time I did.

Lesson 29 is the Chinese character version of lesson 3 "Happy Birthday".

I'm working on a new lesson about getting ready for a day out in the park. I should have it up soon.

Taitung

Here are a couple of pictures of Taitung on the south east coast of Taiwan.

Make your computer read Chinese web pages to you

I’ve been looking at some “Text to Speech” software. At first I was just looking for something to read web pages to me while I did other things, like have breakfast. After much trial and error I originally settled on Natural Reader.

Then I thought how great it would be if I could find one that would read Chinese. Unfortunately however I am much more interested in reading web pages from Taiwan than from anywhere else, and they are all written in Traditional Characters which most readers don’t seem to recognise. This is not to say that I am not interested in being able to read Simplified Characters at all, it’s just that Traditional is of much more use to me in general.

Anyway I had no problem finding software to read Simplified Characters. Speech Chinese was one of the best that I found. Eventually I did find just one text to speech reader that can read both Simplified and Traditional. YellowBridge Talker is also very easy to use. Just highlight some text, right click and choose “pronounce text”.