Dialogue

Vocabulary

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Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
DAVID: Welcome to ChineseClass101.com. I'm David.
Amber: 大家好,我是安伯。(Dàjiā hǎo, wǒ shì ān bó)
DAVID: And we’re here today with Upper Beginner, Season 1, Lesson 13 - How much are you willing to pay for an iPhone in China?
Amber: 对,在中国有很多人用 (Duì, zài zhōngguó yǒu hěnduō rén yòng) iphone.
DAVID: Right, and they’re expensive. And, Amber, you’re thinking about getting one.
Amber: 我想但是太贵。(Wǒ xiǎng dànshì tài guì.)
DAVID: But they are, they are a lot more expensive [unintelligible 00:00:33] import tax. So we’ve got a dialogue that talks about this. It’s between two friends.
Amber: 对,在苹果商店。(Duì, zài píngguǒ shāngdiàn.)
DAVID: Right. It’s two friends in the Apple store.
Amber: 对。(Duì.)
DAVID: And they’re thinking, “Should I? Shouldn’t I?” And because it’s friends, they are talking in casual Mandarin, as always.
Amber: 没错。(Méi cuò.)
DAVID: Let’s listen.
DIALOGUE
A: 我想买苹果手机。(Wǒ xiǎng mǎi Píngguǒ shǒujī.)
B: 要什么颜色的?(Yào shénme yánsè de? )
A: 白色,多少钱?(Báisè, duō shǎo qián?)
B: 6500块。(Liùqiān wǔbǎi kuài. )
A: 怎么还这么贵?(Zěnme hái zhème guì? )
B: 过几天可能打折。(Guò jǐ tiān kěnéng dǎzhé. )
A: I want to buy an iPhone.
B: What color do you want?
A: White, how much does it cost?
B: 6500 RMB.
A: How can it still be this expensive?
B: After a couple of days, there might be a discount.
POST CONVERSATION BANTER
DAVID: It’s a lie. There is never a discount after a couple of days.
Amber: 没错。(Méi cuò.)
DAVID: Right.
Amber: 我觉得特别奇怪。(Wǒ juédé tèbié qíguài.)
DAVID: Yeah. And they’re more expensive if you’re in China than abroad. So if you want to buy that kind of stuff, buy it in the States and bring it into China.
Amber: 对。(Duì.)
DAVID: You are going to save a couple of hundred bucks maybe.
Amber: 唔,对。(Wú, duì.)
DAVID: Yeah. Anyway, our vocab here is for buying phones, specifying colors, useful stuff.
VOCAB LIST
Amber: 买。(mǎi)
DAVID: To buy.
Amber: 买, 买, 颜色。(mǎi, mǎi,yánsè . )
DAVID: Color.
Amber: 颜 色, 颜色, 白色。(yánsè , yánsè , báisè)
DAVID: White.
Amber: 白 色, 白色, 黑色。(báisè, báisè, báisè )
DAVID: Black.
Amber: 黑 色, 黑色, 这么 。 (hēisè , hēisè ,hēisè , zhème)
DAVID: This much.
Amber: 这 么, 这么, 贵。(zhème, zhème, guì)
DAVID: Expensive.
Amber: 贵, 贵, 过几天。(guì, guì, guò jǐ tiān)
DAVID: After a couple of days.
Amber: 过 几 天, 过几天, 打折。(guò jǐ tiān, guò jǐ tiān, dǎzhé )
DAVID: To have a discount.
Amber: 打 折, 打折。(dǎzhé, dǎzhé)
VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE
DAVID: Okay, so the vocab is not that difficult. And if you are buying an iPhone, you’re going to be using this. Let’s take a look at some of these words in detail. First, Amber, how did we say “iPhone” in the dialogue?
Amber: 苹果手机。(Píngguǒ shǒujī.)
DAVID: iPhone.
Amber: 苹果手机。(Píngguǒ shǒujī)
DAVID: Now, actually Chinese people will also just say “iPhone”, yes.
Amber: iphone. 对! (Duì!)
DAVID: Some of them will say [*] as well.
Amber: [*]
DAVID: Right, but for most people you can also say “Apple cellphone”.
Amber: 对,苹果手机。(Duì, píngguǒ shǒujī.)
DAVID: Apple cellphone.
Amber: 苹果手机。 (Píngguǒ shǒujī.)
DAVID: Right. And a “Macbook computer” is a…
Amber: 苹果电脑。(Píngguǒ diànnǎo.)
DAVID: Right, or…
Amber: 苹果笔记本。(Píngguǒ bǐjìběn.)
DAVID: Right. So just put “Apple” in front of anything and people are going to know what you’re talking about. Our vocab list also had the word “color”.
Amber: 颜色。(Yánsè.)
DAVID: Color.
Amber: 颜色。(Yánsè.)
DAVID: And, in the Apple store, there are two kinds of iPhones right now.
Amber: 对,没错, 有白色的,还有黑色的。
(Duì, méi cuò, yǒu báisè de, hái yǒu hēisè de.)
DAVID: Right. So there are the white ones and the black ones.
Amber: 对, 你可以说,我要白色的。(Duì, nǐ kěyǐ shuō, wǒ yào báisè de.)
DAVID: I want the white one.
Amber: 或者我要哪个黑色的。(Huòzhě wǒ yào nǎge hēisè de.)
DAVID: I want that black one.
Amber: 对。(Duì.)
DAVID: Let’s hear those sentences again. “I want the white one.”
Amber: 我要白色的。(Wǒ yào báisè de.)
DAVID: I want that black one.
Amber: 我要哪个黑色的。(Wǒ yào nǎge hēisè de.)
DAVID: And don’t forget that 的 at the end.
Amber: 没错。(Méi cuò.)
DAVID: We’re going to get to this in a bit. Right, so if you’re shopping, you can also say, “The price is a little bit high. Is there a discount?”
Amber: 价格有点贵,有打折吗?(Jiàgé yǒudiǎn guì, yǒu dǎzhé ma?)
DAVID: The price is a little bit high. Is there a discount?
Amber: 价格有点贵,有打折吗?(Jiàgé yǒudiǎn guì, yǒu dǎzhé ma?)
DAVID: Right.
Amber: 你经常需要问这个问题。(Nǐ jīngcháng xūyào wèn zhège wèntí.)
DAVID: Yes. It works most places, except for the Apple store.
Amber: 没错, 他们从来不打折。(Méi cuò, tāmen cónglái bu dǎzhé.)
DAVID: Yeah, because it’s a status thing in China, I think, much more than the States.
Amber: 好吧!(Hǎo ba!)
DAVID: So they’re forcing people to pay more.
Amber: Yeah.
DAVID: Anyway, that’s our vocab section for today. Let’s get on to this tricky little grammar point we’ve got.
Amber: 没错。(Méi cuò.)

