adrianlondon Posted January 24, 2006 at 10:30 AM Report Share Posted January 24, 2006 at 10:30 AM Well, it's beyond me, but I still think it should be easy I'm looking through a recent MSN chat I had with a lad in Shanghai. He can't speak English so there's no point in me asking him what he meant. I sort of guessed the meaning and carried on the conversation. Anyway ... 我也没有帮上什么忙！ If you need context, he had offered to help me learn Mandarin when I go to China and I asked him if he was interested in learning English. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skylee Posted January 24, 2006 at 12:08 PM Report Share Posted January 24, 2006 at 12:08 PM Since it is an easy one, I would give it a try. It means, "I haven't helped much/at all", probably in response to your thanking him. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chenpv Posted January 24, 2006 at 12:12 PM Report Share Posted January 24, 2006 at 12:12 PM I don't know how to translate this sentence. Anyhow, I will give a try: So is ' I didn't help much.' acceptable in English for that sentence? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adrianlondon Posted January 24, 2006 at 12:56 PM Author Report Share Posted January 24, 2006 at 12:56 PM It's the 什么忙 bit that threw me (and still does!). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HashiriKata Posted January 24, 2006 at 01:09 PM Report Share Posted January 24, 2006 at 01:09 PM Ok, let me try: 帮忙 means to help. Unlike the word "help" in English, it consists of the verb 帮 and the noun 忙. So, pretend that the Chinese is equivalent to "give" + "help", you can say "(I didn't give) any help/ 什么忙", where 什么 is equivalent to "any" here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adrianlondon Posted January 24, 2006 at 02:36 PM Author Report Share Posted January 24, 2006 at 02:36 PM Aha - I see. Thanks for that. I thought 帮 or 帮助 was help and that 忙 just meant "busy". Another line from my MSN history is, once I said I was at work : 那你先忙你的工作吧。 I can understand it, but I didn't realise 忙 could be used like that. I recommend chatting with random people via MSN as a great learning experience Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adrianlondon Posted January 24, 2006 at 02:38 PM Author Report Share Posted January 24, 2006 at 02:38 PM Checking via the fantastic http://hmarty.free.fr/hanzi/, I can now see the subtle differences between 帮助 and 帮忙。 I can work out the sentence now; I was incorrectly treating 忙 as an independent word. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deezy Posted January 24, 2006 at 07:32 PM Report Share Posted January 24, 2006 at 07:32 PM I recommend chatting with random people via MSN as a great learning experience How do you go about finding these people on MSN, or Yahoo? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adrianlondon Posted January 24, 2006 at 08:40 PM Author Report Share Posted January 24, 2006 at 08:40 PM 同志， I find mine through web sites linked to my sexuality You might want to find your own methods ... I'm sure MSN has "rooms" - you could probably find one dedicated to people in a certain city, pick people at random, and see who's interested in chatting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonasL Posted January 26, 2006 at 12:11 AM Report Share Posted January 26, 2006 at 12:11 AM 那你先忙你的工作吧。 那 = then 先 = first 忙你的工作 = do what you have to do at work 吧 = a particle to soften the tone of a sentence so probably he meant something like "first mind your work ( then we'll chat )" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adrianlondon Posted January 26, 2006 at 10:19 AM Author Report Share Posted January 26, 2006 at 10:19 AM Hiya - yeah, thanks for that. I did understand what he was saying; it was just the word order which was new to me. Considering all my learning has been based on Practical Chinese Reader, some communist inspired 70s story of unrequited lesbian love between a chinese girl and a blond haired albanian, it's really useful to hear some "real world" experience :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonasL Posted January 26, 2006 at 04:25 PM Report Share Posted January 26, 2006 at 04:25 PM the book with 马大为 和 王小云? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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