Learn verb echoing and polite Chinese conversation
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Jane: Hello everyone, I am Jane and welcome to chineseclass101.com |
| Canaan: And this is Canaan. With us, you will learn to speak Chinese with fun and effective lessons. |
| Jane: We also provide you with cultural insights. |
| Canaan: And tips you won’t find in a textbook. |
| Jane: 没错 (méicuò) |
| Canaan: Now today is Absolute Beginner series, season 3, lesson 11. |
| Jane: Tell them what you really think in Chinese. |
| Canaan: That’s right. Today’s lesson is all about telling your friends what you really think of them which in some situations could be dangerous. |
| Jane: It could be really sweet too just like this guy in our dialogue today. |
| Canaan: Yeah he is a real smooth talker. All right, now the conversation takes place in a shop between two young people. |
| Jane: And of course they are speaking in casual Mandarin. |
| Canaan: But before we find out what they say, we’d like to remind our listeners once again that if you haven’t already done it |
| Jane: Stop by chineseclass101.com |
| Canaan: And sign up to get your free lifetime account. |
| Jane: It takes less than 30 seconds |
| Canaan: And you will get access to a lot of cool stuff that will help you with your Chinese study. |
| Jane: Let’s go to the dialogue. |
| DIALOGUE |
| 你喜欢这个吗？(Nǐ xǐhuān zhège ma?) |
| 喜欢，你呢？(Xǐhuān, nǐ ne?) |
| 我...喜欢你。(Wǒ ...xǐhuān nǐ.) |
| 你太可爱了。(Nǐ tài kěài le.) |
| Canaan: And now with the English translation. |
| 你喜欢这个吗？(Nǐ xǐhuān zhège ma?) |
| Do you like this？ |
| 喜欢，你呢？(Xǐhuān, nǐ ne?) |
| Yes, I do. And you? |
| 我...喜欢你。(Wǒ... Xǐhuān nǐ.) |
| I...I like you. |
| 你太可爱了。(Nǐ tài kě'àile.) |
| You are so cute. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Canaan: All right, now talking honestly, I didn’t really think this guy is a huge suck up and you know I suppose you know it can be hard to say what you think to people that you like. It’s hard to tell people that you like them. |
| Jane: I know. Do you think Chinese people are little reserved in expressing themselves? |
| Canaan: Do I? No definitely. Often when you are conversing with Chinese people be they friends or be they strangers, it can be very, very hard to figure out what they actually mean. |
| Jane: Because we don’t want to sound too demanding. |
| Canaan: Right, now for example if a guest comes to your house, you often offer them something to drink as soon as they get in but a Chinese guest will always begin by saying, oh no, no, no, no….but never take that refusal seriously. |
| Jane: Because the guest is just what we call being polite, not to trouble the host too much. |
| Canaan: Right but go ahead and make him some tea anyway. |
| Jane: You get used to it. |
| Canaan: Anyway we have a fantastic vocabulary for you today with some very useful words that you can use to describe the characteristics of your friends. |
| Jane: 没错儿 (méicuòr) |
| Canaan: Let’s take a look. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Jane: 可爱 (kěài) |
| Canaan: Cute, lovely. |
| Jane: 可爱 可爱 (Kě'ài kě'ài) |
| Jane: 聪明 (cōngmíng) |
| Canaan: Intelligent, smart. |
| Jane: 聪明 聪明 (Cōngmíng cōngmíng) |
| Jane: 讨厌 (tǎoyàn) |
| Canaan: Annoying. |
| Jane: 讨厌 讨厌 (Tǎoyàn tǎoyàn) |
| Jane: 坏 (huài) |
| Canaan: Bad, evil. |
| Jane: 坏 坏 (Huài huài) |
| Jane: 幽默 (yōumò) |
| Canaan: Humorous, funny. |
| Jane: 幽默 幽默 (Yōumò yōumò) |
| Jane: 诚实 (chéngshí) |
| Canaan: Honest. |
| Jane: 诚实 诚实 (Chéngshí chéngshí) |
| Jane: 有才 (yǒu cái) |
| Canaan: Talented. |
| Jane: 有才 有才 (Yǒu cái yǒu cái) |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Canaan: Now let’s have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases of this lesson. |
| Jane: And the first word is 幽默 (yōumò) |
