3 Introducing oneself
In this section, you will learn about Chinese names, how Chinese people address each other and how profession titles are used.
When a Chinese name is given in full, the family name always precedes the given name. To take the former Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping as an example, the family name 邓 dèng goes before the given name 小平 xiǎo píng.
It is very common for Chinese people to address each other by their full names, even amongst friends or family. The most common Chinese family names have only one character. Chinese given names typically consist of two characters.
The titles 先生 xiān sheng (Mr), 小姐 xiăo jie (Miss) and 女士 nǚ shì (Madam) are popular in Hong Kong and Taiwan, and since the 1980s have been catching on in mainland China, too, especially in the business sector. They tend to be used on formal occasions when you are unsure of another person’s position or profession. The term 太太 tài tai (Mrs) is also used to address a married foreign woman but is not an appropriate way to address a married Chinese woman because Chinese women do not change their family names after marriage.
To say ‘My name is’ you say: wŏ jiào… 我叫...
To ask a person’s name you can say:
- nĭ jiào shén me? 你叫什么?
or:
- nĭ jiào shén me míng zi? 你叫什么名字?
Practice these expressions a few times to consolidate it and then move on to Activity 7.
Activity 7 Names
Part A
Listen to the audio track below to hear how these two people say their names, and how they address each other, then answer the following questions.
What is the woman’s full name?
Part B
What is the man’s full name?
Part C
Read the transcript of a different short exchange. Can you guess which words are the equivalent of the English ‘be called’?
Female speaker: 你 好 nǐ hǎo! ！
Male speaker: 你 好！ nǐ hǎo!
Female speaker: 你 叫 什 么？ nǐ jiào shén me?
Male speaker: 我叫李京。 wǒ jiào lǐ jīng.
Activity 8 Translating foreign names
Language note: translating foreign names into Chinese
Foreign names are translated into Chinese for two main reasons: so that they can be written in Chinese characters and because their original sounds can be difficult to pronounce for Chinese speakers. When translating a foreign name, there are a few common practices to follow. In no particular order:
use characters that match the original meanings (rather than their sound)
Jasmine → 茉莉 mò lì (which means ‘jasmine’)
use characters that sound like the name when pronounced in its original language
玛丽 居里 mǎ lì·jū lǐ, which sounds similar to ‘Mary Curie’
use characters that have nice meanings, even though they don’t sound very much (or at all) like the original name.
The first name of Chris Patten (the last British governor of Hong Kong) is 定康 ding kāng: 定 ding (‘stability’) and 康 kāng (‘prosperity’; ‘healthy’).
use characters that partially translate the meaning (and/or have nice meanings) and partially keep the original sound.
Jim King → 王京 wáng jīng: 京 jīng sounds like ‘Jim’ and 王 wáng is a common Chinese surname that also means ‘king’.
Note that when Western family names are matched with common Chinese family names, they are used in the Chinese order; that is, the family name comes before the given name. If a match is not found, the normal practice is to keep the Western order. For example, David Brown is 大卫•布朗 dà wèi bù lăng, with a dot inserted between the given name and surname.
The same translation strategies for personal names are also used for other types of names – for example, the names of foreign companies. Look at the following Chinese names for international companies and decide which principle lies behind its Chinese name: literal translation or sound similarity. You don’t need to learn these characters, but it might be useful for you to recognise these names and to know how names of international companies are translated into Chinese. Focus on the Pinyin.
1. Amazon 亚马逊 yà mǎ xùn
2. Apple 苹果 píng guǒ
3. Coca-Cola 可口可乐 kě kǒu kě lè
4. Ikea 宜家 yí jiā
5. McDonalds 麦当劳 mài dāng láo
6. Microsoft 微软 wēi ruǎn
7. Volkswagen 大众 dà zhòng
OpenLearn - Beginners’ Chinese: a taster course
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