# Newbie | Chopsticks are difficult to use

An episode of [ChinesePod - Beginner](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1489328856), 25 Feb 2026, 15 min.

Audio: https://anchor.fm/s/109bf914/podcast/play/115901342/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2026-1-23%2Fa2cb6be8-74af-9c57-b197-8987de70dafa.mp3

Who says you have to use chopsticks to eat Chinese food? If you have not yet mastered your kuàizi skills, then this lesson is for you. Learn how to ask for a fork in a restaurant in today's lesson, let's check it out! Episode link: https://www.chinesepod.com/4261

## Transcript

[0:23] Hi, everyone, and welcome to today's Chinese Pod lesson.
[0:25] I'm Joe. Hi.
[0:31] In today's class, we are going to go to the restaurant and we
[0:34] will talk about things that are maybe a little bit difficult for
[0:36] you when eating in the Chinese restaurant.
[0:39] Whether? I can use chopsticks.
[0:42] Yeah, I can. Yeah, of course.
[0:48] OK, so in the dialogue you will hear the word for chopsticks and
[0:54] you will hear the word for fork. So make sure you listen out for
[0:58] those two words and let's check out the dialogue together.
[1:24] E pan chow Mein. Holder, Marshall Lei.
[1:28] Neiman Yo. Chasma quiz.
[1:31] Hanan Yo. Yoda.
[1:41] Lao ban E pan chow Mein. Holder, Marshall Lei.
[1:46] Neiman Yo. Chasma quiz.
[1:49] Hanan Yo. Yoda.
[1:56] So we're having fried noodles today.
[1:57] Before talking about each of the sentences in detail, let's break
[2:01] down the conversation line by line.
[2:03] Lao bang E pan chow min. Hey boss, can I have a plate of
[2:08] fried noodles? Lao bang E pan chow min.
[2:14] Hey boss, can I have a plate of fried noodles?
[2:17] Lao bang E pan chow min. OK, it's on the way.
[2:28] How the mashanglai? OK, it's on the way.
[2:32] How the Mashanglai Neiman your chasma.
[2:39] Do you have a fork? Neiman, your chasma.
[2:43] Do you have a fork? Neiman, your chasma.
[2:52] Chopsticks are difficult to use. Quite hen nan Yun.
[2:57] Chopsticks are difficult to use. Quite hen nan yung Yoda.
[3:05] Yes, we do. Yoda.
[3:07] Yes, we do. Yoda.
[3:11] Our dialogue starts with the customer calling out the owner
[3:14] of the business and he is like boss.
[3:17] So this is very common in Chinese.
[3:19] Whenever you like talk to the owner of a food stand or maybe
[3:23] the person who you think is the owner, you can just call them
[3:26] out like boss. But in English, this is more
[3:28] than equivalent to excuse me, Sir, probably because in English
[3:31] we wouldn't say boss unless it's your employer.
[3:34] So he's like, excuse me, Sir. And.
[3:37] Then he orders one plate of fried noodles.
[3:43] Chow Mein. So let's fried noodles and then
[3:46] we have the words for one and plate in front of that.
[3:50] E Pan pan pan. Remember that in Chinese you
[3:56] have to use so-called measurement words whenever you
[3:59] count things or order things. So here we have the measurement
[4:02] word for plate. But of course noodles can come
[4:05] in different kinds of things. What would be other measurement
[4:09] words that would fit noodles? E1 Chow.
[4:12] Mein oh, like a bowl of fried noodles.
[4:15] Even chow Mein. Or a portion of fried noodles.
[4:19] So remember that you have to use one or the other measurement
[4:21] word when ordering. OK, So what does the owner, the
[4:25] boss then answer? How the Ma Shang Lai?
[4:29] So here we have this OK, and then there's a like how is OK?
[4:34] And then there's this little particle after that and this we
[4:37] use to soften down the tone of something or to be a little bit
[4:41] more polite. So you often hear this in a more
[4:44] formal or a service environment. And then afterwards he uses a
[4:48] phrase that I like a lot and he says he is coming.
[4:51] And how is he coming? Masha, Masha.
[4:57] Which literally translated means on the horse.
[5:00] Like the first character is horse and then it's on top.
[5:03] So he's like arriving or coming on the horse because we have
[5:07] that other words here to come. Lie.
[5:09] So all together it's coming on the horse.
