WE SPEAK CHINESE : 我们说中文 (2)
We travel to see new things and experience new cultures, but if we cannot communicate we might miss something special!
Today, I am going to show how to order food by using Chinese! In addition, I will add some knowledge about Chinese culture in this post to so let’s have fun with my blog!
When you travel to the countries that people speak Chinese, in this blog I will focus on China, you must first know the vocabularies about the place you go, the food you will have, the subjects you want to buy and other useful vocabularies. Personally, I think the most important thing I must have learned before visiting is the name of the local food and the vocabularies about food and how to order it because we have to buy food for a meal and for snacks. In Chinese language, some of the names of food are word borrowed from English, thus you do not have to worry when you want to order Western food. However, I suggest you to try local food when you go to China because its local food is very tasty and healthy. So, let’s have a look on Chinese food and how do they call.
Let’s start with the vocabularies about Chinese food! Most of Chinese people eat rice, they grown well in the southern part of China due to the weather. In the past, when the transporting is not good and fast enough only southern people eat rice, people from the northern China can only consume noodles and dumpling or food that made from rice flour.
And these are the vocabularies
米饭 mǐ fàn cooked rice
面条 miàn tiáo noodle
饺子 jiăo zi dumpling
Normally, if you order 面条 they will understand that you want a simply noodle with soup, if you order 饺子 they will think that you want boiled dumpling. To order in more specific, for example, fried rice or stream dumpling, there are also the specific words for food and these are the vocabularies
炒饭 chăo fàn fried rice
粥 zhōu congee
炒面 chăo miàn fried noodles
凉面 liáng miàn cold noodles
冷面 lĕng miàn cold noodles in soup
泡面 pāo miàn instant noodles
方便面 fāng biàn miàn instant noodles
水饺 shuĭ jiăo boiled dumpling
蒸饺 zhéng jiăo streamed dumpling
炸饺子 zhá jiăo zi deep fried dumpling
In the restaurant, you have to tell the waiter that you are ready to order then he will come to you.
After learning some vocabularies now it is a turn for the main dish Chinese people like to order when they go to the restaurant!
北京烤鸭 bĕijīng kăo yā Peking Duck *** recommend ***
宫保鸡丁 gōng bào jī dīng Spicy diced chicken
锅包肉 gūo bāo ròu Sweet and sour pork
鱼香肉丝 yú xiāng ròu sī Fish flavored shredded pork
水煮鱼 shuĭ zhŭ yú Sichuan Boiled Fish
麻婆豆腐 Mápó dòufu Mapo tofu
麻辣火锅 má là huǒ guō Sichuan hotpot *** recommend ***
These are the recommended menu that I would like you to try!
China is another country that is famous for street food. In each region has different kinds of snack and food. In the northern part where the weather is a bit cooler, there is one special candy called 糖葫芦 which made of fruits and sugar, it is similar to candy apple in Halloween. If you are a burger lover you should try 肉夹馍, and here are the lists of street food you must have when you visit China!
煎饼 jiān bĭng Chinese pancake
包子 bāo zi Chinese steamed bun
油条 you tiáo deep-fried breadstick
豆浆 dòu jiāng soy milk
羊肉串 yáng ròu chuàn’r lamp kebab
烧烤 shāo kǎo Chinese BBQ
麻辣烫 málà tàng Food in Spicy Boiled Water
臭豆腐 chòu dòufu Stinky Tofu
凉皮 liáng pí Cold Rice Noodles
Now you know the vocabularies about foods, so let’s start to learn how to order it! It is very easy when you want to order things in English you can say, “I want to buy…”, “May I have … please” also in Chinese, people say “我要买…”，“我想要…” So, let’s see what does those characters mean.
我 (wŏ) is the word I mentioned last time, which means I or me
要 (yào) is mean want
想 (xiăng) is mean to think or to wish
买 (măi) is mean to buy
So the sentence 我要买 + obj. (wŏ yào măi) is mean “I want to buy + obj. (name of things/ foods)”.
And the sentence 我想要 + obj. (wŏ xiăng yào) is equal to “I want + obj. (name of things/ foods)”.
If you do not know the exact name of what you want to buy you can just point at the object and say 我要这个／那个 (wŏ yào zhè ge/ nà ge) which means I want this/ that. This is the simplest way to tell your demand. When you want to ask for the price you can say 多少钱? (dūo shăo qián?) or 一共多少钱? (yí gòng dūo shăo qián?), which means how much or how much in total?
Another important thing you must know is the number, so here is how to count in Chinese
And these are the example of how to read the number
11 十一 shí yī
32 三十二 sān shí èr
870 八百七十 bā bǎi qī she
4,129 四千一百二十九 sì qiān yī bǎi èr shí jiǔ
13,789 一万三千七百八十九 yī wàn sān qiān qī bǎi bā shí jiǔ
When you want to order food you have to tell them how much do you want so the classifier that is often used by Chinese new learner is 个(gè) it is a classifier for people or objects in general, for example, 三个 (sān ge). Can you notice that 个(gè) in 三个 (sān ge) does not pronounce as gè? Yes, its stress is on the word sān so ge is the light tone. When it is a numeral 二 (èr)which means two will be changed to 两 (liăng), e.g. 两个 (liăng ge) two pieces.
Now I will show the example conversation when you go to the restaurant.
Waiter：欢迎光临，几位?
(huān yíng guāng lín, jǐ wèi?)
Welcome, how many people?
You：两位
(liăng wèi)
two people *位 (wèi) is a classifier for people
Waiter：这边请。
(zhè biān qĭng)
This way, please.
——————————————
You：你好，我要点菜。
(nĭ hăo, wŏ yào diăn cài)
Hello, I want to order food.
*点菜 (diăn cài) is order food
You： 我想要一个宫保鸡丁和米饭。
(wŏ xiăng yào yí ge gōng bào jī dīng hé mǐ fàn)
I want to have one dish of spicy diced chicken with rice.
*the meaning of 和 (hé) is ‘and/ with’
——————————————
You：买单
(măi dān)
Bill please
Waiter：一共是五块钱。
(yí gòng shí wŭ kuài qián)
The total is 15 RMB.
*块钱 (kuài qián) is the classifier of RMB
But it is different when you go to buy street food, the conversation will change to
You：你好，我要买一个猪肉包子。
(nĭ hăo, wŏ yào măi yí ge zhū ròu bāo zi)
Hello, I want to buy one of pork streamed bread.
*猪肉 (zhū ròu) pork
You：一个多少钱？
(yí ge dūo shăo qián?)
How much is it?
Look! it is very easy right?, if you cannot remember the number you can use body language but please note that Chinese hand counting is identical and differ from other countries’.
Next time, I will come back with shopping lesson! And if you have any problem about PINYIN you can go to my WE SPEAK CHINESE (1) and learn PINYIN first, and also if you want to see what does the menu I recommend look like you can go to the video. I hope you have learned something from my blog and see you next week.