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Dear Diary: Mama Please Believe Me

And now a break from all the intermediate and advanced exercises I’ve been posting lately. This one is a straightforward beginner Chinese diary-style essay about a student whose mother is displeased with his (or her, it’s never clarified) homework.

There’s only one thing that particularly stands out to me as confusing here, which is when the mother says: 可能是有了小妹妹,我这段时间对你关心少了。 Literally, this translates as “Maybe it’s have small sister, I during this time towards you care little.” The last clause we can translate into less literal and more readable English as “I haven’t looked after you much during this time,” but the first bit, “have small sister” (有了), is confusing. Why “have” 有了?

In this case, that could be translated as, “Maybe it’s because we have your little sister,” or “It’s because I had your little sister [to look after]”, though “because” is never actually used in the sentence, it becomes that much harder to read.

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妈妈,相信我了!

9月24日星期六

今天,开完家长会,妈妈闷闷不乐,我小心地问:“妈妈,您怎么了?”妈妈看着我,了口气说:“你暑假作业完成的不好,字也写的不好。我想,可能是有了小妹妹,我这段时间对你关心少了。”我听了,不好意思地低下了头。

看着妈妈自责的样子,我心里特别难过,我对妈妈说:“妈妈,您不要自责了,这根本就不是你的错,而是我自己不努力,请您不要生气了,从现在开始,我一定认真完成老师交给的每项作业,争取取得好成绩。请您相信我!”妈妈着我的眼睛,着我的手说:“好孩子,妈妈相信你,让我们共同努力!”

Show English translation »
September 24, Saturday

Today, after my parent-teacher conference, mama looked moody, and I carefully asked her, “Mama, what’s wrong?” Looking at me, mother sighed and said: “Your summer vacation homework is not close to being done, and your writing is poor. I think, because [I’ve been spending so much time with] your little sister, I haven’t been paying as much attention to you during this time.” As I listened, I hung my head in embarrassment.

When I saw the self-blame on mama’s face, I was very sad, and I said to mama: “Mama, don’t blame yourself, is isn’t your fault at all, it’s that I haven’t worked hard enough, so please don’t be angry, starting now, I’ll earnestly finish all the homework teacher gave me, and I’ll fight to get good grades. Please believe me!” Mama stared into my eyes, grasped my hand and said, “Good child, mother believes you, let us work hard together.”

18 replies on “Dear Diary: Mama Please Believe Me”

A very interesting thought and nice thinking with 了, but I don’t think the sentence is getting quite that specific – I say that because in Chinese “had” (I had a baby) doesn’t mean “give birth to” the way it does in English.

Think of this sentence said to you in this context in English. You’re a child, around 5 or 6. Your mom says to you, “I’d have spent more time with you, but we had your little sister.”

Could mean the baby was born very recently, as it needs more care than you do, and you’re very young. But it could mean the little sister is 2 or 3.

Yeah – I usually pick these up from essay or story sites online, and I bring them over as-is. Have you noticed a trend towards using 的 as an all-purpose character in informal speech in place of 得 and 地?

Glad to have discovered your website. It is exactly what I was looking for to get me started with reading. Keep up the good work. One suggestion – would be good to indicate the year in the dates of published posts.

Or to provide filtering by dates. Just a suggestion 🙂

Either way – great website.

My dictionary translates 家长会 as parent-teacher conference, can it also be family meeting?

Btw, this website is a fantastic resource, thanks alot!

Oops, you’re right! Thanks for pointing that out – I had that in a previous version – not sure what happened there.

I would like to register for the May 5th worsohkp.I have a canon rebel slr. I was wondering if there is a certain filter that you suggest? Also, how would you like me to pay for the worsohkp?Thank you,Laura Aaland

This is a great resource. Please keep putting in new content especially in the beginner section while you can. use this with Skritter and the combination is wonderful for learning Chinese.

wow! This is such a great idea to share the reading material!!! And it’s really intresting to read especially how you explain Chinese. I love it!!

可能是有了小妹妹,我这段时间对你关心少了 –> means the mother feels that she might be neglecting the narrator as she is taking care of the younger sister..

Hi,
Great stories. More fun to learn than standard text books. Appreciate it.
A follow-up to “youle”, I would lean towards the baby being born quite recently rather than 2 or 3 yrs old. “youle” is more immediate. The chinese says “wo youle”, meaning I’ve got it. I got a baby. I’m pregnant. If the sister is 2 or 3, I would think the family would be more adjusted to the idea.

If the tittle has “Dear Diary”, then should the text said “Dear Dairy”?
亲爱的日记 (Qīn’ài de rìjì)

wow, I just started the uphill battle of learning Chinese, and this website is great! thanks for the work you put into it…it will help alot^^

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