Dialogue

Vocabulary

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Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
Amber: Hi, welcome to chineseclass101.com and we're here to learn Mandarin Chinese. My name is Amber.
Victor: 大家好。(Dàjiā hǎo.) I'm Victor and Amber we're here not only to learn Chinese but to learn it and love it.
Amber: Yes, yes, that's the easy part, to love Chinese of course and you guys are going to love learning with us here at chineseclass101.com we guarantee it, because it's the place to learn and to love Mandarin.
Victor: These lessons are simply the quickest and most effective way to gain fluency in Mandarin Chinese.
Amber: Yeah, and today is your very first introduction lesson. The best part about it is that this is going to be the best language class you've ever had because number one actually Chinese is not as hard as you might think, and because we're awesome, right, Victor?
Victor: Yeah but also because you can have us any time anywhere, you can play us over and over again on the long commute to work.
Amber: You know all of us that take the subway we all see those kind of crazy people that are talking themselves, well that's the cool thing is that now you can be one of the crazy people talking to yourself.
Victor: In Chinese.
Amber: In Chinese, that would add a whole other element to the talking to yourself right?
Victor: Right.
Amber: People will be like, “Whoa I've never seen that before”. So, yes, with our audio lessons you can learn Chinese on the subway of course. In your car, some people like to listen to them in their car when they're commuting.
Victor: On the train, walking your dog, at the gym, whenever.
Amber: That's right and it's kind of... the format for our lessons is kind of like a radio talk show, entertaining, of course we're always entertaining,
Victor: We try to be.
Amber: We strive, but also educational and you can have both, we promise.
Victor: Right and with the way we break everything down, even if you're completely new to Chinese, you'll be able to speak some by the end of the first lesson.
Amber: Yes and see we promised it's not as hard as everyone makes it out to be, you'll see by the end of this lesson.
Victor: Right, so how it works is that each lesson is hosted by one native Chinese teacher and that's me in this case.
Amber: And also the one native English speaker who has learned Chinese themselves that's me and what we do is we share what we've learned and what you need to know to make learning Chinese easier. I can guarantee people can learn Chinese because I'm living proof.
Victor: Right.
Amber: I can speak Chinese, kind of.
Victor: And you've lived in China, too.
Amber: Right, Victor? If I can do it anybody can.
Victor: All the dialogues are all recorded by professional voice actors with a variety of accents in Chinese, just like you hear in the real world.
Amber: And every lesson has practical phrases it's like every day high frequency Chinese, so the Chinese you learn is not some archaic Chinese from a textbook with some poetic text that you're not ever going to be able to use but actually it's Chinese you'll hear in the real world.
Victor: Right, they're basically conversations that you hear in everyday life.
Amber: And unlike real life though, this is the bonus about our lessons, because real life moves very fast especially in China but what we do is we break down the vocabulary words and phrases slowly explaining them so you can understand them and then know how to use them right away.
Victor: Right, so now everyone knows that China has over five thousand years of history.
Amber: Oh Victor really? Well I know you guys love to point that out but I don't know if that's really been documented yet but we'll give you a few thousand anyway.
Victor: It's true and also you know we should be glad that we have a lot of history to talk about.
Amber: That's true, there's so much to Chinese culture. There's a lot of interesting things about living in China, traveling in China that we'll share with you.
Victor: Right, and tips on using Chinese and experience China in a way... well you know textbooks can't do it for you.
Amber: Oh yes the things that I've lived through can not be printed in books sometimes.
Victor: This is the real live Chinese.
Amber: Yeah.
Victor: Today's intro lesson's a little taste of our huge comprehensive language learning system our audio lessons are designed to be used together with accompanying material on our website chineseclass101.com
Amber: So if you go to chineseclass101.com, you can see there's tons there, tons of learning materials you can dive right into and start learning Chinese today.
Victor: Right, and I'll tell you some of the things you can find there, bonus audio tracks, lesson notes, grammar explanations and examples, flashcards, quizzes and other learning tools for each and every lesson.
Amber: Yeah, so first though, let's get you speaking it. Now, a lot of people's first contact with Chinese we find is in any place in the world, usually there's a local Chinese takeout joint.