| Canaan: Funny, humorous which has always been used to describe me. |
| Jane: 幽默 (yōumò) |
| Canaan: It’s interesting. The word sounds a little bit like the English word humor, doesn’t it? |
| Jane: You are quite right. It’s indeed a borrowed word from English 他很幽默。(tā hěn yōumò ) |
| Canaan: He is very funny. |
| Jane: 他很幽默。(tā hěn yōumò ) |
| Canaan: So this is an interesting instance of a cognate, a word borrowed from English into Chinese. Now what are other words do people use to describe me? |
| Jane: To describe you? |
| Canaan: Yeah. |
| Jane: 聪明 (cōngmíng) |
| Canaan: Ey smart, intelligent. |
| Jane: 聪明 (cōngmíng) |
| Canaan: Smart, intelligent. |
| Jane: 你不太聪明。(nǐ bú tài cōngmíng.) |
| Canaan: You are not too bright. |
| Jane: 你不太聪明。(nǐ bú tài cōngmíng) |
| Canaan: Right because you know that’s what everybody says about me. Something wrong with you. |
| Jane: I am being a very honest person 诚实 (chéngshí) |
| Canaan: Honest. |
| Jane: 诚实 (chéngshí) 我是个非常诚实的人。(Wǒ shì ge fēicháng chéngshí de rén .) |
| Canaan: I am a very honest person. |
| Jane: 我是个非常诚实的人。(Wǒ shì ge fēicháng chéngshí de rén .) |
| Canaan: Now we are not trying to be nasty here but I think we should also teach our listeners a couple of not so good words that are commonly used to describe people. |
| Jane: Umm pretty mild ones. |
| Canaan: Right and more commonly used by girls than by guys. |
| Jane: The first one is 坏 (huài) |
| Canaan: Meaning bad or evil. |
| Jane: 坏 (huài) |
| Canaan: Now we met this word before in a lesson where we were talking about the pattern |
| Jane: 坏了 (huài le) |
| Canaan: Broken similar to the usage of |
| Jane: 死了 (sǐ le) |
| Canaan: Right as in I am really hungry. Here we use the adjective to describe a person. |
| Jane: 这个人真坏。(zhè ge rén zhēn huài .) |
| Canaan: This person is evil. |
| Jane: 这个人真坏。(zhè ge rén zhēn huài .) |
| Canaan: That’s pretty serious but sometimes you hear girls use it when they are talking about their boyfriends. |
| Jane: 你真坏。nǐ (zhēn huài .) |
| Canaan: You are awful. |
| Jane: 你真坏。nǐ (zhēn huài .) |
| Canaan: Now what the girl is actually saying is, I like you, so don’t panic. |
| Jane: Yeah. Another sentence girls like to say is 你真讨厌。(nǐ zhēn tǎoyàn .) |
| Canaan: You are so annoying. |
| Jane: 你真讨厌。(nǐ zhēn tǎoyàn .) |
| Canaan: Now don’t get this mixed up with |
| Jane: 你真麻烦。(nǐ zhēn máfan .) |
| Canaan: Which at that time I also translated as, you are so annoying. |
| Jane: Yeah but 你真讨厌。(nǐ zhēn tǎoyàn .) could may well be an affectionate joke from the girl to her boyfriend while 你真麻烦。(nǐ zhēn máfan .) is a more genuine complaint. |
| Canaan: Right, of course depending on the circumstance 你真讨厌。(nǐ zhēn tǎoyàn) could also be serious. |
| Jane: 没错儿 (méicuòr) |
| Canaan: Now our final word for today is an interesting one that only just became popular. |
| Jane: 有才 (yǒu cái) |
| Canaan: Talented. |
| Jane: 有才 (yǒu cái) |
| Canaan: It is actually made famous by a comedian when she said it on stage at the Chinese Annual New Year’s Gala a couple of years ago. |
| Jane: 你太有才了。(nǐ tài yǒu cái le .) |
| Canaan: You are so talented. |
| Jane: 你太有才了。(nǐ tài yǒu cái le .) |
| Canaan: It’s actually sort of a half-choking comment to somebody. All right, well today’s vocabulary list is a long one. Hope you all enjoyed it. |
| Jane: And we’ve got a very good grammar point coming up too. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Canaan: Let’s have a look at that now. It’s grammar time. Now today’s grammar, we are going to teach you the golden rule of answering questions. We call it the verb echoing rule. |
| Jane: Meaning to echo the verb back that the person used in their questions. |
| Canaan: Right. So if the question is |
| Jane: 你是美国人吗？(nǐ shì Měiguórén ma ? ) |
