Learn key vocabulary to help you glide past customs and into China
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Anthony: Welcome to chineseclass101. I am Anthony. |
| Echo: 嗨，大家好，I’m Echo. (Hāi, dàjiā hǎo,I’m Echo.) |
| Anthony: And Echo, you look really excited. |
| Echo: Yes I am, how about you? |
| Anthony: I am excited as well. We have a brand new series. This is our first lesson in our second beginner series. |
| Echo: 没错！第一课。 (Méi cuò! Dì yī kè.) |
| Anthony: Today’s dialogue is extremely useful and I think all of our listeners are going to really enjoy it. |
| Echo: 对。 (Duì.) |
| Anthony: Why is that Echo? |
| Echo: Because if you come to China, this might be your first dialogue. |
| Anthony: That’s right. Coming in the country, you have to go through customs. So this dialogue takes place between the customs official and a traveler. |
| Echo: 对。 (Duì.) |
| Anthony: And hopefully this conversation will be as short as possible. You don’t want to go in on and on and asking more questions. |
| Echo: 对。 (Duì.) |
| Anthony: Before we go to the dialogue, if for any reason, there is something that you missed in the podcast, go to chineseclass101.com, sign up, become a premium subscriber, get your hands on these PDFs. |
| Echo: Right. |
| Anthony: They have the dialogues, they have the translations, they have the Chinese characters along with cultural insights and the grammar points. |
| Echo: Exactly. |
| Anthony: You can’t go wrong. With that, let’s go to the dialogue. |
| DIALOGUE |
| 我的护照。(Wǒ de hùzhào. ) |
| 签证在哪儿？(Qiānzhèng zài nǎr? ) |
| 在这儿。(Zài zhèr.) |
| 谢谢！(Xièxie!) |
| Anthony: One more time, a little bit slower. |
| 我的护照。(Wǒ de hùzhào. ) |
| 签证在哪儿？(Qiānzhèng zài nǎr? ) |
| 在这儿。(Zài zhèr.) |
| 谢谢！(Xièxie!) |
| [With English translation] |
| 我的护照。(Wǒ de hùzhào. ) |
| My passport. |
| 签证在哪儿？(Qiānzhèng zài nǎr? ) |
| Where is your visa? |
| 在这儿。(Zài zhèr.) |
| Here. |
| 谢谢！(Xièxie!) |
| Thank you. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Anthony: So we’re back from the dialogue, I really like that exchange. |
| Echo: Yeah, I like it too. |
| Anthony: It’s very useful. |
| Echo: And very simple. |
| Anthony: You know, you get off your 15-hr flight, you’re a little tired... |
| Echo: Yeah, you’re very tired. |
| Anthony: Very tired. The last thing you want to do is to get caught up at the customs, not knowing how to say “passport”. |
| Echo: Yes, so that’s why this dialogue is so useful. |
| Anthony: And that’s why our vocabulary section is even more useful. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| Anthony: So that’s why we have all the vocabulary that you’re gonna need to get through customs, to get into the country successfully. |
| Echo: 没错。 (Méi cuò.) |
| Anthony: Echo, take us to the vocab section. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Echo: 护照 (hùzhào) |
| Anthony: Passport. |
| Echo: 护照, 护照. 签证 (hùzhào, hùzhào. qiānzhèng) |
| Anthony: Visa. |
| Echo: 签证, 签证. 海关 (qiānzhèng, qiānzhèng. hǎiguān) |
| Anthony: Customs. |
| Echo: 海关, 海关. 签字 (hǎiguān, hǎiguān. qiānzì) |
| Anthony: Signature. |
| Echo: 签字, 签字. 哪儿 (qiānzì, qiānzì. nǎr) |
| Anthony: Where. |
| Echo: 哪儿, 哪儿. 这儿 (nǎr, nǎr. zhèr) |
| Anthony: Here. |
| Echo: 这儿, 这儿. 那儿 (zhèr, zhèr. nàr) |
| Anthony: There. |
| Echo: 那儿, 那儿. 谢谢 (nàr, nàr. xièxiè) |
| Anthony: Thank you. |
| Echo: 谢谢, 谢谢.(xièxiè, xièxiè.) |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Anthony: So we went through a lot of useful vocabulary there. The first word that we want to point out, the most crucial if you want to enter another country is you need a passport. |
| Echo: 护照, 护照. (Hùzhào, hùzhào.) |
| Anthony: Yes both fourth tones. So the first thing that might be said to you by the customs agent is, where is your passport? |
| Echo: 你的护照在哪儿？ (Nǐ de hùzhào zài nǎr?) |
| Anthony: And the wrong answer would be to say, what passport. |
| Echo: 什么护照？ (Shénme hùzhào?) |
| Anthony: You won’t be getting very far with that. |
| Echo: That will get you into trouble. |
| Anthony: Yeah. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| Anthony: The right answer is, here is my passport. |
| Echo: 我的护照在这儿。 (Wǒ de hùzhào zài zhèr.) |
| Anthony: One more time. |
| Echo: 我的护照在这儿。 (Wǒ de hùzhào zài zhèr.) |
| Anthony: So you hand the passport to the customs agent. He is flipping through it. You have 100 visas in there, you can’t find it. So he is going to ask you, where is the visa? |
| Echo: 你的签证在哪儿？ (Nǐ de qiānzhèng zài nǎr?) |
| Anthony: Where is your visa? |
| Echo: 你的签证在哪儿？ (Nǐ de qiānzhèng zài nǎr?) |
