Dialogue

Vocabulary

Learn New Words FAST with this Lesson’s Vocab Review List

Get this lesson’s key vocab, their translations and pronunciations. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.

Or sign up using Facebook
Already a Member?

Lesson Notes

Unlock In-Depth Explanations & Exclusive Takeaways with Printable Lesson Notes

Unlock Lesson Notes and Transcripts for every single lesson. Sign Up for a Free Lifetime Account and Get 7 Days of Premium Access.

Or sign up using Facebook
Already a Member?

Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
David: Welcome to chineseclass101.com. I am David.
Echo: 嗨!大家好,我是Echo. (Hāi! Dàjiā hǎo, wǒ shì Echo.)
David: And we are here with the fastest, easiest and most fun way to learn Chinese. We’ve got intermediate series, season 1, Lesson 18. Don’t Forget the Helmet.
Echo: That’s right.
David: Right. This is the lesson for you biking enthusiasts out there. It’s going to tell you what it’s like riding a bike here in China.
Echo: 没错。(Méi cuò.)
David: Okay.
Echo: Yeah.
David: So we’ve got a dialogue with two friends, one of whom has just purchased a new bike.
Echo: Right.
David: And his other friend is a biking enthusiast. He is going to give him some advice.
Echo: Right and they are speaking casual Mandarin as usual.
David: Right and speaking of casual Mandarin and speaking of advice, we’ve got some for you. If you haven’t yet, drop by chineseclass101.com and take a look at our premium PDF transcripts. They’ve got a copy of the transcript, they’ve got this grammar write up and they’ve got extra notes on usages and sample sentences.
Echo: 没错。(Méi cuò.)
David: Great stuff for really, quickly reviewing this lesson in the future. With that though, let’s go to the dialogue.
DIALOGUE
你不觉得骑自行车不戴头盔很危险吗?(Nǐ bù juéde qí zìxíngchē bù dàitóukuī hěn wēixiǎn ma?)
什么?你在说什么?(Shénme? Nǐ zài shuō shénme?)
没有头盔,你可能会出事儿。(Méiyǒu tóukuī, nǐ kěnéng huì chū shìr.)
不好意思,我不明白你在说什么。(Bùhǎoyìsi, wǒ bù míngbai nǐ zài shuō shénme.)
我是说,你应该戴头盔。万一你被汽车或摩托车撞了,怎么办?(Wǒ shì shuō, nǐ yīnggāi dàitóukuī. Wànyī nǐ bèi qìchē huò mótuōchē zhuàngle, zěnme bàn?)
头盔...是什么?(Tóukuī ... shì Shénme?)
David: One more time, a little bit slower.
你不觉得骑自行车不戴头盔很危险吗?(Nǐ bù juéde qí zìxíngchē bù dàitóukuī hěn wēixiǎn ma?)
什么?你在说什么?(Shénme? Nǐ zài shuō shénme?)
没有头盔,你可能会出事儿。(Méiyǒu tóukuī, nǐ kěnéng huì chū shìr.)
不好意思,我不明白你在说什么。(Bùhǎoyìsi, wǒ bù míngbai nǐ zài shuō shénme.)
我是说,你应该戴头盔。万一你被汽车或摩托车撞了,怎么办?(Wǒ shì shuō, nǐ yīnggāi dàitóukuī. Wànyī nǐ bèi qìchē huò mótuōchē zhuàngle, zěnme bàn?)
头盔...是什么?(Tóukuī ... shì Shénme?)
David: And now with the English translation.
你不觉得骑自行车不戴头盔很危险吗?(Nǐ bù juéde qí zìxíngchē bù dàitóukuī hěn wēixiǎn ma?)
Don't you think it's really dangerous to ride a bicycle without a helmet?
什么?你在说什么?(Shénme? Nǐ zài shuō shénme?)
What? What are you saying?
没有头盔,你可能会出事儿。(Méiyǒu tóukuī, nǐ kěnéng huì chū shìr.)
If you don't have a helmet, maybe you'll have an accident.
不好意思,我不明白你在说什么。(Bùhǎoyìsi, wǒ bù míngbai nǐ zài shuō shénme.)
I am sorry, I don't understand what you are saying.
我是说,你应该戴头盔。万一你被汽车或摩托车撞了,怎么办?(Wǒ shì shuō, nǐ yīnggāi dàitóukuī. Wànyī nǐ bèi qìchē huò mótuōchē zhuàngle, zěnme bàn?)
