Dialogue

Vocabulary

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Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
David: Welcome to ChineseClass101. I'm David.
Echo: Hi, I’m Echo.
David: And we are here with Absolute Beginner, Season 1, Lesson 23.
Echo: Uh-hmm.
David: Finding a phone card in China. You'll notice, I'm not Echo, Echo is not Victor. We're filling in for them today.
Echo: Yeah.
David: But we've got a great lesson for you that's going to teach you how to ask where you can buy something like a phone card.
Echo: Right.
David: In case you've lost your mobile phone, you need to use it. So, we've a conversation that takes place on the street.
Echo: Uh-hmm. And the conversation is between two strangers.
David: Right, but they are still speaking casual Mandarin.
Echo: Yes.
David: This is the stuff that you're going to be using every day.
Echo: Uh-hmm.
David: So, we're going to take you to the dialogue in a sec. Before we do, we want to remind you if you have any questions...
Echo: Come to the site and leave us a comment.
David: Right. We're going to answer your questions. Other uses will, too.
Echo: Uh-hmm.
David: With that though, let's get to the dialogue.
DIALOGUES
David: 我在哪儿可以买电话卡?(Wǒ zài nǎr kěyǐ mǎi diànhuà kǎ?)
Echo: 在便利店。(Zài biànlì diàn.)
David: 对不起,我听不董。(Duìbùqǐ, wǒ tīng bù dǒng.)
Echo: 小商店。在那边。(Xiǎo shāngdiàn. Zài nàbiān.)
David: One more time, a bit slower.
David: 我在哪儿可以买电话卡?(Wǒ zài nǎr kěyǐ mǎi diànhuà kǎ?)
Echo: 在便利店。(Zài biànlì diàn.)
David: 对不起,我听不董。(Duìbùqǐ, wǒ tīng bù dǒng.)
Echo: 小商店。在那边。(Xiǎo shāngdiàn. Zài nàbiān.)
David: And now, with the English translation.
Echo: 我在哪儿可以买电话卡?(Wǒ zài nǎr kěyǐ mǎi diànhuà kǎ?)
David: Where can I buy a telephone card?
Echo: 在便利店。(Zài biànlì diàn.)
David: At a convenience store.
Echo: 对不起,我听不董。(Duìbùqǐ, wǒ tīng bù dǒng.)
David: I'm sorry. I don’t understand.
Echo: 小商店。在那边。(Xiǎo shāngdiàn. Zài nàbiān.)
David: A small shop, over there.
POST CONVERSATION BANTER
David: So this is the ever important convenience store. If you can find one of these, you're going to survive.
Echo: Yeah.
David: You may not live as well as if you can find the supermarket but they've got the basics there.
Echo: Yeah, they always have, like, the very, very important things there.
David: Yeah. They've got drinks, they've got instant noodles. You can survive.
Echo: Uh-hmm.
David: And we've got a lot of vocab here, which is going to help you deal with them.
Echo: Yeah.
David: So, let's get to that now.
Echo: Okay.
VOCAB LIST
David: And now, the vocab section.
Echo: 買(mǎi)
David: To buy.
Echo: 便利店(biànlìdiàn)
David: Convenience store.
Echo: 聽不懂(tīng bù dǒng)
David: Not to understand.
Echo: 商店(shāngdiàn)
David: Shop.
KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES
David: So there are couple of really useful words here.
Echo: Uh-hmm.
David: The first is, of course, convenience store.
Echo: 便利店(biànlìdiàn)
David: Let's hear that again.
Echo: 便利店(biànlìdiàn)
David: Right. Now, if you say this, you're going to be talking about 7-Eleven or one of these more expensive stores.
Echo: Yeah.
David: If you come up to Northern China though, a lot of the convenience stores are just kind of holes in the wall where they serve drinks, noodles and stuff. And there's a different word people will use for that.
Echo: 小卖部(Xiǎomàibù)
David: So if you want the big 7-Eleven, you're going to say...
Echo: 便利店(Biànlì diàn)
David: And if you want the hole in the wall, you say...
Echo: 小卖部(Xiǎomàibù)
David: Right. Now, there's a word in that word for a convenience store that means shop.
Echo: 店(Diàn)
David: Right. It's that last character and it comes from another word we learn today, which is...
Echo: 商店(Shāngdiàn)
David: Or shop.
Echo: 商店(Shāngdiàn)
David: Right. And a convenience store is not just any shop. It's a small shop.
Echo: Uh-hmm.
David: So, how do we say small in Chinese?
Echo: 小(Xiǎo)
David: And while we're at it, we can learn how to say big as well.
Echo: 大(Dà)
David: So already today we've learned convenience store.
Echo: 便利店。(Biànlì diàn.)
David: Little convenience store.
Echo: 小卖部(Xiǎomàibù)
David: Right. We've learned the word for shop.
Echo: 商店(Shāngdiàn)
David: And the word small.
Echo: 小(Xiǎo)
David: And large.
Echo: 大(Dà)
David: Now, to describe something small or large, all we do is put these characters in front of our noun.
Echo: Yeah, like, 小商店(Xiǎo shāngdiàn).
David: A little store.
Echo: 大商店(Dà shāngdiàn).
David: Now, in the dialogue, our friend goes into the store and he wants to buy a phone card. How do we say phone?
Echo: 电话(Diànhuà).
David: This is the word for telephone.
Echo: 电话(Diànhuà)
David: Both fourth tone.
Echo: Uh-hmm.
