Double Ten Day, a day for Taiwanese the world over.

Today we are going to have a look at Double Ten Day, a day that is celebrated by Taiwanese people the world over. Basically speaking, it is Taiwan's birthday. Just so that you all know this day is on the 10th of October hence the name "Double ten Day"


Just a side note that Taiwan turned 100 officially yesterday, making it a centennial celebration event. Many overseas Chinese flew back to Taiwan to celebrate this very special event.


I am not going to dive too much into the historical aspect of this day as it is going to involve too much detail, what I am going to do is mention some vocabulary and explain the meaning of it thereof and then maybe an example sentence or two.


The day is coined by the Taiwanese government as Traditional Chinese 國慶日(guó qìng rì) and Simplified Chinese 国庆日(guó qìng rì).


At an event like this, there's normally a HUGE parade with army men and military displays that you don't usually see on any other day in this country.

遊行(yóu xíng)

Parade

The word parade is in Traditional Chinese 遊行(yóu xíng) and Simplified Chinese 遊行(yóu xíng).


If you break the two characters up, 遊(yóu) literally means to travel and 行(xíng) literally means to walk or travel as well which is quite descriptive in this context.

軍隊(jūn duì)

Army

A very important element of a parade of this magnitude is the army, an army is in Traditional Chinese 軍隊(jūn duì) and in Simplified Chinese 军队(jūn duì).


Now most of those infantry men who form the greater part of the parade are known as Traditional Chinese 步兵(bù bīn) and in Simplified Chinese 步兵(bù bīn)

總統府(zǒng tǒng fǔ)

Presidential building

Now the most important aspect of the event is that, the entire ceremony is conducted right in from of the Presidential Building, the presidential building is in Traditional Chinese 總統府(zǒng tǒng fǔ) and in Simplified Chinese 总统府(zǒng tǒng fǔ)

Bargaining in Taiwan and China, what to say

I believe that getting ripped off is a pretty common situation that people face on a daily basis in the east, so knowing a few bargaining phrases would definitely help in the long run.


A rather interesting location to begin your bargaining would be at the night market, night markets in Taiwan would be a place to find the cheapest of all commodities and they're often open until pretty late.


The two characters that represent the act of bargaining is called Traditional Chinese 殺價, Simplified Chinese 杀价 In pinyin (shā jià)


In Chinese the characters literally mean the following: 殺(shā) means to kill and 價(jià) means price.


In reality the characters for "price" is 價錢(jià qián) where "價(jià)" literally broken up means price and "錢(qián)" meaning money.


Some nouns related or synonymous to "price" are:


Traditional 價格(jià gé) / Simplifed 价格(jià gé) = Price
Traditional 價位(jià wèi) / Simplified 价位(jià wèi) = Price
Traditional 價差(jià chā) / Simplified 价差(jià chā) = Price difference


So if you ever go to a night market, you can always try to 殺價(shā jià), since most of the time as foreigners(westerners), Taiwanese or Mainland Chinese merchants will try to raise the price of merchandise at first. It will be a rather interesting feat to cut the price down.


Some more vocabulary that can be applied or used in the price field of things, the phrase to describe something that's too expensive is Traditional Chinese "太貴了"(tài guì le) / Simplified Chinese "太贵了"(tài guì le).


So an example passage would be:


Traditional Chinese:
客戶(kè hù): 請問這個包包多少錢(qǐng wèn zhè ge bāo bāo duō shǎo qián)?
商人(shāng rén): 這個包包500元(zhè ge bāo bāo wǔ bǎi yuán).
客戶(kè hù): 500元太貴了, 可不可以便宜一點? 250 元差不多吧(wǔ bǎi yuán tài guì le, kě bù kě yǐ pián yí yì diǎn, liǎng bǎi wǔ shí yuán chā bù duō ba)?
商人(shāng rén): 250 元太便宜了, 這樣子我們賺不到幾塊錢, 要不然300元吧!(liáng bǎi wǔ shí yuán tài pián yí le, zhè yàng zi wǒ mén zhuàn bú dào jǐ kuài qián, yào bù rán sān bǎi yuán ba!)
客戶(kè hù): 嗯, 300元差不多(en, sān bǎi yuán chā bù duō).
商人(shāng rén): 嗯, 好, 那就 300元(en, nà jìu sān bǎi yuán).
客戶(kè hù): 謝謝!(xiè xie)
商人(shāng rén): 謝謝!(xiè xie)


Simplified Chinese:

客户(kè hù): 请问这个包包多少钱(qǐng wèn zhè ge bāo bāo duō shǎo qián)?
商人(shāng rén): 这个包包500元(zhè ge bāo bāo wǔ bǎi yuán).
客户(kè hù): 500元太贵了, 可不可以便宜一点? 250 元差不多吧(wǔ bǎi yuán tài guì le, kě bù kě yǐ pián yí yì diǎn, liǎng bǎi wǔ shí yuán chā bù duō ba)?
商人(shāng rén): 250 元太便宜了, 这样子我们赚不到几块钱, 要不然300元吧!(liáng bǎi wǔ shí yuán tài pián yí le, zhè yàng zi wǒ mén zhuàn bú dào jǐ kuài qián, yào bù rán sān bǎi yuán ba!)
客户(kè hù): 嗯, 300元差不多(en, sān bǎi yuán chā bù duō).
商人(shāng rén): 嗯, 好, 那就 300元(en, nà jìu sān bǎi yuán).
客户(kè hù): 谢谢!(xiè xie)
商人(shāng rén): 谢谢!(xiè xie)



English:
Customer: Excuse me, how much is this bag?
Merchant: This bag costs NT$500
Customer: NT$500 is too expensive, can't it be cheaper? How about NT$250
Merchant: NT$250 is too cheap, I won't be making much out of it, how about NT$300?
Customer: OK, NT$300 sounds acceptable.
Merchant: OK, then let it be NT$300
Customer: Thank you!
Merchant: Thank you!

Free Mandarin classes online

We are now offering free mandarin classes online, all you have to do are the following, and the following information is important.

1. We are available Monday to Thursday, 15:00-17:00 GMT+8 (Taipei, Taiwan time)
2. Please contact us by E-mail if you're interested, either forward an E-mail to hans(underscore)lee@t-seed.com OR jovien@t-seed.com, after E-mailing we'll give you a username and password so you can start the free classes with our system.

Please provide us with the following information:

1. The first class will be a consultation class, tell us what you want and wish to learn.
2. How is your Chinese? Have you ever learned Chinese before? What would you like to learn?

Thank you.