Adam Lambert 24/7 News

JAK here.....

Hello.......Ni hao.......how are you......neih hou ma?

No hao , neih hou ma?


Is that correct Lam-my?

Oops.....make that Ni hao.........JAK

very good JAK.

JAK
No hao...is super funny! lol! Have never said it nor heard it that way. You're the accidental originator! lol!
bu hao / not good lol!
hao / good, hern hau / very good.
JAK, your Mandarin is fast catching up with mine lol!
neih hou ma...is perfect, meaning how are you.
Okay for Adam, because he asked for a nice phrase; I like piau liang / mei li / beautiful. Or jen piau liang / very beautiful / gorgeous.
Mmm Adam is always surrounded by those jen piau liang / mei li der nue hai / beautiful girls.
So Adam, perhaps you could use it on your pretty Shangdam girls!
Like in a conversation:

Adam: ni hau ma
Girl/nue hai: hern hau
Adam: ni hern mei li
Girl: ni yeh jen piau liang...yeh / also
The girl usually hugs Adam, can't let that chance go, you know. lol!

Lam-my

@ Lam-my......I assume intonation is very important when speaking Chinese. Is there a great deal of difference between Mandarin and Cantonese? Do most people in China use both or is it mostly regional?

I never met a language I didn't like and I'm doing pretty good in my Italian classes, maybe I'll make Chinese my next passion!....JAK : )......zai jian!

Hey JAK, I too like Italian, they have a certain drawl that lingers in certain words that are typical.
As for Mandarin as well as Cantonese, each word can have 4 basic phonetic sounds; more for Cantonese, my lingo. It seems Cantonese lost out to Mandarin just by one vote, to become China's main language, but it's Hong Kong's official language.
Each sound of the same word changes the meaning of the word entirely. Simple example: ma (high) / mother...ma (low) horse...ma (mid) / scold. So if you're not careful, you might call your beloved Mom a horse or suggestive of scolding her. lol!
For example in your sentence: ni hau ma (high), it acts as a question tag.
Yea I think if you're so interested in language and you pick it up so fast, Mandarin is a wise choice; particularly now, Adam seems to be Shanghai's pet. lol! Even in Singapore, the younger generations take Chinese as a first language in school (optional) only for those who can manage English and Chinese as first language level, making them 100% bilingual; very difficult according to our Government findings/statistics. Because they are based on two entirely different systems. But there is a very large % of Singaporeans who are truly bilingual, meaning they speak and write both languages fluently, very impressive. Some of these language-talented people/students take a third language, like French, Japanese.
What I'm using is partially Hanyu Pinyin where I use phonetics based on the Alphabet and not on the real Chinese written form, which consists of strokes. I can write in Chinese strokes some phrases and words and my own name. lol! And that's why I recognised jing chieu / golden globe, right behind Adam's HuaDing Award picture. jai jian! / ming tian jian / see you tomorrow. :)

Lam-my