I was recently in Beijing the other day for some filming when I found out that a childhood friend of mine from Seattle had recently moved out here to study 普通话 at 北大. Steven and I grew up a mere block from each other in the same small town. It was pretty cool that he had moved to China to learn 普通话 because when we 一起长大, this All-American boy’s only Chinese influence was his occasional visit to my house where he’d dine on my mom’s home cooking. Seriously though, I remember it was me who first taught him how to use 筷子and now he was out here learning 普通话. What a strange twist of events!
Steven invited me to dinner at his apartment. After knocking on his door, I heard a, “你是谁?” and I answered, “我是你的老朋友大维！”
Opening the door, he greeted me with a 熊抱, “Dave wassup! 好久不见!”
“好久不见yourself! I can’t believe you’re in Beijing now and speaking普通话.”
After walking in his apartment, I noticed a sumptuous spread on the dinner table and some racket heard coming from the kitchen.
“Hey Dave, I want to introduce you to someone. This is my girlfriend Wei Wei. She’s also a big fan of yours.”
“难怪your Chinese has been improving so much!”
“Yup. Wei Wei is also my Chinese teacher! She teaches me everything. It’s really the best way to learn Chinese. Hey, Wei Wei, I forgot what this 水果 is called.” Steven said pointing to an orange and green oval shaped fruit.
“That is a 木瓜 (papaya)” Wei Wei answered.
“There’s also 西瓜 (watermelon)” I chimed in.
“And don’t forget 地瓜 (yam)” Wei Wei added.
“Also 苦瓜 (bitter melon)”
“And 南瓜 (pumpkin)”
“And 哈密瓜 (cantaloupe)!”
“Stop, stop, stop!” Steven blurted out! “Man oh man! So many瓜. How do you remember all of them?” He started repeating all of them over and over, “木瓜, 西瓜, 地瓜, 南瓜…” He even started breaking into a special dance to get the 节奏right.
Then I whispered to Wei Wei, “But you forgot to teach him the most important 瓜 of all?”
“What’s that?” She asked
Pointing to Steven who was dancing and gesturing wildly around the room trying to memorize his newly learned words,
I yelled 傻瓜!”
Here’s the English translation of some of the Chinese I used.
普通话 Mandarin
一起长大 grew up together
筷子 chopsticks
熊抱 bear hug
好久不见 long time no see
难怪no wonder
水果 fruit
节奏 rhythm/beat
傻瓜 fool/dummy
Hope this helps you learn some English!