>

The question:

nǐ zhīdào lǐ lǎoshī de diàn huà hào mǎ mǎ
你住到李老师的电话号码吗？

The class’s response:

hǎo de hěn

好的很

The explanation:

The question is asking if we know Li Laoshi’s phone number. The word for number, hao4 号 is one tone off from hao3 好 meaning “good”. Add in two ma’s, and…well, you can see how one might arrive at such an answer.

Hopefully.

>Other Laoshi hit us with a couple tongue twisters today as we learned the correct pronunciation for “sh” in Chinese, a pronunciation many local people eschew in favor of the easier “s”, along with “c” for “ch” and “z” for “zh”.

Si4 shi4 si4, shi2 shi4 shi2.

四是四，十是十。

Shi2 si4 shi4 shi2 si4.

十四是十四。


Si4 shi2 shi4 si4 shi2.

四十是四十。

All that’s another way of saying: 4 is 4, 10 is 10. 14 is 14. 40 is 40.

Another, much harder one:


Zhe4 que4shi4 shi4 shi4shi2.

这确实是实事。

This is really a fact. 

>From an English book:

“On Wednesday, I have tennis training with the school team.”

Shouldn’t that be “I have tennis practice.”

Would anyone say “I have tennis training with the school team.”

?