Move your mouse pointer over (or touch, from your mobile device) any Chinese words or phrases to get a translation.
Adam: Hello, I’m your host, Adam.
Kirin: 大家好. 我是 Kirin. 欢迎来到第六十课.
Adam: Today’s lesson concludes our three-part review of Unit One. We’ll begin by listening to a short dialogue conducted by our native Chinese speakers. I will then proceed to ask you to translate some similar sentences into Chinese.
Move your mouse pointer over (or touch, from your mobile device) any Chinese words or phrases to get a translation.
Adam: Hello, I’m Adam. Today’s lesson continues our three-part review of Level One of our series. In a moment, you’ll hear a conversation that uses vocabulary we’ve taught previously. I’ll then test you to see how much of it you remember. If you need help with the translations of any of the words in the dialogue, please consult the transcript available to premium subscribers on our website.
Adam: Alright, so let’s see again how much of this you understood. Try and translate the following into Chinese. Keep in mind that this is a telephone conversation.
Hello?
Kirin: 喂?
Adam: “May I ask, is Sally at home?” Now for Sally, use the Chinese equivalent:
Kirin: 莎莉.
Adam: So again, “May I ask, is Sally at home?”
Kirin: 请问，莎莉在家吗?
Adam: Let’s try another way to ask that. “Is Sally there?”
Kirin: 莎莉在吗?
Adam: “Yes, this is Sally,” or simply “I am Sally.”
Kirin: 是，我是莎莉.
Adam: I’m sorry, Sally is not here.
Kirin: 对不起，莎莉不在.
Adam: Do you have any free time?
Kirin: 你有空吗?
Adam: Introduce.
Kirin: 介绍.
Adam: “I want to introduce someone to you”. Literally: “I want introduce give you to know.”
Kirin: 我想要介绍给你认识.
Adam: My girlfriend. Literally: “My female friend.”
Kirin: 我的女朋友.
Adam: Of course that’s okay.
Kirin: 当然好啊.
Adam: What’s your name?
Kirin: 你叫什么名字?
Adam: “My name is Adam.” Now again, let’s use the Chinese equivalent to Adam which is:
Kirin: 亚当.
Adam: So again, “My name is Adam” or literally, “I am called Adam.”
Kirin: 我叫亚当.
Adam: Let’s try another way to say this, literally, “My name is Adam.”
Kirin: 我的名字是亚当.
Adam: What is the verb “can” or “able to”?
Kirin: 可以.
Adam: We can go.
Kirin: 我们可以去.
Adam: New.
Kirin: 新的.
Adam: Old.
Kirin: 旧的.
Adam: French restaurant.
Kirin: 法国餐厅.
Adam: “Is that okay?” Literally: Okay, not okay.
Kirin: 好不好?
Adam: What time is it right now?
Kirin: 现在几点?
Adam: Tomorrow, at half past five p.m.
Kirin: 明天下午五点半.
Adam: How about today?
Kirin: 今天怎么样?
Adam: How is the weather today?
Kirin: 今天的天气怎么样?
Adam: See you tomorrow.
Kirin: 明天见.
Adam: So, hopefully, you were able to get most of those. Let’s listen to the conversation again.
Move your mouse pointer over (or touch, from your mobile device) any Chinese words or phrases to get a translation.
Adam: Hello, my name is Adam. If you’ve been following along since Lesson 1, then congratulations. We’re now going to use a slightly different approach to see how much of it you remember. Our next three lessons, starting with this one, will do a review of the vocabulary we’ve learned so far. You will first hear a conversation that makes use of material that has previously been taught. You will then be asked to translate a series of similar statements or questions into Chinese.
Adam: So hopefully you were able to understand that dialogue. A complete translation is available to Premium subscribers on our website.
Please translate the following statements or questions into Chinese. Try and come up with the answer first before listening to Kirin’s answer. You can then repeat after her.
Excuse me, may I ask…
Kirin: 请问.
Adam: I am British.
Kirin: 我是英国人.
Adam: “Really”? Note that this is a question.
Kirin: 真的吗?
Adam: How long have you been in Taiwan?
Kirin: 你在台湾多久了?
Adam: I’ve been in Taiwan six months.
Kirin: 我在台湾六个月了.
Adam: This is my third year.
Kirin: 这是我的第三年.
Adam: You speak English very well.
Kirin: 你的英文说得很好.
Adam: I don’t speak Chinese very well. Literally: My Chinese speaks not too good.”
Kirin: 我的中文说得不太好.
Adam: Thank you.
Kirin: 谢谢你.
Adam: You’re welcome.
Kirin: 不客气.
Adam: What work do you do here?
Kirin: 你在这里做什么工作?
Adam: Let’s ask this question in a different way. What’s your job?
Kirin: 你的工作是什么?
Adam: I am a student.
Kirin: 我是学生.
Adam: Nice to meet you.
Kirin: 很高兴认识你.
Adam: It’s also nice to meet you.
Kirin: 我也很高兴认识你.
Adam: So hopefully you see how that works. Let’s listen to the dialogue one more time.
Adam: Great, so let’s begin by reviewing the lines from our last lesson.
Kirin: 他家前面有一家餐厅.
Adam: There’s a restaurant in front of his house.
Kirin: 很不错.
Adam: It’s pretty good.
Kirin: 你想要去吗?
Adam: Would you like to go?
Kirin: 他家后面也有一家餐厅.
Adam: There is also a restaurant behind his house.
Kirin: 也很不错.
Adam: “It’s also pretty good.” So that was the dialogue from our last lesson. Let’s continue with the lines from today’s lesson.
Kirin: 我想去看看.
Adam: So we’ve seen all these words before.
Kirin: 我想去看看.
Adam: Do you remember what the verb 想 means on its own? It means “to think” so that gives us a literal translation of “I think go look look.” You’ll commonly see a pattern of words repeating like this to soften the meaning. So for example if I said:
Kirin: 我想去看.
Adam: That could mean “I think I’ll go look.” If I said:
Kirin: 我想去看看.
Adam: That becomes “I think I’ll take a look.”
Kirin: 我想去看看.
Adam: The man then replies:
Kirin: 好，那我们去他家后面那家餐厅看看.
Adam: The 那 word here is used twice with two different meanings. In the first instance, it can be translated as “in that case” while in the second instance it has the meaning of “that.”
Kirin: 好，那我们去他家后面那家餐厅看看.
Adam: So the literal translation here based on what we know is: “Ok, in that case we go his house behind that restaurant take a look.”
Kirin: 好，那我们去他家后面那家餐厅看看.
Adam: Or “Ok, in that case we’ll go the restaurant behind his house and take a look.”
Kirin: 好，那我们去他家后面那家餐厅看看.
Adam: The woman then says:
Kirin: 走吧.
Adam: We’ve seen 走 before in lesson 42 in the words:
Kirin: 走路.
Adam: What did that mean? It meant “to go on foot.”
Kirin: 走路.
Adam: So 走 here means “to go.” The 吧 particle is commonly added to the end of sentences to form a suggestion. So by saying:
Adam: meaning “behind.” While we’re here, let’s add another one.
Kirin: 旁边.
Adam: That means “on the side of.”
Kirin: 旁边.
Adam: You may remember 边 from
Kirin: 左边
Adam: and
Kirin: 右边
Adam: meaning left side and right side respectively.
Kirin: 左边, 右边
Adam: Take a look at the notes for this lesson available to premium subscribers to see more examples and usage of all these sentences, then join us again next time for lesson 58 where we’ll begin a review of all our lessons so far.
Adam: So we have 他家 meaning “his house” followed by a new word consisting of a second tone and a fourth tone. 前面. The literal translation is “front side.”
Kirin: 前面.
Adam: So looking at the sentence, that gives us, “his house front side has” 一家餐厅. So we have another new measure word 家, which is as the same as the character for “house”, but here it’s used as a measure word for “shops or companies.” In this case, it’s not a shop but a 餐厅. Do you remember what a 餐厅 is? We saw it back in lesson 34 in the line:
Kirin: 哇，这个餐厅有很多东西可以吃.
Adam: Meaning “Wow, this restaurant has so many things to eat.” So, hopefully, you remember that 餐厅 means “restaurant.”
Kirin: 哇，这个餐厅有很多东西可以吃.
Adam: Back to today’s line we have:
Kirin: 他家前面有一家餐厅.
Adam: Meaning “In the front of his house, there is a restaurant.”
Kirin: 他家前面有一家餐厅.
Adam: The man then adds.
Kirin: 很不错.
Adam: This is a common phrase using characters we’ve seen before. “Very not 错.”
Raphael: “错” 是什么意思?
Adam: We saw it in Lesson 25. Two people were talking on the telephone and one of them said:
Kirin: 你打错了.
Adam: Meaning “You dialed incorrectly.” So 错, you may remember, means “wrong” or “incorrect.” What is the opposite of 错?
Kirin: 对.
Adam: So back to our line here, we have:
Kirin: 很不错.
Adam: Which literally gives us: “Very not wrong.” 不错 can be used to say “not bad” which makes 很不错 means “pretty good.”
Kirin: 很不错.
Adam: The man then asks:
Kirin: 你想要去吗?
Adam: Do you remember what 想要 means? We heard that in Lesson 22 in the line:
Kirin: 你想要吃什么?
Adam: Meaning “What would you like to eat?”
Kirin: 你想要吃什么?
Adam: So in today’s lesson he asks:
Kirin: 你想要去吗?
Adam: Would you like to go?
Kirin: 你想要去吗?
Adam: The woman then replies:
Kirin: 他家后面也有一家餐厅.
Adam: So earlier we saw 前面 meaning “in front.” Here we have its opposite 后面 which is two fourth tones and means “behind.”
Kirin: 他家后面也有一家餐厅.
Adam: Hopefully you can figure out the rest of the sentence. “Behind his house, there is also a restaurant.”
Kirin: 他家后面也有一家餐厅.
Adam: She then adds:
Kirin: 也很不错.
Adam: Meaning “It’s also not bad”
Kirin: 也很不错.
Adam: Or “It’s not bad either.”
Kirin: 也很不错.
Adam: Alright, we’ll continue this dialogue in our next lesson. For now though.
Raphael: 让我们再听一次今天的对话. 请跟Kirin说.
Kirin: 他家前面有一家餐厅. 很不错. 你想要去吗? 他家后面也有一家餐厅. 也很不错.
Adam: And let’s listen to this dialogue one more time at normal speed.
Adam: Now these are all words we’ve seen before. “You have 空.” That’s a character that we saw back in lesson 14 in the line:
Kirin: 你今天有空吗?
Adam: Do you remember what 空 means? It means “free time.” So in the line we just heard, we were being asked “Do you have any free time today?”
Kirin: 你今天有空吗?
Adam: So back to today’s lesson we have:
Kirin: 你有空的时候喜欢做什么?
Adam: 你有空的时候. We saw this construction a couple of lessons ago. 时候 you may remember means “period of time.” So “ 你有空的时候” means “When you have free time.”
Kirin: 你有空的时候喜欢做什么?
Adam: We know that 喜欢 is the verb “to like.” Do you remember what the verb 做 means? It means “to do.” So the literal meaning of all these words together is “You have free time like do what?”
Kirin: 你有空的时候喜欢做什么?
Adam: Or simply “What do you like to do in your free time?”
Kirin: 你有空的时候喜欢做什么?
Adam: The woman then replies:
Kirin: 我喜欢听音乐.
Adam: So I like to 听音乐. Do you remember what the verb 听 means? We saw it in lesson 17 in the expression:
Kirin: 我听不懂.
Adam: Do you remember what that expression means? It means “I don’t understand” or more specifically “I don’t understand what I’m hearing.”
Kirin: 我听不懂.
Adam: So 听 is the verb “to hear” or “to listen.” So the woman likes to listen to 音乐 which is a first tone and a fourth tone. 音乐. The 音 comes from the word “sound” and the 乐 refers to “music.” So if you put these two characters together you get the word for “music.”
Kirin: 音乐.
Adam: “I like to listen to music.”
Kirin: 我喜欢听音乐.
Adam: She then adds:
Kirin: 有时候，我也喜欢去看电影.
Adam: This next set of words is an important one. 有时候. The literal meaning is “have time” but when you put them together, that gives us the word for “sometimes.”
Kirin: 有时候.
Adam: Let’s listen to the rest of the sentence.
Kirin: 我也喜欢去看电影.
Adam: I also like. We then have a couple of other verbs we should know. What does 去 mean? It’s the verb “to go.” How about 看? That’s the verb “to look” or “to watch.” So this gives us “sometimes, I also like to see 电影. That’s a fourth tone and a third tone. The literal translation is “electric image” which happens to be the word for “movie.”
Kirin: 有时候，我也喜欢去看电影.
Adam: Sometimes, I also like to go watch a movie.
Kirin: 有时候，我也喜欢去看电影.
Adam: She then adds:
Kirin: 那你呢?
Adam: This is another expression we’ve seen before.
Raphael: 那是什么意思?
Kirin: 是 “How about you?” 的意思.
Kirin: 那你呢?
Adam: Then man then replies:
Kirin: 我比较喜欢待在家里看电视.
Adam: Do you remember what 比较 means? We saw it a few lessons ago meaning “comparatively.” In this case, you can also think of it as more simply meaning “more.” So that gives us literally meaning of “I more like 待在家里.” The first character there is a first tone 待 and is the verb “to stay.” What does 在家里 mean? It means “at home.” So together 待在家里 means “to stay at home.”
Kirin: 我比较喜欢待在家里看电视.