| Anthony: Here is my visa. |
| Echo: 我的签证在这儿。 (Wǒ de qiānzhèng zài zhè'er.) |
| Anthony: Here is my visa. |
| Echo: 我的签证在这儿。 (Wǒ de qiānzhèng zài zhè'er.) |
| Anthony: Traveling through customs, there may be some paperwork or some forms that you may need to fill out. On the bottom is the place for your signature. So Echo, how do you say to sign? |
| Echo: 签字 (Qiānzì) |
| Anthony: One more time. |
| Echo: 签字 (Qiānzì) And this 签 (Qiān) is the same as 签证 (Qiānzhèng) |
| Anthony: And that of course is the word for visa. |
| Echo: Right 签证 (Qiānzhèng) |
| Anthony: And let’s hear to sign again. |
| Echo: 签字 (Qiānzì) |
| Anthony: So somebody hands your form, they may say, please sign your name. |
| Echo: 请签字 . (Qǐng qiānzì.) |
| Anthony: Most often than not, this form will be in Chinese. So you can say, where do I sign? |
| Echo: 在哪儿签字？ (Zài nǎ'er qiānzì?) |
| Anthony: Where do I sign? |
| Echo: 在哪儿签字？ (Zài nǎ'er qiānzì?) |
| Anthony: And of course, they will take their finger point to the place you need to sign and say, sign here. |
| Echo: 在这儿签字。 (Zài zhè'er qiānzì.) |
| Anthony: Not too difficult. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| Anthony: And since this process went so smoothly, the customs agent maybe inclined to thank you kindly. |
| Echo: 谢谢。 (Xièxiè.) |
| Anthony: Thank you. |
| Echo: 谢谢。 (Xièxiè.) |
| Anthony: So we’ve highlighted four important words. The first one being passport. |
| Echo: 护照。 (Hùzhào.) |
| Anthony: The next is visa. |
| Echo: 签证。 (Qiānzhèng.) |
| Anthony: And this is very similar to the word to sign. |
| Echo: 签字。 (Qiānzì.) |
| Anthony: And of course, the ever present, thank you. |
| Echo: 谢谢。 (Xièxiè.) |
| Anthony: Okay that’s it. Let’s go on to our grammar section. |
| Anthony: It’s grammar time. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Anthony: Today’s grammar focus is all about asking where things are and answering where things are. |
| Echo: Yes. |
| Anthony: Now there is two words in Chinese that are very similar sounding but mean two totally different things. They are the words for where |
| Echo: 哪儿 (nǎr) |
| Anthony: And the other is there |
| Echo: 那儿 (nàr) |
| Anthony: Now I want you to focus on the tonal differences. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| Anthony: Okay for the first one, where. |
| Echo: 哪儿 (nǎr) |
| Anthony: That’s third tone. |
| Echo: 哪儿 (nǎr) |
| Anthony: The second there. |
| Echo: 那儿 (nàr) |
| Anthony: Is fourth tone. |
| Echo: 那儿 (nàr) |
| Anthony: We have two sample sentences for you. The first one is, where is his passport. |
| Echo: 他的护照在哪儿？ (Tā de hùzhào zài nǎ'er?) |
| Anthony: Okay notice on the end of that sentence, there is a third tone. |
| Echo: 在哪儿？ (Zài nǎ'er?) |
| Anthony: And next his passport is there. |
| Echo: 他的护照在那儿。 (Tā de hùzhào zài nà'er.) |
| Anthony: His passport is there. |
| Echo: 他的护照在那儿。 (Tā de hùzhào zài nà'er.) |
| Anthony: You know it’s at fourth tone. |
| Echo: 在那儿。 (Zài nà'er.) |
| Anthony: In the sentence, his passport is there. We have the verb to be at. |
| Echo: 在 (Zài) |
| Anthony: Now this verb is going to be paired with where, there. |
| Echo: 在哪儿？在那儿。在哪儿？在那儿。 (Zài nǎ'er? Zài nà'er. Zài nǎ'er? Zài nà'er.) |
| Anthony: You are going to hear this structure very often. For example, in the sentence where is her visa? |
| Echo: 她的签证在哪儿？ (Tā de qiānzhèng zài nǎ'er?) |
| Anthony: Her visa is there. |
| Echo: 她的签证在那儿。 (Tā de qiānzhèng zài nà'er.) |
| Anthony: Before we go, there is one more thing that we want to cover and that’s the word for here. |
| Echo: 这儿。 (Zhè'er.) |
| Anthony: And we can see that in the structure |
| Echo: 在这儿。 (Zài zhè'er.) |
| Anthony: We have two sample sentences for you. The first one is, customs is here. |
| Echo: 海关在这儿。 (Hǎiguān zài zhè'er.) |
| Anthony: And the next one is, please sign here. |
| Echo: 请在这儿签字。 (Qǐng zài zhè'er qiānzì.) |
Outro |
| Anthony: So that’s our show. And if you have not yet come to chineseclass101.com, sign up for your free lifetime account. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| Anthony: With this account, you are going to get access to tons more online learning material. |
| Echo: 没错儿。 (Méi cuò ér.) |
| Anthony: Echo, how long does it take to sign up? |
| Echo: It will only take you 7 seconds. |
| Anthony: Seven seconds, you can’t lose. From Beijing, I am Anthony. |
| Echo: 我是Echo。 (Wǒ shì Echo.) |
| Anthony: Thanks for listening and we will see you next week. |
| Echo: Yeah. We will see you on the site. Bye bye. |
| Anthony: Bye bye. |
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