Dialogue

Vocabulary

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Lesson Notes

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Lesson Transcript

Introduction
Eric: Welcome to 3-Minute Chinese Season 1, Lesson 25 - On the Phone. In this lesson, you’ll learn how to understand basic phone vocabulary in Chinese.
Body
Eric: Here's the formal way to say 'Hello' when answering the phone in Chinese.
Cho: [Normal] 喂,你好。(wéi , nǐhǎo . )
Eric: First is an expression meaning 'hello’ when speaking on the phone.
Cho: [Normal] 喂 [Slow] 喂 (wéi)
Eric: Next is the pronoun meaning 'you'
Cho: [Normal] 你 [Slow] 你(nǐ)
Eric: Last is the adjective meaning 'good'
Cho: [Normal] 好 [Slow] 好(hǎo)
Eric: Listen again to the formal phrase meaning 'Hello’ for answering the phone.
Cho: [Slow] 喂,你好。 [Normal] 喂,你好。
Eric: Ok, now let's take a look at the formal way to say 'This is Li Lin.'
Cho: [Normal] 我是李琳。(Wǒ shì Lǐ Lín . )
Eric: First is a pronoun meaning 'I'
Cho: [Normal] 我 [Slow] 我 (wǒ)
Eric: Next is the verb meaning 'to be'
Cho: [Normal] 是 [Slow] 是(shì)
Eric: Last is the person’s name, 'Li Lin'
Cho: [Normal] 李琳。 [Slow] 李琳。(Lǐ Lín)
Eric: Listen again to the formal phrase meaning 'This is Li Lin.'
Cho: [Slow] 我是李琳。 [Normal] 我是李琳。
Eric: Next, we’ll learn the informal way to say 'May I talk to [name]?'
Cho: [Normal] 王强在吗?(Wáng Qiáng zài ma ?)
Eric: First is the person’s name, in this example 'Wang Qiang'
Cho: [Normal] 王强 [Slow] 王强(Wáng Qiáng)
Eric: Next is the verb meaning 'in'
Cho: [Normal] 在 [Slow] 在(zài)
Eric: Last is the question marker.
Cho: [Normal] 吗 [Slow] 吗(ma)
Eric: Listen again to the informal phrase meaning 'May I talk to [name]?'
Cho: [Slow] 王强在吗? [Normal] 王强在吗?
Eric: Finally, we’ll see a formal way to say 'I'll call again later.'
Cho: [Normal] 我等一下再打。(Wǒ děng yí xià zài dǎ . )
Eric: First is a pronoun meaning 'I'
Cho: [Normal] 我 [Slow] 我(wǒ)
Eric: Next is the phrase meaning 'wait a moment'
Cho: [Normal] 等一下 [Slow] 等一下(děng yí xià)
Eric: Next is the adverb meaning 'again'
Cho: [Normal] 再 [Slow] 再(zài)
Eric: Last is the verb meaning 'call'
Cho: [Normal] 打 [Slow] 打(dǎ)
Eric: Listen again to the formal phrase meaning 'I'll call again later.'
Cho: [Slow] 我等一下再打。 [Normal] 我等一下再打。
Cultural Insight
Eric: Now it's time for a quick cultural insight.
Cho: While long-distance domestic telephone calls are pretty cheap in China, international telephone calls are very expensive. Get around the high charges by looking for international IP telephone cards. These require you to dial a 5-digit number and enter a keycode before dialing your destination number, but will cut your per-minute charges. That will make your call home more than affordable!

Outro

Eric: And that’s all for this lesson and this series. Don’t forget to check out the lesson notes, and we’ll see you in the next series!
Cho: 再见

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