Adam: We then have the verb 看 again meaning “to watch” followed by 电视 which is two fourth tones. I’m sure you can guess what he likes to stay home and watch. It’s of course, a television.
Kirin: 我比较喜欢待在家里看电视.
Adam: I prefer to stay at home and watch television.
Let’s now continue with the lines added in today’s lesson.
Kirin: 对，我要一杯大杯可乐.
Adam: So the first part you should know. Correct, I want a 大杯可乐. Now 大 is a character you should be familiar with.
Raphael: “大” 是什么意思?
Kirin: 是 “big” or “large” 的意思.
Adam: That’s followed by a first tone 杯 which is a measure word for cups. So “I want a large cup of” 可乐. That’s a third tone and a fourth tone and is a transliteration of the word “cola.” So usually this ends up being a Coke or a Pepsi.
Kirin: 对，我要一杯大杯可乐.
Adam: Yes, I want a large soda.
Kirin: 对，我要一杯大杯可乐.
Adam: The man is then asked:
Kirin: 这边用还是外带?
Adam: So the first word consists of a fourth tone and a first tone and is another way to say “here”, 这边. The literal translation is “this side.” The next character is 用 which we’ve seen before. Where did we see that before?
Kirin: 你会用筷子吗?
Adam: Ah yes, back in lesson 22. What did 用 mean there? It’s the verb “to use” as in “Can you use chopsticks?”
Kirin: 你会用筷子吗?
Adam: Here, it’s the same character but is being used in a more broad context. So instead of using chopsticks, we’re using food. So 这边用 means “to eat here.”
Kirin: 这边用还是外带?
Adam: The next word is an important one 还是. It’s made up of two characters we’ve seen before – a second tone 还 and a fourth tone 是. The 还 we saw before in 还有. Do you remember what that means? That meant “additionally have”; so 还 means “additionally”, followed by 是, which we know is the verb “to be.” Putting them together gives us 还是 literally meaning “additionally is”, which ends up being the word for “or.” So when you see 还是 you know it’s a question where you’re being given choices.
Kirin: 这边用还是外带?
Adam: So the question is: “Do you want to eat here” or do you want to 外带?” The 外 is a fourth tone and is the same 外 from 外国人 and 老外.
Raphael: “外” 是什么意思?
Kirin: 是 “outside” 的意思.
Adam: And the last character 带 is also a fourth tone and is the verb “to carry.” So the literal translation of 外带 is “out carry” or, in other words, “carry out.”
Move your mouse pointer over (or touch, from your mobile device) any Chinese words or phrases to get a translation.
Adam: I’m your host, Adam.
Kirin: 你们好. 我是 Kirin.
Raphael: 大家好. 我是 Raphael.
Kirin: 欢迎来到第五十三课.
Adam: We’ll begin today’s lesson with a dialogue by our native speakers.
Raphael: 让我们先听一次今天的对话.
Yann: 欢迎光临. 你需要什么?
Cindy: 我要一个鸡肉汉堡.
Yann: 你需要饮料吗?
Raphael: 让我们再听一次今天的对话. 请跟Kirin说.
Kirin: 欢迎光临. 你需要什么? 我要一个鸡肉汉堡. 你需要饮料吗?
Raphael: 让我们来翻译今天的对话.
Adam: Alright, let’s start with the first line of the dialogue.
Kirin: 欢迎光临.
Adam: Now we hear Kirin say the first part at the top of every lesson.
Raphael: “欢迎” 是什么意思?
Adam: That means “welcome.” The second part 光临 is a first tone and a second tone. It refers to “your presence” or “your attendance.”
Adam: So together this means “We welcome your presence.”
Kirin: 欢迎光临.
Adam: It is most commonly heard when you as a customer enter a shop. So this is one of those phrases that you probably wouldn’t need to say, but that you would hear quite often.
Kirin: 欢迎光临.
Adam: The man then asks:
Kirin: 你需要什么?
Adam: So here’s a new verb for you. 需要 That’s a first tone 需 and a fourth tone 要. The 需 refers to “need” while the 要 we’ve seen before meaning “want.” So together this could translate to “What need do you want to have met?”
Kirin: 你需要什么?
Adam: Or simply, “What do you need?”
Kirin: 你需要什么?
Adam: The woman then replies.
Kirin: 我要一个鸡肉汉堡.
Adam: So there are actually no new words in that sentence. 我要一个 “I want one.” 鸡肉汉堡.
Raphael: “鸡肉汉堡” 是什么意思?
Adam: We’ve seen both these words separately before. 鸡肉 means “chicken” and 汉堡 means “hamburger.” So together, 鸡肉汉堡 means “chicken burger.”
Kirin: 我要一个鸡肉汉堡.
Adam: I want a chicken burger.
Kirin: 我要一个鸡肉汉堡.
Adam: The man then asks:
Kirin: 你需要饮料吗?
Adam: So, there’s the 需要 verb again meaning “need” so she’s being asked “Do you need 饮料? That’s a third tone and a fourth tone and together means “a drink” or “a beverage.”
Kirin: 你需要饮料吗?
Adam: Do you need a drink?
Kirin: 你需要饮料吗?
Adam: So as you might guess, this is part one of a two-part dialogue. Which means you’ll have to join us again next time to find out if the woman wants a drink. Hopefully you can bear the suspense until then. For now though.
Raphael: 让我们再听一次今天的对话. 请跟Kirin说.
Kirin: 欢迎光临. 你需要什么? 我要一个鸡肉汉堡. 你需要饮料吗?
Adam: And let’s listen to the dialogue again at normal speed.
Adam: So the first couple of lines we saw in our last lesson.
Kirin: 今天的天气很冷.
Adam: Today’s weather is very cold.
Kirin: 对，冬天的时候，都是这么冷.
Adam: That’s right wintertime is always this cold.
Let’s now look at the new lines from today’s lesson.
Kirin: 我觉得热的天气比较好.
Adam: So first we have the verb 觉得 which we saw in lesson 37.
Raphael: 那是什么意思?
Kirin: 是 “to think” or “to feel” 的意思.
Adam: That’s followed by a new character 热. 热 is a fourth tone and is the opposite of 冷. It means “hot.” We then have 天气 which we learned last time means “weather” followed by another new word 比较. That’s a third tone and a fourth tone and means “comparatively” or “more.” When combined with the 好, which on its own we know means “good”, 比较好 means “better.”
Kirin: 我觉得热的天气比较好.
Adam: So you’ve just learned how easy it is to create a comparative in Chinese. You just use the word 比较. So if I said 比较冷, what would that mean? That would mean “colder”.
Kirin: 我觉得热的天气比较好.
Adam: He then adds:
Kirin: 所以我喜欢夏天.
Raphael: “所以” 是什么意思?
Kirin: 是 “so” or “therefore” 的意思.
Adam: So here we have:
Kirin: 所以我喜欢夏天.
Raphael: “喜欢” 是什么意思?
Adam: That’s the verb “to like.” So that gives us “I like” 夏天. That’s a fourth tone and a first tone and is the opposite of 冬天. So it means “summer.”
Kirin: 所以我喜欢夏天.
Adam: So I like summer.
Kirin: 所以我喜欢夏天.
Adam: The woman then replies:
Kirin: 我也这么觉得.
Adam: So we’ve seen all these words before. Literally this gives us “I also this way feel.”
Kirin: 我也这么觉得.
Adam: In other words, “I feel the same way.”
Kirin: 我也这么觉得.
Adam: She then adds:
Kirin: 我也不喜欢冷的天气.
Adam: So again she’s restating words we’ve seen earlier. “I also don’t like cold weather.”
Kirin: 我也不喜欢冷的天气.
Adam: Or, “I don’t like cold weather either.”
Kirin: 我也不喜欢冷的天气.
Adam: Great, now in this lesson we saw the words for “summer” 夏天 and “winter” 冬天. Let’s look at the words for the other two seasons.
Kirin: 春天.
Adam: That’s two first tones and means “spring.”
Kirin: 春天.
Adam: And the only other season left is:
Kirin: 秋天.
Adam: That’s also two first tones and is the word for “autumn” or the “fall season”.
Move your mouse pointer over (or touch, from your mobile device) any Chinese words or phrases to get a translation.
Adam: Hello everyone, my name is Adam.
Kirin: 大家好. 我是 Kirin.
Raphael: 你们好. 我是 Raphael.
Kirin: 让我们一起来学习第五十一课.
Adam: We’ll begin today’s lesson by listening to a conversation featuring our native speakers.
Raphael: 让我们先听一次今天的对话.
Yann: 今天的天气很冷.
Cindy: 对, 冬天的时候，都是这么冷.
Raphael: 让我们再听一次今天的对话. 并跟 Kirin 说.
Kirin: 今天的天气很冷. 对, 冬天的时候，都是这么冷.
Raphael: 现在我们开始翻译今天的对话.
Adam: Ok, so let’s break down this for you starting with the first line.
Kirin: 今天的天气很冷.
Adam: So we know 今天的 means “today’s”. You hear it lots of times in each lesson with 今天的对话 meaning “today’s dialogue.” Here we have 今天的天气. The 天 is the same 天 from 今天. On its own, it can refer to “day” or “sky.” The second part is a fourth tone 气 and refers to “weather.” So together 天气 literally means “sky weather” or simply “weather.” It’s easy to confuse single characters on their own, so they are often paired with another word to clarify meaning which is why we have 天气 and not just 气.
Kirin: 今天的天气很冷.
Adam: We know the next character 很 means “very.” That’s followed by 冷 which is a third tone and is the character for “cold.”
Kirin: 今天的天气很冷.
Adam: Today’s weather is very cold.
Kirin: 今天的天气很冷.
Adam: The lady then replies:
Kirin: 对.
Raphael: “对” 是什么意思?
Kirin: 是 “correct” 的意思.
Adam: She then says:
Kirin: 冬天的时候，都是这么冷.
Adam: So there are some important concepts here that we need to look at. Let’s start with the first word 冬天. That’s made up of a first tone 冬 meaning “winter” followed again by 天 meaning “sky.” Putting those two characters together gives us “the winter season.”
Kirin: 冬天的时候.
Adam: The next word is 时候 which we’ve seen back in lesson 24 with the term 什么时候. What does 什么时候 mean? It’s a question word asking “when.” The literal translation is “what time” so 时候 here means “time.” Back in our dialogue we have 冬天的时候, meaning “wintertime.”
Kirin: 冬天的时候，都是这么冷.
Adam: The next new character we have here is 都. That’s a first tone and in this context means “all” or “entirely.” It is referring to the wintertime we just talked about. So she’s saying the entire wintertime 是这么冷. The next word 这么 uses a fourth tone and a neutral tone and can be used to say “so much” or “this much.” Finally, the last character 冷 we saw earlier meaning “cold” so together 这么冷 can be translated as “this cold.”
Kirin: 冬天的时候，都是这么冷.
Adam: So the literal translation of the entire sentence is “Correct, winter time all is how cold.” Or in other words “That’s right, wintertime is very cold.”
Kirin: 冬天的时候，都是这么冷.
Adam: Please take a look at the Premium notes for this lesson on our website to see other examples of this same construction. For now though…
Raphael: 让我们再听一次今天的对话. 并跟 Kirin 说.
Kirin: 今天的天气很冷. 对, 冬天的时候，都是这么冷.
Adam: And let’s listen to the dialogue again at normal speed.
Adam: So the first few lines were review from our last lesson.
Kirin: 你在哪里出生?
Adam: Where were you born?
Kirin: 我在印度出生.
Adam: I was born in India.
Kirin: 很有趣.
Adam: Very interesting.
Let’s now continue with the lines from today’s lesson.
Kirin: 那你会说印度话吗?
Adam: We’ve seen the first part of this back in lesson 21 in the phrase:
Kirin: 那你呢?
Adam: Do you remember what that means? It means “So how about you?”
Kirin: 那你呢?
Adam: We could say “你呢?” which means the same thing but saying “ 那你呢?” softens it a little bit in the same way saying “So how about you?” differs from the more abrupt “How about you?” Here we have:
Kirin: 那你会说印度话吗?
Adam: Now hopefully you remember 会说 all the way back from Lesson 4 meaning “able to speak.” So it’s a question asking “Are you able to speak 印度话” Now what language do you suppose that is? Well we know that 印度 means “India” while 话 we’ve seen before in 普通话 and 电话. So 话 on its own means “speech.”
Kirin: 那你会说印度话吗?
Adam: So 印度话 here refers to “the language they speak in India.” So can you speak the Indian language?
Kirin: 那你会说印度话吗?
Adam: To which she replies.
Kirin: 不会.
Adam: Easy enough, “No, I can’t”
Kirin: 不会.
Adam: She then continues.
Kirin: 因为我在加拿大长大.
Adam: So these are all words we’ve seen before.
Raphael: “因为” 是什么意思?
Kirin: 是 “because” 的意思.
Adam: We then have:
Kirin: 我在加拿大长大.
Adam: Now what country is 加拿大? It’s, of course, “Canada.” We then have another set of words we’ve seen before 长大.
Raphael: 那是什么意思?
Adam: That means “to grow up” so she’s literally saying “Because I located in Canada grow up.”
Kirin: 因为我在加拿大长大.
Adam: Or, “Because I grew up in Canada.”
Kirin: 因为我在加拿大长大.
Adam: Let’s hear the rest of the sentence.
Kirin: 所以我不会说印度话.
Raphael: “所以” 是什么意思?
Adam: That means “so”. You may remember from one of our recent lessons that 因为 and 所以 often go together.
