Dialogue

Vocabulary

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Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
Dave: Hi everybody and welcome to chineseclass101 Elementary series, season 2, Lesson 11. The Latest Chinese Diet.
Echo: 嗨,大家好,我是Echo. (Hāi, dàjiā hǎo, wǒ shì Echo.) and welcome to chineseclass101.com.
Dave: And I am Dave. With us, you will learn to speak Chinese with fun and effective lessons.
Echo: And we also provide you with cultural insights.
Dave: And tips you won’t find in a textbook. So today’s lesson is about dieting.
Echo: While the dialogue is about how to maintain a slim body.
Dave: From diets to exercise, today’s lesson is full of fun vocabulary words that will leave your mind feeling strong and energetic.
Echo: And don’t miss today’s grammar point where we talk about a very common expression in Chinese that you will use more and more.
Dave: Right. So let’s get to the dialogue.
DIALOGUE
A:你越来越瘦了,多吃点儿。 (nǐ yuèláiyuè shòule, duō chī diǎnr.)
B:我节食呢! (wǒ jiéshí ne!)
A:你注意身体。 (nǐ zhùyì shēntǐ.)
B:没事,我天天锻炼。 (méishì, wǒ tiāntiān duànliàn.)
A:哎,别喝减肥茶了。 (āi, bié hē jiǎnféi chá le.)
B:没事。 (méishì.)
A:你已经很瘦了。 (nǐ yǐjīng hěn shòu le.)
B:你不懂,现在越瘦越好。 (nǐ bùdǒng, xiànzài yuè shòu yuè hǎo.)
Dave: One more time, a bit slower.
A:你越来越瘦了,多吃点儿。 (nǐ yuèláiyuè shòule, duō chī diǎnr.)
B:我节食呢! (wǒ jiéshí ne!)
A:你注意身体。 (nǐ zhùyì shēntǐ.)
B:没事,我天天锻炼。 (méishì, wǒ tiāntiān duànliàn.)
A:哎,别喝减肥茶了。 (āi, bié hē jiǎnféi chá le.)
B:没事。 (méishì.)
A:你已经很瘦了。 (nǐ yǐjīng hěn shòu le.)
B:你不懂,现在越瘦越好。 (nǐ bùdǒng, xiànzài yuè shòu yuè hǎo.)
Dave: One more time with English.
Echo: 你越来越瘦了,多吃点儿。 (nǐ yuèláiyuè shòule, duō chī diǎnr.)
Dave: You are getting skinnier and skinnier, you should eat more.
Echo: 我节食呢! (wǒ jiéshí ne!)
Dave: I am on a diet.
Echo: 你注意身体。 (nǐ zhùyì shēntǐ)
Dave: You should be careful of your health.
Echo: 没事,我天天锻炼。 (méishì, wǒ tiāntiān duànliàn.)
Dave: It’s nothing. I workout every day.
Echo: 哎,别喝减肥茶了。 (āi, bié hē jiǎnféi chá le.)
Dave: Ey don’t drink diet tea.
Echo: 没事。 (méishì.)
Dave: Don’t worry.
Echo: 你已经很瘦了。 (. nǐ yǐjīng hěn shòu le.)
Dave: You are already really skinny.
Echo: 你不懂,现在越瘦越好。 (nǐ bùdǒng, xiànzài yuè shòu yuè hǎo.)
Dave: You don’t understand, the skinnier, the better. I could never go on on diet. I like food far too much.
POST CONVERSATION BANTER
Echo: Well you are a boy, so you are under far less pressure to be skinny.
Dave: I don’t know if that’s true. There are fat guys in movies but they are never the hero who gets the girl.
Echo: Well still it’s not as intense.
Dave: No, no disagreement there. In China however, sometimes people tell me I look fat and they appear to mean it as a compliment.
Echo: Yeah that’s because the words for fat has more positive associations in Chinese. It suggests that you are strong and healthy. I think it’s partly because like 15 years ago, people often had very little food to eat in China and being fat suggests you that you were rich and had a better life than others.
Dave: Ah whereas in English, fat just means fat. Okay let’s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson.
Dave: And now the vocab section.
VOCAB LIST
Echo: 越 (yuè)
Dave: The more.
Echo: 越来越 (yuèláiyuè)
