Learn how to solicit someone's opinion, and some different ways of travel in China
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| 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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