Learn a useful Chinese grammar pattern and what everyone wants to know about China
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Jane: Hello everyone, I am Jane and welcome to ChineseClass101.com |
| Canaan: And this is Canaan. With us, you will learn to speak Chinese with fun and effective lessons. |
| Jane: We will also provide you with cultural insights. |
| Canaan: And tips you won’t find in a textbook. |
| Jane: And today is our Absolute Beginner series, season 3, lesson 7. Planning a fun night in China. |
| Canaan: Now today, we are going to take you right into the heart of Beijing Downtown and tell you about the many things you can do there. |
| Jane: Watch out for the crowds. |
| Canaan: So this conversation takes place at home where two friends are deciding where to hang out later on. |
| Jane: And since they are friends, of course, they are speaking in casual Mandarin. |
| Canaan: Right. Now before we go to the dialogue, we do have something to remind our listeners of. |
| Jane: And what’s that? |
| Canaan: Our one on one tutoring service where we have professionally trained Chinese language teachers who would love to help you with your Chinese. They are very friendly people. |
| Jane: I can promise that. |
| Canaan: Except for Jane, okay. Let’s go to the dialogue. |
| DIALOGUE |
| 你想去哪儿？(Nǐ xiǎng qù nǎr?) |
| 三里屯。(Sānlǐtún.) |
| 人太多，不好走。(Rén tài duō, bù hǎo zǒu.) |
| 那酒吧街呢?(Nà jiǔbā jiē ne?) |
| 更不好走！(Gèngbù hǎo zǒu!) |
| And now with the English translation. |
| 你想去哪儿？(Nǐ xiǎng qù nǎr?) |
| Where do you want to go? |
| 三里屯。(Sānlǐtún.) |
| Sanlitun. |
| 人太多，不好走。(Rén tài duō, bù hǎo zǒu.) |
| Too many people, difficult to get to. |
| 那酒吧街呢?(Nà jiǔbā jiē ne?) |
| What about the bar street then? |
| 更不好走！(Gèngbù hǎo zǒu!) |
| Even more difficult to get to. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Jane: So Canaan, I’m sure you’ve been to 三里屯 (Sānlǐtún). |
| Canaan: I have although now that you mentioned it, when I first came to Beijing in 2005, I spent a whole semester without going there even once. |
| Jane: A foreigner who didn’t go to 三里屯 (Sānlǐtún) how could that be? |
| Canaan: While I was broke, what do you want me to do? |
| Jane: Now the Airway has changed so much over the years. |
| Canaan: Yeah they’ve opened up a lot of new shops, restaurants, bars |
| Jane: And we will teach you how to talk about them in Chinese today. |
| Canaan: So let’s check out the vocabulary. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Jane: 想 (xiǎng) |
| Canaan: To want to |
| Jane: 想 想 (xiǎng) |
| Jane: 三里屯 (Sānlǐtún) |
| Canaan: Sanlitun |
| Jane: 三里屯 三里屯 (Sānlǐtún) |
| Jane: 不好走 (bù hǎo zǒu) |
| Canaan: Hard to get to |
| Jane: 不好走 不好走 (bù hǎo zǒu) |
| Jane: 酒吧 (jiǔbā) |
| Canaan: Bar |
| Jane: 酒吧 酒吧 (jiǔbā) |
| Jane: 酒吧街 (jiǔbā jiē) |
| Canaan: Bar Street. |
| Jane: 酒吧街 酒吧街 (jiǔbā jiē) |
| Jane: 更 (gèng) |
| Canaan: Even more |
| Jane: 更 更 (gèng) |
| Jane: 电影院 (diànyǐngyuàn ) |
| Canaan: Movie Theater, cinema. |
| Jane: 电影院 电影院 (diànyǐngyuàn ) |
| Jane: 网吧 (wǎngbā) |
| Canaan: Internet café. |
| Jane: 网吧 网吧 (wǎngbā) |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Canaan: All right. Let’s take a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases in this vocabulary. |
| Jane: And the first word we are looking at is 想 (xiǎng) |
| Canaan: To want |
| Jane: 想 (xiǎng) |
| Canaan: To want. And that’s only one of the many meanings this word has. |
| Jane: True. This is another frequently used verb in our daily conversations. |
| Canaan: Right and you will notice that in our dialogue today. This verb is used in conjunction with an action verb. |
| Jane: And the sentence was 你想去哪儿？(nǐ xiǎng qù nǎr ?) |