Dave: The more and more.
Echo: 节食 (jiéshí)
Dave: To go on a diet.
Echo: 注意 (zhùyì)
Dave: To pay attention.
Echo: 身体 (shēntǐ)
Dave: Body or health.
Echo: 天天 (every day)
Dave: Everyday.
Echo: 锻炼 (duànliàn)
Dave: To workout.
Echo: 减肥茶 (jiǎnféichá)
Dave: Diet tea.
Echo: 减肥药 (jiǎnféiyào)
Dave: Weight loss pills.
Echo: 健康 (jiànkāng)
Dave: Healthy.
Echo: 健康 (jiànkāng)
VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE
Dave: Let’s have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson.
Echo: The first word we will look at is 越。 (Yuè)
Dave: The more, the more something.
Echo: Yeah.
Dave: The more something.
Echo: 越,女孩越高越漂亮。 (Yuè, nǚhái yuè gāo yuè piàoliang.)
Dave: The more tall girls are, the more pretty they are.
Echo: Right 女孩越高越漂亮。 (Nǚhái yuè gāo yuè piàoliang.) Okay next one 越来越。 (Yuè lái yuè.)
Dave: More and more.
Echo: 越来越,你越来越年轻了。 (Yuè lái yuè, nǐ yuè lái yuè niánqīngle.)
Dave: You look younger and younger.
Echo: Dave 你越来越年轻了。 (Nǐ yuè lái yuè niánqīngle.)
Dave: Oh thank you. It’s like that movie Benjamin Button.
Echo: Yeah.
Dave: Eventually I will just turn into a small child.
Echo: 节食。 (Jiéshí)
Dave: To go on a diet.
Echo: 节食,节食对健康不好。 (Jiéshí, jiéshí duì jiànkāng bù hǎo.)
Dave: Going on a diet isn’t good for your health.
Echo: 节食对健康不好。注意。 (Jiéshí duì jiànkāng bù hǎo. Zhùyì.)
Dave: To pay attention.
Echo: 注意,他越来越不注意身体了。 (Zhùyì, tā yuè lái yuè bù zhùyì shēntǐle.)
Dave: He is paying less and less attention to his body or his health.
Echo: 他越来越不注意身体了 (Tā yuè lái yuè bù zhùyì shēntǐle) So we have this word next 身体。 (Shēntǐ)
Dave: Which means body or health. It can refer to your physical body or the health of that body.
Echo: Yeah 身体。他的身体很差,经常生病。 (Shēntǐ. Tā de shēntǐ hěn chà, jīngcháng shēngbìng.)
Dave: His body is in bad shape. He is constantly getting sick.
Echo: 他的身体很差,经常生病。天天。 (Tā de shēntǐ hěn chà, jīngcháng shēngbìng. Tiāntiān.)
Dave: Everyday.
Echo: 天天,我天天都去锻炼。 (Tiāntiān, wǒ tiāntiān dū qù duànliàn.)
Dave: I go workout every day.
Echo: 我天天都去锻炼。 (Wǒ tiāntiān dū qù duànliàn.) This actually brings us to the next word 锻炼。 (Duànliàn)
Dave: To workout.
Echo: 锻炼,我锻炼了一个小时。 (Duànliàn, wǒ duànliànle yīgè xiǎoshí.)
Dave: I worked out for an hour.
Echo: 我锻炼了一个小时。减肥茶。 (Wǒ duànliànle yīgè xiǎoshí. Jiǎnféi chá.)
Dave: Weight loss tea or tea for dieting.
Echo: 减肥茶,喝减肥茶没用。 (Jiǎnféi chá, hē jiǎnféi chá méi yòng.)
Dave: Drinking weight loss tea is useless.
Echo: 喝减肥茶没用。减肥药。 (Hē jiǎnféi chá méi yòng. Jiǎnféi yào.)
Dave: Weight loss pills.
Echo: 减肥药,我不吃减肥药。 (Jiǎnféi yào, wǒ bù chī jiǎnféi yào.)
Dave: I don’t take weight loss pills.
Echo: 我不吃减肥药。 (Wǒ bù chī jiǎnféi yào.)
Dave: I don’t take weight loss pills. Now literally it’s I don’t eat weight loss pills because in Chinese, you eat medicine but more commonly in English, we say take.
Echo: Right. And last word 健康。 (Jiànkāng)
Dave: Healthy.
Echo: 健康,我的身体越来越健康了。 (Jiànkāng, wǒ de shēntǐ yuè lái yuè jiànkāngle.)
Dave: My body is becoming healthier and healthier.
Echo: 我的身体越来越健康了。 (Wǒ de shēntǐ yuè lái yuè jiànkāngle.)
Dave: My body is becoming more and more healthy but you all know that’s a lie now because I told you I never go to the gym. Okay let’s move on to the grammar section. It’s grammar time.