Kirin: 因为我在加拿大长大，所以我不会说印度话.
Adam: Because I grew up in Canada, I can’t speak the Indian language.
Kirin: 因为我在加拿大长大，所以我不会说印度话.
Adam: And the last line was.
Kirin: 但是我的父母会说印度话.
Raphael: “但是” 是什么意思?
Kirin: 是 “however” or “but” 的意思.
Adam: 父母 is the first and only new word in today’s dialogue. It’s a fourth tone and a third tone. The 父 refers to “father” and the 母 refers to “mother,” when you put them together you get the word for “parents.”
Kirin: 但是我的父母会说印度话.
Adam: “However, my parents can speak the Indian language.”
Move your mouse pointer over (or touch from your mobile device) any Chinese words or phrases to get a translation.
Adam: Hello, my name is Adam, and you’re listening to lesson 49 titled “Where were you born?”
Kirin: 你们好. 我是 Kirin.
Raphael: 大家好. 我是 Raphael.
Kirin: 欢迎来到第四十九课.
Adam: This is a progressive course teaching Mandarin Chinese. In a moment we’re going to listen to a dialogue that’ll recap some of what we’ve learned so far while introducing some new vocabulary.
Raphael: 让我们先听一次今天的对话.
Yann: 你在哪里出生?
Cindy: 我在印度出生.
Yann: 很有趣.
Raphael: 让我们再听一次今天的对话. 并跟 Kirin 说.
Kirin: 你在哪里出生? 我在印度出生. 很有趣.
Raphael: 现在我们开始翻译今天的对话.
Adam: So let’s break down each line of this dialogue starting with the first line.
Kirin: 你在哪里出生?
Adam: So we’ve seen the first part of that before.
Raphael: “你在哪里” 是什么意思?
Kirin: 是 “where are you” 的意思.
Adam: We’ve seen the last two characters 出生 before as well but separately in different contexts. We first heard 出 back in lesson 19 in the line:
Kirin: 我们明天几点要出去?
Adam: Now what did that line mean?
Kirin: 我们明天几点要出去?
Adam: That meant “What time are we going out tomorrow?”
So the 出 in this line has a meaning of “out.” Here it’s combined with 生 which we’ve seen before in 生日.
Raphael: 那是什么意思?
Kirin: 是 “birthday” 的意思.
Adam: So together 出生 has a literal meaning of “out born” which together ends up meaning “to be born.”
Kirin: 你在哪里出生?
Adam: In other words, “Where were you born?”
Kirin: 你在哪里出生?
Adam: The woman then replies:
Kirin: 我在印度出生.
Adam: So there’s a new country being mentioned here: 印度 which is two fourth tones and is somewhat of a transliteration of the country… India.
Kirin: 我在印度出生.
Adam: So literally that’s “I located in India born” or “I was born in India.”
Kirin: 我在印度出生.
Adam: The man then says:
Kirin: 很有趣.
Adam: So this is a new expression that we can break down. There are three characters there, 很 meaning “very”, 有 meaning “to have.” 趣 which is a fourth tone meaning “of interest”
Kirin: 很有趣.
Adam: Now we taught you earlier that 去 is the verb “to go.” The character here has the same pronunciation but is a different Chinese character altogether; so it’s actually a homonym – there are many of them in the Chinese language. So a lot of these syllables don’t make sense on their own unless you put them together with other words or you’re looking at the actual character itself.
Kirin: 很有趣.
Adam: So together this gives us a literal meaning of “very has interest” or “Very interesting.”
Kirin: 很有趣.
Adam: 有 can be combined with a lot of other characters to give new meanings. For example, “很有意思” meaning “has a lot of meaning” is another way to say “very interesting.” In the premium notes for this lesson, found on our website you will see other examples of common words and expressions using this same format. For now though…
Raphael: 让我们再听一次今天的对话. 并跟 Kirin 说.
Kirin: 你在哪里出生? 我在印度出生. 很有趣.
Adam: Great, and let’s listen to this dialogue again at normal speed.
Move your mouse pointer over (or touch from your mobile device) any Chinese words or phrases to get a translation.
Adam: Hello everyone, and welcome to Lesson 48.
Kirin: 大家好. 我是 Kirin.
Raphael: 你们好. 我是 Raphael.
Kirin: 让我们一起来学习第四十八课.
Raphael: 今天的题目是什么?
Kirin: 祝你好运!
Adam: Good luck!
So let’s get right into it. We’re going to finish up a dialogue that we started a couple of lessons ago. We’ll first listen to our speakers, and then translate the dialogue and explain the new sentences to you.
Adam: I have a map. But I don’t understand. What does this character mean?
Kirin: 我也看不懂.
Adam: I don’t understand it either.
Kirin: 因为我在外国长大，所以我中文不太好.
Adam: I grew up overseas, so my Chinese isn’t very good.
Let’s now continue with the new lines from today’s dialogue. The man now replies:
Kirin: 那么，我应该要找一张英文的地图.
Adam: So the first word 那么 we saw back in lesson 16 when the lady asked:
Kirin: 那么，中国茶怎么样?
Raphael: “那么” 是什么意思?
Kirin: 是 “in that case” 的意思.
Adam: So there the lady was asking “In that case, how about some Chinese tea?”
Kirin: 那么，中国茶怎么样?
Adam: Here, he’s saying:
Kirin: 那么，我应该要找一张英文的地图.
Adam: So the next new word there is 应该 which is two first tones. This is a good word to know – it means “should.” That’s followed by 要找. Now we’ve seen 要 before in the context of “to want.” Here it has the meaning of doing something in the future. So, for example, if I say:
Kirin: 我要去吃饭.
Adam: That can either mean “I want to go and eat” or it could also mean “I am going to go and eat.”
Kirin: 我要去吃饭.
Adam: So here, 我应该要 means “I should do” something in the future. So what is it that he should do?
Kirin: 那么，我应该要找一张英文的地图.
Adam: So the next new word there is 找 which is a third tone and is the verb “to look for.” So we’re getting closer here “I should look for” 一张英文的地图. So you may figure some of this. 一张. 张 is a first tone and is another measure word. It’s used for flat objects which in this case is an 英文的地图.
Raphael: “英文” 是什么意思?
Kirin: 是 “English” 的意思.
Adam: And the last word 地图 we saw earlier in this dialogue meaning “map.”
Kirin: 那么，我应该要找一张英文的地图.
Adam: In that case, I should look for an English map.
Kirin: 那么，我应该要找一张英文的地图.
Adam: In the Premium notes for this lesson you will see other examples using the measure word 张 so be sure to look at that.
The woman then replies.
Kirin: 对，祝你好运!
Adam: We’ve seen 对 a few times recently. What does it mean? It means “right” or “correct.” Since there’s no direct word for “yes” in Chinese, 对 is a close substitute.
Kirin: 对，祝你好运!
Adam: The next part is 祝你. The 祝 is a fourth tone and is the word used to wish someone. So what is she wishing here?
Kirin: 祝你好运!
Adam: 好运. We saw 运 before back in Lesson 33 when we heard:
Kirin: 哦，你真幸运!
Adam: Do you remember what that line means? It means “oh, you are really lucky.”
Kirin: 哦，你真幸运!
Adam: Here we have:
Kirin: 祝你好运!
Adam: Which literally means: “Wish you good luck!”
Kirin: 祝你好运!
Adam: It’s almost a direct translation from English so that should make it easy.
Move your mouse pointer over (or touch, from your mobile device) any Chinese words or phrases to get a translation.
Adam: Hello everyone, and welcome to Lesson 47. I’m your host, Adam.
Kirin: 大家好. 我是 Kirin.
Raphael: 你们好. 我是 Raphael .
Kirin: 欢迎来到第四十七课.
Raphael: 今天的题目是什么?
Kirin: 我在外国长大.
Adam: “I grew up overseas.” Alright, let’s get into it. Today’s lesson continues where our last one left off. We heard the first past last time and we’ll hear the second part in today’s lesson. Each lesson in this course does build upon previous material so take a look at our website for all the old lessons starting all the way back at Lesson 1 if you need to.
Adam: Now since we’ve heard the first part of the dialogue in our last lesson, I’ll give you the translation at this time.
Kirin: 不好意思.
Adam: “Sorry to trouble you.”
Kirin: 我迷路了.
Adam: I am lost.
Kirin: 我有地图.
Adam: I have a map.
Kirin: 可是我看不懂.
Adam: But I can’t understand it.
Kirin: 这个字是什么意思?
Adam: “What does this character mean?” The lady then responds.
Kirin: 我也看不懂.
Adam: “I don’t understand it either.”
So that was our last lesson. Let’s now explore the next part of the dialogue. At this point, I’ll set the context a little bit. This gentleman is a tourist somewhere in China and he is lost. He has a map but it’s in Chinese so he can’t understand it. He then sees a Chinese lady and wants her help. But she has just told him that she can’t understand it either. She now explains why that is.
Kirin: 因为我在外国长大 .
Adam: So there are a few new words to look at there.
Raphael: “因为” 是什么意思?
Kirin: 是 “because” 的意思.
Adam: 我在外国. We saw 外国 back in lesson 29 when we talked about 外国人. Do you remember what the meaning of 外国 was? It literally means “outside country” or “foreign country.”
Kirin: 因为我在外国长大 .
Raphael: “在” 是什么意思?
Kirin: 是 “to be located” 的意思.
Adam: So that gives us “Because I in a foreign country 长大. So there’s a new word there 长 which is a third tone and is the verb “to grow.”
Kirin: 因为我在外国长大 .
Adam: The last word 大 we’ve seen several times before and means… “big.” So together that gives us “grow big” which is the term in Chinese used to mean “to grow up.”
Kirin: 因为我在外国长大 .
Adam: Because I grew up in a foreign country.
Kirin: 因为我在外国长大 .
Adam: The lady then adds:
Kirin: 所以我中文不太好.
Adam: So there’s another new important word there. 所以. That’s two third tones and together means “so” or “therefore.”
Kirin: 所以我中文不太好.
Adam: So hopefully you understand that the last part is being “my Chinese not too good”
Kirin: 所以我中文不太好.
Adam: So the complete sentence is “Because I grew up overseas so my Chinese isn’t very good.”
Now that may sound like a strange construction. But in Chinese, you often see the “because” and “so” put together in this way.
Adam: Great. Please take advantage of all the review tools available to premium subscribers on our website to help you with your learning, go through those at your leisure, then join us for our next lesson where we’ll wrap up this dialogue.
Move your mouse pointer over (or touch, from your mobile device) any Chinese words or phrases to get a translation.
Adam: Hello everyone, my name is Adam.
Kirin: 大家好. 我是 Kirin.
Raphael: 你们好. 我是 Raphael .
Kirin: 欢迎来到第四十六课.
Raphael: 今天的题目是什么?
Kirin: 我迷路了.
Adam: “I am lost.” Interesting.
In a moment we’re going to listen to a short conversation that uses vocabulary we have studied in earlier lessons while adding a few new words and concepts.
Adam: Alright, now let’s go through each line of this dialogue. Incidentally, if you need help with the extra Chinese being used within the lesson, please refer to Lesson 43 which tries to do a thorough recap.
Kirin: 不好意思.
Adam: So here’s one of our favorite lines in these dialogues. We use it over and over since we want you to understand its importance and how frequently it does get used in real life.
Kirin: 不好意思.
Adam: The literal meaning is “Not good meaning” but this meaning extends to “this is embarrassing” or “Sorry to trouble you.” The Chinese have a very modest culture and you have to employ that modesty in your speaking by using such phrases. So usually when you hear this, it means that the person is sorry to trouble you.
Kirin: 不好意思.
Adam: So let’s see what the trouble is.
Kirin: 我迷路了.
Adam: So there’s a new word here 迷路 which is a second tone and a fourth tone 迷路. The 迷 refers to “being lost or confused” while the 路 we saw recently in lesson 42 in the expression 走路. Do you remember what 走路 means? It means “to go on foot.” The literal meaning was “to go” and “road.” So 路 means “road.” So here 迷路 literally means “lost road” and is the term you use for not knowing where you are.
Kirin: 我迷路了.
Adam: The 了 particle at the end signifies a change in situation so this person is saying that he wasn’t lost before, but now he is.
Kirin: 我迷路了.
Adam: He then continues:
Kirin: 我有地图.
Adam: So the first part 我有 means “I have” that’s followed by a new word 地图. That’s a fourth tone and a second tone. The 地 comes from the word for “earth” in Chinese and the 图 refers to a “diagram.” So “earth diagram” in Chinese is the term used for a “map.”
Kirin: 我有地图.
Adam: I have a map.
Kirin: 我有地图.
Adam: He then says:
Kirin: 可是我看不懂.
Adam: Now this is a very similar construction to what we used in lesson 34 when we heard:
Kirin: 可是我看不懂他们的菜单.
Adam: What did that sentence mean? It meant “But I can’t read their menu.”
Kirin: 可是我看不懂他们的菜单.
Adam: The phrase 看不懂 refers to not being able to read due to not being able to understand what it is that you’re reading.
Raphael: “看” 是什么意思?
Kirin: 是 “to look” or “to read” 的意思.
Adam: So literally 看不懂 means “see or read don’t understand.” So back to our current lesson here, we have:
Kirin: 可是我看不懂.
Adam: “But I can’t read.” Now what is it that he can’t read? Well we know from the context that it’s the map that he can’t read. Let’s find out more.
Kirin: 这个字是什么意思?
Raphael: “这个” 是什么意思?
