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Learn Chinese with ChineseClass101.com! It’s a fact of life that accidents happen. Sometimes we all slip up and look pretty foolish, which is why it’s important to have an effective strategy for damage control. In this lesson, we eavesdrop on a conversation between two friends, one of whom has just had a nasty fall. You’ll have to listen to find out what happens, but we’ll give you a clue: sympathy is not in the offing. And while we can’t improve your balance and coordination, we can give you the language tools to successfully navigate the social ridicule that follows an embarrassing slip-up.

 

Learning Chinese with ChineseClass101.com is the most fun and effective way to learn Chinese! In addition to introducing some new verbs you can use to describe accidents, this Elementary Chinese lesson will cover a very useful resultative verb complement you can use to describe the completion of an action. We also go over a nifty way of asking “what’s wrong” and end with a few colorful adjectives to describe the act of walking into a telephone pole. What more could you ask from a podcast? So listen up, and visit us at ChineseClass101.com when you’re done for tons more great Chinese lessons and learning materials. Leave us a message while you are there!

 


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This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 16th, 2009 at 6:30 pm and is filed under Elementary Season 1 . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

18 Responses to “Elementary Lesson #36 - What an Idiot!”

ChineseClass101.com says:

What are some of the embarrassing moments you have had in China? Let us know if enough time has passed to heal the wounds!

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richard says:

@ Echo,
at my ele/level i can’t help but translate from english!
do i use ‘dao’ or not for the following? i don’t see the verb being achieved or a ? in these.

i hope that i am able to meet her - wǒ xīwàng néng jiàn(dào) tā
wǒ zhēn xīwàng néng zhǎo(dào) wǒde qiánbāo - i really hope i can find my wallet

also why is the “de” necessary in this question?
can you (are you able to ) see it? nǐ kàn de dào ma

bye

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zhouli says:

@richard,
hi, richard, you have a point. actually dao4 is a complement indicating the result, just like what you said.
however, in this lesson, when we say 撞到(zhuàngdào),or碰到(pèngdào), it indicate the speaker has reached something or achieved something. eg. 我(wǒ)撞到(zhuàngdào)门(mén)了(le)。means i was crashed into the door.
and for 我(wǒ)希望(xīwàng)能(néng)见到(jiàndào)他(tā)。the 到(dào)here emphasizes the result can be achieved.
your opinion and their opinion are just said in two different ways.

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zhouli says:

@richard,
得(de) usually appears between the verb and the complement. like好得很(hǎodehěn), 看得到(kàndedào).
in sentences: 你(nǐ)看得到(kàndedào)吗(ma)?
if you don’t want to use 得(de), for the resultative complement you can add a 能(néng) in the sentence:
你(nǐ)看得到(kàndedào)吗(ma)?
你(nǐ)能(néng)看得到(kàndedào)吗(ma)?
你(nǐ)能(néng)看到(kàndào)吗(ma)?
all these three sentences are correct.

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kimiik says:

Hi Dave,
What sort of message do you send when you pronounce the “YOU” of YOUTUBE like the “YOU” of YOUKU ? :wink:

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蓝大卫 says:

Is there a tutorial on how to use “My Voice Recorder”?
I can certainly record my voice and play it back, but I’d like to play the
recording of a native speaker, then try repeating it and then compare.
When I play a native speaker, the sound level is much lower than when I speak.

Please help, I’d like to see graphically how my voice compares to a native speaker.

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richard says:

@ zhouli
thanks for explanations
from your experience (all) at what point do beginner/ele student begin to think in chinese(sentence structure) and not translate from english. at this stage my brain is not fast enough to know when to add ‘dào’ to a verb
it’s problably the disadvantage of learning on your own and outside of china!

can you use ‘pèngdào’ for the expression:
i bumped into (saw) Zhouli yesterday..

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dave says:

kimiik,

I guess it dates me - I was in China when the site became really popular for the first time and so it just seems natural. On the other hand, everyone else here calls it 有tube too. Can we settle this by majority rules? ;)

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zhouli says:

@richard,
sure, of course you can use 碰到(pèngdào) in the sentence, so the sentence should be:
我(wǒ)昨天(zuótiān)碰到(pèngdào)周(zhōu)励(lì)了(le)。

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蓝大卫 says:

Dave.

I chuckle when I hear my relatives talk about “Skypee” rather than “Skype”.
:grin:

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Echo says:

@蓝大卫,

That sounds kind of sweet actually :mrgreen:

–Echo

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蓝大卫 says:

Yes, it does sound cute. :grin:

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蓝大卫 says:

In the lesson the expression 别提了 was compared against another expression
别提的?????. The former carrying the connotation that I will tell you about it and the latter being “Hey, I really don’t want to discuss this”. I didn’t see this
expression written down anywhere. How do you write and say the expression?

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Echo says:

@蓝大卫,

You can say, 别提这/那件事了(Bie2 ti2 zhe4/na4 jian4 shi4 le5.) or 我不太想谈这个 (Wo3 bu2 tai4 xiang3 tan2 zhe4ge5).

–Echo

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蓝大卫 says:

Thank you, Echo.

别提这那件事了== Do not bring up this matter.
我不太想谈这个== I don’t wish to speak of this.

Correct translations?

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TeamBJ says:

@蓝大卫,

Oh, i meant you can say 别提这件事了 or 别提那件事了.

The translations are both right :razz:

–Echo

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麥向敢 says:

你好,
别提了的词我不完全明白。简单来说,用别提了时,意思就是要某个人提个问题吗?对不对?我也听说甭提了。同样的意思吗?别提了和甭提了有没有区别?在同样的情况下也用马?
我有点儿糊涂。
谢谢

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Echo says:

@麥向敢,

不是要别人提问题,是自己开始讲话,比如你今天遇到一件倒霉的事,很想讲给朋友听,可以说,“别提了,我今天……“。一般”别提了“都是用在句子最开头,在一段话的开始。

”甭提了“和”别提了“的用法一样,只是”甭“更属于北方的方言,而且更口语化一点儿。

–Echo

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