Dialogue

Vocabulary (Review)

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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 24, By Train or By Plane in China. Although by this time, you guys are probably not absolute beginners anymore.
Echo: Yeah.
David: You’re creeping on up, so. We’ve got a dialogue here that is about taking the train or taking the plane.
Echo: Yeah. So which do you prefer?
David: I’ll tell you after the dialogue.
Echo: Okay.
David: First though, we’ve got a dialogue and the conversation here is between two acquaintances and they’re friends and so they’re speaking very casually.
Echo: Yeah.
David: So we’re going to go to the dialogue now. Before we do though, if you don’t already have one…
Echo: Stop by ChineseClass101.com.
David: And sign up for your free lifetime account.
Echo: Right.
David: It takes less than 30 seconds. It takes less than 7 seconds.
Echo: Yeah.
David: You put your email in the box and you’re going to get a free account on the site that’s going to give you access to a lot of great stuff, so do that.
Echo: Yeah.
David: For now though, let’s go on to the dialogue.
DIALOGUES
David: 我要去北京。 我应该怎么去?(Wǒ yào qù Běijīng. Wǒ yīnggāi zěnme qù?)
Echo: 你可以坐火车或者坐飞机。(Nǐ kěyǐ zuò huǒchē huòzhě zuò fēijī.)
David: 我怎么买火车票?(Wǒ zěnme mǎi huǒchē piào?)
Echo: 你可以在火车站买。(Nǐ kěyǐ zài huǒchē zhàn mǎi.)
David: One more time, a bit slower.
David: 我要去北京。 我应该怎么去?(Wǒ yào qù Běijīng. Wǒ yīnggāi zěnme qù?)
Echo: 你可以坐火车或者坐飞机。(Nǐ kěyǐ zuò huǒchē huòzhě zuò fēijī.)
David: 我怎么买火车票?(Wǒ zěnme mǎi huǒchē piào?)
Echo: 你可以在火车站买。(Nǐ kěyǐ zài huǒchē zhàn mǎi.)
David: And now with the English translation.
Echo: 我要去北京。 我应该怎么去?(Wǒ yào qù Běijīng. Wǒ yīnggāi zěnme qù?)
David: I have to go to Beijing, how should I get there?
Echo: 你可以坐火车或者坐飞机。(Nǐ kěyǐ zuò huǒchē huòzhě zuò fēijī.)
David: You can take a train or you can take a plane.
Echo: 我怎么买火车票?(Wǒ zěnme mǎi huǒchē piào?)
David: How do I buy a train ticket?
Echo: 你可以在火车站买。(Nǐ kěyǐ zài huǒchē zhàn mǎi.)
David: You can buy it at the train station.
POST CONVERSATION BANTER
David: Echo, you asked before if I was a train person or a plane person and I’m going to come out and just said, “I like the train.”
Echo: 火车(huǒchē)
David: Right. Because you can show up at the train station 20 minutes before it leaves and still make the train.
Echo: That’s true. That’s true.
David: And it gets you right down to the heart of whichever city you’re going to and it’s really comfortable, too.
Echo: Yeah.
David: Especially if you’re taking the soft seaters. So when you come to China, make sure you try it if you haven’t yet.
Echo: Yeah. And if you have any problem to buy train tickets…
David: Call, Echo.
Echo: Huh? Call me, no.
David: Or you...
Echo: Take a look at our vocab section.
David: Yeah. We’ll take a look at the vocab section, we’ll do that now.
Echo: Yeah.
VOCAB LIST
David: And now, the vocab section.
Echo: 要(yào)
David: To want.
Echo: 去(qù)
David: To go.
Echo: 北京(Běijīng)
David: Beijing.
Echo: 应该(yīnggāi)
David: Should.
Echo: 怎么(zěnme)
David: How.
Echo: 可以(kěyǐ)
David: Can.
Echo: 坐(zuò)
David: To ride.
Echo: 火车(huǒchē)
David: Train.
Echo: 或者(huòzhě)
David: Or.
Echo: 飞机(fēijī)
David: Plane.
Echo: 票(piào)
David: Ticket.
Echo: 火车站(huǒchēzhàn)
David: Train station.
KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES
David: So the first word we want to highlight here is our destination.
Echo: 北京(Běijīng).
David: Right. That’s the city of...
Echo: Beijing.
David: Pay attention to the tones here. That’s third tone and then first tone.
Echo: 北京(Běijīng).
David: It dips and then it’s flat.
Echo: Yeah, 北京(Běijīng).
David: And there are two decent ways of getting there if you’re in another part of China. The first is the train.
Echo: 火车(huǒchē)
David: Which is also third tone, first tone.
Echo: Yeah. 火车(huǒchē)
David: And I love this word because it means fire car.
Echo: 火车(huǒchē)
David: Right, or steam engine. The second way is another great word.
Echo: 飞机(fēijī)
David: Two first tones, this means a flying machine.
Echo: Yes. 飞机(fēijī)
David: So we’ve got train.
Echo: 火车(huǒchē)
David: And plane.
Echo: 飞机(fēijī)
David: And in both of these cases, the verb that we’re going to use to ride them is...
Echo: 坐(zuò)
David: Which means to sit.
Echo: Yeah, 坐(zuò)
David: To take a train or to sit on the train.
Echo: 坐火车(Zuò huǒchē)
David: To take a plane or to sit on the plane.
Echo: 坐飞机(Zuò fēijī)
David: Now, if you need to buy a ticket for the train, you’re going to buy a...
Echo: 火车票(Huǒchē piào)
David: And for the plane, that’s...
