{"id":2882,"date":"2014-12-24T14:03:40","date_gmt":"2014-12-24T14:03:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.digmandarin.com\/?p=2882"},"modified":"2022-05-03T04:32:35","modified_gmt":"2022-05-03T04:32:35","slug":"how-to-make-our-communication-in-chinese-better","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.digmandarin.com\/how-to-make-our-communication-in-chinese-better.html","title":{"rendered":"How to Make Our Communication in Chinese Better? – Annoying \u2018\u597d\u5427\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
As a Chinese teacher, I always enjoy teaching Chinese in my class with the standard curriculum. However, I also notice there are multitudes of small pieces of information which wouldn’t be mentioned in a textbook. Hence I decided to share these small treasures of the Chinese language. I think these details will make our communication in Chinese better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One phrase that has trouble me a lot is: \u2018\u597d(h\u01ceo)\u5427(ba)\u2019. There was one time when I had an American colleague who struggled with using this phrase correctly. He certainly knew: \u2018\u597d(h\u01ceo)\u2019 means \u2018good\u2019, \u2018ok\u2019, \u2018great\u2019 and \u2018\u5427(ba)\u2019 is just a particle word, so for him \u2018\u597d(h\u01ceo)\u5427(ba)\u2019 was something about \u2018great\u2019. So when I would suggest ideas with him at work, he would say \u2018\u597d(h\u01ceo)\u5427(ba)\u2019. It was confusing and frustrating because I was unclear of his meaning of the phrase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Let\u2019s look at the following example between a boy and girl:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Boy\uff1am\u00edng ti\u0101n w\u01d2 men q\u00f9 k\u00e0n di\u00e0n y\u01d0ng h\u01ceo ma\uff1f
\u660e\u5929\u6211\u4eec\u53bb\u770b\u7535\u5f71\u597d\u5417\uff1f
Shall we go to theater tomorrow?
Girl\uff1ah\u01ceo ba\u3002
\u597d\u5427\u3002
OK
Boy\uff1ar\u00fa gu\u01d2 n\u01d0 b\u00f9 xi\u01ceng k\u00e0n\uff0cm\u00e9i gu\u0101n xi\u3002
\u5982\u679c\u4f60\u4e0d\u60f3\u770b\uff0c\u6ca1\u5173\u7cfb\u3002
It\u2019s ok if you wouldn’t like to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When the girl said \u2018\u597d(h\u01ceo)\u5427(ba)\u2019, the boy definitely felt that she didn\u2019t want to do it. \u2018\u597d(h\u01ceo)\u5427(ba)\u2019 is usually understood as a compromising OK to a suggestion where you can\u2019t say no and people know you don’t like it. When I heard \u2018\u597d(h\u01ceo)\u5427(ba)\u2019 from him, I was unsure about what my colleague\u2019s attitude was towards me. I thought my colleague never agreed with me and he would never give me suggestions. After some time of hearing it all the time, we figured out the misunderstanding and made sure that he understood how to use it correctly in daily situations.
Since we know \u2018\u597d(h\u01ceo)\u5427(ba)\u2019 is a unique phrase, what else we can use for positive \u2018ok\u2019, \u2018good\u2019\u2026? Here are four commonly used words or phrases:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Let\u2019s take look at the same example that we looked at earlier using one of the commonly used phrases or words.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Boy: m\u00edng ti\u0101n w\u01d2 men q\u00f9 k\u00e0n di\u00e0n y\u01d0ng h\u01ceo ma\uff1f
\u660e\u5929\u6211\u4eec\u53bb\u770b\u7535\u5f71\u597d\u5417\uff1f
Shall we go to the theater tomorrow?
Girl: \u597d(h\u01ceo)\uff01\/ \u597d(h\u01ceo)\u7684(de)\uff01\/\u884c(x\u00edng)\uff01\/\u55ef(\u00e8n)
OK.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As you can see, when using one these four phrases it will be clear that girl definitely would like to go with the boy to see that movie. She didn\u2019t make it seem like a large ordeal to go to the movies with the boy. Now they can happily enjoy the movie tomorrow. \u2018\u597d(h\u01ceo)\u5427(ba)\u2019 is still useful in the right situation. For example, I always get \u2018\u597d(h\u01ceo)\u5427(ba)\u2019 from students as I assign homework:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Vera: j\u012bn ti\u0101n de zu\u00f2 y\u00e8 sh\u00ec xi\u011b y\u012b pi\u0101n zu\u00f2 w\u00e9n\u3002
\u4eca\u5929\u7684\u4f5c\u4e1a\u662f\u5199\u4e00\u7bc7\u4f5c\u6587\u3002
Home work for today is to write an essay.
Students\uff1ah\u01ceo ba\u3002
\u597d\u5427\u3002
OK.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In this case, I understand what they mean. You should make sure you are using the phrases correctly as it is important for you to appropriately convey your message. So if you can\u2019t say \u2018no\u2019 and you do want people know you don\u2019t like it, say this aloud \u2018\u597d(h\u01ceo)\u5427(ba)\u2019! Stay tune for next tip and see you next time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As a Chinese teacher, I always enjoy teaching Chinese in my class with the standard curriculum. However, I also notice there are multitudes of small pieces of information which wouldn’t be mentioned in a textbook. Hence I decided to share these small treasures of the Chinese language. I think these details will make our communication…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":2889,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,176],"tags":[122,93,89,84],"post_series":[],"class_list":["post-2882","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-learn-mandarin-online","category-usage","tag-chinese-culture","tag-how-to-use","tag-tips-and-suggestions","tag-vocabulary","entry","has-media"],"yoast_head":"\n