Victor: They're everywhere.
Amber: Personally, I've yet to be anywhere in the world without one of those, like Ecuador... everywhere there seems to be a Chinese restaurant. So no matter where you're learning Chinese right now I bet that you can find someone to try out today's phrases on because we're going to give you a very food-centric lesson that you can use in any Chinese restaurant.
I kind of find that the Chinese culture a lot of it revolves around food and you know a lot of people that go to China they end up getting fatter Victor, which is weird because Chinese people are not fat, I don't know why we get fat when we eat there but I think people are always their life is quite focused around food maybe we just can't stop eating it or something, I don't know.
Victor: Maybe.
Amber: So to see the phrases that we're about to cover stop by chineseclass101.com right now and you can sign up first for a free account and once you do that you'll be able to see some lesson notes that are on a PDF while you listen. That will help you to follow along and you can also review the notes after you listen too.
Victor: Right, or even better if you're listening on an ipod just click the center button or touch the screen twice and you can see the phrases there.
Amber: Whoa, technology-
Victor: Yeah, pretty cool huh?
Amber: -I didn't even know you could do that. Okay well let's get down to it. So Victor you're the resident Chinese here, what is your favorite Chinese food to order when you sit down in a restaurant?
Victor: I like noodles a lot.
Amber: Yes, noodles, I know what you mean, like Chinese noodles, there's an outstanding array of noodles these are not like the spaghetti noodles that your mom makes. China takes the art of the noodle totally to the next level, I think.
Victor: There's first of all 拉面, which are pulled by hand and then often stir-fried or 刀削面, which is cut right in front of you, and so many more.
Amber: Yeah, that's true they're really delicious and the thing is that these noodles that we're talking about they're all fresh, handmade, very labor intensive so listen to this dialog and it will definitely get your mouth watering.
DIALOGUE
A: 要吃什么? (Yào chī shénme?)
B: 我要吃面。(Wǒ yào chī miàn.)
A: 好吃! (Hǎochī!)
B: 对! (Duì!)
Victor: 重复一次,慢速。(Chóngfù yīcì, màn sù.)
Amber: One more time, a little slower.
A: 要吃什么? (Yào chī shénme?)
B: 我要吃面。(Wǒ yào chī miàn.)
A: 好吃! (Hǎochī!)
B: 对! (Duì!)
Victor: 重复一次,加英文翻译。(Chóngfù yīcì, jiā yīngwén fānyì.)
Amber: One more time, with English.
A: 要吃什么? (Yào chī shénme?)
A: What do you want to eat?
B: 我要吃面。(Wǒ yào chī miàn.)
B: I want to eat noodles.
A: 好吃! (Hǎochī!)
A: Delicious!
B: 对! (Duì!)
B: Yes!

Lesson focus

Amber: Okay, Victor, let's first start at the most important part of the dialog, which is of course the noodles, since we're so on about the noodles. First and foremost, how do you say noodle in Chinese, Victor?
Victor: 面 (miàn)
Amber: 面 (miàn)
Victor: 面 (miàn)
Amber: Okay so what could be better than the first word you learn in Chinese being noodle, I think it's very appropriate. You'll notice the way that Victor pronounces 面 (miàn). Can you do it again, Victor?
Victor: 面 (miàn)
Amber: Okay, so he's not mad but it does sound slightly sharp doesn't it?
Victor: Do I sound angry to you?
Amber: No you sounded friendly but that is sort of the characteristic of fourth tone, it's a falling tone, so say it again Victor, I love bossing you around.
Victor: 面 (miàn)
Amber: 面 (miàn). It's not miān, right?
Victor: Right.
Amber: If you say it in a different tone, miān, how does it sound, Victor?
Victor: It would be miān, mián, miǎn, those are the three other tones. In this case, we're talking about the fourth tone which is miàn.
Amber: Right so now if the noodles are bad maybe I would be angry when I said 面 (miàn), and it sounds kind of angry when I say it like that. But generally we're in a pretty good mood about 面 (miàn). However, you still say it with that sharp falling tone no matter how you feel about it. Okay so we're talking about Chinese food, puts us in a good mood I think it's time to talk about the four tones.
