Let’s review where you’re from, your nationality and the language you speak.
Countries
People always want to know what country (国家– guó jiā) are you from. The Chinese character 国 (guó) comes up again and again:
USA (美国 – měi guó)
England (英国 – yīng guó)
South Korea (韩国 – hán guó)
Thailand (泰国 – tài guó)
The Chinese character 国use as a short form of 国家 and other Chinese names for countries are more of a transliteration (sound like the actual name).
Canada (加拿大 – jiā ná dà)
Malaysia (马来西亚– mǎ lái xī yà)
Italy (意大利 – yì dà lì)
How can you ask/answer about where a person is from? Here are the question and the corresponding answer:
你是哪国人? (nǐ shì nǎ rén)
Which country are you from?
我是… 的 (wǒ shì… de)
I’m from…
Nationalities
It is easy to learn nationalities in Chinese language – simply add the character for person (人 – rén):
German (德国人 – dé guó rén)
Indian (印度人 – yìn dù rén)
To say your nationality, it’s quite simple: I’m… (我是…人 – wǒ shì… rén)
Languages
Talking about languages (语言 – yǔ yán), here are some terms -
Mandarin (普通话 – pǔ tōng huà/中文 – zhōng wén/汉语 – hàn yǔ)
Cantonese (广东话 – guǎng dōng huà)
English (英语 – yīng yǔ)
French (法语 – fǎ yǔ)
Spanish (西班牙语 – xī bān yá yǔ)
Here’s how you would ask/answer about what language you speak:
What languages can you speak?
你会说什么语言? (nǐ huì shuō shén me yǔ yán)
I can speak…
我会说… (wǒ huì shuō…)