Lesson focus

Echo: The focus of this lesson is 越。 (Yuè.)
Dave: This is a common expression that you will hear quite often and it means the more something the more something else.
Echo: Yeah 越什么什么,越什么什么。 (Yuè shénme shénme, yuè shénme shénme.)
Dave: Is a phrase used to show that as one condition increases or intensifies, another does as well. So let’s take a look at the example from our dialogue.
Echo: 现在越瘦越好。 (Xiànzài yuè shòu yuè hǎo.)
Dave: Right now, the skinnier I am, the better.
Echo: 越瘦越好。 (Yuè shòu yuè hǎo.)
Dave: This implies that the skinnier the person is
Echo: 越瘦。 (Yuè shòu.)
Dave: The better it is.
Echo: 越好。 (Yuè hǎo.)
Dave: This phrase can also be used with verbs.
Echo: 这部电影越看越喜欢。 (Zhè bù diànyǐng yuè kàn yuè xǐhuān.)
Dave: The more I watch this movie, the more I like it.
Echo: 越来越So 越来越 (Yuè lái yuè So yuè lái yuè) is a common way to say that some quality intensifies with time.
Dave: Right. It’s a neutral expression.
Echo: Yeah.
Dave: So it can be used to talk about increasingly good or bad conditions.
Echo: Right.
Dave: To say that something is intensifying over time, we use this formula.
Echo: 越来越 (Yuè lái yuè) plus adjective or plus verb phrase.
Dave: Right. Let’s go over some examples to shed some light on this.
Echo: 你越来越漂亮了。 (Nǐ yuè lái yuè piàoliangle.)
Dave: You are getting prettier and prettier.
Echo: 越来越漂亮。 (Yuè lái yuè piàoliang.)
Dave: Prettier and prettier.
Echo: 他越来越年轻了。 (Tā yuè lái yuè niánqīngle.)
Dave: He is becoming younger and younger.
Echo: 越来越年轻。(Yuè lái yuè niánqīng.)
Dave: Younger and younger.
Echo: 我越来越喜欢我的工作了。 (Wǒ yuè lái yuè xǐhuān wǒ de gōngzuòle.)
Dave: I like my job more and more.
Echo: And notice we had a verb phrase at the end of the sentence using 喜欢 (Xǐhuān)
Dave: Like
Echo: Right. You can use the verb phrase after 越来越 (Yuè lái yuè) as well as adjectives.
Dave: Now we are going to review the second point.
Echo: When using verb or an adjective, follow this pattern 越 (Yuè) plus adjective or verb phrase plus 越 (Yuè) plus adjective or verb phrase.
Dave: This is the same pattern that we saw in the dialogue. Okay let’s go over some more examples. Echo.
Echo: 分数越高越好。 (Fēnshù yuè gāo yuè hǎo.)
Dave: The higher the score, the better.
Echo: 分数越高越好。 (Fēnshù yuè gāo yuè hǎo.) So we have two adjectives 高 (Gāo) and 好。 (Hǎo)
Dave: The higher and the better.
Echo: 越高越好。 (Yuè gāo yuè hǎo.)
Dave: Our next example.
Echo: 鞋子越舒服越好。 (Xiézi yuè shūfú yuè hǎo.)
Dave: The more comfortable the shoe is, the better and I agree with this statement 100%.
Echo: Yeah 越舒服越好。 (Yuè shūfú yuè hǎo.)
Dave: More comfortable, the better. So Echo, in review, we have two patterns meaning the more something, the more something else.
Echo: Right. One pattern is,
Dave: The one we just went over.
Echo: 越 (Yuè) plus adjective or verb phrase plus 越 (Yuè) plus adjective or verb phrase.
Dave: And the second pattern was
Echo: 越来越 (Yuè lái yuè) plus adjective or verb phrase.
Dave: Okay Echo, let’s leave our listeners with one last sentence.
Echo: 中文越说越好。 (Zhōngwén yuè shuō yuè hǎo.)
Dave: The more you speak Chinese, the better you get.
Echo: Right 中文越说越好。 (Zhōngwén yuè shuō yuè hǎo.) and the best way to improve your speaking is with
Dave: The voice recording tool at chineseclass101.
Echo: 没错。 (Méi cuò.)
Dave: Yes the voice recording tool in the premium learning center.
Echo: Record your voice with a click of a button
Dave: And then play it back just as easily.
Echo: So you record your voice and then listen to it.
Dave: Compare it to the native speakers.
Echo: And adjust your pronunciation.
Dave: This will help you improve your pronunciation quickly.
Echo: Right.

Outro

Dave: Okay that’s it for today. I am Dave from Beijing.
Echo: 我是Echo. (Wǒ shì Echo.)
Dave: And we will see you next week.
Echo: Thanks for listening.
Dave: Keep listening to chineseclass101.
Echo: Bye bye.

Grammar

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