Kirin: 是 “this one” 的意思.
Adam: The next character 字 refers to a “character.” Now of course the Chinese language doesn’t use words and letters. Instead it is composed of hundreds and even thousands of different characters. With so many different characters, it is quite common that students of the language come across a character that they haven’t seen before or don’t remember, so when that happens they ask:
Kirin: 这个字是什么意思?
Adam: What does this character mean?
Kirin: 这个字是什么意思?
Adam: The lady then replies:
Kirin: 我也看不懂.
Raphael: “也” 是什么意思?
Kirin: 是 “also” 的意思.
Adam: So she’s saying: “I also can’t understand it.”
Kirin: 我也看不懂.
Adam: Or “I can’t read it either.”
Kirin: 我也看不懂.
Raphael: 让我们再听一次今天的对话. 请跟Kirin说.
Kirin: 不好意思. 我迷路了. 我有地图，可是我看不懂这个字是什么意思. 我也看不懂.
Adam: Alright, and let’s listen to this dialogue again at normal speed.
Move your mouse pointer over (or touch, from your mobile device) any Chinese words or phrases to get a translation.
Adam: Hello everyone, my name is Adam.
Kirin: 大家好. 我是 Kirin.
Raphael: 你们好. 我是 Raphael .
Kirin: 让我们来学习第四十五课.
Raphael: 今天的题目是什么?
Kirin: 它非常可爱!
Adam: Ooh, “It’s very cute!”
You may notice that there’s lots of extra Chinese being spoken within the lesson. All of it was reviewed in Lesson 43; so please review that lesson if you have trouble with it. As well, there are word for word transcripts available to premium subscribers on our website.
In a moment, we are doing to continue a dialogue that we started in our last lesson. As always, we have our Chinese speakers Raphael and Kirin here to help us out.
Adam: Alright, so let’s begin by looking at the sentences from last time, starting with the first line.
Kirin: 你家里有宠物吗?
Adam: Do you have any pets at home?
Kirin: 有
Adam: Yes, I do.
Kirin: 我家有一只小狗.
Adam: I have a puppy.
Kirin: 还有一只猫.
Adam: As well as a cat.
So that was the dialogue from our last lesson. Let’s continue with the rest of it from today’s lesson:
Kirin: 哦，你的小狗可爱吗?
Adam: So we have 你的小狗 meaning “your puppy.” That’s followed by 可爱. We’ve seen 可 before from 可以.
Rapahel: “可以” 是什么意思?
Kirin: 是 “can” or “able to” 的意思.
Adam: The next part is a fourth tone 爱 and is the character for “love.” Good character to know. So putting those two together gives us “can love” which is the term used for “cute.” Interesting isn’t it?
Kirin: 你的小狗可爱吗?
Adam: Is your puppy cute?
Kirin: 你的小狗可爱吗?
Adam: To which the woman replies:
Kirin: 对，它非常可爱!
Raphael: “对” 是什么意思?
Kirin: 是 “correct” 的意思.
Adam: Now we’ve seen 他 before in the context of “he” or “she.” This 它 is pronounced exactly the same way but is written differently. If you take a look at the Chinese characters in the Premium section for this lesson you will see the difference. It is used primarily for animals, so similar to an “it” context.
Kirin: 它非常可爱!
Adam: The next word is new to us 非常. That’s a first tone and a second tone. The 常 refers to “frequent” while the 非 in this context is a negation particle giving us “not frequent” or “not common.” So together, 非常 is the word used for “very” or “extremely.”
Kirin: 对，它非常可爱!
Adam: And the last word of course means “cute,” so together that gives us “Yes, it’s extremely cute.”
Kirin: 对，它非常可爱!
Adam: We’ve looked at 很 before meaning “very.” However, that has a lighter meaning than the “very” in English. Similarly 非常 has a lighter meaning than “extremely” in English so you will see it being used much more often in Chinese.
Adam: Now before we finish today’s lesson, let’s take a quick look at some of the animals some of whom we saw in today’s lesson and previously that you may find around the home.
Kirin: 狗.
Adam: So that’s a dog.
Kirin: 猫.
Adam: That’s a cat.
Kirin: 鱼.
Adam: Ah so here’s one that we saw before in our lesson different types of meat. Do you remember what it was?
Kirin: 鱼.
Adam: That means “fish.”
Kirin: 鱼.
Adam: Let’s do a couple more.
Kirin: 鸟.
Adam: So that’s a third tone.
Kirin: 鸟.
Adam: And that means “bird.”
Kirin: 鸟.
Adam: Let’s do one more.
Kirin: 老鼠.
Adam: So that’s two third tones.
Kirin: 老鼠.
Adam: And that means mouse.
Kirin: 老鼠.
Adam: Now don’t confuse that with 老师 meaning “teacher.” There the second part has a first tone. 老师. For “mouse” though, we say:
Kirin: 老鼠.
Adam: Alright, so that’s it for us today. Hope you learned something. Take a look at the review tools created for you on our website. Premium subscribers can also look the different characters for different animals see what resemblance they are. And then join us again next time for lesson 46.
Move your mouse pointer over (or touch, from your mobile device) any Chinese words or phrases to get a translation.
Adam: Hello everyone, my name Adam.
Kirin: 大家好. 我是 Kirin.
Raphael: 你们好. 我是 Raphael .
Kirin: 让我们一起来学习第四十四课.
Raphael: 今天的题目是什么?
Kirin: 你家里有宠物吗?
Adam: “Do you have any pets at home?”
If you need help understanding the extra Chinese being used within the lessons please listen to our last lesson, lesson 43 or you can also consult the word for word transcripts found for Premium subscribers on our website. These translate everything that is said in each lesson.
We’ll begin in a moment by listening to a short dialogue that makes use of some words and concepts that we’ve taught before while teaching a few new bits of vocabulary. For a list of all our lessons and what was taught in each one, please visit the Course Outline page on our website.
Raphael: 让我们先听一次今天的对话.
Yann: 你家里有宠物吗?
Cindy: 有，我家有一只小狗还有一只猫.
Raphael: 让我们再听一次今天的对话. 并跟 Kirin 说.
Kirin: 你家里有宠物吗? 有. 我家有一只小狗 还有一只猫.
Raphael: 现在我们开始翻译今天的对话.
Adam: Alright, pretty short dialogue today. We will add a bit more to it in our next lesson. For now though, let’s start with the first line.
Kirin: 你家里有宠物吗?
Adam: So this is a similar construction to lesson 11 where we asked:
Kirin: 你家里有几个人?
Raphael: 你家里有几个人 是什么意思?
Adam: That was asking “How many people are there in your family?”
Kirin: 你家里有几个人?
Adam: Here, we have:
Kirin: 你家里有宠物吗?
Adam: So he’s asking if her house has a 宠物. That’s made up of 宠 which is a third tone meaning “to pamper” or “to spoil” and 物 which is a fourth tone and means “an object.” So what object is there in people’s houses that they pamper and spoil? It’s actually a pet. 宠物 Now it may seem strange to think of a pet as an object. However, if you look at the word for “animal” in Chinese, that’s 动物. We know that 物 is an object while 动 is a fourth tone and refers to something “moving” so 动物 is actually a “moving object,” which refers to an “animal.” 动物.
Kirin: 你家里有宠物吗?
Adam: Do you have a pet at home?
Kirin: 你家里有宠物吗?
Adam: To which the woman replies:
Kirin: 有
Adam: So we know that 有 means “have” as in “yes, I have one.”
Kirin: 有.
Adam: She then says:
Kirin: 我家有一只小狗.
Adam: 我家有, “My house has” 一隻小狗. Now in the first part 一隻, we know that 一 means “one” or “a.” That’s followed by 只 which is a first tone and is the measure word for animals. So if I say 我有一只, you know that means “I have one animal.” What kind of animal you ask?
Kirin: 一只小狗.
Adam: Now we’ve seen the word 小 before from 小姐.
Raphael: “小” 是什么意思?
Adam: Here’s a clue, it’s the opposite of 大.
Kirin: 是 “small” 的意思.
Adam: So I have a small 狗. That’s a third tone and is the word for “dog.” Now a “small dog” in Chinese actually refers to a “puppy.”
Kirin: 我家有一只小狗.
Adam: So “I have a puppy at home.”
Kirin: 我家有一只小狗.
Adam: She then adds:
Kirin: 还有一只猫.
Adam: We saw 还有 back in lesson 18 in the line:
Kirin: 有一个儿子还有两个女儿.
Adam: What is she talking about there? She just said “I have a son as well as two daughters.” So the 还有 literally means “additionally have.” So back to our dialogue, here she says she has a puppy as well as 一只猫.
Kirin: 我家有一只小狗还有一只猫.
Adam: So we know that she’s referring to another animal by the 一只. That animal is a first tone 猫 and is the word for “cat.”
Kirin: 还有一只猫.
Adam: As well as a cat.
Kirin: 我家有一只小狗还有一只猫.
Adam: I have a puppy at home, as well as a cat.
Raphael: 让我们再听一次今天的对话. 并跟 Kirin 说.
Kirin: 你家里有宠物吗? 有. 我家有一只小狗 还有一只猫.
Adam: And let’s listen to our native speakers again before we wrap up.
Move your mouse pointer over (or touch, from your mobile device) any Chinese words or phrases to get a translation.
Adam: Hello everyone, I’m Adam.
Today’s lesson is going to be purely review, as we haven’t done a review lesson for some time. Now back in lesson 30, we introduced a new format to the lesson where there was a lot more Chinese spoken inside the lesson. We’ve been using that format for the past 12 lessons and have had mixed feedback from you. Some of you liked it and some of you found it too much, which is understandable, so I thought I would take this time today to review this new format just to make sure everyone is on the same page going forward.
So usually at the start of each lesson I introduce myself along with my co-hosts here.
Kirin: 大家好. 我是 Kirin.
Raphael: 你们好. 我是 Raphael .
Adam: Alright. Now at this point Kirin then introduces the lesson for us. Now there are a few different ways of doing so. Let’s look at how she introduced our lesson last time:
Kirin: 让我们来学习第四十二课.
Adam: So there are four important words there in the front: What does 让 mean? It means “let.” And what does 我们 mean? That means “us” or “we.” And what does 来 mean? It’s the verb “to come.” And finally what does 学习 mean? That means “to study.” So that first part gives us “Let us come study.”
Kirin: 让我们来学习第四十二课.
Adam: And the last part of that line was the lesson number from last time which was 第四十二 – the 42nd 课. What does 课 mean? It means “lesson.” So that gives us “Let us study Lesson 42.”
Kirin: 让我们来学习第四十二课.
Adam: So that was one way to introduce the lesson. Now Kirin, why don’t you pick a different way to introduce today’s lesson?
Kirin: 欢迎来到第四十三课.
Adam: So there are a couple of different words there. What does 欢迎 mean? It means “welcome.” We then have 来到. That’s made up of two verbs – 来 which we just saw earlier and 到. What does 到 mean? It’s the verb “to arrive.” Adding 到 to a verb signifies an action that was just completed. So you have just come to the lesson so we’re welcoming you.
Kirin: 欢迎来到第四十三课.
Adam: And of course 第四十三课 means “Lesson 43.”
Kirin: 欢迎来到第四十三课.
Adam: So that covers the introduction of the lesson. I then usually ask her: 今天的题目是什么? What does 今天的 mean? It means “today’s.” What does 题目 mean? It means “topic” or “title.” So 今天的题目 is “today’s topic” or “the title of today’s lesson.” 今天的题目是什么? So we are asking: What is the title of today’s lesson?
After this point, I usually go into a background on our series for our new listeners after which we are ready to begin the lesson. That’s when Raphael comes in and says:
Raphael: 让我们先听一次今天的对话.
Adam: So we have 让我们 again, meaning “Let us.” That’s followed by 先. What does 先 mean? It means “first.” We then have the verb 听. What does 听 mean? It’s the verb “to listen.”
Raphael: 让我们先听一次今天的对话.
Adam: The next part was 一次. We know that 一 means one. What does 一次 mean? It means “one time.” We then have the next word which we also saw earlier 今天的 “today’s” followed by the last word 对话. What does 对话 mean? It means “dialogue” or “conversation.” So “let’s first listen to today’s dialogue.”
Raphael: 让我们先听一次今天的对话.
Adam: So at this point, Raphael and Kirin read the lesson’s dialogue at normal speed. When they finish, Raphael says:
Raphael: 让我们再听一次今天的对话.
Adam: So that’s a slight modification of what he said earlier. 让我们 – “let us.” 再听一次. What does 再 mean? It means “again.” So 再听一次 literally means “again listen one time”
Raphael: 让我们再听一次今天的对话.
Adam: And the last part we also saw earlier 今天的对话 “today’s dialogue.”
Raphael: 让我们再听一次今天的对话.
Adam: “Let’s listen again to today’s dialogue.” He then adds another line.
Raphael: 并跟 Kirin 说.
Adam: What does the 并 mean? It means “furthermore.” 跟 Kirin 说. What does 跟 mean? It means “with” Kirin 说. And what does 说 mean? It’s the verb “to speak.” So what does he mean by “furthermore with Kirin speak”?
Raphael: 并跟 Kirin 说.
Adam: He’s saying “As well, repeat after Kirin”
Raphael: 并跟 Kirin 说.
Adam: The word 跟 actually has multiple meanings based on context. It can mean “with” or in this case “follow.” So if I say 并跟 Kirin 说. That means “As well, repeat after Kirin.”
Kirin: 并跟 Kirin 说.
