Need help editing a sign to find a language exchange partner.

[新墨西哥人]

I'm going to count this towards my New Year's resolution to move out of my comfort zone more often.

 

I need some help with a sign I'm writing. I have not translated it online to edit it -- I want to lay my writing bare. Although I did google "language exchange partner in chinese" as I could only guess 语言 and 换.

 

I'm sure there are errors and that it reads at a 3rd grade level! I'm not so against that, it shows that I'm a beginner, so maybe I'll find someone whose English is also at a beginner level. Although I guess different levels aren't a big deal, really.

 

--------------------------

 

我找语言尖换伙伴

 

你是中国人？想不想练习说话英文？

我是美国人和我想练习说话中文。我中文说的不好。

 

发电子邮件: <email here>

中文电子邮件是好的。

 

或者你回答电话： <phone #>

 

 

What I want it to say:

 

Looking for a language exchange partner

 

Are you Chinese? Do you want to practice speaking English?

I am an American. I want to practice speaking Chinese. I don't speak Chinese well.

Send email to: <email>

An email in Chinese is OK.

Or you can call me at: <phone #>

 

------------------------

 

 

Also, culturally should I include a little info about myself? Is that something they would want to know before contacting me? For example I could say, I have a kid, we could meet at the park with our kids or your grandkids (there are a lot of Chinese grandparents around here)

 

Thanks in advance -- Rachel

[Elizabeth_rb]

我找语言交换朋友

你是中国人吗？想不想练习说英文？

我是想练习说中文的美国人。

我中文说得不好。

请发电子邮件给: <email here>用中文,英文写电子邮件都可以。 

你也回可以打电话给我： <phone #>

Might not be 100% correct, but it's understandable.

[lakers4sho]

The letter (Liz's) looks understandable enough.

 

Although if you want to nitpick, we can probably make it a little more concise:

 

(blah)

你可以发给我一封信: <email> ，英语、汉语都可以

给我打电话也可以: <phone>

 

Anyways, good luck! I'm also in the process of finding language partners, but I currently go to a uni, so I don't think I should have much of a problem.

 

lakers4sho

[abcdefg]

language exchange = 语言交流

[roddy]

A nice and concise way of saying language exchange partner is 语伴儿
 
尖换 - where's that coming from? I suspect a typo? Ah, probably 交换。 
 
You probably want a 吗 on the first question, to make it... well, a question.
 
说话英文 - first off you can probably do without 说话, 练习英文 is fine (although we might prefer 英语, as we're talking about the spoken language here). But certainly we don't need 话 - it's acting as an object for the verb 话, but we already have 英文. It's like saying 我想吃饭饺子. 
 
Some personal info would probably be useful, or info about who you'd like to meet. 

[Elizabeth_rb]

I don't think 一封信 is suitable for email as it's not really considered a letters and 封 is the measure for things that fold.

请发(电子)邮件给我 I think is better. Anyone?

[lakers4sho]

电子邮件's classifier is also 封

[Elizabeth_rb]

Interesting! I must post to Lang-8 about that one (out of interest).

The dictionary I have with measure words says 一个电子邮件。

[新墨西哥人]

Thanks you guys! And shoot, I totally meant to write 邮件 instead of whatever I did write. I get sloppy about double checking my characters after using pinyin input although I've been trying to read through it before posting or skyping it, etc. And now I see other errors as well - ones I didn't have to make! next time.

 

How does this look? I used Elizabeth's writing, and incorporated a couple of the other suggestions. ALso I added a P.S. that has some info about me, and I put some questions in parens about stuff I think may well be incorrect. The other incorrect things I just don't even know about yet, or have other ideas of how to phrase.

 

我找语言交换朋友
你是中国人吗？想不想练习说英语？
我是想练习说汉语的美国人。
我汉语说得不好。

 

请发(电子)邮件给我: <email> ，英语、汉语都可以

给我打电话也可以: <phone>

Rachel Pearson

 

P.S. 我是妈妈。有一位女儿。她3岁。(or do I say 他今年3岁?) 他也学汉语。

我喜欢中文可是觉得说汉语说的很难。我也喜欢写和读汉字。我都学健体和繁体字。 (I wanted to put 都 before 健体,but it is an adverb...but subject should be plural according to grammar wiki. or just leave it out?) 我2003去了香港和台湾。还我2010去了上海。我想再去中国。(I haven't used zai in that way before, is that right?)

[lakers4sho]

My dictionary is Pleco's default, now I'm actually curious about that too.