| Canaan: Where do you want to go? |
| Jane: 你想去哪儿？(nǐ xiǎng qù nǎr ?) |
| Canaan: Where do you want to go? Can you give us another example? |
| Jane: 我想回家。(Wǒ xiǎnghuíjiā .) |
| Canaan: I want to go home. |
| Jane: 我想回家。(Wǒ xiǎnghuíjiā .) |
| Canaan: I want to go home. |
| Jane: But Canaan, you mentioned this word 想 (xiǎng) also has other meanings. Can you tell our listeners another meaning of 想 (xiǎng) |
| Canaan: Well for instance, when you have two lovers talking in the phone, most of the time, the conversation starts, ends and mostly consists of… |
| Jane: 我想你。(Wǒ xiǎng nǐ .) |
| Canaan: I miss you. |
| Jane: 我想你。(Wǒ xiǎng nǐ .) |
| Canaan: I miss you. So here 想 (xiǎng) means to miss, yes? |
| Jane: 没错儿 (méicuòr). Maybe it will come handy to our listeners some day. |
| Canaan: We will see how you do over in the bar street. Our next word is the name of the place in Beijing that pretty much everybody knows. |
| Jane: 三里屯 (Sānlǐtún) |
| Canaan: I am not going to translate that because it’s a name. Once more? |
| Jane: 三里屯 (Sānlǐtún) |
| Canaan: Yeah Sanlitun. It’s a big commercial block which is right close to the embassy area in Eastern Beijing and an area that has pretty much everything you want from China and from around the world. |
| Jane: Very exciting place for people with lots and lots of money. |
| Canaan: Right and really not much choice there if you don’t have much money which is why I didn’t go there when I was a student. So Jane, where do you usually go when you go to Sanlitun? |
| Jane: 电影院 (diànyǐngyuàn ) |
| Canaan: Cinema. |
| Jane: 电影院 (diànyǐngyuàn ) |
| Canaan: Cinema. So you like to watch movies? |
| Jane: 我想去电影院。(Wǒ xiǎng qù diànyǐngyuàn .) |
| Canaan: I want to go to the cinema. |
| Jane: 我想去电影院。(Wǒ xiǎng qù diànyǐngyuàn .) |
| Canaan: I want to go to the cinema but I like to go to the bars. |
| Jane: Canaan 想去酒吧。(Canaan xiǎng qù jiǔbā .) |
| Canaan: Yes he does. So can we hear the word for bar again? |
| Jane: 酒吧 (jiǔbā) |
| Canaan: Right. Literally alcohol bar but there are a lot of bars in Sanlitun, a whole street of them. So what do we call a bar street? |
| Jane: 酒吧街 (jiǔbā jiē) |
| Canaan: Bar street. |
| Jane: 酒吧街 (jiǔbā jiē) |
| Canaan: Right and the first two characters are for bar. So the third character clearly means street. |
| Jane: 是的。(shì de.) |
| Canaan: Now I’ve changed my mind. I don’t want to go to a bar anymore. I need to find a place where I can use the internet. |
| Jane: 网吧 (wǎngbā) |
| Canaan: Internet café. |
| Jane: 网吧 (wǎngbā) |
| Canaan: Internet café. I think I had to tell our listeners though that the [*] here in China is quite different from the ones that you will see when you are back home. If you haven’t been to China that is |
| Jane: 是啊。(shì a.) |
| Canaan: They are open 24 hours a day and they tend to be filled with teen age aged kids who are cutting class to come and play counterstrike. The windows are closed and they smell like they haven’t been opened in two months. It’s not what you call real attractive scene but the free Wi-Fi in Beijing is very good. Most cafes have it. |
| Jane: That’s why places like Starbucks are full of people with their laptops. |
| Canaan: Anyway back to our vocabulary. Now I noticed that the 吧 (bā) in internet café and the 吧(bā) as in bar are the same character. |
| Jane: 是的。(shì de.)In fact, this is a word actually borrowed from English. |
| Canaan: Got you. Now the next word we want to touch on is an adverb. |
| Jane: 更 (gèng) |
| Canaan: Even more. |
| Jane: 更 (gèng) |
| Canaan: Even more. Maybe some of our listeners will remember our previous lesson in which we had a sample sentence that went |