Adam: So at this point, Kirin goes through the dialogue for us line by line, giving you time to repeat after her. When she’s done, Raphael then says:
Raphael: 现在我们开始翻译今天的对话.
Adam: So again, similar structure to what we saw earlier. 现在我们. What does 现在 mean? It means “right now.” So “right now we 开始.” What does 开始 mean? It means “to start” or “to begin.” The next word is 翻译. What does 翻译 mean? It means “to translate.” So what are we going to translate? 今天的对话. Today’s dialogue.
Raphael: 现在我们开始翻译今天的对话.
Adam: So “let’s begin to translate today’s dialogue now.”
Raphael: 现在我们开始翻译今天的对话.
Adam: So this is the part where I take over, going through each line and explaining all the new words. Now during this part, you’ll hear Raphael ask the question “是什么意思?” What does 意思 mean? It means “meaning.” So “是什么意思?” is literally asking “is what meaning?” In other words “what does it mean?” “是什么意思?” Or you may hear him ask “那是什么意思?” What does that mean?
During the review portion, Raphael may ask 中文怎么说? What does that mean? Well, we know 中文 means “Chinese”
Raphael: “怎么” 是什么意思?
Adam: So he just asked you what does 怎么 mean?
Kirin: 是 “how” 的意思.
Adam: It means “how.” So “Chinese how say?” means “How do you say that in Chinese?” 中文怎么说?
So that’s pretty much it as far as the Chinese that we use within the lesson goes. It’s also what we’ll continue to use up to lesson 60 which is the last lesson of our level 1. The level 2 portion which starts at lesson 61 will then introduce more words and phrases that we’ll start to use within the lesson, so it’s important that you understand these ones first before we start teaching you new ones.
Now let’s quickly review the phrases we just looked at again before we wrap up today’s lesson. We’ll listen to the Chinese phrase, then leave a pause for you, the listener, to repeat after the speaker and figure out the meaning, and then I’ll give you the English translation.
Kirin: 让我们来学习第四十二课.
Adam: Let’s come study Lesson 42.
Kirin: 欢迎来到第四十三课.
Adam: Welcome to Lesson 43.
Kirin: 今天的题目是什么?
Adam: What is today’s topic?
Kirin: 让我们先听一次今天的对话.
Adam: Let’s first listen to today’s dialogue.
Kirin: 让我们再听一次今天的对话.
Adam: Let’s listen again one more time to today’s dialogue.
Kirin: 并跟 Kirin 说.
Adam: As well, please repeat after Kirin.
Kirin: 现在我们开始翻译今天的对话.
Adam: Let’s now begin to translate today’s dialogue.
Kirin: 那是什么意思?
Adam: What does that mean?
Kirin: 中文怎么说?
Adam: How do you say that in Chinese?
So that’s it. Hope it helped. Please sending whatever feedback you have to us using the contact form on our website. Review all the material learned in today’s lesson. And then join us again for our next lesson.
Move your mouse pointer over (or touch, from your mobile device) any Chinese words or phrases to get a translation.
Adam: Hello everyone, my name is Adam.
Kirin: 你们好. 我是 Kirin. 让我们来学习第四十二课.
Raphael: 今天的题目是…
Kirin: 你帮了我一个大忙.
Adam: “You’ve been a great help.”
This is a progressive course as each lesson is built upon previous ones. Today, we wrap up a dialogue that we started previous lesson. For a list of all our old lessons and what was taught in each one, please visit the course outline page on our website.
We will now listen to Raphael and Kirin read today’s dialogue. The first part should be review for you.
Adam: The first few lines are review from our last couple of lessons.
Kirin: 不好意思.
Adam: “Sorry to bother you.”
Kirin: 请问，你知道厕所在哪里吗?
Adam: “Do you know where the restroom is?”
Kirin: 知道.
Adam: “Yes, I do know where it is.”
Kirin: 先直走.
Adam: “First go straight.”
Kirin: 然后右转.
Adam: “Then turn right.”
Kirin: 厕所会在你的左边.
Adam: “The restroom will be on your left.”
Kirin: 从这里到那里很远吗?
Adam: “Is it very far to go there from here?”
Kirin: 不太远.
Adam: “Not too far.”
So that’s where we ended off last time. Let’s continue with the lines from today’s lesson.
Kirin: 走路去大概两分钟左右.
Adam: Let’s look at the first part.
Kirin: 走路去.
Adam: There are three characters there. The first word is 走. We saw it earlier with 直走.
Raphael: “走” 是什么意思?
Kirin: 是 “to walk” or “to go” 的意思.
Adam: The next word is a fourth tone 路, which means “road.” We then have the verb 去.
Raphael: “去” 是什么意思?
Kirin: 是 “to go” 的意思.
Adam: So putting those three together gives us 走路去 “walk road go.”
Kirin: 走路去.
Adam: This expression means “to go on foot.”
Kirin: 走路去.
Adam: She then says:
Kirin: 大概两分钟左右.
Adam: The first word is two fourth tones. 大概. We hear the first part 大 at the top of every lesson when we say 大家好.
Raphael: “大” 是什么意思?
Kirin: 是 “big” 的意思.
Adam: The next part 概 means “approximate.” So the expression 大概 or “big approximate” is what they use to say “probably.”
Kirin: 走路去大概两分钟左右.
Adam: So “to go on foot is probably 两分钟” Let’s examine this. 两分钟.
Raphael: “两” 是什么意思?
Kirin: 是 “two of something” 的意思.
Adam: So two of what? 两分钟. We’ve seen the 分 before from our lesson on time. If you asked me what time it was, and I replied with 七点五分, what time would that be? That would be 7:05. So the 五分 means “5 minutes.” Now 分 on its own can mean many things based on context. It represents a portion of something, so it could be “points on a scoreboard” or in this case “minutes on a clock.” So to clarify that it’s minutes we’re talking about, they add a first tone 钟 after it which means “clock.” So now we know we’re talking about minutes on clock.
Kirin: 大概两分钟左右.
Adam: The last two characters are very interesting and we’ve seen both of them earlier in this dialogue. 左 and 右 are opposites to each other meaning “left” and “right” repectively. 左右 is the Chinese equivalent to saying “more or less” in English except here they are saying “left or right.”. So 两分钟左右 means “2 minutes more or less” or “about 2 minutes.”
Kirin: 大概两分钟左右.
Adam: So “to go there on foot will probably take about two minutes or so.”
Kirin: 走路去大概两分钟左右.
Adam: Let’s move on to our last couple of sentences.
Kirin: 谢谢.
Adam: “Thank you.”
Kirin: 你帮了我一个大忙.
Adam: Now we’ve seen all these words before but in a slightly different order. We saw 帮 recently.
Raphael: 那是什么意思?
Kirin: 是 “help” 的意思.
Adam: So here we have 你帮了我. The 了 particle makes it past tense making it “You helped me.” That’s followed by 一个大忙. So hopefully you remember that 一个 means “one of something.” In this case one 大忙. So 大 we saw earlier meaning “big.”
Raphael: “忙” 是什么意思?
Kirin: 是 “busy” 的意思.
Adam: You may remember that “busy” often goes together with “help” to mean “give me a hand.”
Kirin: 你帮了我一个大忙.
Adam: So in other words, “You’ve been a great help to me.”
Move your mouse pointer over (or touch, from your mobile device) any Chinese words or phrases to get a translation.
Adam: Hello everyone, my name is Adam.
Kirin: 大家好. 我是 Kirin. 让我们一起来学习第四十一课.
Kirin: 今天的题目是… “不太远.”
Adam: “It’s not very far.” This is a progressive course so each lesson does build upon previous ones. For a list of all our lessons and what was taught in each one, please visit the Course Outline page on our website.
We’re going to listen to part 2 of a 3-part dialogue today. Today’s continues where our last lesson left off. We’ll first listen to our speakers Raphael and Kirin do the dialogue.
Adam: So the first few lines are review from our last lesson. Let’s take a quick look at them again. Feel free to repeat after Kirin to practice your pronunciation.
Kirin: 不好意思.
Adam: You may notice that the 思 from 意思 becomes a neutral tone during pronunciation. So instead of 意思, you end up hearing 意思.
Kirin: 不好意思.
Adam: Sorry to trouble you.
Kirin: 请问，你知道厕所在哪里吗?
Adam: Do you know where the restroom is?
Kirin: 知道.
Adam: Yes I do.
Kirin: 先直走.
Adam: First go straight.
Kirin: 然后右转.
Adam: Then turn right.
So that’s what we learned in our last lesson. Let’s continue on with the lines from today’s lesson.
Kirin: 厕所会在你的左边.
Adam: So the first word 厕所, we know, means “restroom.” She then says 会在.
We’ve seen the verb 会 before.
Raphael: “会” 是什么意思?
Adam: When we first introduced it in Lesson 4, it had the meaning of “to be able to” as in 我会说中文. “I am able to speak Chinese.” Here it has a different meaning “to be likely to” or “will.” We know that 在 means “to be located.” So 会在 means “will be located.”
Kirin: 厕所会在你的左边.
Adam: So the restroom will be located 你的左边. Now last time we saw the word 右 meaning right. Here we have 左 which is a third tone and means “left.” The last word is a first tone 边 meaning “side.”
Kirin: 厕所会在你的左边.
Adam: The restroom will be located on your left side.
Kirin: 厕所会在你的左边.
Adam: The man then asks:
Kirin: 从这里到那里很远吗?
Adam: We’ve seen the first word 从 before.
Raphael: “从” 是什么意思?
Kirin: 是 “from” 的意思.
Adam: We then have 这里.
Raphael: “这里” 是什么意思?
Kirin: 是 “here” 的意思.
Adam: So that gives us “from here”. We’ve also seen the next verb 到 before.
Raphael: “到” 是什么意思?
Kirin: 是 “arrive” 的意思.
Adam: So “From here arrive 那里.” We know 那里 is the opposite of 这里 and means “there.” This construction 从这里到那里 essentially means “From here to there.”
Kirin: 从这里到那里很远吗?
Adam: The last part is asking “很远吗?” “Is it very 远?” That’s a third tone and means “far.” So is it far to go there from here?
Kirin: 从这里到那里很远吗?
Adam: To which she replies:
Kirin: 不太远.
Raphael: “太” 是什么意思?
Kirin: 是 “too” 的意思.
Adam: So 不太远 – Not too far.
Kirin: 不太远.
Adam: Great, so that’s part two of the dialogue. We will hear the last part in our next lesson. For now though:
Adam: Great. Take a look at the Premium notes for this lesson to see more detailed explanations and examples of some of the concepts we talked about in today’s lesson. Then take advantage of the review tools available there, and then join us again next time for Lesson 42.
Move your mouse pointer over (or touch, from your mobile device) any Chinese words or phrases to get a translation.
Adam: Hello and welcome to Lesson 30. I’m your host, Adam. We are at the half-way point of our 60 lesson level 1. We hope that by now you do have a beginner’s grasp of the language and are ready for something more advanced. And that’s what we hope to give you in the second half here. Starting from this lesson on, we will use more Chinese within the lesson, so in today’s lesson we will explain some of the terms and phrases that we will start using from hereon. As we teach you new vocabulary, we like to reuse older vocabulary that we have already taught. So from time to time if you hear me ask you “how do you say?” that means there’s a word that we have taught before. On our website, you will see a link to the Course Outline pages which show each lesson that we’ve taught so far and what new words were introduced in each lesson. So I recommend that you wander through there from time to time just to make sure that all the words look familiar to you. If not, then please review the lesson that it was first introduced in. Now I started off today’s lesson by saying “Welcome to Lesson 30.” But I did so in English. So I think it’s time we changed some of these phrases that we say in every lesson to Chinese. That’s why today’s lesson is so important. Let’s learn the word for “welcome” in Chinese.
Kirin: 欢迎
Adam: That’s a first tone 欢 and a second tone 迎. 欢 refers to “happiness” or “joyousness” while 迎 refers to “welcome” or “to receive.” So “to receive happiness” is to “welcome” so we say 欢迎. Now what if I wanted to say “welcome everyone,” how would I say that?
Kirin: 欢迎大家.
Adam: Now in English we say “welcome to.” In Chinese though, we would say “Welcome come.” What is the verb “to come?”
Kirin: 来
Adam: And that’s a second tone. Next on our list is the word for “lesson.” That’s an easy one.
Kirin: 课
Adam: That’s a fourth tone.
Kirin: 课
Adam: Now to say “Lesson 30,” in Chinese we would say “30th lesson.” So how would you say “30th”?
Kirin: 第三十.
Adam: So 30th lesson becomes
Kirin: 第三十课.
Adam: So with that in mind, how would you say “Welcome to our Lesson 30”?
Kirin: 欢迎来我们的第三十课.
Adam: Now it may seem a bit unnatural to say “Our lesson 30” in English, but in Chinese it’s more natural.
Kirin: 欢迎来我们的第三十课.
Adam: Now just to keep things interesting, we are going to vary that intro from time to time so here are some other variations. Sometimes, instead of saying “Welcome come our 30th Lesson” you could also hear “Welcome come arrive 30th lesson.” This new verb “arrive” is a fourth tone 到. 到 is often attached to the end of other verbs, when that action has just been completed. So you have just come to our lesson and we are welcoming you, so we say
Kirin: 欢迎来到第三十课.
Adam: Welcome to Lesson 30.
Kirin: 欢迎来到第三十课.
Adam: Let’s look at one more way to say this phrase: “Welcome everyone come study 30th class.” Now we briefly saw the verb “study” when we looked at the word “student.” How do you say student?
