Chinese For Dummies (43 page)

The following are some useful job terms and job-related expressions:

bàn rì gōngzuò
半日工作
(bahn ir goong-dzwaw)
(
part-time work
)

gùyuán
雇员
(
僱員
) (goo-ywan) (
employee
)

gùzhǔ
雇主
(goo-joo) (
employer
)

jīnglǐ
经理
(
經理
) (jeeng-lee) (
manage
r)

miànshì
面试
(
面試
) (myan-shir) (
interview
)

quán rì gōngzuò
全日工作
(chwan ir goong-dzwaw) (
full-time work
)

shī yè
失业
(
失業
)
(shir-yeh) (
unemployed
)

In China, your
dānwèi
单位
(
單位
) (dahn-way) (
work unit
) is an important part of your life. (This term refers to your place of work, which can be anywhere in the country. Your
dānwèi
is the group that's responsible for both taking care of you and being responsible for any missteps you happen to make.) In fact, when people ask you to identify yourself over the phone, they often say
Nǐ nǎr?
你哪儿
? (
你哪兒
?) (nee nar?) (Literally:
Where are you from?
) to find out what
dānwèi
you belong to. Under Chairman Mao Zedong (the leader of the Chinese Communist Party, who founded the People's Republic of China in 1949), people were assigned jobs right out of high school and didn't even think of marrying until they knew the location of their assignment. A man could've been given a job in the northern hinterlands of China, and his fiancée could've been sent south — only to see each other once a year during the Chinese New Year. The
dānwèi
continues to provide housing for its employees and also enforces government policies, such as the one-child-per-family policy. As recently as 2003, you needed the unit's permission to get married, have a child, or receive any government benefits.

Talkin' the Talk

Yáng and Xiǎo Liú discuss their respective professions, which are quite different from each other. Xiǎo Liú is a nurse in a city located in Henan Province, not far from the famed Shaolin Temple. (Track 9)

Xiǎo Liú:

Yáng, nǐ zuò shénme gōngzuò?

yahng, nee dzwaw shummuh goong-dzwaw?

Yang, what kind of work do you do?

Yáng:

Wǒ shì yǎnyuán.

waw shir yan-ywan.

I'm an actor.

Xiǎo Liú:

Nà hěn yǒuyìsi.

nah hun yo-ee-suh.

That's very interesting.

Yáng:

Nǐ ne?

nee nuh?

How about you?

Xiǎo Liú:

Wǒ shì hùshì. Wǒ zài Kāifēng dìyī yī yuàn gōngzuò.

waw shir hoo-shir. waw dzye kye-fung dee-ee ee ywan goong-dzwaw.

I'm a nurse. I work at Kaifeng's No. 1 Hospital.

Yáng:

Nán bùnán?

nahn boo-nahn?

Is it difficult?

Xiǎo Liú:

Bùnán. Wǒ hěn xǐhuān wǒde zhíyè.

boo-nahn. waw hun she-hwahn waw-duh jir-yeh.

It's not difficult. I really like my profession.

Talking About Where You Live

After folks get to know each other through small talk, they may exchange addresses and phone numbers to keep in touch. That introductory question covered earlier in this chapter,
Nǐ zhù zài nǎr?
你住在哪儿
? (
你主在哪兒
?) (nee joo dzye nar?) (
Where do you live?
), may pop up. You may also want to ask a few of these questions:

Nǐde diànhuà hàomǎ duōshǎo?
你的电话号码多少
? (
你的電話號碼多少
?) (nee-duh dyan-hwah how-mah dwaw-shaow?) (
What's your phone number?
)