Dialogue

Vocabulary

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Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
Canaan: Hello and welcome back to chineseclass101.com, the fastest, easiest and most enjoyable way to learn Chinese. My name is Canaan and here in the studio is
Jane: 嗨,大家好。我是Jane。(hài , dàjiā hǎo. Wǒ shì Jane.) And thanks again for being here with us for this Absolute Beginner series, season 3, Lesson 23.
Canaan: A visit to the Chinese hospital.
Jane: So Canaan, have you been to the Chinese hospitals?
Canaan: Hospitals in China, oh yes, I have been several times.
Jane: So what do you think?
Canaan: A lot of people, a lot of waiting lines, a lot of IVs.
Jane: 是的。(shì de .) And in China, we don’t really have what you often see in the western countries like a private clinic.
Canaan: Yeah there are a few in Beijing now but they are even more expensive than western private clinics. Most Chinese doctors in the big hospitals see 3 or 4 times as many patients in one day or even in half a day as most of your American doctors see in entire day.
Jane: So in this lesson, you will learn what you should say to the doctors.
Canaan: Now the conversation takes place clearly in a hospital.
Jane: And the dialogue is between a doctor and a patient.
Canaan: Right they are talking to each other in informal direct Mandarin. So you don’t have to worry about encountering any medical jargon.
Jane: But before we go to the dialogue,
DIALOGUE
大夫,我不舒服。(Dàifu, wǒ bù shūfu.)
哪儿不舒服?(Nǎr bù shūfu?)
哪儿都不舒服。(Nǎr dōu bù shūfu.)
怎么人人都这么说?(Zěnme rénrén dōu zhème shuō?)
Canaan: And now with the English translation.
大夫,我不舒服。(Dàifu, wǒ bù shūfu.)
Doctor, I don't feel well.
哪儿不舒服?(Nǎr bù shūfu?)
Where is it that you are not feeling well?
哪儿都不舒服。(Nǎr dōu bù shūfu.)
Everywhere.
怎么人人都这么说?(Zěnme rénrén dōu zhème shuō?)
Why does everyone say the same thing?
POST CONVERSATION BANTER
Canaan: We would like to remind you that if you want to read along with the dialogue as we play it and as we talk about it
Jane: And you can log on to our online premium learning center
Canaan: Where you can find the whole transcript
Jane: And many more learning tools
Canaan: Right. Now let’s hear the story in the hospital. Now in a real situation, if you go and see a doctor in China, it won’t start out this way.
Jane: What do you mean?
Canaan: Well because the first thing that happens when you get into a Chinese hospital is not see the doctor but go up to the front and register, take a number.
Jane: 挂号 (guàhào)
Canaan: Right. And this is where they will ask you which department in the hospital you want to see. So for instance, if you have a stomachache, then you will take a number to see the internal medicine department but like if you break your arm or you know lose a leg or some other obvious external injury, you will probably get a number to see the bone department or the external medicine department.
Jane: And today we have a vocabulary that will tell a few of the basic words that are related to the hospital environment.
VOCAB LIST
Canaan: Yeah let’s take a look.
Jane: 大夫 (dàifu)
Canaan: Doctor.
Jane: 大夫 大夫 (Dàfū dàfū)
Jane: 医院 (yīyuàn)
Canaan: Hospital.
Jane: 医院 医院 (yīyuàn yīyuàn)
Jane: 医生 (yīshēng)
Canaan: Doctor.
Jane: 医生 医生 (yīshēng yīshēng)
Jane: 护士 (hùshi)
Canaan: Nurse.
Jane: 护士 护士 (hùshi hùshi)
Jane: 舒服 (shūfu)
Canaan: Comfortable.
Jane: 舒服 舒服 (shūfu shūfu)
Jane: 怎么 (zěnme)
Canaan: How come.
Jane: 怎么 怎么 (zěnme zěnme)
Jane: 人人 (rénrén)
Canaan: Everyone.
Jane: 人人 人人(rénrén rénrén)
Jane: 难受 (nánshòu)
Canaan: Feeling unwell.