I am saying you should wear a helmet. On the off case you are hit by a motorcycle, what would you do?
头盔...是什么?(Tóukuī ... shì Shénme?)
Helmet? What's that?
POST CONVERSATION BANTER
David: This is a true story. It is really hard to find helmets in China, right helmets.
Echo: 对呀,我们都不知道。(Duì ya, wǒmen dōu bù zhīdào.)
David: Yeah.
Echo: 我从小骑自行车都没有头盔。(Wǒ cóngxiǎo qí zìxíngchē dōu méiyǒu tóukuī.)
David: Yeah. Reckless driving, I found one at a giant store in Shanghai and I picked it up and I was pretty much the only one wearing it.
Echo: 对,大家都觉得,那个老外真奇怪。(Duì, dàjiā dōu juédé, nàgè lǎowài zhēn qíguài.)
David: Yeah.
Echo: 戴了什么东西。(Dàile shénme dōngxī.)
David: Hmm anyway, slowly changing China but we’ve got a lot of vocab here which is about biking and transportation safety. So let’s get to it now. And now the vocab section.
VOCAB LIST
Echo: 骑 (Qí)
David: To ride.
Echo: 骑,骑。自行车 (Qí, qí. Zìxíngchē)
David: Bicycle.
Echo: 自行车,自行车。戴 (Zìxíngchē, zìxíngchē. Dài)
David: To wear.
Echo: 戴,戴。头盔 (Dài, dài. Tóukuī)
David: Helmet.
Echo: 头盔,头盔。危险 (Tóukuī, tóukuī. Wéixiǎn)
David: Dangerous.
Echo: 危险,危险。出事 (Wéixiǎn, wéixiǎn. Chūshì)
David: To have an accident.
Echo: 出事,出事。万一 (Chūshì, chūshì. Wàn yī)
David: On the off chance.
Echo: 万一,万一。千万 (Wàn yī, wàn yī. Qiān wàn)
David: Whatever you do.
Echo: 千万,千万。撞 (Qiān wàn, qiān wàn. Zhuàng)
David: To collide.
Echo: 撞,撞。交通 (Zhuàng, zhuàng. Jiāotōng)
David: Transportation.
Echo: 交通,交通。 (Jiāotōng, jiāotōng.)
VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE
David: So our vocabulary section today is all about transportation safety.
Echo: 交通安全。 (Jiāotōng ānquán.)
David: Right. And the key word here is of course helmet.
Echo: 头盔 (Tóukuī)
David: Right. Helmet.
Echo: 头盔。我经常忘记拿头盔。 (Tóukuī. Wǒ jīngcháng wàngjì ná tóukuī.)
David: I often forget to take my helmet.
Echo: 我经常忘记拿头盔。 (Wǒ jīngcháng wàngjì ná tóukuī.)
David: I often forget to take my helmet and that was 拿 (Ná) to take.
Echo: 对 (Duì)
David: Normally you wear a helmet.
Echo: 对,戴。 (Duì, dài.)
David: Right.
Echo: 像戴帽子 (Xiàng dài màozi)
David: Right. It’s like wearing a hat.
Echo: 你头上戴的是什么? (Nǐ tóu shàng dài de shì shénme?)
David: What’s that on your head?
Echo: 你头上戴的是什么?(Nǐ tóu shàng dài de shì shénme?)
David: What’s that on your head? A question you may encounter if you wear a helmet in China.
Echo: 差不多。 (Chàbùduō.)
David: Right. We’ve got a couple of other words which you may have run into or may not have. We’ve got the word dangerous.
Echo: 危险 (Wéixiǎn)
David: Which is what it is to ride a bike without a helmet.
Echo: Yeah.
David: Yeah.
Echo: 不戴头盔骑自行车很危险。 (Bù dài tóukuī qí zìxíngchē hěn wéixiǎn.)
David: Right and we’ve got, what’s going to happen to you maybe if you don’t wear a helmet.
Echo: 出事儿。(Chūshì er.)
David: Right which is literally out come problems.
Echo: 出事儿。(Chūshì er.)
David: So we translated this before as to have an accident, but it’s really more general.
Echo: 对,是这样。比如说,他骑自行车很小心,从不出事儿。(Duì, shì zhèyàng. Bǐrú shuō, tā qí zìxíngchē hěn xiǎoxīn, cóng bù chūshì er.)
David: He rides his bike carefully and never has problems, never comes out 事儿(Shì er) and don’t forget that 事儿。(Shì er)
Echo: 出事儿。(Chūshì er.)
David: There is an 儿 发音 (Er fāyīn) in there and 事儿。(Shì er.) And our last two words are the focus of our grammar section.