[5:12] He's very quick back and you can use this on the horse with
[5:17] various things. So for instance, you could say
[5:20] I'm leaving on a horse. So this would work, for example,
[5:25] if a friend or something is calling you and asking where you
[5:27] are because you were actually supposed to meet him and you're
[5:30] like, OK, I'm I'm on my way. I'm the horse out.
[5:35] Or you could of course then say arriving on a horse as well,
[5:38] arriving immediately. Mashang Tao.
[5:41] This, for example, could fit the restaurant situation as well.
[5:44] When you order a dish and then the owner is like, oh, it will
[5:47] come immediately. I'll bring it to you on a horse.
[5:49] It will arrive on a horse. Mashang Tao.
[5:52] Oh yeah, that quick. And when you ask for more
[5:56] utensils or something or an extra bowl, then he could say,
[6:00] oh, I'll give it to you immediately.
[6:02] Mashang. Oh yeah, your horses are super
[6:06] quick. OK.
[6:08] The customer then asks for some utensils because he needs a
[6:11] fork. Neeman, your chasma.
[6:15] So here we find the word for fork, and the whole question is
[6:22] initiated by using the word for you, but in a plural form.
[6:26] Neeman. So he refers to the like the
[6:28] restaurant, all the all the people in the restaurant like do
[6:31] you guys have and after this, you guys or you there's the verb
[6:37] to have. Yo.
[6:39] And then in the very end, there's the question particle
[6:41] here. So all together it becomes you
[6:43] guys have fork question particle.
[6:47] Neiman yo Tasma. And the reason for his question
[6:52] is that he thinks that chopsticks are difficult to use.
[6:56] Quite the hen, Nan Yong. So you will find again the word
[7:01] for chopsticks. Quiz, quiz.
[7:07] And this then is followed by the word hen, which means very, and
[7:10] he says it's very difficult to use.
[7:13] Hen Nan Yun. Nan Yun.
[7:17] So if you look at this difficult to use in separate characters,
[7:20] we just have the character for difficult.
[7:23] Nan. And the character for to use.
[7:26] Yun. Actually you can use the
[7:28] structure of Nan difficult plus something with many other verbs
[7:32] as well. So for instance you could say
[7:34] something is very difficult to write.
[7:37] Nan, Xie. So I guess Chinese, for
[7:41] instance, would be a language that's very difficult to write
[7:43] with all those strokes. Zhong Wenz Hen Nan Xie.
[7:49] Chinese characters are very difficult to write, or German,
[7:53] for instance, is a language that is very tough to learn.
[7:57] Nan Shu du Wen hen nan Shu. So here we have same Nan and Shu
[8:06] to learn. So it's difficult to learn what
[8:09] would be some other things that we can find together with this
[8:11] difficult. Nan Khan.
[8:15] Oh. Diening hen nan Khan.
[8:19] OK, here the meaning actually changes slightly because if you
[8:23] look at those words, you have difficult and watch or look.
[8:27] So we have a movie that is difficult to look at.
[8:32] So this actually means the movie is not that nice.
[8:35] So it's unpleasant for the eyes. I don't want to look at it.
[8:38] And this works with other things as well, for example listening
[8:41] to something like difficult to listen to like this song does
[8:49] not sound nice to me. If you want to say that
[8:53] something is pleasant or that something is good to do, then
[8:56] you can use another adjective instead of this Nan.
[8:59] What is the adjective we would use then?
[9:01] How? So you could say all those
[9:04] things we just said, but with how so we just had difficult to
[9:08] write, right? What was that again?
[9:10] Nan Sia. So easy to write would.
[9:14] Be so. What?
[9:18] What language would make it be easier to write than Chinese?
[9:21] ING Wen hen Hou Shen. Like with 26 characters, English
[9:26] is probably a little bit easier to write or easy to learn.
[9:31] Hou Shu hen hen, Hou Shu well. Maybe not for everyone, but
[9:37] compared to German I would bet it's a little bit easier.
[9:42] Or of course the same when we had Nan Khan.