Echo: 飞机票(Fēijī piào)
David: So we take this word...
Echo: 票(Piào)
David: And add it to the end of the vehicle.
Echo: Yes.
David: Train ticket.
Echo: 火车票(Huǒchē piào)
David: Plane ticket.
Echo: 飞机票(Fēijī piào)
GRAMMAR POINT
David: It’s grammar time. That’s our vocab section. We’ve got a great grammar section for you now, so let’s get there.
Echo: Okay.
David: Our first grammar point tonight is little bit of review. We want to focus on this word.
Echo: 要(Yào)
David: Now, we’ve already taught you, this is a very versatile word. It can mean “to want.”
Echo: 要(Yào)
David: It can mean “to have to do something.”
Echo: 要(Yào)
David: It can mean a lot of things. In our dialogue today, we heard it in this sentence.
Echo: 我要去北京。(Wǒ yào qù běijīng.)
David: From the context, we understand that this person has to go to Beijing.
Echo: Yeah. 我要去北京。(Wǒ yào qù běijīng.)
David: Right. So first you say...
Echo: 要(Yào)
David: And then you say the thing you have to do. “I’m going to Beijing.”
Echo: 我要去北京。(Wǒ yào qù běijīng.)
David: Right. You could swap that up though. You could also say, “I have to go to the store.”
Echo: 我要去商店。(Wǒ yào qù shāngdiàn)
David: Another thing we learned before was how to say, “How do I?”
Echo: 怎么(Zěnme)
David: Right. Now, we normally hear this in phrases like...
Echo: 怎么走(Zěnme zǒu)
David: Which means, “How do I 走?” or “How do I get there?”
Echo: Yeah. 怎么走(Zěnme zǒu)
David: You could also say...
Echo: 怎么去(Zěnme qù)
David: How to go
Echo: 怎么说(Zěnme shuō)
David: How do you say this.
Echo: Yeah.
David: So in the dialogue, we heard it in this sentence...
Echo: 我应该怎么去?(Wǒ yīnggāi zěnme qù?)
David: So we have the word for I.
Echo: 我(Wǒ)
David: Should.
Echo: 应该(Yīnggāi).
David: And then finally...
Echo: 怎么去(Zěnme qù)
David: How should I go there?
Echo: 我应该怎么去?(Wǒ yīnggāi zěnme qù?)
David: That literally means, “I should how to go.” How should I go there.
Echo: Yeah.
David: Okay? The word order here is a lot different than English. This is really, really colloquial way of saying it.
Echo: Yeah. 我应该怎么去?(Wǒ yīnggāi zěnme qù?)
David: Another thing we want to touch on in our review section today is how you say “or” in Chinese.
Echo: 或者(Huòzhě)
David: Right. You can say, “Take the train or take the plane.”
Echo: 坐火车或者坐飞机(Zuò huǒchē huòzhě zuò fēijī)
David: You’re going to hear this a lot.
Echo: Let’s hear another example like 坐公交车或者出租车(Zuò gōngjiāochē huòzhě zuò chūzū chē)
David: Right. And that would be...
Echo: Public bus.
David: Public bus or we’re going to take the taxi.
Echo: Yeah.
David: I think taxi, that’s a really useful word.
Echo: 出租车(Chūzū chē)
David: Right.
Echo: A bit hard.
David: Okay. How about something a bit easier?
Echo: Okay. Let’s say, 买这个或者买那个(Mǎi zhège huòzhě mǎi nàgè).
David: That would be, “To buy this one or to buy that one.”
Echo: Yeah.
David: So three things to remember from our review for today. The first is the verb...
Echo: 要(Yào)
David: Which means “to want” or “to suggest” that something is going to happen.
Echo: Yeah. 我要去北京 (Wǒ yào qù běijīng).
David: Our second point...
Echo: 怎么(Zěnme)
David: As in, “How do I go?”
Echo: 怎么走?(Zěnme zǒu?)
David: How do I say?
Echo:怎么说?(Zěnme shuō?)
David: Right. And our third point is, of course, how do you say, or.
Echo: 或者(Huòzhě)
David: As in the sentence.
Echo: 坐火车或者坐飞机(Zuò huǒchē huòzhě zuò fēijī)
David: To take the train or to take the plane. And with that, that’s our lesson and we are almost to the end of the first Absolute Beginner Series.
Echo: Good.
David: And actually, this stuff is getting pretty difficult.
Echo: Yeah.
David: It’s getting pretty advanced, so you guys are going to ready beginner and elementary very, very soon.
Echo: Yes.
David: Okay? So don’t be afraid to go and push yourself a bit further on the site. For now though, before we leave you, we want to remind you of a great way to improve your pronunciation.
Echo: The voice recording tool.
David: Right. We’ve talked about it before, we’re going to talk about it again. It really is good.
Echo: Yeah.
David: Go to the premium learning center and you can listen to native Chinese speakers saying all these words.
Echo: Yeah.
David: And this is a great way to pick up on where your tones are weak, where your pronunciation is just a bit off.
Echo: Yeah.
David: It really makes a difference, so check that out. For now though, from Beijing, I’m David.
Echo: I’m Echo.
David: Thanks for listening and we’ll see you on the site.

Outro

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

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