Chinese Lesson #1

My DTC yahoo board is offering up weekly Chinese lessons to the waiting parents.

Here is lesson #1

Hello (simple, basic greeting): "Ni hau"
Pronounced: "Knee How"
"Ni" (knee) - said just like that body part, it means 'you'
"hau" ("how") - simple, eh?, Hau means "good", so the literal
translation of "ni hau" is "you good"
Add the word "ma" (pronounced just like it is spelled) to turn the
phrase into "How are you?" ("Ni Hau ma?")
You can respond by saying: "hau" or if you are really good "hen hau"
(pronounce the "hen" like the 'hon' in honey)

Mom/Mother: "ma ma"

Dad/Father: "ba ba"

So when they hand your sweet little one to you, you can say to him
or her: "I am your mother" = "Wo shi nide ma ma"
Pronounced "whoa sure knee duh ma ma" :
"wo" (whoa) -just like what you say to stop a horse, it means "I"
"shi" (sure)- say it like the first part of the name Shirley but
don't put a strong "r" on the end
"ni" (knee) - just like that part of your leg, it means "you"
"de" (duh) - its a very short 'duh', it turns something into a
possessive, make 'you' into 'your'
("ma ma" (mama) - just the same as in English.)

To say: "I am your dad" = "Wo shi nide ba ba"
Pronounced same as above, except "ba ba" is just like what a sheep
says, or what we sometimes call our babies' bottle.