[9:46] Like I don't want to. It's unpleasant for the eye.
[9:48] You can say something is nice or good looking.
[9:51] How can Ding Hen? How can?
[9:55] You know one person might think that that movie is not good and
[9:59] the other one likes it a lot. How can or same with listening?
[10:04] Hao Ting, GE hen hao Ting. This song is very pleasant for
[10:10] the ears, easy to listen to. Sometimes the meaning can be a
[10:15] little bit unclear. So for instance when you have
[10:18] the same with with eating and you say something is difficult
[10:23] to eat. Lunch.
[10:25] Mm Hmm. I had this experience that I
[10:27] say, oh, something is lunch. And then they were like, wait,
[10:30] do you mean it's difficult to eat or do you don't like it?
[10:35] And then maybe sometimes it can be a little bit confusing what
[10:38] you mean. And you may have to specify
[10:40] that. So for instance, if you want to
[10:41] say that something is nanchi, but you mean difficult to eat,
[10:46] what could we say? Not easy to eat.
[10:51] Or if you want to say nanchi and you mean it's not tasty.
[10:57] Not tasty. Yeah.
[10:59] So the customer needs a fork and luckily the restaurant owner has
[11:02] one. Yo, duh.
[11:04] So here we have the verb to have.
[11:06] Yo. Plus this particle expressing a
[11:09] general politeness, Duh. So we had used this particle in
[11:13] the dialogue now on 2 occasions. The first one was when when the
[11:16] owner said OK. How?
[11:18] Duh. And another one was right now
[11:20] when we said, Oh yes, we do. Yo, duh.
[11:23] You may hear this duh together with another verb sometimes as
[11:27] well. Which is she?
[11:29] Should. Which would be the occasion
[11:31] where you could hear or use this?
[11:37] Ah. OK, so maybe when you get to a
[11:40] restaurant and you want to confirm your reservation, the
[11:42] people may ask you, oh, are you Mr. Lee?
[11:44] And then you could say, yes, I am.
[11:48] After discussing all this and giving you all the details,
[11:50] let's check out the dialogue again.
[12:03] Quiz Henan, yo. Yoda.
[12:23] Yoda. Welcome back to another
[12:26] installment of Chinese Bod Trivia.
[12:32] And the question for you is for what test does Chinese Pod offer
[12:36] preparation services for? Is it A the polygraph, B the
[12:40] colonoscopy, C the HSK test, or D the CAT scan?
[12:46] The CAT scan? Oh, sorry, that is incorrect.
[12:49] The correct answer is C the HSK test.
[12:52] That's right, Chinese Pod will thoroughly prepare you to pass
[12:54] this rigorous test of proficiency in Chinese
[12:57] chinesepod.com/HSK. In.
[13:22] This class we have talked about restaurants and forces and no,
[13:25] we did not speak about horse meat, but you have learned how
[13:28] to say immediately which is on the horse, and we have learned
[13:34] how you can say that something is difficult to use.
[13:36] So for example we have the sentence.
[13:38] Chopsticks are very difficult to use.
[13:42] And. Here we have to remind you that
[13:45] it is not uncommon to have restaurants or food stands in
[13:48] China that still offer only chopsticks and that don't have
[13:51] any forks. Something as an alternative, so
[13:53] in case you really still don't know how to use chopsticks.
[13:58] So. Go and practice immediately on
[14:02] the horse. If you have any questions on
[14:04] today's content besides on how to use chopsticks, let us know
[14:07] in the comments section below. My name is Joe.
[14:10] Sausage it. Bye bye.
[14:13] Now here's a vocabulary recap. Pan.
[14:17] Plate. Chow Mein.
[14:21] Fried noodles. Ma Shang.
[14:25] Immediately. Chaat.
[14:28] Fork Chopsticks. Nan Young.
[14:35] Difficult to use. As usual, Chinese Pod provides
[14:41] an extensive selection of learning materials for this
[14:44] lesson on its website www.chinesepod.com.
[14:48] You can access this lesson directly with the lesson number
[14:51] 4261. So just go to
[14:54] www.chinesepod.com/four 261 and you will find a transcript,
[15:01] vocabulary and much more. The link again
[15:04] www.chinesepod.com/four 261.

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