Survival: Your First Day in China

The first day, from the airport to dinner

Everything in this module now goes to work. The sentences below are the ones a first day actually calls for, in roughly the order you meet them. There is no new grammar here at all.

Arriving

At passport control and again at the taxi rank you need very little. Greet, hand things over, thank.

• 你好。 Nǐ hǎo.
• 这是我的护照。 Zhè shì wǒ de hùzhào. — Here is my passport. This is 是 doing exactly the job the names lesson gave it: this = my passport.
• 谢谢。 Xièxie.

Taxi drivers work from an address on a screen far more often than from speech. Show the address written in characters and let the writing do the work; do not attempt a street name you have never heard said aloud.

Registering

At a hotel desk, a dormitory office or a school office, three sentences cover the whole transaction.

• 你好，我叫马丁。 Nǐ hǎo, wǒ jiào Mǎdīng.
• 我是学生。 Wǒ shì xuésheng.
• 这是我的护照。 Zhè shì wǒ de hùzhào.

You will be asked for a name and a document, and both requests will be short. If the clerk says something you cannot follow, reach for the two repair sentences below instead of nodding.

Asking where something is

One frame does all of it: X 在哪儿？ X zài nǎr? — where is X? 在 zài means to be located at, 哪儿 nǎr means where, and it sits in the slot the answer will fill, exactly as 什么 did.

• 请问，洗手间在哪儿？ Qǐngwèn, xǐshǒujiān zài nǎr? — Excuse me, where is the toilet?
• 请问，地铁站在哪儿？ Qǐngwèn, dìtiězhàn zài nǎr? — Where is the metro station?
• 银行在哪儿？ Yínháng zài nǎr? — Where is the bank?

请问 qǐngwèn at the front is the whole difference between an interruption and a question, so say it every time. 洗手间 xǐshǒujiān is the polite word; 厕所 cèsuǒ is blunter and is often what the sign says. In the south you will hear 哪里 nǎlǐ where the north says 哪儿 — the same word, and either is understood everywhere.

This sentence is worth more than any amount of listening practice, because the answer usually arrives with a pointed finger. You get a reply you can see.

Buying food

Pointing is not rude here, and it solves most of a first meal.

• 我要这个。 Wǒ yào zhège. — I'll have this one.
• 两个，谢谢。 Liǎng ge, xièxie. — 两 and not 二, because a measure word follows.
• 多少钱？ Duōshao qián? / 一共多少钱？ Yígòng duōshao qián?
• 我买水。 Wǒ mǎi shuǐ.

Expect the price as a bare number — 十五 rather than 十五块 — and expect to pay with a phone. A QR code taped to the counter is the ordinary way to buy a bowl of noodles; cash is accepted, but a small stall may have little change. Sort out a payment app before you are standing in a queue with it. In a restaurant, 服务员 fúwùyuán is the normal way to call a member of staff over, and it is not impolite.

When you lose the thread

These sentences are worth more than the rest of the lesson put together, because they keep a conversation open instead of closing it.

• 我听不懂。 Wǒ tīng bu dǒng. — I don't follow what I'm hearing. Learn it as one block, not as four words.
• 请再说一遍。 Qǐng zài shuō yí biàn. — Please say it once more. 遍 is fourth tone, so 一 becomes yí.
• 请慢一点儿。 Qǐng màn yìdiǎnr. — A little slower, please. 点 is third tone, so 一 becomes yì.

Thanking, apologising, leaving

• 谢谢。 Xièxie. — and 不客气 bú kèqi when it comes back at you.
• 对不起。 Duìbuqǐ. — sorry, for bumping into someone or for taking their time.
• 没关系。 Méi guānxi. — never mind; the usual reply.
• 再见。 Zàijiàn.

A last word on the shape of the day. People are generally patient with a foreigner who opens in Chinese and then runs out of it, and much less patient with one who opens in English. 你好, then 请问, then a finger, will carry you further on day one than a large vocabulary you cannot yet hear. And when an exchange collapses, 谢谢 and a smile close it cleanly. Nobody is keeping score.