Kirin: 学生.
Adam: So the first part of that is the verb “to study.” However, you may see an extra character tacked on there to make it 学习. That’s two second tones 学习. The second character 习 refers to “practicing” so you often see them together as in 学习. So putting this all together gives us:
Kirin: 欢迎大家来学习第三十课.
Adam: So that will be one of our new intro to the lessons from hereon.
Kirin: 欢迎大家来学习第三十课.
Adam: Alright, now usually we start off each lesson with a dialogue. So let’s learn the word for “dialogue.” It’s two fourth tones: 对话. Now 话 you may remember from 普通话 and 电话. Do you remember what 话 means? It means “speech.” 对 means “opposite” or “facing” as in what two people do when they are having a dialogue or a conversation – they face each other. 对话.
So in our lesson, we “listen” to the dialogue. What is the verb “to listen”? It’s 听. And that’s a first tone. To say “let’s listen” we need the word for “let,” which is a fourth tone 让. So how would you say “Let us listen”?
Kirin: 让我们听.
Adam: Now if we wanted to say “Let’s first listen” as in “The first thing we want to do is listen” we need the word for “first.” We’ve actually seen it before in the word for “Mister.” How do you say “Mister?”
Kirin: 先生.
Adam: You may remember that the literal definition of 先生 was “first born.” So 先 here means “first” as in “the first thing we would do.” If we wanted to say “Let’s listen one time” – how do we say “one time”?
Kirin: 一次.
Adam: That’s the character for one, 一 , and the character for instance of time, 次 which is a fourth tone, 一次. So let’s put all this together and create the sentence “Let’s first listen to today’s dialogue one time.” Literally, that would be “Let us first listen one time today’s dialog.”
Kirin: 让我们先听一次今天的对话
Adam: Great. Now if we wanted to repeat it we would need to say “again listen one time.” We know the word “again” from the Chinese word for “goodbye” – 再见. Do you remember the literal translation of 再见? It means “again meet.” So 再 here means “again.” So how would you say “again listen one time.”
Kirin: 再听一次.
Adam: Or, “Listen one more time.”
Kirin: 再听一次.
Adam: Good, we’re making progress. Now what if we wanted to say “Please repeat after her”? In Chinese, we would literally say “Please with her speak.” Now we know all these words from before. How do we say “please”?
Kirin: 请.
Adam: And how do we say “with”?
Kirin: 跟.
Adam: And what is the verb “to speak”?
Kirin: 说.
Adam: So how would we say “Please with her speak”?
Kirin: 请跟她说.
Adam: Or “Please repeat after her.”
Kirin: 请跟她说.
Adam: Great. I’ll do a couple more here before we wrap up. If I want to ask “How do you say in Chinese?” we literally say “Chinese how speak?” What is the word “how” in Chinese?
Kirin: 怎么.
Adam: So how would we say “Chinese how speak?”
Kirin: 中文怎么说?
Adam: You’ll notice that the verb “speak” and the verb “say” are the same in Chinese.
Kirin: 中文怎么说?
Adam: If I want to ask “What does it mean?” how would I ask that in Chinese?
Kirin: 什么意思?
Adam: Great, so lots of new phrases you’ll be hearing in the second half of our level one. Let’s do a quick recap of all these new words and phrases we have taught today. How would you say the following? Now, some of these may sound a little strange in English, but they are perfectly normal in Chinese, which we are focused on.
Welcome everyone to study Lesson 30.
Kirin: 欢迎大家来学习第三十课.
Adam: Let’s first listen to today’s dialogue one time.
Kirin: 让我们先听一次今天的对话.
Adam: “Listen one more time.” Literally, that’s “Again listen one time”.
Kirin: 再听一次.
Adam: Please repeat after her. Literally, that’s “Please with her say.”
Kirin: 请跟她说.
Adam: “How do you say in Chinese?”
Kirin: 中文怎么说?
Adam: And lastly “What does it mean?” Literally “is what meaning?”
Kirin: 是什么意思?
Adam: And there you have it. Premium subscribers can take advantage of the review audio summary available for this lesson on our website to make sure you have all these phrases down pat, as we’ll be using them frequently in later lessons. Congratulations for making it this far and no longer being a beginner in Mandarin Chinese. Once you’ve got used to these phrases, we’ll also be adding more to them, as our goal is to be able to teach entire lessons using only Chinese that has been taught, so keep at it!
Move your mouse pointer over, or touch from your mobile device any Chinese words or phrases to get a translation.
Adam: Hello and welcome to Lesson 29. I’m your host, Adam.
Kirin: 大家好. 我是 Kirin.
Raphael: 你们好. 我是 Raphael.
Adam: This is a progressive course in learning Mandarin Chinese. Each lesson builds upon previous ones. For a list of all our lessons so far and what was taught in each one, please visit our website. Today’s lesson finishes up a dialogue that we introduced and studied in our last lesson. We’ll first listen to the dialogue in its entirety, before breaking it down for you line by line.
Adam: Alright, so let’s break this down line by line starting with the first few lines from our last lesson.
Kirin: 你知道她是谁吗?
Adam: Do you know who she is?
Kirin: 我不知道. 她是谁?
Adam: I don’t know. Who is she?
Kirin: 她在这里是个很有名的人.
Adam: “She’s a very famous person here.” Now let’s continue with the new lines from today’s lesson.
Kirin: 我为什么不认识她?
Adam: So here we have a new question word. First, what does “什么” mean? It means “what.” Here we have 为什么. The 为 is a fourth tone and together 为什么 is the question word asking “why?” We then have the verb 认识. What does 认识 mean? In this context, it’s the verb “to recognize” or “to know someone.” So the literal translation of this sentence is “I why don’t recognize her?”
Kirin: 我为什么不认识她?
Adam: Or, “Why don’t I recognize her?”
Kirin: 我为什么不认识她?
Adam: The lady then replies:
Kirin: 你当然不认识她.
Adam: What does 当然 mean? It means “Of course.” So that gives us “You of course don’t recognize her.”
Kirin: 你当然不认识她.
Adam: Or “Of course you don’t recognize her.”
Kirin: 你当然不认识她.
Adam: She then says:
Kirin: 因为你是外国人.
Adam: So the first word is a very useful one to know.
Kirin: 因为.
Adam: That’s a first tone and a fourth tone and is the word for “because.”
Kirin: 因为.
Adam: She then says:
Kirin: 你是外国人.
Adam: Hmmn… what do we know from that sentence? You are 外 country person. What country is that? Well, 外 is a fourth tone and means “outside” so that gives us “You are an outside country person.”
Kirin: 你是外国人.
Adam: Or “You are a foreigner.”
Kirin: 你是外国人.
Adam: In other parts of China, foreigners are referred to by a different term.
Raphael: 老外.
Adam: We’ve seen 老 before in 老师. What does 老 mean? It means “old.” However, it is also an endearing term so 老外 is a respectable term for foreigners.
Raphael: 老外.
Adam: So you can see the construction here, someone asks 为什么 or “why” and you reply with 因为 “because.”
Kirin: 我为什么不认识她? 因为你是外国人.
Adam: Let’s listen to Kirin repeat each line of the dialogue for us again. Please repeat after her.
Adam: Great, as we mentioned in our last lesson, we are now approaching the half way point of the Level 1 of the first 60 ChineseLearnOnline.com. You will see us use a slightly different approach from our next lesson on. Now let’s take some time now though to review some sentences and phrases from our earlier lessons. Listen to the following sentences and translate them into English.
Kirin: 北京怎么样?
Adam: How is Beijing?
Kirin: 我喜欢吃鸡肉.
Adam: I like to eat chicken.
Kirin: 我也很好. 谢谢.
Adam: I’m also very good. Thank you.
Kirin: 你弟弟要什么?
Adam: What does your younger brother want?
Kirin: 他们要去哪里?
Adam: “Where do they want to go?” or “Where are they going?”
Ok, now we’ll give you some sentences in English – let’s see if you can say them in Chinese.
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Adam: Hello everyone and welcome to Lesson 28. I’m your host, Adam.
Kirin: 大家好. 我是 Kirin.
Adam: In today’s lesson, we are going to listen to a dialogue that uses vocabulary that we have taught you in previous lessons, while adding some new words for you along the way.
Adam: Hmmn… interesting. Kirin will now read each line for us – please repeat after her.
Kirin: 你知道她是谁吗? 我不知道. 她是谁? 她在这里是个很有名的人.
Adam: Alright, so let’s start with the first line:
Kirin: 你知道她是谁吗?
Adam: So we have a couple of new words here. The first word is the verb 知道. That’s a first tone and a fourth tone and is the verb “to know.” Very useful word to know. So here we have:
Kirin: 你知道她是谁吗?
Adam: What does 他 / 她 mean? 他 / 她 can mean “he” or “she.” Now usually when you refer to a “he” or a “she,” there is some context involved – either someone you were previously talking about, or someone you are pointing to perhaps. So in this dialogue, she is pointing at a woman, so 她 here is a woman. We then have the verb “to be” 是 followed by a new character 谁. That’s a second tone and is a new question word meaning “who.” We know this is a question by the 吗 at the end. So putting it all together gives us “Do you know she is who?”
Kirin: 你知道她是谁吗?
Adam: Or “Do you know who she is?”
Kirin: 你知道她是谁吗?
Adam: The man then replies:
Kirin: 我不知道. 她是谁?
Adam: So what do you think 我不知道 means? It, of course, means “I don’t know.” He then asks:
Kirin: 她是谁?
Adam: That’s a question since 谁 is a question word asking “who.” So in this case – “Who is she?”
Kirin: 她是谁?
Adam: Now in this case, we know he is asking a question by his intonation. However, he could also have replied like this.
Kirin: 我不知道她是谁.
Adam: Here, he’s just saying “I don’t know who she is.” In this case, he’s not asking who the person is. The woman then replies:
Kirin: 她在这里是个很有名的人.
Adam: Alright, let’s see if we can figure this one out. We’ve actually seen all these words before. 她在这里 – what does “在这里” mean? It means “to be located here.” We then have 是个很有名的人. What does 很 mean? It means “very.”
That’s followed by 个. This is the short form for 是一个. We then have 有名的. What does the verb “有” mean? It means “to have.” We’ve seen 名 before in the word 名字. What does “名字” mean? It means “name.”
And lastly what does “人” mean? It means “person.” So can you guess what a 有名的人 or “has name person” is? That means “a famous person.” 有名的人. As in someone who has made a name for themselves. So that gives us a literal translation of “She located here is a very famous person.”
Kirin: 她在这里是个很有名的人.
Adam: Or “She’s a very famous person here.”
Kirin: 她在这里是个很有名的人.
Adam: The Premium notes for this lesson show you some other adjectives and words that can be constructed using vocabulary we have already learned giving you a grander picture of how this language works, so be sure to check them out when you have a chance. We’ll listen to the part 2 of this dialogue in our next lesson. For now though, let’s get Kirin to repeat each line for us again. Please repeat after her:
Kirin: 你知道她是谁吗? 我不知道. 她是谁? 她在这里是个很有名的人.
Adam: Great, and we’ll wrap up by listening to the dialogue again at normal speed.
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Hosts: Adam Menon / Kirin Yang
Adam: Welcome to Lesson 27. I’m your host, Adam.
Kirin: 大家好. 我是 Kirin.
Adam: Today’s lesson is a continuation of a dialogue that we began in our last lesson. The lesson will begin with a dialogue that takes place at the front desk of a hotel. It reviews previously taught vocabulary while introducing a few new words along the way.
Adam: Ok, we’ll now break it down for you line by line. We did the first few lines before so this should be a good review.
Kirin: 先生，你们有房间吗?
Adam: Sir, do you have any rooms available?
Kirin: 有. 请问你们有几位?
Adam: Yes, we do. How many of you are there in your party?
Kirin: 我们有两个人，要住一间房间.
Adam: “There are two in our party, and we would like to rent one room.”
Now that was our dialogue from last time. Let’s continue with the rest of the dialogue for today’s lesson.
Kirin: 请给我看一下你的护照.
Adam: Ah, so some new words here. Let’s start with the first part which we should know. 请给我. What does the verb “给” mean? It means “to give.” So he’s asking “Please give me.” We then have a new verb 看. That’s a fourth tone and means “to look.” It’s actually one of the examples used by Kirin in our very first lesson on tones. Now the literal translation may not make much sense in English – “give me look” – but it’s a very popular construction in Chinese. 给我看 means “Give it to me so I can look at it” or “Show me.” Chinese is a very efficient language so those many words are reduced simply to 给我看.
Kirin: 请给我看一下.
Adam: The next word we’ve seen before 一下. We saw it before in the phrase:
Kirin: 请你自我介绍一下.
Adam: Do you remember what “一下” means? It means “a moment.” So the phrase we just heard meant “Please take a moment to introduce yourself.” Here we have
Kirin: 请给我看一下.
Adam: …which literally means “Please give me look a moment” which translates to “Please let me take a quick look at it.”
Now what is it that he wants to look at it?
Kirin: 请给我看一下你的护照.
Adam: The last few words are 你的护照. 你的 means “your” and 护照 is two fourth tones. It’s the word for “passport.” So “Please, can I take a quick look at your passport.”
Kirin: 请给我看一下你的护照.
Adam: The Premium notes for this lesson show examples of using 给 and 一下 to form other sentences so please be sure to take a look there. The woman then asks the man:
Kirin: 可以用信用卡吗?