Lesson focus

C: It’s grammar time!
DAVID: Our grammar section today is about this tricky little thing we can do in Chinese. We hear it in this line in the dialogue…
Amber: 要什么颜色的?(Yào shénme yánsè de?)
DAVID: It’s a question - "What color do you want?”
Amber: 要什么颜色的?(要什么颜色的?) (Yào shénme yánsè de?(Yào shénme yánsè de?))
DAVID: Only it’s not really “What color do you want?” it’s “What color one may you want?” We’ve got this 的 at the end of the sentence, and that’s what we want to talk about.
Amber: 对。(Duì.)
DAVID: If you remember back to our vocab section, we taught you two sentences.
Amber: 我要白色的。(Wǒ yào báisè de.)
DAVID: I want the white one.
Amber: 还有我要哪个黑色的。(Hái yǒu wǒ yào nǎge hēisè de.)
DAVID: “I want that black one.” Let’s hear those two one more time.
Amber: 我要白色的, 我要哪个黑色的。(Wǒ yào báisè de, wǒ yào nǎge hēisè de..)
DAVID: Right. There’s a word missing from the end of those sentences.
Amber: 没错。(Méi cuò.)
DAVID: And, Amber, what is that word?
Amber: 苹果手机。(Píngguǒ shǒujī.)
DAVID: Right. Let’s hear those again with that missing word added.
Amber: 我要白色的苹果手机。(Wǒ yào báisè de píngguǒ shǒujī.)
DAVID: I want the white iPhone.
Amber: 我要哪个黑色的苹果手机。(Wǒ yào nǎge hēisè de píngguǒ shǒujī.)
DAVID: I want that black iPhone.
Amber: 对。(Duì.)
DAVID: Right? So what’s happening here boils down to the character 的 (De) which is coming between an object and a word that describes it.
Amber: 白色的苹果手机。(Báisè de píngguǒ shǒujī.)
DAVID: The white iPhone.
Amber: 黑色的苹果手机。(Hēisè de píngguǒ shǒujī.)
DAVID: Right. And what happens is that when we know what object we’re talking about, we can drop the subject as long as we keep that 的 (De) in there.
Amber: 没错, 因为前面已经知道是说果手机。(Méi cuò, yīnwèi qiánmiàn yǐjīng zhīdào shì shuō guǒ shǒujī.)
DAVID: Right. We know what the object is, but we still have to include that 的 that’s referring to the object. Let’s have a couple more examples to make this clear.
Amber: 比如说 我不要买便宜的, 我要买贵的。(Bǐrú shuō wǒ bù yāomǎi piányí de, wǒ yāo mǎi guì de.)
DAVID: I don’t want to buy a cheap one, I want to buy an expensive one.
Amber: 对,我不要买便宜的, 我要买贵的。(Duì, wǒ bù yāomǎi piányí de, wǒ yāo mǎi guì de..)
DAVID: Or, for another example…
Amber: 你要什么颜色的?(Nǐ yào shénme yánsè de?)
DAVID: That might be something the sales person asks you.
Amber: 对, 没错, 你要什么颜色的?(Duì, méi cuò, nǐ yào shénme yánsè de?)
DAVID: What color do you want?
Amber: 唔,对,可以是手机,笔记本都可以。(Wú, duì, kěyǐ shì shǒujī, bǐjìběn dōu kěyǐ.)
DAVID: Yeah, it could be a phone, it could be a laptop. You have to know.
Amber: 对。(Duì.)
DAVID: And the 的 is saying you know this.
Amber: 对, 所以我就不说了。(Duì, suǒyǐ wǒ jiù bù shuōle.)
DAVID: It’s the same way we say “this one” or “that one” in English.
Amber: 对。(Duì.)
DAVID: We assume that the other person knows what we’re talking about.
Amber: 没错。(Méi cuò.)
DAVID: Let’s have one more example.
Amber: 给我哪个打折的。(Gěi wǒ nǎge dǎzhé de.)
DAVID: Give me that.
Amber: 打折的。(Dǎzhé de.)
DAVID: The discounted one.
Amber: 唔。(Wú.)
DAVID: So we can put an adjective in front of this or a verb, and we’re saying, “It’s the one that is adjective” or “the one that is verb”.
Amber: 没错。

Outro

DAVID: Okay, and that’s our lesson for today.
Amber: 对,今天没有时间了。(Duì, jīntiān méiyǒu shíjiānle.)
DAVID: Right. We hope that this stuff comes in useful if you end up buying an iPhone in China. Remember, you’re more likely to get a discount outside the official stores.
Amber: 没错, 要打折的。(Duì, jīntiān méiyǒu shíjiānle.)
DAVID: Yes. If you ask, they will give it to you. And, as always, we should remind you that we’ve got all of these tips in our premium transcripts…
Amber: 没错。(Méi cuò.)
DAVID: Which are available on ChineseClass101.com. If you’re looking for a way to save money or understand more of what’s happening in China, be sure to check those out.
Amber: 而且很有用。(Érqiě hěn yǒuyòng.)
DAVID: For now though, it’s all the time we have. Thank you for listening. From Beijing, I'm David.
Amber: 我是安伯。(Wǒ shì ān bó.)
DAVID: And we’ll see you on the site.
Amber: 下次見。(Xià cì jiàn.)

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