Dialogue

Vocabulary (Review)

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Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
Brendan: Welcome to Chineseclass101.com, the fastest, easiest and most fun way to learn Chinese. I’m Brendan.
Echo: 嗨,大家好,我是Echo. (Hāi, dàjiā hǎo, wǒ shì Echo.)
Brendan: And we’re coming at you today with Lower Intermediate Series, Season 1, Lesson 14 – “The big topics”. Now, we’ve covered small talk before, we’ve covered small conversation, we’ve covered weekend activities.
Echo: Yes.
Brendan: But, today, we’re going to tell you how to talk about big issues.
Echo: Exactly.
Brendan: National issues, population issues…
Echo: Right.
Brendan: Linguistic issues.
Echo: But, the two speakers are still speaking casual mandarin.
Brendan: Yes, it is, it’s a casual language, let’s face it. Before we get to the dialogue, just a reminder. If you want to fine tune your pronunciation, one of the best things you can do for it is to log on and voice our voice recording tool.
Echo: Right.
Brendan: It will let you record yourself speaking Chinese then play yourself back so that you can listen and pick out any mistakes you might be making.
Echo: That’s right.
Brendan: There is, as far as I know, no better way of improving your pronunciation than this.
Echo: 同意。(Tóngyì.)
Brendan: Let’s get to the dialogue. Oh, snap. Told him.
DIALOGUE
A:你知道吗,中国的网民比美国多。(Nǐ zhīdào ma, zhōngguó de wǎngmín bǐ Měiguó duō.)
B:我知道。(Wǒ zhīdào.)
A:你知道吗,中国有五十六个民族。(Nǐ zhīdào ma, Zhōngguó yǒu wǔshíliù ge mínzú.)
B:知道。(Zhīdào.)
A:你知道吗,中国有二百九十二种语言。(Nǐ zhīdào ma, Zhōngguó yǒu èrbǎi jiǔshíèr zhǒng yǔyán.)
B:你知道吗,你说得太多了。(Nǐ zhīdào ma, nǐ shuō de tài duō le.)
Brendan: Once more, slowly.
A:你知道吗,中国的网民比美国多。(Nǐ zhīdào ma, zhōngguó de wǎngmín bǐ Měiguó duō.)
B:我知道。(Wǒ zhīdào.)
A:你知道吗,中国有五十六个民族。(Nǐ zhīdào ma, Zhōngguó yǒu wǔshíliù ge mínzú.)
B:知道。(Zhīdào.)
A:你知道吗,中国有二百九十二种语言。(Nǐ zhīdào ma, Zhōngguó yǒu èrbǎi jiǔshíèr zhǒng yǔyán.)
B:你知道吗,你说得太多了。(Nǐ zhīdào ma, nǐ shuō de tài duō le.)
Brendan: And now, with English translation.
A:你知道吗,中国的网民比美国多。(Nǐ zhīdào ma, zhōngguó de wǎngmín bǐ Měiguó duō.)
A: Did you know China has more Internet users than the U.S?
B:我知道。(Wǒ zhīdào.)
B: I knew that.
A:你知道吗,中国有五十六个民族。(Nǐ zhīdào ma, Zhōngguó yǒu wǔshíliù ge mínzú.)
A: Did you know China has fifty-six ethnicities?
B:知道。(Zhīdào.)
B: I knew that.
A:你知道吗,中国有二百九十二种语言。(Nǐ zhīdào ma, Zhōngguó yǒu èrbǎi jiǔshíèr zhǒng yǔyán.)
A: Did you know China has 292 languages?
B:你知道吗,你说得太多了。(Nǐ zhīdào ma, nǐ shuō de tài duō le.)
B: Did you know you talk too much?
POST CONVERSATION BANTER
Echo: 被发现了。
Brendan: Yes, well, you know, and a lot of time people hear will talk a lot about China, you know, 5000 years of history, 56 ethnicities, 292 languages and…
Echo: 这就有点太...大家都知道。 You know, if you really want to talk about these kind of things, you don’t want to add 你知道吗?
Brendan: Yes, it’s this sort of a nerdy show off kind of thing.
Echo: Right.
Brendan: And as you said, everybody knows. So, let’s get to the stuff that people might not know…
Echo: Right.
Brendan: Which is at first, the vocabulary for this.
VOCAB LIST
Echo: 人口 (rénkǒu)
Brendan: “Population”
Echo: 网民 (wǎngmín)
Brendan: “Internet user”
Echo: 经济 (jīngjì)
Brendan: “Economy”
Echo: 世界大国 (shìjièdàguó)
Brendan: “Global power”
Echo: 生产 (shēngchǎn)
Brendan: “Manufacturing”
Echo: 民族 (mínzú)
Brendan: “Ethnicity”
Echo: 少数民族 (shǎoshùmínzú)
Brendan: “Ethnic minority”
Echo: 多数 (duōshù)
Brendan: “Majority”
Echo: 语言 (yǔyán)
Brendan: “Language”
Echo: 语言 (yǔyán)
VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE
Brendan: So let’s take a look and slightly more detail about how these words are used.
Echo: Ok. The first word is 人口。(Rénkǒu.)
Brendan: Yes, and that’s “population”.
Echo: Yes, and it’s very popular topic in China.
Brendan: Yes, I mean, if you’re using this word in the context of China, there’s one sentence in particular that you’re going to hear a lot.