| Jane: 我更喜欢吃炒饭。(Wǒ gèng xǐhuān chī chǎofàn.) |
| Canaan: I prefer eating fried rice. |
| Jane: 我更喜欢吃炒饭。(Wǒ gèng xǐhuān chī chǎofàn.) |
| Canaan: I prefer eating fried rice. Now in this case, the sentence means that I like |
| Jane: 炒饭 (chǎofàn) |
| Canaan: Fried rice even more. Jane, I noticed that 更 (gèng) is placed before the verb 喜欢 (xǐhuān) here in this sentence. |
| Jane: 是的。(shì de.) Another sentence 那个更便宜。(nà ge gèng piányi .) |
| Canaan: That one is even more inexpensive. |
| Jane: 那个更便宜。(nà ge gèng piányi .) |
| Canaan: That one is even more inexpensive. All right, I think we are going to run this last vocabulary right in our grammar point just because it’s such a great pattern to use. |
| Jane: 好的 (hǎo de) |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Canaan: Now in today’s grammar section, we are going to teach you how to turn verbs directly into adjectives simply by adding one word. |
| Jane: 好 (hǎo) |
| Canaan: All right. So can we look at some examples? How about to eat? |
| Jane: 吃 (chī) |
| Canaan: Turn it into an adjective. |
| Jane: 好吃 (hǎochī) |
| Canaan: Meaning delicious, tasty. |
| Jane: 好吃hǎochī。这个苹果很好吃。(zhège píngguǒ hěn hǎochī .) |
| Canaan: This Apple is delicious. |
| Jane: 这个苹果很好吃。(zhège píngguǒ hěn hǎochī .) |
| Canaan: This Apple is delicious. How about to look? |
| Jane: 看 (kàn) is the verb and 好看 (hǎokàn) is the adjective. |
| Canaan: Meaning good looking. |
| Jane: 那个女孩真好看。(nà ge nǚhái zhēn hǎokàn .) |
| Canaan: That girl is really good looking. |
| Jane: 那个女孩真好看。(nà ge nǚhái zhēn hǎokàn .) |
| Canaan: That girl is really good looking. So what about the one we just learned, to want? |
| Jane: 想 (xiǎng) Umm not this one, I am afraid. In fact 好想 (hǎo xiǎng) means really, really want or really miss. |
| Canaan: Okay. So it doesn’t work with all verbs but a lot of action verbs can be changed into adjectives in this way such as to walk, to use, to hear et cetera, et cetera. |
| Jane: 没错儿 (méicuòr). As a convention, we are always at the adverb such as 真 (zhēn) or 很(hěn) before the pattern in the sentence. |
| Canaan: Got you, it’s simple. |
| Jane: But we are not done yet. |
| Canaan: Well then what’s next? |
| Jane: We can add the negative word 不(bù) in front to mean the opposite. |
| Canaan: Oh so tasty to disgusting. |
| Jane: 不好吃 (bù hǎochī) |
| Canaan: Good looking to ugly. |
| Jane: 不好看 (bù hǎokàn) |
| Canaan: How about sounds bad? |
| Jane: 不好听 (bù hǎotīng) |
| Canaan: Sounds bad |
| Jane: 不好听 (bù hǎotīng) |
| Canaan: This song is not very good. |
| Jane: 这首歌不好听。(Zhè shǒu gē bù hǎotīng.) |
| Canaan: This song is not very good. You didn’t add the adverb 真 (zhēn) or 很(hěn) in any of those sentences. |
| Jane: 没错儿 (méicuòr). For negative sentences, they are not always necessary. |
| Canaan: But if you want to emphasize the adjective, you can still add them in, right? |
| Jane: If it’s really bad such as 这个手机真不好用。(zhège shǒujī zhēn bù hǎoyòng.) |
| Canaan: This cell phone is really difficult to use. |
| Jane: 这个手机真不好用。(zhège shǒujī zhēn bù hǎoyòng.) |
| Canaan: This cell phone is really difficult to use. This is a good pattern to remember. |
Outro |
| Canaan: All right, I think we are going to call it a day here in Beijing but before we go, I want to remind you that we’d really, really 真的真的 (zhēnde zhēnde) love to hear from you. |
| Jane: 是的。(shì de.) Just write to us at contactus@chineseclass101.com, let us know for any comments, suggestions or feedback. |
| Canaan: You might have so we can be 更好 (gènghǎo) next time. For now, this is Canaan. |
| Jane: 我是Jane. (Wǒ shì Jane.) |
| Canaan: And we will see you next time. |
| Jane: See you later. |
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