Jane: 难受 难受 (Nánshòu nánshòu)
Canaan: All right. All sorts of words related to being sick and the people who help you not be sick. Let’s find out how to use them.
Jane: The first word we are looking at is 医生 (yīshēng)
Canaan: Doctor.
Jane: 医生 (yīshēng)
Canaan: Now how do you say, to go see the doctor?
Jane: 看医生 (kàn yīshēng)
Canaan: So it’s the verb to look or to see.
Jane: 看医生 (kàn yīshēng) But in Chinese, the common way to express the same meaning but often say 看病 (kànbìng) instead.
Canaan: Right. So it’s literally, see the disease.
Jane: 是的。(shì de.) 看病 (kànbìng )
Canaan: Go see the doctor or literally see the disease.
Jane: 他去看病了。(tā qù kàn bìng le .)
Canaan: He went to see the doctor.
Jane: 他去看病了。(tā qù kàn bìng le .) For the word 医生 (yīshēng) we more often use it when you talk about your profession like 我是医生。(Wǒ shì yīshēng .)
Canaan: I am a doctor. Right, now there is another word for doctor that’s very commonly used.
Jane: 大夫 (dàifu)
Canaan: Doctor.
Jane: 大夫 (dàifu)
Canaan: This word was actually used anciently to refer to officials in Imperial China. Now it’s a colloquial way of addressing a doctor 医生 (yīshēng) when you are in the hospital.
Jane: 是的。(shì de.) But I think it might be a little bit Northern Chinese tradition.
Canaan: Perhaps but it’s good to know both. You will notice that the word 大 (dài) in 大夫 (dàifu)
is actually the word 大 (dà) meaning large. This character in Chinese is a multiple pronunciation character 多音字(duōyīnzì) which means that in some situations, it’s read as 大 (dà) and in some situations as 大 (dài)
Jane: As you go along with your Chinese study, you will come across quite a few of the characters in Chinese. They are called 多音字(duōyīnzì)
Canaan: So let’s have another sample sentence.
Jane: 你应该听大夫的。(nǐ yīnggāi tīng dàifu de .)
Canaan: You should listen to the doctor.
Jane: 你应该听大夫的。(nǐ yīnggāi tīng dàifu de .)
Canaan: Now the next word is the place where the 大夫 (dàifu) works.
Jane: 医院 (yīyuàn)
Canaan: Hospital.
Jane: 医院 (yīyuàn)
Canaan: The hospital is next to the bank.
Jane: 医院在银行旁边。(yīyuàn zài yínháng pángbiān .)
Canaan: The word
Jane: 医院在银行旁边。(yīyuàn zài yínháng pángbiān .)
Canaan: Is a noun meaning the side which used in conjunction with 在 zài becomes a preposition meaning next to.
Jane: 旁边 (pángbiān)
Canaan: Next to. Now in the hospital, apart from 医生 (yīshēng), there is another important employee there.
Jane: 护士 (hùshi)
Canaan: Nurse.
Jane: 护士 (hùshi)
Canaan: My partner is not a nurse.
Jane: 我爱人不是护士。(Wǒ àiren bú shì hùshi .)
Canaan: So if you end up in the hospital, there must be something wrong with you, right? So the next couple of words come in handy when you are talking to the doctor.
Jane: 舒服 (shūfu)
Canaan: Comfortable.
Jane: 舒服 (shūfu)
Canaan: Of course if you are not comfortable, the word is
Jane: 不舒服 (bù shūfu。) 我肚子不太舒服。(Wǒ dùzi bú tài shūfú .)
Canaan: I have an upset stomach.
Jane: 我肚子不太舒服。(Wǒ dùzi bú tài shūfú .)
Canaan: Now there is another word you can use instead of 不舒服 (bù shūfu) and that is
Jane: 难受 (nánshòu)
Canaan: Uncomfortable, in pain.
Jane: 难受 (nánshòu)
Canaan: Uncomfortable and this is slightly more serious than
Jane: 不舒服 (bù shūfu) and very colloquial as well. So when you are going to see the doctor and the doctor might say 你哪儿难受呀?(nǐ nǎr nánshòu ya ?)
Canaan: Where are you feeling uncomfortable?
Jane: 你哪儿难受呀?(nǐ nǎr nánshòu ya ?)
Canaan: All right. I think today’s vocabulary has been pretty useful, yeah?
Jane: 是的。(shì de .)
Canaan: Now, our grammar section today is going to start with the final sentence in our dialogue.
Jane: Let’s go.