Echo: Yes. 中国的人口很多。(Zhōngguó de rénkǒu hěnduō.)
Brendan: “China has a very big population.”
Echo: 中国的人口很多。(Zhōngguó de rénkǒu hěnduō.) In English, we’ll say “big”, in Chinese we’ll say 多。(Duō.)
Brendan: Right.
Echo: Instead of 大。(Dà.)
Brendan: Right. It’s literally you’re saying “the population is many”.
Echo: And so, 中国的网民也很多。(Zhōngguó de wǎngmín yě hěnduō.)
Brendan: “Chinese netizens” or “Chinese Internet users” are also 很多。(Hěnduō.)
Echo: Right. 网民,中国的网民也很多。(Wǎngmín, zhōngguó de wǎngmín yě hěnduō.)
Brendan: “There are many Internet users.”
Echo: 所以奇怪的人也很多。(Suǒyǐ qíguài de rén yě hěnduō.)
Brendan: Yes, yes. Well, that’s hard to avoid, especially online. Not you guys, of course. Now, another thing that you’ve probably heard a lot especially recently…
Echo: Yes.
Brendan: Is in connection not just to the number of Internet users, not just to the population, but also to China’s economy.
Echo: 经济。(Jīngjì.)
Brendan: And here again a sentence that you’ll hear a lot.
Echo: 这个国家的经济很好。(Zhège guójiā de jīngjì hěn hǎo.)
Brendan: “This country’s economy is very good.”
Echo: Or, you can say 这个国家的经济发展很快。(Zhège guójiā de jīngjì fāzhǎn hěn kuài.)
Brendan: “This country’s economy is developing very quickly.”
Echo: Like, talking about China.
Brendan: Yes.
Echo: So, 世界大国们纷纷表示抗议。(Shìjiè dàguómen fēnfēn biǎoshì kàngyì.)
Brendan: So, “The major global powers are expressing one after the other their opposition.”
Echo: 对,世界大国。(Duì, shìjiè dàguó.)
Brendan: “The major global powers”
Echo: 对,现在世界大国们纷纷表示抗议。(Duì, xiànzài shìjiè dàguómen fēnfēn biǎoshì kàngyì.)
Brendan: Now, one of the reasons that China’s economy…
Echo: 经济 (Jīngjì)
Brendan: Has developed so quickly is manufacturing.
Echo: 生产行业 (Shēngchǎn hángyè) or we can also say 制造业,(Zhìzào yè,) especially in the South part of China.
Brendan: Yes, there are many, manufacturing businesses down South.
Echo: 南方的生产行业很庞大。(Nánfāng de shēngchǎn hángyè hěn pángdà.)
Brendan: “There are many, manufacturing businesses down South.”
Echo: 南方的生产行业很庞大。(Nánfāng de shēngchǎn hángyè hěn pángdà.)
Brendan: And now, other big topics, something you’ll see in the news more or less, especially at certain times of year, is China’s ethnic composition. There are a lot of different ethnicities in China.
Echo: Yes, 民族。(Mínzú.)
Brendan: And how many ethnicities are there?
Echo: 中国有56个民族。(Zhōngguó yǒu 56 gè mínzú.)
Brendan: “China has 56 ethnicities.”
Echo: 中国有56个民族。(Zhōngguó yǒu 56 gè mínzú.) or you can say 中国是一个多民族国家。(Zhōngguó shì yīgè duō mínzú guójiā.)
Brendan: Yes, “China is a multi ethnic country.”
Echo: 中国是一个多民族国家。(Zhōngguó shì yīgè duō mínzú guójiā.) And most of these 民族 (Mínzú) are 少数民族。(Shǎoshù mínzú.)
Brendan: “The majority of ethnicities are in fact ethnic minorities.”
Echo: 这个地区有很多的少数民族。(Zhège dìqū yǒu hěnduō de shǎoshù mínzú.)
Brendan: “There are many ethnic minorities in this region.”
Brendan: That region’s probably the South-West, right?
Echo: Yes, 差不多。“少数”的反义词是“多数”(Chàbùduō.“Shǎoshù” de fǎnyìcí shì “duōshù”)
Brendan: Right. And that simply means “majority”.
Echo: 多数,我站在大多数这边。(Duōshù, wǒ zhàn zài dà duōshù zhè biān.)
Brendan: “I’m on the side of the majority.”
Echo: Yes, so you can add 大 (Dà) before it, too. 大多数.(Dà duōshù.) Ok, the last word is, of course, 语言。(Yǔyán.)
Brendan: Yes. We saved the best for last, or at least my favorite for last…
Echo: Yes, me too.
Brendan: It’s “language”.
Echo: Yes. 你说什么语言 (Nǐ shuō shénme yǔyán) Brendan?
Brendan: What languages do I speak? Well, I speak a couple, some better than others. Mostly English and Mandarin.
Echo: Ok.
Brendan: Now, that’s about it for vocabulary. Bare this in mind and we’re going to discuss the grammar point for today’s lesson.
Echo: Right. 如果你们想说好这个语言,需要好好学习我们的 (Rúguǒ nǐmen xiǎng shuō hǎo zhège yǔyán, xūyào hǎo hào xuéxí wǒmen de) grammar point.