Victor: Right.
Amber: Because now that we brought it up we can't bring it up without explaining it. It's definitely a big part of Chinese and that's the fact that there are four tones that you can say each word in.
Victor: Correct.
Amber: Okay, so Victor has offered to do a little solo performance of the tones, right, Victor?
Victor: Yeah.
Amber: We heard you say them a minute ago but just break them down, First tone, the first tone is high and steady, so let's use the word ma, there's that word in Chinese M-A, now could you pronounce it for us in first tone?
Victor: The first tone will be flat and straight, mā.
Amber: Right, and a little bit high, higher than maybe your regular tone of voice, mā.
Victor: Mā.
Amber: Okay, now, second tone is a rising tone, when you say the word you kind of start at the bottom and to raise it up.
Victor: Exactly, so it sounds like this, má.
Amber: Má.
Victor: Má.
Amber: It's kind of like the intonation we use in English when we're indicating a question I think, like at the end of a sentence or if we say like “uh”.
Victor: Right, exactly.
Amber: Okay now the third tone, the third tone goes something like-
Victor: Mǎ.
Amber: It dips down slightly in the middle. Now a lot of people think second tone and third tone sound very similar Victor could you give us each one so we can very clearly hear the difference. First the second-
Victor: Má is the second one, mǎ is the third one.
Amber: See, it's quite different, now don't get scared because you're going to hear a lot more examples as you go through the lessons, and I promise the tones do click at some point. But basically you have to just keep listening to them in context, and it will come naturally kind of just like a tune that gets in your head.
Now we already heard fourth tone about the noodles 面 (miàn), right?
Victor: Right.
Amber: Let's hear it with ma, how does it sound?
Victor: It's mà.
Amber: Mà.
Victor: Mà.
Amber: So it's falling and falling quite fast right?
Victor: Right.
Amber: Now sometimes people overlook that there is another non-tone we do have to mention it, it's the neutral tone.
Victor: Correct.
Amber: It's just neutral, no tone, so what does it sound like Victor?
Victor: It sounds like ma.
Amber: Just light.
Victor: Just let it out and that's it. Ma.
Amber: Don't put any sort of like emphasis on it, it's sort of de-emphasized, un-emphasized tone.
Victor: Right.
Amber: Good, okay, that was like the brief overview of the tones, you're going to hear a lot more of those but for now let's get back to the noodles. Now how do we say “To eat” what's the verb for “To eat” in Chinese?
Victor: 吃 (chī)
Amber: Right, 吃 (chī), so this is a first tone, can everybody hear it?
Victor: 吃 (chī)
Amber: I like to think of it because it's kind of like higher and light like “eating makes me happy”, first tone, 吃 (chī).
Victor: It's a very good word.
Amber: Yay, 吃面 (chī miàn), put it together “Eat noodles”.
Victor: 吃面 (chī miàn).
Amber: Yum, sounds good. And then if you want to say “I want” in Chinese, how do you say that, Victor?
Victor: You say 我要 (wǒ yào).
Amber: Okay, so 我 (wǒ) is third tone.
Victor: Correct, 我 (wǒ).
Amber: Good, and then 要 (yào) is fourth tone.
Victor: 要 (yào)
Amber: So 我 (wǒ) means “I,” 要 (yào) means “To want”.
Victor: 我要 (wǒ yào).
Amber: Good, so those four words we just learned we can put them all together and make a real live sentence. We want to say “I want to eat noodles,” what do we say, Victor?
Victor: 我要吃面。(Wǒ yào chī miàn.)
Amber: “I want my noodles!” Perfect. So now that we know how to ask for what we want, let's go back to the waitress in our dialog, we heard her say something, what would she logically say when I sit down?
Victor: 要吃什么? (Yào chī shénme?)
Amber: Right, “What do you want to eat?”, so could you repeat that for us slower, Victor?
Victor: 要吃什么? (Yào chī shénme?)
