Chinese For Dummies (117 page)

huǒchē zhàn
火车站
(
火車站
) (hwaw-chuh-jahn) (
train station
)

jiēdào
街道
(jyeh-daow) (
street
)

jízhěn shì
急诊室
(
急診室
) (jee-juhn shir) (
emergency room
)

Měiguó dàshǐguǎn
美国大使馆
(
美國大使館
) (may-gwaw dah-shir-gwahn) (
American embassy
)

piàofáng
票房
(
票房
) (pyaow-fahng) (
ticket office
)

shūdiàn
书店
(
書店
) (shoo-dyan) (
bookstore
)

xuéxiào
学校
(
學校
) (shweh-shyaow) (
school
)

yínháng
银行
(
銀行
) (een-hahng) (
bank
)

yóujú
邮局
(
郵局
) (yo-jyew) (
post office
)

When you travel in unknown areas, you may need to determine whether you can walk or if you need to take a bus or taxi to reach your destination:

Hěn jìn ma?
很近吗
? (
很進嗎
?) (hun jeen mah?) (
Is it near?
)

Hěn yuǎn ma?
很远吗
? (
很遠嗎
?) (hun ywan mah?) (
Is it far?
)

Chapter 16
has the lowdown on all sorts of transportation.

Different strokes for different folks: Saying nǎr versus saying nǎlǐ

Chinese people immediately know where you're from, where you've studied, or at least where your Chinese language teacher is from by the way you say the word
where.
If you say
nǎr
哪儿
(
哪兒
) (nahr) with an
r
sound at the end of the word, you represent a northern Chinese accent commonly found in Beijing. If you say it with a
lee
sound at the end rather than an
r
sound, as in
nǎlǐ
哪里
(
哪裡
) (nah-lee), that indicates you've probably lived or studied in Taiwan.