Lesson focus

Brendan: Now, for grammar, what we’re going to talk about today is something that we see in the very first line of this dialogue.
Echo: Yes, 比。中国的网民比美国多。(Bǐ. Zhōngguó de wǎngmín bǐ měiguó duō.)
Brendan: “China’s netizens”, “比”,(“Bǐ”) “the United States”, “many”. And so that means, is “China has more Internet users than the U.S.” or, literally, “China’s Internet users are more plentiful than the U.S.”
Echo: 中国的网民比美国多。(Zhōngguó de wǎngmín bǐ měiguó duō.)
Brendan: So, what we have here is a comparison.
Echo: Right. We learned this before, right? So, let’s just give some more examples. 地铁要比公交快多了。(Dìtiě yào bǐ gōngjiāo kuài duōle.)
Brendan: “The subway is way faster than the bus.”
Echo: 美国的经济比很多国家好。(Měiguó de jīngjì bǐ hěnduō guójiā hǎo.)
Brendan: “The United States’ economy is better than many countries’.”
Echo: 所以在我们的后两个句子里,还有在我们的对话里的句子里有一点不一样。(Suǒyǐ zài wǒmen de hòu liǎng gè jùzi lǐ, hái yǒu zài wǒmen de duìhuà li de jùzi li yǒu yīdiǎn bù yīyàng.)
Brendan: Yes, so, if we look at those last two sentences, or if we look at the first sentence in the dialogue, there’s a slight difference, a kind of a subtle one, from the patterns that we’ve learned before.
Echo: Let’s take the sentence in the dialogue as example 中国的网民比美国多。(Zhōngguó de wǎngmín bǐ měiguó duō.)
Brendan: “There are more Internet users in China than the United States.”
Echo: But I didn’t say中国的网民比美国的网民多。(Zhōngguó de wǎngmín bǐ měiguó de wǎngmín duō.)
Brendan: Or, in these other sentences that we just saw.
Echo: 美国的经济比很多国家好。(Měiguó de jīngjì bǐ hěnduō guójiā hǎo.) And we didn’t say美国的经济比很多国家的经济好。(Měiguó de jīngjì bǐ hěnduō guójiā de jīngjì hǎo.)
Brendan: The reason is there’s no need to. If we’re comparing things, chances are we’re comparing the same thing.
Echo: Like 网民 (Wǎngmín) or 经济。(Jīngjì.)
Brendan: And so, in all of these cases, there’s no need to repeat the noun again. Instead, we simply make it possessive. “Your score is higher than hers.”
Echo: 你的分数比她的高。(Nǐ de fēnshù bǐ tā de gāo.)

Outro

Brendan: So, that’s it for our grammar point. If you have any questions about it…
Echo: You can always write to us at contactus@Chineseclass101.com or leave a comment on the site.
Brendan: It will take a moment of your time and you will make our day. We’ve been looking forward to hearing from you for quite a while.
Echo: 没错 (Méi cuò)
Brendan: From…

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