Some courageous souls seems to want to attempt to learn only to read Chinese. Sounds intersting! Here's lesson one from Wikibooks' Mandarin course, without pinyin:

金妮：你好。
歐文：妳好。
金妮：我叫金妮。你叫什麽名字？
歐文:：我叫歐文。

Ginny: Hello.
Owen: Hello.
Ginny: I'm Ginny. What's your name?
Owen: I'm Owen.

金妮：他們是誰？
歐文：她是艾美，她是中國人。他是東尼，他是美國人。
金妮：你也是美國人嗎？
歐文：不是，我是英國人。你呢？你是哪國人？
金妮：我是法國人。

Ginny: Who are they?
Owen: She is Amy. She's Chinese. He's Tony, an American.
Ginny: Are you also American?
Owen: No, I'm British. How about you? Which nationality are you?
Ginny: I'm French.


Questions?


Edit: added word-by-word translation.

金妮：[你好]。
[Hello; you(你)+good(好)]
歐文：[妳好]。
[Hello; you(about female,妳)+good(好)]
金妮：[我][叫][金妮]。[你][叫][什麽][名字]？
[i] [called] [Ginny; phon.]。[You] [called] [what] [name]?
歐文：[我][叫][歐文]。
[i] [called] [Ginny; phon.]

金妮：[他們][是][誰]？
[they; he(他)+plural(們)] [is/are] [who]?
歐文：[她][是][艾美]，[她][是][中國人]。
[she] [is] [Amy; phon.], [she] [is] [Chinese; China(中國)+person(人)].
[他][是][東尼]，[他][是][美國人]。
[he] [is] [Tony; phon.], [he] [is] [American; America(美國)+人].
金妮：[你][也][是][美國人][嗎]？
[you] [too, also] [is] [American] [yes/no or true/false question particle]?

歐文：[不是]，[我][是][英國人]。
[no; not(不)+is(是)], [i] [is/am] [English; England/UK(英國)+人]
[你][呢]？[你][是][哪國人]？
[you then?/how about you?; you(你)+particle(呢)]? [you] [is/are] [which nationality; which(哪)+country(國)+person(人)]
金妮：[我][是][法國人]。
[i] [am] [French; France(法國)+人]

I want to read Ginny and Owen in Chinese, but I don't want to say Ginny/Owen in Chinese. Do you know how I can do that?

I don't see what's wrong with doing this. It sounds interesting! Certainly, knowing the meaning of characters A and B will not guarantee that you will know the meaning of character compound AB, but this doesn't prevent you from learning the meaning of AB as a separate entity. And if the tones are putting you off, then this will at least give you a chance to get started in Chinese.

I think personally, I'd be more interested in learning words without characters, because I like learning words and find learning characters to be a bit boring. But if it's the other way round for you, this sounds like a good idea.

LOL, Japanese people have been doing this for more than 1500 years.

kitakitsune Wrote:LOL, Japanese people have been doing this for more than 1500 years.

I have mentioned this in an earlier thread on this topic. The only difference is that what the Japanese were learning was by then a purely written language not intended for oral communication. With a living spoken language like Mandarin the "reading-only" learners would just be shooting themselves in the foot.

SheekuAltair Wrote:I want to read Ginny and Owen in Chinese, but I don't want to say Ginny/Owen in Chinese. Do you know how I can do that?

What? Here they chose to transliterate them as "金妮" and "歐文" respectively. Perhaps you could read them in Japanese, say as "キンニ" and "オーモン" (or maybe おうぶん=欧文)? Btw, I don't understand why they didn't just choose some native Chinese names.

Vaste Wrote:What? Here they chose to transliterate them as "金妮" and "歐文" respectively. Perhaps you could read them in Japanese, say as "キンニ" and "オーモン" (or maybe おうぶん=欧文)? Btw, I don't understand why they didn't just choose some native Chinese names.

I was joking . I only wanted to highlight how boring and impossible it would be to read 金妮 if you don't bother learning their pinyin equivelant. Because when it comes to names, it's not the meaning that's important, but the pinyin/pronounciation. As in 歐 = O, used in 歐文/Owen and Obama/歐巴馬.

I thought this looked like fun. I don't know any Chinese, but here's what I've figured out:

金妮, 歐文 - Ginny, Owen (obviously)
你好 - hello (first character is 'you')
妳好 - hello (first character may also be 'you', but a different version encoding some different information, possibly gender of the addressee)

我 - I (1sg pronoun)
叫 - perhaps a verb meaning 'to be called' or similar, or some copula suited to naming
你 - you (gender neutral)
什麽名字 - what name (possibly what first name, likely breaks down into more than one word)

他 - he/3sg. pronoun
們 - (plural)
是 - be
誰 - who
她 - she
艾美 - Amy
中國 - China (China + country)
人 - -ese, or -person, making these statements are equivalent to "I am Chinaperson" and such (I'm guessing -person)
東尼 - Tony
美國人 - American (America-ese)
也 - also
嗎 - (question)
不 - (negative/not)
英國 - England (England + country)
呢 - and, or possibly some question word (not enough info)
哪國人 - 哪 could be something like a substantive 'what', or a generic country word
法國人 - French

Obviously there are a lot of things that can't be more properly pinned down without more knowledge. Some things I may have overgeneralized, others over specified. Anyone want to tell me how I did?

That's mostly correct; 呢 is a particle that in this case is sort of like "How about" (i.e. "how about you?")

哪 is a substantive "what" not restricted to countries.

什麽 = what 名字 = name (technically it's family name but the question asks for your whole name generally)

yudantaiteki Wrote:名字 = name (technically it's family name but the question asks for your whole name generally)

You made me uncertain, so I looked it up!

some dictionaries Wrote:名字：姓與名。
名字：名與字號。古代男子一出生就命名，二十歲成人，行冠禮又加字，合稱「名字」。後來在字之外，又有號，自稱用「名」，別人為表示禮敬，以字或號相稱。
名字 [míngzi] 1. 名原為名和字的合稱；現指人的姓名，也單指名。

Basically, 名字 used to be "名" and "字", which were different names for the same person (kinda like maiden's name perhaps?). Nowadays it refers to surname+given name, or one's given name on its own. Family names is typically "姓". Full name more specifically is 姓名 (surname+given name).

OK; I was mixing that up with the Japanese 名字 (also written 苗字), which means family name.