Lesson focus

Echo: 第一个是“万一”。(Dì yī gè shì “wàn yī”.)
David: Which means in case of. The second is
Echo: 千万,千万。 (Qiān wàn, qiān wàn.)
David: Which means whatever you do. These are really easy to confuse. So we are devoting our whole grammar section to them.
Echo: 万一 (Wàn yī)
David: And
Echo: 千万 (Qiān wàn)
David: These two words are very easy to confuse, right because they are both…
Echo: They look pretty similar.
David: And you think they would be used the same way but they are really, really different.
Echo: 对,它们有很大的区别。 (Duì, tāmen yǒu hěn dà de qūbié.)
David: Right. So the first one again is
Echo: 万一 (Wàn yī)
David: Which is literally 10,001 or 1 in 10,000.
Echo: 对,这就像一个特殊情况下的”如果“。(Duì, zhè jiù xiàng yīgè tèshū qíngkuàng xià de” rúguǒ “.)
David: Yeah. It’s like the word if. It means in case or in the unlikely event of.
Echo: 对。(Duì.)
David: For instance, you might say
Echo: 万一你出事儿了怎么办?(Wàn yī nǐ chūshì erle zěnme bàn?)
David: In the unlikely case you have a problem, what will we do?
Echo: 万一你出事儿了怎么办? (Wàn yī nǐ chūshì erle zěnme bàn?)
David: Right.
Echo: Or 万一你的摩托车被偷了,怎么办? (wàn yī nǐ de mótuō chē bèi tōule, zěnme bàn?)
David: In the event that your motorcycle is stolen, what will we do?
Echo: Or 万一你的摩托车被偷了,怎么办? (wàn yī nǐ de mótuō chē bèi tōule, zěnme bàn?)
David: What will we do if your motorcycle is stolen, and it’s no accident that both of those sentences ended with
Echo: 怎么办? (Zěnme bàn?)
David: This is a really common pattern. We’ve got one more sample sentence for you.
Echo: 万一他不记得你,你怎么进去? (Wàn yī tā bù jìdé nǐ, nǐ zěnme jìnqù?)
David: In the rare case he doesn’t remember you, how will you get in.
Echo: 万一他不记得你,你怎么进去? (Wàn yī tā bù jìdé nǐ, nǐ zěnme jìnqù?)
David: In the rare case he doesn’t remember you, how will you get in. So as Echo said,
Echo: 万一 (Wàn yī)
David: Can be replaced with
Echo: 如果 (Rúguǒ)
David: Our second word is very different though.
Echo: 千万 (Qiān wàn)
David: Means whatever you do.
Echo: 对,千万。 (Duì, qiān wàn.)
David: Whatever you do.
Echo: 比如说,你千万别去。 (Bǐrú shuō, nǐ qiān wàn bié qù.)
David: Whatever you do, don’t go.
Echo: 你千万别去。 (Nǐ qiān wàn bié qù.)
David: So we are using this to stress something.
Echo: 对,比如说:骑车,千万要注意安全。 (Duì, bǐrú shuō: Qí chē, qiān wàn yào zhùyì ānquán.)
David: When you are riding a bike, you really have to pay attention to safety.
Echo: 骑车,千万要注意安全。(Qí chē, qiān wàn yào zhùyì ānquán.)
David: When you are riding a bike, you really have to pay attention to safety. Pay attention here to the way we are using
Echo: 千万 (Qiān wàn)
David: In an imperative case. We are giving people orders or suggestions.
Echo: 没错。你千万别再忘戴头盔了。 (Méi cuò. Nǐ qiān wàn bié zài wàng dài tóukuīle.)
David: Whatever you do, don’t forget to wear your helmet.
Echo: 你千万别再忘戴头盔了。(Nǐ qiān wàn bié zài wàng dài tóukuīle.)
David: Whatever you do, don’t forget to wear your helmet. So these two words sound similar but they are really quite different.
Echo: 没错。(Méi cuò.)
David: First we have
Echo: 万一 (Wàn yī)
David: Which means if or in the unlikely case of. As in the sentence,
Echo: 万一你出事儿怎么办? (Wàn yī nǐ chūshì er zěnme bàn?)
David: If you have an accident, what will we do? Our second word is
Echo: 千万 (Qiān wàn)
David: Which means whatever you do.
Echo: Right.
David: It’s more of an order.
Echo: 比如说,你千万别去。(Bǐrú shuō, nǐ qiān wàn bié qù.)
David: Yeah. Whatever you do, don’t go or don’t go in any case.

Outro

David: So that’s our podcast for today. The grammar point is actually pretty simple. It’s just something a lot of people mix up. Before we go also, we want to remind you, we’ve got a lot of tools in the premium learning center on chineseclass101.com
Echo: 对。 (Duì.)
David: And don’t forget them.
Echo: 千万别忘了。(Qiān wàn bié wàngle.)
David: Right. Especially things like our audio review which is designed to help you practice speaking Chinese.
Echo: That’s right.
David: From Beijing, I am David.
Echo: 我是Echo。 (Wǒ shì Echo.)
David: Thanks a lot for listening and we will see you on the site.
Echo: Bye bye.

Comments

Hide