Amber: Okay, good, so let's see what we know in this sentence, we already learned the verb “To want” which is-
Victor: 要 (yào)
Amber: Right, so she says to us 要吃什么? (Yào chī shénme?) We also, of course, learned the verb “To eat”.
Victor: 吃 (chī)
Amber: So we already know she said “Want to eat,” and then how do we know it's a question? Well, the question word in Chinese here comes last, and the question word naturally is what?
Victor: 什么? (shénme?)
Amber: Okay now what tone is that word Victor?
Victor: 什 (shén) is the second tone 么 (me) has no tone so it's just the neutral one.
Amber: Okay can you repeat it for us again?
Victor: 什么? (shénme?)
Amber: Good, so literally, what the waitress just asked was “To want to eat what?” see how easy Chinese is?
Victor: Yeah you just say whatever you want to say and that's it.
Amber: It's very direct it's like “What do you want?” and it's not rude it's totally fine to say that. Right, okay, let's just review what we've learned so far, I sit down in the restaurant the waitress comes over, what does she say to me?
Victor: 要吃什么? (Yào chī shénme?)
Amber: “What do you want to eat?” and of course I want to eat noodles how do I say that?
Victor: 我要吃面。(Wǒ yào chī miàn.)
Amber: Perfect, okay so moving right along, fast-forward the noodles have come and of course they're great how am I going to say “Delicious” in Chinese, the ultimate compliment that Chinese people love.
Victor: Right, that would be 好吃 (hǎochī)!
Amber: Now this is really cool because the words keep coming back that we just learned. We just learned the word for “To eat”-
Victor: 吃 (chī)
Amber: And then we heard “Delicious” was?
Victor: 好吃 (hǎochī)
Amber: So literally, the word 好 (hǎo) means “good,” and “eat,” 吃 (chī). 好吃 (hǎochī) means “good eat,” so it means what? “Delicious”.
Victor: “Delicious”.
Amber: “Good eat” the word put together in Chinese means “Delicious”.
Victor: Right.
Amber: So the noodles were delicious and our partner in calories answers what, Victor?
Victor: 对 (duì)
Amber: 对 (duì)
Victor: 对 (duì) means “Right” or “Correct”
Amber: Right.
Victor: So you hear that a lot, 对 (duì).
Amber: 对 (duì) and I think I get this feeling that's a fourth tone.
Victor: Correct, 对 (duì)!
Amber: That's a really easy word, I like that one, 对 (duì). So my partner in eating agrees that Chinese noodles are 好吃 (hǎochī) “delicious,” and they say 对 (duì), “right,” they agree. Okay so now we know whatever level your Chinese is you want some noodles right about now, how about you, Victor?
Victor: Yeah I want some noodles.
Amber: But if you want more beyond this, beyond noodles, we have good news because you can stop by chineseclass101.com and find lessons all the way from absolute beginner to more advanced and find other lessons, anything under the sun.
Victor: Right we have lessons for every level and noodles for every taste.
Amber: Yeah and you can even learn how to order rice.
Victor: Imagine that huh?
Amber: So noodles or rice for that matter are very important to Chinese people and I seem to remember, speaking of meals, it kind of brings me back to China, I remember there are many significant occasions when noodles are a must in Chinese culture isn't that true Victor?
Victor: Right a lot of...
Amber: It's more than just a food.
Victor: Exactly a lot of customs and beliefs that are incorporated into the noodles.
Amber: So discerning noodle eaters want to know, we don't want to commit noodle faux pas or anything, can you give us some insights on sort of the special things about noodles because I know there are some things that are very significant.
Victor: Right there's something about long noodles.
Amber: So tell us what is the deal, are you not allowed to cut them, maybe you'll cut off your life like there's always like Chinese customs-
Victor: Not that extreme.
Amber: -and superstitions, you've got to tell us.
Victor: Right not extreme but you usually have to eat noodles, especially for older people, on your birthday so the longer the better because it represents longevity for people so that's a really good thing to have on your birthday.
Amber: Really? So like if you eat cake it's like you're going to die young?
Victor: You can also have cake. No, you can also have cake but you know having some noodles wouldn't hurt either.
Amber: Okay, that's good to know, I actually have participated in that custom before and hopefully, I'll live to be a hundred and fifteen.
