How about a little humor in Mandarin Chinese? In this episode, from our language teaching archives, Chinese host and Mandarin teacher, Will Xu, tells us a joke in Chinese. Co-host and long time student of Mandarin, Lindi, follows along and helps to guide other learners down the path to understanding and speaking Chinese.

Vocabulary:

土豆 Tǔdòu Potato

洋葱 Yángcōng Onion

朋友 Péngyǒu Friend

带 Dài Have

土 Tǔ Soil, Earth, Old fashioned, unrefined

洋 Yáng Ocean, Foreign (modern, fashionable)

土里土气 Tǔ lǐ tǔqì Old Fashioned

笑 Xiào To Make Fun of, to Laugh at

生气 Shēngqì Angry

改 Gǎi To Change

洋芋 Yángyù Potato (used in S. China)

Dialogue:

A: 土豆和洋葱是好朋友。有一天洋葱笑土豆土里土气的，而且名字都带个“土”字。土豆生气了。第二天洋葱看到土豆走过来，就叫“土豆！土豆！“ 土豆对洋葱说，”我改名了。叫洋芋！“

Tǔdòu hé yángcōng shì hǎo péngyǒu. Yǒu yītiān yángcōng xiào tǔdòu tǔ lǐ tǔqì de, érqiě míngzì dōu dài gè “tǔ” zì. Tǔdòu shēngqìle. Dì èr tiān yángcōng kàn dào tǔdòu zǒu guòlái, jiù jiào “tǔdòu! Tǔdòu!“Tǔdòu duì yángcōng shuō,” wǒ gǎimíngle. Jiào yángyù!“

Potato and Onion are good friends. One day, Onion laughed at Potato for being so old-fashioned, that even the word "old" was part of his name. Potato was angry. The next day Onion saw Potato walking by and called out "Potato! Potato!" Potato replied, "I changed my name. It's (New) Potato!"

Catch My Drift:

洋葱听说土豆改名叫‘洋芋’了，觉得很奇怪。就去问土豆为什么改名。土豆说“还不是因为你笑我的名字带个‘土’字，土里土气的，我才改名了！“ 洋葱赶紧说，”土豆大哥，是我不对，你别生气了。“ 这以后，土豆和洋葱又成了好朋友。

Yángcōng tīng shuō tǔdòu gǎimíng jiào ‘yángyù’ le, juédé hěn qíguài. Jiù qù wèn tǔdòu wèishéme gǎimíng. Tǔdòu shuō “hái bùshì yīnwèi nǐ xiào wǒ de míngzì dài gè ‘tǔ’ zì, tǔ lǐ tǔqì de, wǒ cái gǎimíngle!“ Yángcōng gǎnjǐn shuō,” tǔdòu dàgē, shì wǒ bùduì, nǐ bié shēngqìle.“Zhè yǐhòu, tǔdòu hé yángcōng yòu chéngle hǎo péngyǒu.

Onion heard that Potato had changed his name, and thought that seemed very unusual. When he asked Tudou why he changed his name, Tudou said, “It’s not because you laughed at my name with the word 'earth' in it. It’s just too rustic, so I changed it!” Onion said quickly, “Big Brother Tudou, it’s me. Don’t be angry.” From then on, Potato and Onion became good friends again.