| Canaan: Are you an American? |
| Jane: The simplest answer could be 是 (shì) or 不是 (búshì ) |
| depending on your situation. |
| Canaan: Right. Now how about a sentence with a different verb? |
| Jane: 他们到了吗？(tāmen dàole ma ?) |
| Canaan: Have they arrived? |
| Jane: 他们到了吗？(tāmen dàole ma ?) |
| Canaan: Have they arrived? Now remember our golden rule. To answer, just echo back the verb used in the question. |
| Jane: 到了。(dàole ) |
| Canaan: They’ve arrived. |
| Jane: 到了。(dàole ) |
| Canaan: Now what about they haven’t arrived? |
| Jane: 没到。(méi dào) |
| Canaan: They haven’t arrived. |
| Jane: 没到。(méi dào) |
| Canaan: I think actually a lot of us Chinese learners tend to get confused in the beginning with when to use 没 (méi) and when to use 不(bù) since both of them are negative particles. |
| Jane: Right. Let’s have a 不(bù) type sample questions 你吃吗？(nǐ chī ma ?) |
| Canaan: Will you eat or are you eating depending on the situation. |
| Jane: So according to our golden rule of verb echoing, the answer is 吃 (chī) for positive and 不吃 (bù chī) for negative. |
| Canaan: Right and in this case, you can’t answer back 没吃 (méi chī) right? |
| Jane: Well, in that case, the question would be different. |
| Canaan: Right and that question would be |
| Jane: 你吃了吗？(nǐ chī le ma ?) |
| Canaan: Have you eaten or did you eat? |
| Jane: 你吃了吗？(nǐ chī le ma ?) |
| Canaan: I see. So the difference lies in the tense of the question. |
| Jane: 是的。(shì de .) |
| Canaan: So when the question contains the particle 了 (le) following the verb, it’s an indication of a completed action and the negative answer should be 没 (méi) plus the verb and please do not put 了 (le) at the end again. |
| Jane: And for the positive answers, just the verb plus 了 (le) to indicate a completed action. |
| Canaan: Right. On the other hand, when the question is posed in the present indicative or in the future tense and there is no 了 (le) at the end of the sentence |
| Jane: And the negative answer should be 不(bù) plus the verb. |
| Canaan: Right and of course for positive answers, all you have to do is echo the verb back. |
| Jane: 是的。(Shì de .) |
| Canaan: All right. So can we have another sample sentence? |
| Jane: 你昨天来了吗？(nǐ zuótiān láile ma ?) |
| Canaan: Did you come yesterday? |
| Jane: 你昨天来了吗？(nǐ zuótiān láile ma ?) |
| Canaan: So here, our golden rule is to echo back the verb and since the sentence has a 了 (le) in it and the time word 昨天 (zuótiān) meaning yesterday, the negative answer should be 没 (méi) plus the verb. |
| Jane: 是的。(shì de .) 没来。(méilái .) |
| Canaan: No I didn’t |
| Jane: The next sentence 你明天来吗？(nǐ míngtiān lái ma ?) |
| Canaan: Are you coming tomorrow? |
| Jane: 你明天来吗？(nǐ míngtiān lái ma ?) |
| Canaan: So a future tense question with the time word 明天 (míngtiān) |
| Jane: So the negative answer would be 不来 (bù lái .) |
| Canaan: No I won’t. Okay that’s better. So can we have one more sample sentence. |
| Jane: 他走吗？(tā zǒu ma ?) |
| Canaan: Is he going or is he leaving. |
| Jane: 他走吗？(tā zǒu ma ?) |
| Canaan: And the negative answer is |
| Jane: 不走。(bù zǒu .) |
| Canaan: Okay I hope our listeners got why. |
| Jane: And if the question is 他走了吗？(tā zǒu le ma ?) |
| Canaan: Has he gone or did he go? |
| Jane: The negative answer is 没走。(méi zǒu .) |
| Canaan: Well that’s it for our lesson today. |
| Jane: And we hope you enjoyed it. |
Outro |
| Canaan: Now before we go, let me remind you once again to write for us with any comments or feedback. |
| Jane: And contactus@chineseclass101.com |
| Canaan: We do love to hear from you but for now |
| Jane: 我是Jane。(Wǒ shì Jane.) |
| Canaan: And I am Canaan signing off here from 老北京 (lǎo Běijīng), see you next time. |
| Jane: 回见。(huí jiàn.) |
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