can't read Chinese characters and my friend says it’s a secret and he won't tell me!! Please help

Hi, I have a number of questions about Chinese pinyin pronunciation: 1. How do you know when "i" in Chinese pinyin should be pronounced "uh" or "ee" or "er" as in the English word "fur" (examples of usage in chi and shi)? I've heard it as all these ways and am very confused as to which is correct, keeping in mind I am aiming for the Beijing accent. 2. In the Chinese pinyin "e", how does one know if it is to be pronounced as the English sound "uh" or "eh"? I have heard "ye" as both "yeh" and "yuh". 3. Does it really make a huge difference if you give your "ch" and "zh" different forces of air, like I know some of the sounds have more air than others, like "p" and "b"...?

1.我为了过汉语6级正在努力学习。 2.我在家正在唱歌。 3.我跟朋友一起在商店正在买茶。

Please do NOT send me something from Google. I want to be able to ask a store when they close. Thanks :)

The following: Anyone who answers even one of my questions let alone most of my questions deserves some sort of compensation ;) ^that^ and you will be and sonly rewarded

I am trying to write an e-mail to some of my Chinese friends back in Seoul, and can only speak Chinese very little. So this is what I have written so far, and can any native Chinese speaker tell me if it makes sense? What I am trying to say should be self-explanatory. 现在我在美国是了。 这星期我在纽约。 我下个月回韩国。 我想念每个人。 希望一切都好。祝你们圣诞快乐！祝你们新年快乐！ And also, can any one translate the following so I can add it to my e-mail? I can't wait to come back to Korea. If my new apartment is ready next month, I will throw a party at my place when we are all in Seoul (Including Ingrid, and before E-Jin goes back to Taiwan). If not, we should all meet for a nice evening at the "Top Cloud Bar/Restaurant" (Which of course is my treat). Well I hope everyone is doing well, and can't wait to see everyone again. Best wishes, and sincerest regards. Sincerely,

I was talking to one of my Chinese friends and he called me Shi Pei, I was wondering what it means exactly and I did not get to ask before he logged off. Can anyone help?

In the Chinese phrase "zai nar" -- "located over there" how do you pronounce the "z" in "zai"?I'm never sure if it's pronounced like the z in "zebra" or if its pronunciation like the "dge" in "judge" -- which is it?

My roommate's older sister is visiting our small New York apartment from China tomorrow. I'm already going to say "很高兴再次见到您" but I also want to say, "Welcome to our humble home!" Can I say, "huan ying ni lai wo men de peng bi (蓬筚; péng bì)"? Any other tips on how to make her feel welcome in our home? This is her first time in America. She is from Beijing.

I'm not interested in the "biggest population", "fast developing country" or any economic reasons. I've been studying Mandarin Chinese in Beijing for 3 months and I find myself asking, "Why do I care? Why do I want to study this language?" If china were a slum with no future today, I want some ideas about why I would still want to study the language.

What is the difference between Mandarin Chinese and Cantonese? I'm a teacher trainer in several schools where we have an intake of both Mandarin Chinese and Cantonese speakers. If I put bilingual signs up do I need to find both?

I'm learning Chinese soon (Mandarin) but for now I’m focusing most of my attention on the Chinese characters. I'll be taking notes and using flash cards, but does anyone have any other tips for memorizing the Chinese characters? I need some good ways to learn Chinese. 谢谢 thank you

Chinese, Japanese, I don't really care about exact dialects or anything, i don't really know much about it, I just wanna see what they look like.

I know it starts with "xiè xiè nǐ "

My house is very big. I have 12 rooms in my house. 5 people live in my house they are: father, mother, older brother, younger sister and myself. My room is not big but it isnt small either. In my room i have a bed, a desk and window. My room isnt colourful. It is empty and a boring. My dog lives in my room. Out side my house is a street, on the other side there is my back yard which is very small. There arnt any trees in my back yard. My car is usually parked in my garage but is also parked outside sometimes. I live in a western style house. Other rooms that my house has are: laundry, 4 bedrooms, 2 living rooms, 1 kitchen, 3 bathrooms, and 3 toilets. My laundry has a washing machine. This room is very small. My house has 2 refrigerators. And there is a phone in every-room in my house except for bathrooms. translation would be very helpful and into mandarin chinese would be very helpful to me thank you so much also the grammar is in english if you know enough chinese to put it in the correct format that would be awesome

II know that in Chinese grammar there is no verb conjugation and that the sentence structure is similar to English (SVO) but what else is there to know for Chinese grammar? When do you put in helping verbs in Chinese grammar? How do you say "it?"(Would it be ta?) Where do you put in times of day? Is it true that you add the "le" after the verb to make it past tense in Chinese grammar? Additional Details Also to say "is/am" would you use "shi" or "hen" in Chinese grammar.

So here is how it stands. My parents bug me about the fact that good colleges (ivy league good) want 4 years of foreign language. Currently I am a freshman in high school in Spanish 2. Personally Spanish is hard for me and the reason I get good test grades are because my teacher literally shows us the test before it starts. But she didn't do that for finals and the a's and b's students (including me) got d's and f's. The classes my school has are French, German, Italian, Mandarin Chinese (2 years only), and Spanish. I am not in Spanish honors and I'm not recommended for 3 honors but if I take another language I might be able to get into honors in the first year. So my big question is should I stick with Spanish regular or take another language with a chance for honors?

Thank you!