Lesson focus

Canaan: It’s grammar time. Okay today’s grammar is a continuation of last lesson. We are going to talk about how to use measure words in a repeated form but before we get there, let’s look first at the sentence in our dialogue.
Jane: 怎么人人都这么说?(Zěnme rénrén dōu zhème shuō?)
Canaan: How come everybody says that?
Jane: 怎么人人都这么说?(Zěnme rénrén dōu zhème shuō?)
Canaan: How come everybody says that? Here the word 人(rén) is repeated.
Jane: 人人 (rénrén)
Canaan: And by doing so goes for meaning one person to meaning everyone with an emphasis on entire group.
VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE
Jane: So the similar usage can be applied to many of the words related to time or dates.
Canaan: Right such as the word for day.
Jane: 天 (tiān)
Canaan: And if we repeat that word.
Jane: 天天 (tiāntiān)
Canaan: It becomes every day.
Jane: For example 他天天很早起床。(tā tiāntiān hěn zǎo qǐchuáng .)
Canaan: He gets up very early every day.
Jane: 他天天很早起床。(tā tiāntiān hěn zǎo qǐchuáng .)
Canaan: Now here 天天 (tiāntiān) is used to emphasize the fact that he gets up early every day without exception.
Jane: Or the word for months 月(yuè) and the word for year 年(nián)
Canaan: Right. You can simply repeat that word.
Jane: 月月(yuè yuè) 年年(niánnián)
Canaan: To become every month or every year emphasizing continuity.
Jane: So what does the time related words has to do with measure words?
Canaan: Because you can apply the same rule to most measure words in order to achieve the same result. That is to say repeat the measure word. So let’s look at a couple of sample sentences.
Jane: 这个医院个个医生都很棒。(zhège yīyuàn gègè yīshēng dōu hěn bàng .)
Canaan: All the doctors in this hospital are very good.
Jane: 这个医院个个医生都很棒。(zhège yīyuàn gègè yīshēng dōu hěn bàng .)
Canaan: Now here we have a very colloquial word for very good.
Jane: 棒 (bàng)
Canaan: Very good.
Jane: 棒 (bàng)
Canaan: I kind of like to translate it myself as excellent because it usually talks about people. Now one more sentence.
Jane: 张张票都有他的签名。(Zhāng zhāngpiào dōu yǒu tā de qiānmíng .)
Canaan: Each one of the tickets has his signature.
Jane: 张张票都有他的签名。(Zhāng zhāngpiào dōu yǒu tā de qiānmíng .)
Canaan: Now I notice that the word 都(dōu) appears in most sentences when you are using this repeated measure word.
Jane: 是的。(shì de .) here is an actual emphasis to mean on the whole.
Canaan: And I want to suggest to our listeners that when you are in a Chinese speaking environment that you really keep your ears peeled for uses of 都(dōu) because it really is a very important particle. All right and I think we’ve made pretty clear the usage of this repeated measure word. Of course, there are also other ways to express the same meaning but we will talk about that later on, but don’t forget. If you log on to our online premium learning center, you will find more sample sentences.

Outro

Jane: They can further consolidate your learning.
Canaan: Absolutely. That concludes our lesson for today and this is Canaan here in Beijing.
Jane: And Jane.
Canaan: See you next time.
Jane: 下次见吧。(xiàcì jiàn ba.)

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