Chinese Language Certificate

Course: Introductory Lecture

Ambassador® Syed Hasan Javed
Director Chinese Studies Centre, S3H,
NUST, Islamabad
 One Belt One Road-Building a Community of
Common Destiny: Global Family of Languages
Chinese is the largest spoken language in
the World
 ‘Language Bridges’ are a key for building a
Community of Common Destiny
• There are nearly 300 languages spoken in the BRI Region
out of which 25 are major ones, including Mandarin,
Russian, Urdu, Persian, Turkish, Arabic, Malay, Tamil. etc.
• Chinese, Russian, Turkish, Urdu, Persian, Arabic, Malay,
Tamil are major languages for intra regional and extra
territorial communication in the Silk Route Region.
• Conventional tools and Modern technology have to be
harnessed to invent ‘hybrid smart solutions’ for Multi
lingual simultaneous translations and interpretation
facilities in Apps applications in Smart Phones.
 Success of Belt and Road Initiative: Building
a Community of Common destiny
• BRI’s success will depend on a number of factors mainly better
conceptual clarity, commitment, collaboration and connectivity among
the countries of the world in general and Euro-Asiatic in particular.
• The scholars of different languages spoken in the BRI Region have a
special responsibility to devise ways and means to develop
communication and connectivity bridges.
• Pakistani Training institutions and Universities need to overcome
linguistic obstacles to learning Chinese by innovative ways so that
students, scholars, tourists, business persons, technicians, experts,
officials and public representatives can understand each other, and
contribute to the success of Win-win strategy for Pakistan to ride the
‘China Wave’.
 Course Objective
• This Course comprises a hundred lessons, which have been prepared
keeping in view the need for an ability to speak Chinese with Self-help, in
the shortest possible time.
• The beauty of Chinese language and civilization is that it has great capacity
to benefit from other languages and civilizations and also benefit them.
• It is important to know that there is no alternative better method than
‘Pinyin’ to study Chinese. Even the Chinese prefer Pinyin like the
foreigners, to study their language.The ‘Pinyin’ only provides the closest
approximation of the original sounds expressions. English alphabets do not
correctly represent the meaning and sound of Chinese.
• The Chinese people are conscious of the fact that theirs is not an easy
language and therefore go to extra lengths out of courtesy, to appreciate
everyone who makes slightest effort to speak Chinese.
 Evolution of Chinese language
• The history of the Chinese language is spread over several thousands of
years. According to credible historical sources,the Chinese civilization
began along the Yellow River (Huang He) around 7000-8000BC. The
Chinese language is among few of the world’s living ancient languages.
• The Chinese language’s characters provide a continuity of cultural heritage
and a unique sense of unity and identity to the Chinese people.
• The Chinese language which is known as ‘Mandarin’ is also called
Putonghua (common speech) Zhongwen (language of China), Hanyu
(language of the Han), Guoyu ( National language), Huayu (Chinese
language).
• The Chinese language is both an ancient and a progressive language. It has
continued to evolve with time, assimilating hundreds of words of other
languages with suitable modifications in line with the demands of Chinese
cultural context.
 Chinese language: Introduction
• Chinese is a language spoken by the world’s single largest segment of population and
whose economy and power are soon to be second to none, offering immense
opportunities.
• The importance of the Chinese language or Putong hua (common speech) as it is
called, is not just as a means of communication with the world’s one billion and half
population, but also a facilitator to understand the story of cultural evolution of the
Chinese society in itself.
• The Chinese is a unique language in many respects. It is an ancient language with
continuity of long history and script, rarely available in any other living language
system in the world. It is also a progressive language, as every year it assimilates
within its fold, hundreds of words of foreign languages with suitable conditioning, in
accordance with the cultural norms, phonetic alignments and functional requirements.
• The construction of Chinese words with different characters, to denote specific
situations, cultural alignments and functions/requirements, make the whole study
experience, a fabulous one. It is like striking a goldmine of cultural values, attitudes
and norms.
 Pakistan and China
• Pakistan has been the Highway of commerce, business and cultural exchanges for
the great Chinese people with South Asia, Persia and Rome. The modern
Karakorum Highway also referred to, as the eighth wonder of the world
symbolizes the passionate yearning of the people of Pakistan and China, to reach
out to each other by tearing through the natural obstacles.
• In future the Chinese will be able to also trade and promote exchanges with the
Gulf Region and Africa through the newly built Gwadar Port and the planned
Pakistan China Economic Corridor.
• China happens to be Pakistan’s closest friendly neighbor with whom it had
centuries old historical and cultural relations. Over the past six plus decades, these
relations have strengthened further to what is referred to as ‘ An All Weather
Strategic Partnership’.
• The vast desert of Gobi, the lofty mountains of the Himalayas and the Karakorum
could not prevent the union of hearts and exchanges between the Chinese people
and Pakistan, in the ancient times along the Silk Route.
 Chinese and Urdu
• There are at least two dozen Chinese words having common sound and meaning
in Urdu language. This makes possible for Pakistanis to speak Mandarin a lot
better as well as learn faster, than the people of other cultural and geographical
zones of the world. Almost all Chinese sounds have their equivalent in Urdu.
• Some sounds such as ‘Zh’ even have alternative options in Urdu with equal
effectiveness. For example Mr. Zhang can be spoken as:‫انآنگ‬C‫احبچ‬CC‫ ص‬or ‫احب‬CC‫ص‬
‫نگژ‬C
ِ ‫آ‬.
• Due to its rich syllabi, intonations, combinations and permutations, Urdu comes
surprisingly the closest to the Chinese language in terms of tones and sound,
outside Korean, Japanese and Vietnamese.
• The alphabetical derivatives in the Urdu language such as bh, ph, ch, dh, rh, th
etc , the combination of ‘dots’ or ‘nuqtas’ , the intonations as ‘zer, zabar,
pesh,tashdid, toi, sakin, nugan’na, hamza, do chashmi, alif mad-a, as well as the
the auxiliary signs gives the Pakistani students, a unique capability to master
almost any language in the world with considerable ease and effectiveness.
 Tones in Chinese language
• There are four tones in Chinese language i.e. Rising ( ⁄ ), Falling-Rising ( \⁄ ) ,
Falling ( \ ) and Neutral (-). These are closer to Urdu language’s own
intonations ( Zer, Zabar, Pesh, Do Chasmi, Hamza, Tashdeed, Sakin etc).
• It is not only important that standard Chinese language( or Mandarin) is learnt
and spoken in our communication with the Chinese friends, but that it should
be spoken with correct tones and sounds.
• Further it is also vital to master the rich reservoir of jargons, phrases, idioms
and metaphors to harness the full value of the spoken and written language.
The standard Chinese language that is Mandarin follows four tones for e.g
Rising, Falling-Rising, Falling, and Neutral.
• Without the use of right kind of tones, it would be rather impossible to
understand or to be understood while speaking Mandarin.
• To correctly represent the meaning and sound of Chinese expressions these
have to be accompanied by the ‘right tones’.
 Chinese characters
• The written Chinese language comprises of characters
which have evolved from ancient symbols and pictographs.
• Nobody knows exactly, how many characters, there might
be. The best guess will be, not less than twenty thousand.
Some characters are words in themselves.
• In order to carry on a normal routine reading of newspaper
or story book, knowledge of at least five thousand
characters are needed.
• Every character is a living organism with a story to tell, or
provide an explanation of its evolution.
 Some Common Urdu – Chinese Expressions:
Are they the distant relatives of ancient Silk Route Family?
Chinese Pinyin English ‫تلفظچینی‬ ‫اُردو معنی‬ Roman Urdu

