对不起,我的中文不好!Sorry, My Chinese is not very good!

This song  is for parents, but kids normally enjoy too!  The lyrics are a typical conversation you would have when you are spotted as a foreigner in China! So the language is very useful indeed!  If you listen to the song many times, the words will stick in your head, and you are on your way to a basic conversation in China!

The skit at the beginning has no subtitles, but highlights the problems of not using the correct tone in Chinese!  The English man asks for shuìjiào (睡觉)which means ‘sleep’.  The vendor is confused and asks if he is tired! He really means to ask for  shuǐjiǎo (水饺) ‘boiled dumplings’.  A simple tone of voice can change meaning, and was obviously a challenging and funny part of this band’s ‘Transition’ language learning in Taiwan!  Enjoy the song!

Not only can a teacher use this song for great introductory conversation skills, the song can be used as a springboard for all sorts of grammar.  I like to use it to highlight a use of 了 (le). When they sing 我的中文进步了 (wǒ de zhōngwén jìnbù le) ‘my Chinese has improved’, the 了 is used to indicate a change.  The sentence is saying that there was a time his Chinese was not very good, so there has been a change.  As you will notice, the band really delay and emphasize the 了 in the song, so students copy the same emphasis when they sing! I feel the band, who are singing about their own experiences of learning Chinese in Taiwan, have probably emphasized the 了 to make a little joke!  Students of Chinese find this 了really confusing, as it has lots of other meanings too, and beginner students are always unsure for quite a while in their Mandarin learning journey whether a sentence needs 了 on the end or not!  You will often hear students say 了 as a delayed afterthought as grammar thought processes go through their head, just like the delay in the song!

This amusing take in 了 can make beginner students feel ok in this confusion, and we can use the opportunity to compare where we have heard 了 in any of the oodles of other songs that we know, and the meaning it is trying to convey…the penny then starts to drop!

But till you get to that stage, just enjoy these 3 English gentlemen singing this catchy song!

Here are the lyrics, pinyin only for space reasons, as Chinese characters and English are on the video subtitles. (Note Chinese characters on video are traditional)

Chorus:

duìbuqǐ wǒde zhōngwén bù hǎo

duìbuqǐ, duìbuqǐ, wǒ bù zhīdào nǐ shuō shénme

duìbuqǐ wǒde zhōngwén bù hǎo

duìbuqǐ duìbuqǐ wǒ zhǐ xiǎng gēn nǐ dāng péngyou

Hello nǐhǎo ma ? nǐde yīngwén hǎohǎotīng

nǐ shì Měiguǒrén ma? bìng búshì Měiguǒrén

wǒ shì yī wèi Yīngguó shēnshì

rúguǒ nǐ zhuānxīn tīng nǐ huì liǎojiě wǒ

duìbuqǐ wǒde zhōngwén bù hǎo

Chorus

huānyíngguānglín lǐmiàn zuò

xiānshēng nǐ yào chī shénme

wǒ yào shuìjiào. nǐ hěn léi shìbúshì?

wǒ bù lěi wǒ dùzi hěn è

wǒ xiǎngyào chī shuǐ jiǎo qǐng nǐ kuài diǎn zuò

Chorus

(huānyíngguānglín duì yā huānyíng lái Běijí xióng de jiā)

Oh! I am so sorry. Oh!

méiguànxì wǒde zhōngwén jìnbù le

méiguànxì, méiguànxì, wǒ hái yào gēn nǐ dāng péngyou

repeat new chorus 2 times

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