#chinese languages

是 shì

It means "yes", and "to be", and "so be it" although most of the time in historicals it actually means "aye, aye, Sir".

好 hao

It means "fine", "okay", "alright", and "good", or quite often it actually seems to mean "if you say so". I kind of like the character for this one because the pictographic definition of "good, fine, okay" is a woman with a baby.

多谢 duōxiè,

it means "thank you very much". This goes in the box called "I don't know if this is something people normally say, or if it's only for historicals". In award shows people say 谢谢 xièxie.

and

王妃 wángfēi

it means Princess.

Recognising some forms of address is really useful for getting hints of what's going on that the subtitles don't give you. These include didi, or a vocative a-die, which mean "younger brother", jiejie and a-jie which mean "older sister", and furen and fu(jun? not sure of the second syllable) for "wife" and "husband", specifically when they are contrasted with some other option that could be used.

For instance I am pretty sure that in this line, below, 妹妹 mèimei "younger sister" is being used to be pretentious, presumptuous, and ingratiating in a really specific and rather funny way which the subtitle doesn't attempt to translate:

I recognised it by ear and then wound back to check the subtitle.

I also discovered that addressing your husband by his actual full name (not Surname + Courtesy Name but Surname + Name) apparently has precisely the same meaning as the equivalent in English, namely "you're ANNOYING me!"

Lately on Instagram I’ve been getting a lot of explore page recommendations that incorporate written vernacular Cantonese. They’re mostly for light news pieces or celebrity gossip. But I had trouble understanding these posts because I don’t know any vernacular Cantonese characters. I thought it would be worth learning the basics, so for the past few weeks, I’ve been keeping track of the unfamiliar characters I’ve encountered. Here we go~

（1）佢 = 他、她 （2）咪 = 勿、不、不要、别、否 （3）係 = 是 Ex: 阿嬌就表示佢當初結婚只係考慮到時機上佢係咪應該結婚，而無考慮到佢係咪想結婚。 => 阿娇就表示她当初结婚只是考虑到时机上她是否应该结婚，而无考虑到她是否想结婚。

（4）啲 = 一点、一些 （5）嘅/既 = 的 （6）諗 = 想、思考 Ex: 20幾歲已經有呢個諗法，但考慮到會影響到Twins嘅發展，所以一直都無生BB，令佢有啲後悔。 => 20几岁已经有这个想法，但考虑到会影响到Twins的发展，所以一直都无生BB，令她有些后悔。

（7）喺 = 在、位于 （8）畀/俾 = 给、让 Ex: 本身喺澳洲讀書嘅吳尊曾打算畀子女去澳洲升學，但因為疫情令佢改變主意。 => 本身在澳洲读书的吴尊曾打算让子女去澳洲升学，但因为疫情令他改变主意。

Hi Anon!

I don't speak or understand any Chinese. Although after watching a bunch of Chinese shows this spring I figured out how to count to three (yī, èr, sān; 一二三). And while watching The Lost Tomb: The Ultimate Note I began to recognize the word for secret; it sounds like mi-mi. (I just checked on the Pleco app, which gives the Pinyin as mìmì and the characters as 秘密). I also started to recognize a couple of common phrases at the time, but I no longer remember what any of them were.

So that's the extent of my knowledge. Sorry if you were hoping for help on something! Or if not, I'm happy to satisfy your curiosity :-)

If you are looking for language resources someone on here recommended the Pleco app and I found it useful for looking up words and phrases I heard/saw in shows. The app logo looks like this on my iPhone:

i guess i wanted to ask if there’s any native speakers of any chinese languages or other languages spoken within china (and maybe tibet?) who would be willing to share their experiences with or like general feelings about mandarin

i just think it’s really important to talk to native speakers of these languages bc a lot of my sources so far focus mostly on the policy rather than the experiences and feelings of individual people and i don’t want my paper to be this thing that focuses on history and policy and just leaves out how people inside and outside of china are impacted by this