阿爸 Ā bà Dad ‫ابّا‬ ‫ابّا‬ Ab’ba

阿妈 Ā mǎ Mom ‫امّاں‬ ‫امّاں‬ Am’ma

爸爸 Bābā Father ‫پا پا‬ ‫بابا‬ Ba’ba

妈妈 Māmā Mother ‫ما ما‬ ‫ماں‬ Ma’a

大爷 Dàye Elder Uncle ‫تآ ئے‬ ‫تآیہ‬ Tay’a

睡觉 Shuì Jiào Sleep ‫شوئی ِچیاؤ‬ ‫سُو جاؤ‬ Su‘jao

走 Zŏu Walk ‫ذاؤ‬ ‫جاؤ‬ Ja’o

国民 Guómín National ‫قومین‬ ‫قومی‬ Qo’mi

阿（哥） Ā(gē) Elder brother ‫آقا‬ ‫بڑاَ بھائی‬ Bara Bhai

族 Zύ Tribe/Group ‫ذو‬ ‫ ئی ذ‬/‫قبیلہ‬ Zai/Qabi’la

宝宝 Bǎobǎo Baby ‫باٶو باوٶ‬ )‫بو با (بچّہ‬ Ba’bu

楠楠 Nānnān Little baby ‫نان نان‬ )‫ننھّا( بچّہ‬ Nan’nha

闺女 Guīnǚ Virgin ‫کونِئئی‬ ‫واری کون‬ Kuan’ri

好 Hăo Good ‫خاو‬ ‫خیر‬ Khair

狮子 Shīrze Lion ‫شیرذہ‬ ‫شیر‬ She’r

突然 Túrán Suddenly ‫تو رن‬ َ‫فورا‬ Fur’an

干部 Gànbù Cadre ‫کان بو‬ ‫بابو‬ Ba’bu

 Common Chinese Urdu words
膨 Péng Swell ُ‫پھنگ‬ ‫پھولنا‬ Pu’lna

鸡子 Jīzi Chicken ‫چی زہ‬ ‫چوزہ‬ Chu’za

苦力 Kǔlì Coolie ‫کھو لی‬ ‫قلی‬ Coo’lie

咳嗽 Késou Cough ‫کھانسیو‬ ‫کھانسی‬ Khans’si

叫喊 Jiàohǎn Shout ‫چیخن‬ ‫چیخنہ‬ Cheekh’na

侵略者 qīn lüèzhě Attack/Loot ‫لوٹارچھین‬ ‫ لوٹ چھینا‬/ ‫حملہ‬ Hamla/Cheen

Loot ma’r

芦笋 Lúsǔn Asparagus ‫لہسن‬ ‫لہسن مارچوبه‬ Lahsan/marjuba

碌碌 Lùlù Mediocre ‫لول‬ ‫لول‬ Lul/Lol