Dialogue

Vocabulary

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Lesson Transcript

Start speaking Chinese in minutes and grasp the language, culture and customs in just minutes more with Chinese survival phrases, a completely new way to master the basics of Chinese. To get more Chinese lessons and for free, go to chineseclass101.com and sign up for your free lifetime account. Signing up takes less than a minute and you will find more great lessons just like this one. To get more free Chinese lessons, go to chineseclass101.com
Hey guys, we’ve talked about using China as a way to learn Chinese, learning Chinese straight from the source. We are going to talk about one of the way that you can learn more Chinese when you are in China and this phrase will help you get around much easier. So today’s phrase is, please write it down. In Chinese, the phrase is 请写下来(Qíng xiě xiàlái.) All right, one more time, 请写下来(Qíng xiě xiàlái.) All right, last time, 请写下来(Qíng xiě xiàlái.) All right, tone by tone, 请(qǐng) is third tone, 请(qǐng),写(xiě) is also third tone 写(xiě). So remember, two third tones in a row means the first one becomes second tone, the rising tone, 请写(Qíng xiě), then 下(xià) is fourth tone and 来(lái) is second tone 来(lái), 下(xià) is fourth tone, the falling tone, 下(xià) and 来(lái) is second tone, the rising tone 来(lái) . So altogether it’s 请写下来(Qíng xiě xiàlái.) So let’s break down the meaning 请(qǐng) means please, 写(xiě) means to write, 下(xià) means down and 来(lái) means to come. So literally it means please write down come. You use the word come at the end because they are writing it down for you. The information is coming to you. So altogether it can be translated as, please write it down. All right, this can be really useful for directions. If your Chinese is just the beginner level and you want to go somewhere, you want to ask directions. You want to go by taxi, it might be helpful to have your destination written down by a Chinese person. This way, if the people you are asking, the taxi driver you are talking to, if they don’t understand what you are saying, you can show them this piece of paper and say, here, I want to go here. They will always understand that but also this can be used for your own personal pleasure. Like I said, this is a way for you to learn Chinese in China. You can have a collection of little papers that every night in your hotel back at home, you look over and you say oh, these were the words I learned today. Now first of all, I have to warn you Chinese people’s handwriting is not always very clear and in fact, most times it’s barely recognizable and in addition, even if they write the characters and you can understand them, there is no guarantee you are going to remember the pronunciation. So you need to ask them to write down the phonetic way of saying these characters. In Chinese, this is called Pinyin. When English speakers are learning Chinese, they also use this system, this Romanized way of writing Chinese and they call it Pinyin. So the next phrase we are going to learn is, please write the Pinyin. In Chinese, this is 请写拼音(Qíng xiě pīnyīn.) One more time, 请写拼音(Qíng xiě pīnyīn.) So guys, you can probably tell, the first two words of this are the same as the first two words of the last phrase, 请写(Qǐng xiě), so again, third tone, third tone which becomes second tone, then third tone, 请写(Qíng xiě), second tone 请(Qíng), third tone 写(xiě). And then Pinyin, two first tones, the flat tone, Pinyin 拼音(pīnyīn), 请写拼音(Qíng xiě pīnyīn.) With this, now you have the tools for learning to read, write and speak in China from Chinese people. So now, you don’t need me any more at all. You could start listening to these lessons right now. I am going to even stop doing these lessons. In fact, all the last tracks of this series are really just blanks.
All right, to close our today’s lesson, we’d like you to practice what we’ve just learned. I will provide you with the English equivalent of a phrase and you are responsible for shouting it out loud. You will have a few seconds before I give you the answer. So 加油(Jiā yóu!) Please write it down, 请写下来(Qíng xiě xiàlái.) Please write the Pinyin, 请写拼音(Qíng xiě pīnyīn.)
Remember to go to chineseclass101.com and sign up for your free lifetime account. Signing up takes less than 1 minute and you will find more great lessons just like this one. Chinese survival phrases will have you speaking with proper pronunciation and arm you with cultural insights and other information to utterly shock and amaze your friends, teachers, colleagues and the people you meet along the way.

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