Wow, thank you for all of the suggestions. Yes, I am well aware that this is not a "having conversations" kind of level of fluency.

I was hoping to take "thank you" and "how much" up to perhaps a dozen phrases that I can deploy without needing to glance at a book or cheat sheet. So, again, nothing even approaching survival, just slightly more than your average tourist. :D

Now, if I were doing what my brother did 7 years ago and going there for 10 months to work, I'd be looking for something more substantial, but also I'd pick up as I was there, of course. This time I am tourist only.

Andrea

I am going ahead and plugging Diana here because I don't desire more PMs about this sort of thing:

http://blog.sina.com.cn/dianaandchinese

As a back up or refresher to your course, you can find iPhone apps that give you the basic phrases that you need with spoken audio examples.

learn one phrase
 

I spent nine months taking a conversational Mandarin course before my vacation last year. Although I had learned to say a few phrases, ask a few questions, there was no way I could understand what was said to me.

Just memorize this question, with the correct tones:

ni shuo ying wen ma.
Do you speak English?

Worked for me in almost every case.

Nǐ huì shuō yīngwén ma?

If we're going to get real technical it's:

你会说英语吗？

...and 英语 (spoken) is slightly different from 英文 (written).

yingwen is correct in spoken language

yingyu may apply in written language

similar to zhongwen vs putonghua

I don't think so. Since I live in the presence of 1.3 billion Chinese speakers, it would be relatively easy for me to get a judgement on this case, but since I happen to be relaxing at home for the moment (after an exhausting day at the boat show... getting off topic, those guys are way more in tune with the market than the business jet guys... it was like CES), I'm forced to rely upon my own education to date. Based on my experiences, 文 typically refers to the languages in a general sense (but, with an emphasis on reading/writing), whereas 话 and 语 imply spoken words; case in point, speaking classes are often labeled 口语.

I have to agree with moondog's explanation on this yingwen vs yingyu discussion. In the context at hand referring only to "Can you speak English?" (spoken language is the focus), yingyu is better than yingwen, though even with use of the latter, a Chinese listener will understand your meaning.

The best way to express this orally is 你会说英语吗？

Now that Hollywood is selling out to the Chinese they are going to need those mega-yachts. They can buy the Cannes Film Festival and have a big party.

What's going to left here...pretty much nothing.


Entertainment lawyer Schuyler Moore says he has warned clients not to be overly optimistic in dealing with the country, and says it will take a year to see how China implements its new movie policy. Moore believes China's new openness is aimed mainly at boosting its own cultural industries.

"In the long term, it's no different than China trying to make aircraft and cars and everything else. Their goal is to have the expertise so they can displace Hollywood," he says.

However, if asking someone about if they speak Chinese, you can say 普通话， 中文，and 汉语。

I would agree with #3, but I think you have #1 and #2 switched.

Considering how easy it is to get Chinese English teacher to teach you Chinese in their after hours for under 35rmb per hour in person outside the major Chinese cities...

I guess the cost is justifiable as they have to pay for quality internet for skype.

If you want to ask do you speak English in Chinese just ask in English. If you want to learn some Chinese... there are more useful phrases that this.

i've found this program extremely useful http://english.cntv.cn/program/learn...se/index.shtml