I'm not sure if it's grammatically correct, but I've definitely heard my Chinese friends tell me “你可以给我写信” to mean "You can write me an email".

Rachel:

位 is usually used to refer to someone of a higher position ie. “那位老师”

我很喜欢学习中文，但我还说得不好。

繁体字和简体字我都学习写。You have to prepose “繁体字” and “简体字” to use this type of construction.

lakers4sho

[新墨西哥人]

thanks，lakers4sho . Isn't there a measure word for members of one's family? I guess I confused it with 位。 or just use 个？

[lakers4sho]

I think it's just 个

lakers4sho

[Elizabeth_rb]

Yup, we must find out about that.

Hang fire Rachel and I'll add some suggestions tomorrow when I'm on my laptop again. Forum posting from a small smartphone isn't that easy....

[新墨西哥人]

I agree, smartphone chinese-forums posting is not very easy. I'm not in any rush. And I appreciate all of this assistance, plus it's helping me learn more about chinese grammar!

[roddy]

You might be thinking of 口, but that's usually used when talking about how many people there are in a family - 他的家有三口人。我有一口女儿 would be distinctly odd. 个 is the one you want. 

[Elizabeth_rb]

It's just the tiniest bit 'bitty', Rachel, so I've put the whole thing together into one block as below.  See what you think.

 

我找语言交换朋友
你是中国人吗？想不想练习说英语？
我是想练习说汉语的美国女士。我有一个3岁喜欢学习中文的女儿。
我汉语说得不好，可是很想提升我的说话和写字的能力。健体字，繁体字，我都想学。

我去过中国，香港和台湾，很想再一次去。

 

请发电子邮件给我: <email> ，英语、汉语都可以

给我打电话也可以: <phone>

Rachel Pearson

 

我都学健体和繁体字。 (I wanted to put 都 before 健体,but it is an adverb...but subject should be plural according to grammar wiki. or just leave it out?) 

 

Probably best done as a topic-comment sentence， i.e. you introduce the topic, then make a comment about it.  Not often seen in English!

 

You might also want to include if you just want a female partner.  If you're married etc, then that might be the wisest course.  If so, then delete 中国人 and add 中国女士。 

 

Another pointer, when you want to say you don't do something well, i.e. don't speak Chinese well, you're using the wrong 'de'.  Spoken it would sound fine, but in writing you need to distinguish between the three 'de's: 的，得 and 地。 You've been using the first one, the attributive/possessive one, but you need the second in this type of sentence:

 

我汉语说得不好。

 

Hope that helps! 加油！

[Demonic_Duck]

A nice and concise way of saying language exchange partner is 语伴儿

I've seen this word used in classifieds before, but I tried using it in spoken language and wasn't understood. To be fair I didn't use 儿化音, and in hindsight I may have got the tone of 伴 wrong as well, so take that with a pinch of salt.

 

语言交换伙伴 is also a perfectly good way of saying this, though admittedly less concise.

[tom6740]

Demonic_Duck,

 

语言交换伙伴 is literally fine but we typically don't say that...

 

A more folky way might be 口语搭档.

[tom6740]

An edition from Elizabeth_rb:

 

寻找口语搭档
你说中文吗？想不想练习说英语？ # note: in rare occasions, saying "are you Chinese" might be not so nice due to historical reasons, I guess "do you speak Chinese" will be better.
我是一位想练习中文的美国女士。我有一个喜欢中文的3岁女儿。# usually like Chinese and like learning Chinese are almost equivalent
我汉语说得不好，但我很想提升我的口语和拼写的能力。简体字，繁体字，我都想学。

我去过大陆，香港和台湾，很想再去一次。# note: be careful on saying China and Taiwan -- in many mainlanders' eyes putting them together can be insulting (so does putting China and HK together). You might say "mainland" or "Chinese mainland".

 

请发电子邮件给我: <email> ，英语、汉语都可以

给我打电话也可以: <phone>

Rachel Pearson

[Demonic_Duck]

Demonic_Duck, 语言交换伙伴 is literally fine but we typically don't say that... A more folky way might be 口语搭档.

Interesting, thanks for that - always useful to get the native speaker perspective! Is "语言交换" appropriate for "language exchange", though?

# note: in rare occasions, saying "are you Chinese" might be not so nice due to historical reasons, I guess "do you speak Chinese" will be better.

Good point - you wouldn't go about finding an English language exchange partner by asking "are you English?", would you?