Adam: What does the verb “用” mean? It means “to use.” So 可以用 – gives us “Can use.” We then have 信用卡. That’s two fourth tones and a third tone. The middle character 用 is the same one we just saw, but here it combines with the 信 to give us the word 信用 which means “credit”. That’s followed by 卡 which is a third tone and its transliteration of the English word “card.” So together, she’s asking “Can we use a credit card?”
Kirin: 可以用信用卡吗?
Adam: To which the man replies:
Kirin: 当然可以.
Adam: So the first two words there is made up of two characters which are a first tone and a second tone 当然 and that means “of course.” So “of course you can use it.”
Kirin: 当然可以.
Adam: So that’s our dialogue for today. Kirin will now repeat each line for us again. Please repeat after her.
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Adam: Hello and welcome to Lesson 26. I’m your host, Adam.
Kirin: 你好. 我是 Kirin.
Adam: This is a structured course. So each lesson builds upon previous ones. For a list of lessons and what vocabulary was taught in each one, please visit the course outline page on our website.
Today’s lesson is part of a two-part dialogue and takes place at the front desk of a hotel. It introduces a couple of new measure words. Measure words you may remember were first introduced in lesson nine. They are the words used between a number and a noun. Now back in lesson nine, we looked at 个 and 块. 个 is a generic measure word while 块 is the measure word used for pieces or for money. Now listen to the following dialogue and see if you can spot the two new measure words that are used here.
Adam: Ok, so a short dialogue but lots of new words in there. Don’t worry we’ll translate them all for you in a moment. But first, try and repeat each line of the dialogue after Kirin.
Kirin: 先生，你们有房间吗? 有. 请问你们有几位? 我们有两个人，要住一间房间.
Adam: Alright, we’ll now break down this dialogue for you line by line, starting with the first line.
Kirin: 先生.
Adam: What does “先生” mean? It means… “Mister.” It is also used to mean “Sir” and is quite commonly used to address men whose names you don’t know. Now let’s look at the rest of the sentence.
Kirin: 你们有房间吗?
Adam: What does “你们” mean? It means “you” in plural. And what does the verb “有” mean? It’s the verb “to have.” We then have a new word 房间. That’s a second tone 房 and a first tone 间. 房 comes from the word for “house,” 房子. 间 refers to a “room.” Because monosyllabic words are so hard to confuse, extra characters are usually added to distinguish meaning. So here she is asking if the hotel has any rooms available.
Kirin: 你们有房间吗?
Adam: The man then replies:
Kirin: 有. 请问你们有几位?
Adam: So, here we have 有 meaning “have” as in “Yes, the hotel has rooms.” He then asks “You have 几位? What does “几?” mean? It’s a question word asking “how many?” The next character 位 is a fourth tone and is our first measure word used for people.
Kirin: 请问你们有几位?
Adam: Since we are using 位, we don’t need to specify 人 or people, since 位 here is a measure word limited to people. Earlier we saw “几个人?” There we needed to specify 人 since “几个?” is a generic “how many?” and could refer to anything. Using 位 also conveys more respect than “几个人?”.
Kirin: 请问你们有几位?
Adam: The woman then replies:
Kirin: 我们有两个人，要住一间房间.
Adam: Let’s look at the first part, she replies “我们有两个人.” What does “两个” mean? It means “two of something.” Note that the woman replying can choose to say 两个人 or 两位. So she’s saying we have two people, as in “there are two people in our party.”
Kirin: 我们有两个人，要住一间房间.
Adam: Ok, so “The two of us 要. What does the verb “要” mean? It means “to want.” So we want to 住. 住 is a fourth tone and we saw it all the way back in lesson one. It is the verb “to live.” In Chinese though, it is also used to mean “to stay for a short time.”
Kirin: 我们有两个人，要住一间房间.
Adam: We then have 一间房间. 间 is a first tone and is the same 间 from 房间. By itself, it functions as a measure word for rooms. So 一间房间 means “one room.”
Kirin: 我们有两个人，要住一间房间.
Adam: The two of us would like one room.
Kirin: 我们有两个人，要住一间房间.
Adam: As mentioned earlier, this is part one of a two part dialogue, so we will listen to the rest of the dialogue in our next lesson. For now though, Kirin will read each line of the dialogue for you again. Please repeat after her.
Kirin: 先生，你们有房间吗? 有. 请问你们有几位? 我们有两个人，要住一间房间.
Adam: Alright, and let’s listen to the dialogue one more time at normal speed.
Adam: Great. The Premium notes for this lesson found on our website recap the vocabulary used in this lesson and shows how it can be combined with other words we’ve already learned to form new vocabulary so be sure to take a look at that, and test yourself by doing the review questions.
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Adam: Hello and welcome to lesson 25. I’m your host, Adam.
Kirin: 你们好. 我是 Kirin.
Adam: We begin each lesson by listening to a dialogue that reviews material we’ve learned up till now, while adding a few new words and phrases along the way. This way we slowly build up your vocabulary while constantly reviewing previously learned material. You can view our archive of lessons starting all the way back from lesson one on the course outline of our website, which also shows you what vocabulary was taught in each lesson. Today’s dialogue takes place on the telephone.
Adam: Great, we’ll now break down this dialogue for you line by line, starting with:
Kirin: 喂?
Adam: This is a second tone and is the standard greeting when you pick up the phone. You could add a 喂… 你好 if you’d like, but usually a 喂 should suffice.
Kirin: 喂?
Adam: She then says:
Kirin: 李先生在吗?
Adam: What does “先生” mean? It means… “Mister.” So that gives us “Mr Li.” We then have 在. What does “在” mean? It means “to be located.” So “在吗?” is a question asking if the subject Mr Li is currently located there.
Kirin: 李先生在吗?
Adam: The man then replies:
Kirin: 对不起，我想你打错了.
Adam: What does “对不起 mean”? It means “I’m sorry.” What does the verb “想” mean? It means “to think” so that gives us “I’m sorry, I think.” We then have 你打错了. We’ve seen 打 before in the context of a telephone. What does “打” mean here? It means “to dial” or “to call.” 错 is a fourth tone and means “wrong” or “incorrect” and 了 is the particle indicating a changing situation. So “你打错了” means “You have dialed incorrectly,” or “You have dialed the wrong number.”
Kirin: 我想你打错了.
Adam: The woman then asks:
Kirin: 这个电话是不是三五〇二七八九三?
Adam: You may be able to guess what this means since we’ve seen all these words before. What does “这个电话” mean? It means “this telephone.” We then have “是不是?” – that’s a question asking “Is or isn’t it?”
Kirin: 这个电话是不是?
Adam: We then have a number:
Kirin: 三五〇二七八九三.
Adam: So that translates to “three five zero two seven eight nine three.”
Kirin: 三五〇二七八九三.
Adam: So “Is this number 35027893?”
Kirin: 这个电话是不是三五〇二七八九三?
Adam: The man then replies:
Kirin: 不是.
Adam: Simple enough. 不是 – “No it isn’t.”
Kirin: 是 三五〇二七八九二.
Adam: It’s 35027892.
Kirin: 是 三五〇二七八九二.
Adam: The woman then says:
Kirin: 很抱歉.
Adam: This is a new expression. We know 很 means “very.” 抱歉 is two fourth tones and is another way of saying “I’m very sorry.” We usually use 对不起 for casual mistakes and 很抱歉 for more serious ones.
Kirin: 很抱歉.
Adam: Again as in many other cases, you’ll notice that the pronoun 我 is left out here. You could add it if you wanted to for extra emphasis – similar to the difference between saying “sorry” and “I’m sorry.”
Kirin: 很抱歉.
Adam: The man then replies:
Kirin: 没关系.
Adam: This is a very popular phrase. What does “没” mean? 没 is similar to 不, meaning the negation of what follows. In this case what follows is 关系.
Adam: That’s a first tone and a fourth tone and means “relationship.”
Kirin: 没关系.
The phrase 没关系 is used to say “That’s ok” – this incident won’t affect our relationship – so in other words, “There is no need to apologize.”
Kirin: 没关系.
Adam: So, lots of new vocabulary and phrases that you can use. We’ll be seeing a lot of them again in future lessons to help you review them. We’ll now get Kirin to read each line of the dialogue for us again. Please repeat after her.
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Adam: Hello, everyone. My name is Adam.
Kirin: 大家好. 我是 Kirin. 欢迎来到第四十课.
Raphael: 今天的题目是…
Kirin: 请问，你知道厕所在哪里吗?
Adam: Do you know where the restroom is? Always important to know wherever you go. So we’ll begin today’s lesson, as we do most lessons, by listening to a short dialogue. Today’s is actually part 1 of a 3 part series. Each dialogue has a mix of new vocabulary along with old vocabulary that has been taught before. The words are carefully chosen to reflect their usage in day to day conversation. So if you notice a word or an expression coming up often in our lessons, there’s a reason for that. It’s because it’s used quite often in daily Chinese conversation. For a list of lessons and what was taught in each one, please view the Course Outline on our website.
Raphael: 让我们先听一次今天的对话.
Yann: 不好意思. 请问, 你知道厕所在哪里吗?
Cindy: 知道. 先直走. 然后右转.
Raphael: 让我们再听一次今天的对话. 并跟 Kirin 说.
Kirin: 不好意思. 请问, 你知道厕所在哪里吗? 知道. 先直走. 然后右转.
Raphael: 让我们来翻译今天的对话.
Adam: Let’s start with the first line from today’s dialogue:
Kirin: 不好意思.
Adam: Now we’ve seen this expression a few times before.
Raphael: “不好意思” 是什么意思?
Kirin: 是 “I feel embarrassed to trouble you” 的意思.
Adam: Now keep in mind that there’s a lot more respect shown in the Chinese language than you would normally see in English. So while such an expression wouldn’t be that common in English, it’s very common in Chinese. These phrases can also be used in different situations with different meanings, which is why we keep reusing them to show you other situations and other contexts where they may be used.
Kirin: 不好意思.
Adam: So what is it that the man wants to ask?
Kirin: 请问，你知道厕所在哪里吗?
Adam: So again, most of this should be review.
Raphael: “请问” 是什么意思?
Kirin: 是 “May I ask” 的意思.
Adam: Notice again, how much politeness and modesty is being added before this question is asked. When in doubt, it’s much better to have too much of politeness in your speech than too little so don’t forget these terms. We then have the verb 知道 which we’ve also seen before.
Raphael: “知道” 是什么意思?
Adam: It’s the verb “to know.” So so far we have, “May I ask, do you know?”
Kirin: 请问，你知道厕所在哪里吗?
Adam: So there’s our first new term of the lesson. 厕所. That’s a fourth tone and a third tone and refers to “a toilet” or “a restroom.”
Kirin: 请问，你知道厕所在哪里吗?
Adam: The last part has another construction we should be familiar with.
Raphael: “在哪里” 是什么意思?
Kirin: 是 “located where” 的意思.
Adam: So in another words, “Do you know where the toilet or restroom is?”
Kirin: 请问，你知道厕所在哪里吗?
Adam: To which the woman replies:
Kirin: 知道.
Adam: So again this is how they answer questions in Chinese. To say “yes,” you restate the verb in question. So 你知道吗? Do you know? 知道. I know.
Kirin: 知道.
Adam: She then continues:
Kirin: 先直走.
Adam: Now we heard the word 先 earlier in this lesson when Raphael said:
Raphael: 让我们先听一次今天的对话.
Adam: What does 先 mean there? It means “first” as in “Let’s first listen to today’s dialogue.” So here in the dialogue she’s saying “first” 直走. The first character is a second tone and means “straight.” The second character is a third tone 走 and refers to “walking” or “going.”
Kirin: 先直走.
Adam: “First go straight.”
Kirin: 先直走.
Adam: And the last line of today’s dialogue was:
Kirin: 然后右转.
Adam: The first term of the sentence is very important: 然后. That’s a second tone and a fourth tone. We’ve actually seen both those characters before in different contexts. We saw 然 before back in Lesson 27 in 当然.
Raphael: “当然” 是什么意思?
Kirin: 是 “of course” 的意思.
Adam: We’ve also seen 后 before from Lesson 24. We asked someone how long he was in town and he said: 五天后. What did the 后 mean there? It meant “after. So when you put the characters from “of course” and “after” together, you get the word meaning “after that”.
Kirin: 然后右转.
Adam: So earlier she told him to “go straight.” Now she’s saying “After that” 右转. 右 is a fourth tone. Don’t confuse it with the third tone 有 meaning “to have.” Here 右 refers to the word right as in the opposite of left
Kirin: 然后右转.
Adam: The last character of the sentence is a third tone 转 and means “turn”. So the literal translation of this sentence is “After that right turn.”
Kirin: 然后右转.
Adam: Or simply “and then turn right”
Kirin: 然后右转.
Adam: There’s a lot more to this dialogue. Two more lessons worth in fact. But we’ll stop off here and review what we have so far.
Raphael: 让我们再听一次今天的对话. 并跟 Kirin 说.
Kirin: 不好意思. 请问, 你知道厕所在哪里吗? 知道. 先直走. 然后右转.
Adam: Alright, and now let’s listen to this dialogue again at normal speed:
Move your mouse pointer over, or touch from your mobile device any Chinese words or phrases to get a translation.
Hosts: Adam Menon / Kirin Yang
Adam: Hello, and welcome to Lesson 24. I’m your host, Adam.
Kirin: 大家好. 我是 Kirin.
Adam: Each lesson here builds upon vocabulary taught in previous lessons, so if you are a beginner, we recommend you go through our earlier lessons or look at the course outline found on our website.
