Lesson #10 - Apologies
June 22nd, 2007Learn Chinese travel phrases with SurvivalPhrases.com! A little Chinese can go such a long way! Whether you’re traveling, visiting, or sightseeing, survivalphrases.com has all the essential travel phrases just for you! Today we cover a high frequency Chinese phrase sure to be of use on your trip, travels or vacation to China.
As you are traveling in a foreign land, things may not go as planned and you may want to ask forgiveness or apologize for something that resulted in an unfavorable outcome. For this reason and many more, today we’re looking at apologizing in Chinese. Be sure to stop by SurvivalPhrases.com and leave us a post!
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Two ways to say “excuse me” that might be of use. In northeast China (I can confirm this for Jilin province, but I think it’s a pretty standard dongbei usage), you can say 借光 (jièguāng), which literally means “borrow light.” More common, perhaps, is 让一下 (ràng yíxià, note the tone change on yí), which literally means “allow briefly,” and can be translated as something like “let me through.” A more brusque version is 让我吧 (ràng wǒ ba), which is helpful on the subway
Wow, I haven’t heard that before. 借光, that is. Very poetic!
I don’t think that any of this vocabulary is very useful here in Shanghai though, I can’t imagine many everyday social situations where one would apologize! I guess it’s a cultural thing though. I find it funny that 老师 mentioned apologising when using bad table manners. I can’t possibly imagine what bad table manners are here in China!
You do hear 让一下 a lot on the metro, but more common is the ‘Hey!’ which comes just before, or during, a shove in the back.
You wouldn’t possibly be the same John B from another podcast website that teaches 中文? I am the same maxiewawa.
Yes! I love 让一下! 让一下is also really good for passing other riders on your bike. Though a good, loud 看车！is the most effective when making your way through a crowd of pedestrians. (Kan4che1)
There’s subway in Jilin?
Maxiewawa,
Hehe, one in the same. But I don’t actually use this one for Chinese, just the Japanese and Korean
I don’t have anything to add to those yet, unfortunately, though, so I commented here!
Michael,
No subway in Jilin, but 借光 is pretty useful on the bus, too.
Hello Maxiewawa!!!
I’m from Mexico and I’m very interested in your easy way to teach chinese, my question is: Where can I download the pdf of lessons 11 and 12???
Gracias!!! y hasta pronto!!!
iHola Axel! 你好Axel先生！
http://survivalphrases.com/chinese/2007/06/25/welcome/
http://survivalphrases.com/chinese/2007/06/27/restaurant-1-how-many-people/
Good luck!
I was wondering if you all would not mind putting the exact ways of saying (and meaning) of whatever Chinese characters that you put from now on? I am reading these and a lot of the time have no idea what they mean or how to pronounce them.
谢 谢 (Xiè xie - Thank You),
Kevin
Wo hen gan xiè!!!
Now I’m runing in my chinese lessons… you rule!!!
不用谢! （Bu yòng xiè) You’re welcome!
Kevin - We’ll keep that in mind. But please remember that all of the characters are explained at the end of the pdfs. It’s only natural that you can’t remember them at first, but as your literacy improves you’ll find yourself looking at the dictionary less and less.