David: Now, the word for card is...
Echo: 卡(Kǎ).
David: Believe it or not, this is a foreign loanword.
Echo: Yes.
David: This is what Chinese people think the English where card sounds like when you put it into Chinese.
Echo: 卡(Kǎ)
David: Right, it's third tone. So we just tuck that on the end. Telephone card.
Echo: 电话卡(Diànhuàkǎ).
David: Right. And if you're really creative, you could say tiny telephone card.
Echo: 小电话卡(Xiǎo diànhuàkǎ).
David: Or I want, I want the big one.
Echo: You find me one then. I've never seen it.
David: No big telephone cards. But that's how it works. The next word is a bit of a review. We learned this earlier, it's the word to buy.
Echo: 买(Mǎi)
David: And we hear it in the phrase to buy a phone card.
Echo: 买电话卡(Mǎi diànhuàkǎ)
David: Now, in our dialogue, a friend runs into a bit of a hitch. He hears the answer, but he doesn't understand. So he gives us a phrase, we learned back in Lesson 6.
Echo: 听不懂(Tīng bù dǒng).
David: I don’t understand.
Echo: 听不懂(Tīng bù dǒng).
David: Right. And so, the person repeats it and they tell him where the store is.
Echo: Uh-hmm.
David: And literally what they say is, "Over there."
Echo: 在那邊(Zài nà biān)
David: And that's at that side.
Echo: 在那邊(Zài nà biān)
David: So a lot of vocab, some new, some review. We've got a great point for you in the grammar section, so let's get to that now.
GRAMMAR POINT
David: Echo, what's our grammar point about today?
Echo: It's about a long sentence.
David: It's about a really long sentence. But we want to talk a bit about sentence word order, okay?
Echo: Yeah, okay.
David: So that's we're focusing on. Don’t worry too much if it's a bit different setting.
Echo: Yeah, don’t worry about it.
David: Okay. Echo, what is the sentence.
Echo: 我在哪儿可以买电话卡?(Wǒ zài nǎ'er kěyǐ mǎi diànhuàkǎ?)
David: That's the first sentence in our dialogue. Let's hear it again.
Echo: 我在哪儿可以买电话卡?(Wǒ zài nǎ'er kěyǐ mǎi diànhuàkǎ?)
David: The last four characters we already know, to buy a telephone card.
Echo: 买电话卡(Mǎi diànhuàkǎ)
David: What we want to focus on is the start of that sentence.
Echo: 我在哪儿可以(Wǒ zài nǎ'er kěyǐ)..
David: And that's literally I.
Echo: 我(Wǒ)
David: At.
Echo: 在(Zài)
David: Where.
Echo: 哪儿(Nǎ'er)
David: Can.
Echo: 可以(Kěyǐ)..
David: In earlier lessons, we've taught you the subject goes before the verb.
Echo: Uh-hmm.
David: So we could simplify this to say I can buy.
Echo: 我可以买(Wǒ kěyǐ mǎi)..
David: I can buy a telephone card.
Echo: 我可以买电话卡。(Wǒ kěyǐ mǎi diànhuàkǎ.)
David: The tricky thing about this sentence is where we have that location.
Echo: 在哪儿(Zài nǎ'er)
David: Right, which is a question. I at where.
Echo: 我在哪儿(Wǒ zài nǎ'er)
David: I at where can buy.
Echo: 我在哪儿可以买(Wǒ zài nǎ'er kěyǐ mǎi)
David: And then what you want to buy.
Echo: Yeah.
David: The key thing to notice is we're sticking this after our subject, but before our verb.
Echo: Yes.
David: Right. That's because technically, it's a prepositional phrase. And prepositional phrases in Chinese go in front of verbs.
Echo: Yes.
David: For now though, you can just remember this word order.
Echo: Uh-hmm.
David: Subject.
Echo: 我(Wǒ)
David: At where.
Echo: 在哪儿(Zài nǎ'er)
David: Can buy.
Echo: 可以买(Kěyǐ mǎi)
David: A telephone card.
Echo: 電話卡。(Diànhuàkǎ.) Okay, let's hear another example, okay?
David: Okay.
Echo: 我在哪儿可以喝咖啡?(Wǒ zài nǎ'er kěyǐ hē kāfēi?)
David: This is for the coffee deprived among you. Let's hear that again.
Echo: 我在哪儿可以喝咖啡?(Wǒ zài nǎ'er kěyǐ hē kāfēi?)
David: Where can I drink coffee? One more time.
Echo: 我在那儿可以喝咖啡?(Wǒ zài nà'er kěyǐ hē kāfēi?)
David: Right. Here's another one. Where can I buy English books?
Echo:我在那儿可以买英文书?(Wǒ zài nà'er kěyǐ mǎi yīngwén shū?)
David: One more time.
Echo: 我在那儿可以买英文书?(Wǒ zài nà'er kěyǐ mǎi yīngwén shū?)
David: Right. Where can I buy English books. So remember, the tricky thing here is the word order.
Echo: Uh-hmm.
David: Right? Subject, location and then the rest of our sentence.
Echo: Yes.
David: Now, if you have any questions, remember, write us at, contact us at ChineseClass101.com.
Echo: Uh-hmm. And we will answer your questions.
David: Right. And there's another really good reason to write us as well.
Echo: Yeah.
David: We've got free trial lessons for people who are interested in our elite program. So, if you're interested in getting one-on-one support from a teacher here in Beijing, send us an email and we'll going to set you up with a free trial.
Echo: Yes.
David: Details are on the site. With that though from Beijing, I'm David.
Echo: I’m Echo.
David: Thanks a lot for listening and we'll see you on the website.

Outro

Echo:再见!(Zàijiàn!)
Victor:Zaijian!(Zàijiàn!)

Grammar

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