Now in our last lesson, we introduced a dialogue that we’re going to finish up today. So let’s first listen to the entire conversation – last time’s and today’s together.
Adam: Ok, thank you Kirin. We’ll now go through each line of the dialogue for you and break down the meanings. The first few lines will be a review from our last lesson.
Kirin: 你是德国人吗?
Adam: Are you German?
Kirin: 对，我是.
Adam: Yes, I am.
Kirin: 这是你第一次来中国吗?
Adam: Is this your first time coming to China?
Kirin: 不是. 这是我第二次.
Adam: No, it’s my second time.
So that was the conversation from last time. Let’s continue on with the new lines from today’s dialogue.
Kirin: 你什么时候要回去德国?
Adam: So let’s see if we can figure out what this means. 你 of course means you. What does “什么?” mean? That means… “what?.” 时候 is a second and a fourth tone meaning… “time.” Together “what time” in Chinese is the same meaning as question word “when.” We then have the verb 要. What does “要” mean? It means “to want.” We then have 回 which is a second tone and means “return.” Next we have the verb 去. What does “去” mean? It means “to go.” And lastly we have 德国 which of course is… “Germany.” So looking at the literal definitions of all these individual characters we get “You what time want return go Germany?”
Kirin: 你什么时候要回去德国?
Adam: So you may be able to figure that out as meaning… “When are you going back to Germany?”
Kirin: 你什么时候要回去德国?
Adam: The verb 要 means “want,” but it is also commonly used to describe an action in the future. So, 我要去 has the dual meaning of “I want to go” as well as “I am going to go.” So in our example, the meaning could either be “When do you want to return to Germany?” or “When are you returning to Germany?”
Kirin: 你什么时候要回去德国?
Adam: As I’ve said before, Chinese is very context sensitive, so the same sentences can have different meanings in different contexts. The word 回 is commonly used with 去 to mean “go back.” 回去. Similarly, you could say 回来 to mean “come back.” Let’s see what the woman responds.
Kirin: 五天后.
Adam: So what does “五” mean? It’s the number “five.” And what does “天” mean? It’s the character for “day.” So that gives us “five days.”
Kirin: 五天后.
Adam; The last character is 后 is a fourth tone and means “after.” So that gives us “five days after” or “after five days.”
Kirin: 五天后.
Adam: The man then asks her:
Kirin: 你在这里喜欢做什么?
Adam: We’ve seen all these words before, so let’s try and figure out the meaning. What does “在这里” mean? That means “located here.” What does the verb “喜欢” mean? It means “to like.” Next we have the verb 做. We saw it before in 工作. What does “工作” mean? It means “work” or “the work you do.” So 做 is the verb “to do.” And the last word was 什么 meaning “what.” So putting all that together gives us “You located here like do what?”
Kirin: 你在这里喜欢做什么?
Adam: In other words, “What do you like to do here?”
Kirin: 你在这里喜欢做什么?
Adam: She then answers
Kirin: 我喜欢跟朋友去茶馆.
Adam: Hmmn… let’s look at this. 我喜欢 – “I like” – 跟朋友. What does “朋友” mean? It means “friend.” And what does “跟” mean? That means “with.” We know 去 means “to go.” What does “茶” mean? That means “tea.” And the last character 馆 is a third tone and means “establishment.” So “tea establishment” or “tea shop.” So together we have “I like with friend go tea shop.”
Kirin: 我喜欢跟朋友去茶馆.
Adam: In other words, “I like to go with friends to tea-shops.”
Kirin: 我喜欢跟朋友去茶馆.
Adam: Again, notice that we don’t distinguish between singular and plural here. We don’t know if it’s one friend or if it’s many tea-shops. It’s all derived from context. By going through these literal translations we hope to give you a better idea of how these sentences are constructed. Word order is very important in Chinese; so hopefully with more examples you’ll get a better idea of this structure and will be able to come up with your own sentences.
Premium subscribers can visit the exercise section of this website to have their own chance to come up with their own sentences and check to see if they’re right.
So let’s listen to Kirin read each line of the dialogue for us one more time. Please repeat after her.
Move your mouse pointer over (or touch, from your mobile device) any Chinese words or phrases to get a translation.
Hosts: Adam Menon / Kirin Yang
Adam: Hello and welcome to Lesson 23. I’m your host, Adam.
Kirin: 你们好. 我是 Kirin.
Adam: We will start today’s lesson with a short dialogue that makes use of vocabulary that we have learned in previous lessons while adding some new words and expressions along the way. This way we can build up your vocabulary lesson by lesson while still reviewing what we’ve taught before.
Listen to the following conversation and see if you can figure out what is being talked about on your own first, before we give you all the meanings.
Adam: There’s more to this conversation, but we’ll give that to you in our next lesson. Kirin will now read each line for us. Please repeat after her.
Kirin: 你是德国人吗? 对，我是. 这是你第一次来中国吗? 不是. 这是我第二次.
Adam: Ok, so let’s see if we can figure this out starting with the first line.
Kirin: 你是德国人吗?
Adam: So there’s one new word in there which you may figure out is a country or in this case a nationality. 德国 is two second tones and represents the country of… “Germany.” What does 人 mean? It means “person.” So 德国人 is a “German person.” So here the person is being asked “Are you German?”
Kirin: 你是德国人吗?
Adam: To which she replies:
Kirin: 对，我是.
Adam: What does “对” mean? You may remember it from our last lesson meaning “correct.” That’s followed by 我是 or “I am,” so that gives us, “Yes, I am.”
Kirin: 对，我是.
Adam: He then asks her:
Kirin: 这是你第一次来中国吗?
Adam: So we have 这是你 – “this is you.” We then have a new concept for you -ordinal numbers. We know how to count numbers 一, 二, 三 and so on. We will now look at the ordinal forms such as “first,” “second,” “third” and so on. In Chinese it’s really easy. You just add a fourth tone 第 before the number. So here we have 第一 meaning “first.” Similarly, you could also have 第二 for “second,” 第三 for “third” and so on. So here we have 第一次. The 次 is a fourth tone and means “instance” or “time.” So 一次 means “one time” and here 第一次 means “first time.”
Kirin: 这是你第一次来中国吗?
Adam: We then have 来中国. What does the verb “来” mean? It means “to come.” What is “中国”? That means… “China”. We know it’s a question by the 吗 at the end; so putting it all together gives us:
Kirin: 这是你第一次来中国吗?
Adam: Is this your first time coming to China?
Kirin: 这是你第一次来中国吗?
Adam: To which she replies:
Kirin: 不是. 这是我第二次.
Adam: 不是 – “No, it isn’t.” This is my… second time – 第二次.
Kirin: 不是. 这是我第二次.
Adam: And that’s it. Like I said, there is a part two to all of this, but we’ll save that for our next lesson. Kirin, why don’t you repeat each line for us so our listeners can repeat after you.
Kirin: 你是德国人吗? 对，我是. 这是你第一次来中国吗? 不是. 这是我第二次.
Adam: Ok, and let’s listen to the dialogue again at normal speed.
Adam: Ok, so I hope that made sense to you. Now since we have a few minutes here, let’s do a quick review of some of what we’ve learned in recent lessons.
How do you say the following… “I’m sorry. I don’t understand what you’re saying.”
Kirin: 对不起. 我听不懂.
Adam: How do you say “What does that mean?”
Kirin: 什么意思?
Adam: How do you say “Ah, now I understand.”?
Kirin: 啊，我懂了.
Adam: Alright, now Kirin, why don’t you give us a couple of questions or phrases and we’ll try and translate them into English.
Kirin: 现在几点?
Adam: What time is it now?
Kirin: 没问题.
Adam: No problem.
So I hope you were able to get all of that. If you like this format of review, then Premium subscribers can take advantage of the audio summaries and reviews, which are similar to what we’ve just heard.
Move your mouse pointer over (or touch, from your mobile device) any Chinese words or phrases to get a translation.
Adam: Hello and welcome to Lesson 22. I’m your host, Adam.
Kirin: 大家好. 我是 Kirin.
Adam: We will start today’s lesson with a short dialogue that uses vocabulary that has been previously taught while adding a few new words to the mix. If you find yourself fourth behind at any time, we recommend you review our previous lessons. This can be found on our website.
Let’s get started then with today’s lesson. It takes place in a restaurant. We’ll first listen to the dialogue in its entirety and then break it down for you line by line. Try and follow along with the included lesson summary. So here we go.
Adam: Ok, so let’s break this down for you line by line, starting with the first line.
Kirin: 你肚子饿吗?
Adam: So there’s a couple of new words there. 肚子 is a fourth tone and a neutral tone and refers to your “stomach.” 子 you may remember is a neutral particle that is often added to the end of nouns. 饿 is a fourth tone and is the verb “to be hungry.” Now while you wouldn’t normally say “My stomach is hungry” in English, it’s common to express hunger this way in Chinese.
Kirin: 你肚子饿吗?
Adam: So here he is asking her if she is hungry. To which she replies.
Kirin: 对.
Adam: 对 is a fourth tone and is very commonly used for agreement. It can mean “right” or “correct.” Since there’s no word for “yes” in Chinese, 对 is a close substitute. She then says:
Kirin: 我肚子饿.
Adam: So here she’s saying “My stomach hungry” which means “I am hungry.”
Kirin: 我肚子饿.
Adam: He then asks:
Kirin: 你想要吃什么?
Adam: So there’s a new verb in there – 想. That’s a third tone. On its own, it means “to think” or “to consider.” That’s followed by 要. What does “要” mean? It’s the verb “to want.” So “to consider to want.” Together, gives up the meaning of “would like.” We’ve seen the next verb 吃 before in 吃饭. What does “吃” mean? It means “to eat.” And what does “什么?” mean? That means “what.” So putting all of this together gives us “You would like eat what?” or “What would you like to eat?”
Kirin: 你想要吃什么?
Adam: The woman then replies.
Kirin: 我想要吃鸡肉.
Adam: So you can see that the answer there is “I would like to eat 鸡肉.” That’s a first tone 鸡 and a fourth tone 肉. 鸡 on its own refers to a “chicken” and 肉 means “meat.” So together 鸡肉 refers to “chicken” that can be eaten, and not what you may have running around in your backyard. So again, “I would like to eat chicken.”
Kirin: 我想要吃鸡肉.
Adam: The man then asks her:
Kirin: 你会用筷子吗?
Adam: Ok, so a couple of new words there. We know this is a question because of the 吗 at the end. We’ve seen the verb 会 before. What does “会” mean? It means “to be able to do something.” So here he is being asked “Are you able to 用筷子?” Now 用 is a fourth tone and is the verb “to use.” So together 会用 means “to be able to use something.” Which brings us to the last word of the sentence 筷子. That’s a fourth tone 筷 and a neutral tone 子 which represents what most Chinese people use when they eat… “chopsticks.” So “Can you use chopsticks?”
Kirin: 你会用筷子吗?
Adam: To which the woman responds…
Kirin: 会用，但是用得不太好.
Adam: So you may be able to figure it out, as we’ve seen all these words before.
Kirin: 会用，但是用得不太好.
Adam: What does “但是” mean? It means… “but.” So that gives us “I can use but 用得不太好.” What does “太” mean? That means “too” as in “too much of something.” So the literal translation of all of this is “Able to use but use not too good.” Or… “I can use them, but I can’t use them very well.”
Kirin: 会用，但是用得不太好.
Adam: Note, how the objects “I” and “them” are left out since they are obvious by context. Similarly, the 是 in 但是 is sometimes also left out, giving us:
Kirin: 会用，但用得不太好.
Adam: So there you have it. You’ve learned the word for “chopsticks” and lots of new verbs to go with that. This was a big problem for me the first time I was in Taiwan as I didn’t know how to use chopsticks. So I would always use a fork. Actually, what’s the word for “fork” in Chinese, Kirin?
Kirin: 叉子.
Adam: So that’s a first tone 叉 followed by the neutral tone 子.
Kirin: 叉子.
Adam: So I’ll ask our listeners, how would you ask “Excuse me. Do you have a fork?”
Kirin: 请问, 有没有叉子?
Adam: There are many ways to ask this of course, and this is one of them.
Kirin: 请问, 有没有叉子?
Adam: Alright, so Kirin will now read each line of the dialogue again. Please repeat after her.
Adam: Ok, now before we wrap up in the dialogue we saw the word 鸡肉 which refers to “chicken.” Let’s briefly look at some other types of 肉 or “meat.” So Kirin, please help me out here.
Kirin: 牛肉.
Adam: So that’s a second tone 牛, which means “cow” followed by 肉 which we now know means “meat.” So that gives us “cow meat” or… “beef.”
Kirin: 牛肉.
Adam: Alright, let’s do another one.
Kirin: 猪肉.
Adam: Ah, now you might even remember this all the way back from lesson one when we were first looking at tones. 猪 is a first tone and means “pig” so 猪肉 is… “pork.”
Kirin: 猪肉.
Adam: Let’s try another one.
Kirin: 羊肉.
Adam: 羊 is a second tone and refers to “sheep” so 羊肉 is… “mutton”
Kirin: 羊肉.
Adam: And let’s do one last one.
Kirin: 鱼肉.
Adam: This is also a second tone and means “fish.”
Kirin: 鱼肉.
Adam: As in the type that you eat.
Kirin: 鱼肉.
Adam: As you may guess, the vocabulary page for this lesson on our site summarizes all this vocabulary as well as introduces the names of some other common foods in Chinese.
