3

Usually I end up saying

我并非/不是以中文为母语的人,(...so please forgive my mistakes).

Is there any way to avoid the awkward-seeming "以中文为母语" construction here but still get this point across, without saying something totally different like "I'm a foreigner" - there are other situations where I really do need to be referring to the specific level of Chinese language capability. It's obvious that I'm not, but I still feel the need to say something along these lines for politeness' sake, from time to time.

Master Sparkles
  • 1,969
  • 13
  • 21
  • 4
    汉语不是我母语/我母语不是汉语。It's true for all languages, the simpler the better. – imrek Dec 31 '14 at 19:55
  • it also looks like i can drop the initial "以" according to some quick google searches, e.g. "...中文为母语的人“... does the double "语" ("汉语" and "母语") make it sound weird, though? – Master Sparkles Dec 31 '14 at 20:02
  • 1
    @MasterSparkles Unlike in western languages, character/word level repetition in Chinese isn't much of a problem, as long as there is no redundancy in meaning. – NS.X. Dec 31 '14 at 20:27
  • that's actually a very good thing to keep in mind. It's hard for that kind of repetition not to sound unwanted. Thank you! – Master Sparkles Dec 31 '14 at 20:28

3 Answers3

3

A rather concise way: "中文不是我母语"

mmjang
  • 131
  • 3
1

中文 is the language, and we speak in 普通話 (Mandarin), 廣東話 (Cantonese), etc. You'd better say "我的母語不是普通話".

Henry HO
  • 2,431
  • 12
  • 9
  • 普通话 is not Chinese, that's Mandarin. And Cantonese has also nothing to do with the question, the OP is talking about Chinese in general. – imrek Jan 02 '15 at 11:52
  • People won't say "I am not a native American English speaker" or "I am not a native British English speaker" because they sound similar enough to be named commonly as "English" in this context. Chinese is a different story. Mandarin, Cantonese, etc. are called Chinese because they are backed by a common written language. If one merely says "Chinese speaker", we can only guess the spoken "form" by the social context. – Henry HO Jan 03 '15 at 01:49
  • Perhaps, but this is not what OP wants to know. Check again. – imrek Jan 03 '15 at 09:42
  • One cannot have "Chinese" as mother tongue, unless he/she is (implicitly) referring to spoken forms like Mandarin or Cantonese. – Henry HO Jan 06 '15 at 10:28
  • Look, you may be right, but it's irrelevant to the OP. – imrek Jan 06 '15 at 10:47
  • @DrunkenMaster It is not really irrelevant. OP says he wants a polite way to say "something along these lines." Henry HO is suggesting that translating the exact phrase in the title is not the best way. – Colin McLarty Jan 19 '15 at 20:07
  • good point about that nuance. Upvote for both fellows kind enough to provide some feedback, since this doesn't seeem to be the case where one answer is"more right" than the other, though I was actually thinking of the written language (~中文? I honestly haven't thought about those nuances in a while) – Master Sparkles Jan 19 '15 at 23:13
1

If you think you cannot get your meaning across,you can append 我中文说的不太好，请见谅。 or 我不太会说中文。.

Usually, it not necessary, we can simply understand the fact that you are a foreigner from your accent.

zzy
  • 248
  • 1
  • 5