Victor: Yeah just keep on eating the noodles that's all you need.
Amber: Okay, Victor another encounter I had with noodles which I think may have been a custom as well as a hospitality thing. I stayed at this old Chinese person's house in Shandong province once and the night of my arrival they had a big noodle feast. We ate noodles. I'm not really sure because her accent was very strong, she was like an old lady from Shandong province, but I think that she said that was sort of a custom to feed a guest on their arrival a bowl of noodle?
Victor: Maybe in that region, you know different regions in China have different local customs and I know in that province noodles is a main staple of their diet so it's probably presenting you the guest with the best thing they have there.
Amber: That was really sweet they actually they were like that. Every night she would make something different.
Victor: Yeah, naturally.
Amber: And the interesting thing was Shandong food is extremely salty and I like really salty food actually and very spicy and garlicky but I remember eating her food, the noodles, and I was like whoa this is the most salty thing I've ever experienced in my life, I think it was like eating a salt shaker. After a couple of days when I could understand her better because I got used to her accent she told me... because it was her daughter that I was friends with in Canada from China and she told me that her daughter told her to put in less salt because Canadian people don't like salt so much and she was like “I put in half the amount of salt I normally put in” oh my goodness.
Victor: And you know, this is northern China the food is generally saltier-
Amber: That's true.
Victor: -Than southern China.
Amber: That's right, you may even get the same noodle dish, they often will serve crossover but it'll taste completely different and definitely in the south it will taste sweeter the north probably tastes saltier.
Victor: Yeah exactly.
Amber: See so much to learn, noodles are so much more than just glorified pasta.
Victor: Exactly.
Amber: They're like sub-culture.
Victor: And you have come to the right place, we have many lessons yes, but also cultural context along with explanations on how to use the language.
Amber: Yes, just like me, the exact situations, even if you can't understand the person maybe you'll be able to follow what's going on because you'll be like “Oh this is the less extra salty noodles blah blah blah”
Victor: Definitely very interesting.
Amber: Yeah, because culture is really tied to language right?
Victor: Yeah, well you've come to the right place, we have many lessons yes, but also cultural context along with explanations on how to use the language.
Amber: That's right so we'll try to keep explaining the situations where you use the language, the proper usage so you can fit in with the new culture and of course we will teach you pronunciation which will help you to be understood.
Victor: Very important.
Amber: So Chinese often... we've learned a little bit about the tones today, just keep listening you'll be able to tune your ear to the music of Chinese and get the tones in no time don't fear the tones we promise. One of the fastest ways, what do you think one of the best ways to learn tones is, Victor?
Victor: Definitely by listening and repeating, so when you hear me read a word, repeat after me, and in time you won't even have to think about what tone it is.
Amber: Exactly, so whether you're on the subway, maybe people think you're crazy, who cares you just repeat after Victor and you will get it down in no time. The more lessons you listen to the more exposure you have to natural Chinese the faster you'll get the tones down. So let's try it again Victor, let's expose ourselves, “noodle”-
Victor: 面 (miàn)
Amber: Everybody repeat.
Victor: 面 (miàn)
Amber: And “Eat”.
Victor: 吃 (chī)
Amber: 吃 (chī). “I want to eat noodles”.
Victor: 我要吃面。(Wǒ yào chī miàn.)
Amber: I love to think of like hundreds of thousands of people on subways all around the world shouting out that last phrase after you Victor and thinking you know what who knows if you say that really loud maybe somebody will invite you and take you for noodles because they'd be like “Man that guy really wants noodles” like maybe there's a Chinese person on the train and they'd be like “Oh my god I better take him”.
Victor: Great, see, just like that you already know some very useful Chinese.
Amber: Right, and one thing you might have noticed is that we will give you the language at two speeds it's really important. You've got to hear the natural pace first.
Victor: Yeah, first at natural pace we'll play all the dialogues one time at a natural speed.
Amber: And then we play them one more time more slowly so that you can fully grasp and repeat the pronunciation.
Victor: And you'll be ordering the waiters around like a native Mandarin speaker in no time.
Amber: And that's quite an ability to have, you're going to need that ability. Also to help you retain what you learn on the website you can find a review track and what that does is it provides you with the words and the phrases that you learned in this lesson.
Victor: It's basically an audio track that gives you time to recall the words, repeat them and then practice them.
Amber: Yeah, and from experience like we mentioned this is the best way to learn the tones and you'll really get the words, the vocab words in your head as well.
Victor: Plus there's a translation afterwards to jog your memory in case you forget.
Amber: Yeah, so now that we've got the pronunciation issue all down you guys are all probably dying to know more or to see the infamous, lovely Chinese characters and also some things about Chinese pinyin which is the phonetic system for learning how to pronounce Chinese characters.
Victor: Correct.
Amber: Well, we have good news for you is that we have all of that, the pinyin reference materials, Chinese characters for the dialog on our PDF lesson notes.
Victor: Yeah, and the notes also show you exactly when and where to use the phrases and give you supplementary examples and materials about the language taught in the audio lessons.
Amber: Right for example after I eat my noodles that may or may not be full of MSG, I'm like parched, I'm going to need some water, how would I ask for that?
Victor: 我要喝水。(Wǒ yào hē shuǐ.)
Amber: Right,what will happen is you look at the PDF and we'll give you a written copy of sort of the extra bonus things we also learned in the lesson, beyond the dialog.
Victor: Reading the Chinese characters while listening to the dialog helps a lot to achieve fluency in reading. It also improves listening ability and reinforces what you have learned.
Amber: Yeah, and you can follow along with the dialog and you'll also see a list on that on those lesson notes that give you the vocabulary words and the phrases that we covered in the lesson. So, for example, , what did we learn already today Victor?
Victor: 要吃什么? (Yào chī shénme?)
Amber: “What do you want to eat?”.
Victor: 我要吃面。(Wǒ yào chī miàn.)
Amber: “I want to eat noodles”.
Victor: 我要喝水。(Wǒ yào hē shuǐ.)
Amber: “I want to drink water”.
Victor: 好吃 (hǎochī)
Amber: “Delicious”.
Victor: 对 (duì)
Amber: “Correct” right.
Victor: There you go.

Outro

Victor: To work on the pronunciations some more you can also visit our premium learning center where it gets you line by line audio recordings for each phrase and vocab word.
Amber: Yeah, and there you can listen to native Chinese speakers in little bite size sentences and phrases so you will be able to also... this will help you with your listening comprehension, and it also kind of burns the words into your brain as well.
Victor: Yeah, don't forget the recording software. You can perfect your pronunciation too it's a great way to compare your pronunciation with native speakers.
Amber: That's right, you can listen to yourself speak your Chinese and hear your improvement. I was thinking either that or you can use it for KTV singing practice, you can record yourself singing in TV.
Victor: You can use it for both.
Amber: Yes so many tools.
Victor: So stop by chineseclass101.com sign up for a free lifetime membership and try all this stuff out, it's really the most effective and convenient way to study.
Amber: So, I want to say thank you to Victor for all you taught us today so I'm going to teach a new word-
Victor: You're very welcome.
Amber: -Which is the word for thank you in Chinese I will say to Victor, 谢谢 (xièxiè).
Victor: And thanks to our listeners, 谢谢 (xièxiè).
Amber: And we hope that you stop by and see us at the website, of course, chineseclass101.com we'll all be speaking Chinese together in no time.
Victor: Yeah just remember chineseclass101.com
Amber: Yeah and you can sign up for a free lifetime account and take a tour of our website, check it out.
Victor: Also you can comment on our lessons so everyone please come and say hi when you stop by.
Amber: Yes we like interactive worlds we're kind of lonely here in the studio and we want to know you guys and also there's a huge community of Mandarin students from around the world on the website so you can ask each other questions, you can share your stories about salty noodles and find noodle eating partners, for that matter.
Victor: Yeah, definitely, see you soon it's noodle time in the studio so 再见 (zàijiàn).
Amber: Alright you're going to treat me to some noodle Victor alright see you everybody next time. 再见 (zàijiàn).
Victor: Bye.

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