Dialogue

Vocabulary

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Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
Canaan: Hello and welcome to chineseclass101.com, the fastest, easiest and most enjoyable way to learn Chinese. My name is Canaan
Jane: 嗨,大家好。我是 (Jane。 hài , dàjiā hǎo. Wǒ shì Jane.) And thanks again for being with us here for this Absolute Beginner series, season 3, lesson 21.
Canaan: Stay safe on the Chinese roads.
Jane: Now of course, not just on the Chinese road, you better stay safe on the road everywhere
Canaan: But particularly in China.
Jane: So Canaan, what advice can you give us in this respect?
Canaan: Well my advice would be to stay safe on the road by staying off the road entirely. Take the subway especially during rush hour.
Jane: And if in times that you have to be on the ground in the car, allow yourself plenty of time so you can just take it easy or tell the taxi drivers to take it easy.
Canaan: That’s right. Now in this lesson, you will learn how to talk politely to taxi drivers and give precise instructions.
Jane: And the conversation takes place inside a cab between a cabdriver and a passenger.
Canaan: And they are speaking in informal Mandarin which is pretty much the only way that taxi drivers speak to anybody in Beijing.
Jane: 是的。(shì de .)
Canaan: Now we are going to take you to the dialogue in a moment but before we do, if you haven’t already done so
Jane: Stop by our website and to register for your free life account.
Canaan: That’s right. It will only take you ten seconds.
Jane: And you will discover that learning Chinese with chineseclass101 could be so much easier.
Canaan: Yep so make sure you do that but after the lesson.
Jane: Now let’s go to the dialogue.
DIALOGUE
怎么走?(Zěnme zǒu?)
左拐。不,右拐。(Zuǒguǎi. Bù, yòu guǎi.)
右拐?(Yòu guǎi?)
对,就这儿右拐。(小心!Duì, jiù zhèr yòu guǎi. Xiǎoxīn!)
怎么走?(Zěnme zǒu?)
Where to go?
左拐。不,右拐。(Zuǒ guǎi. Bù, yòu guǎi.)
Turn left. No, right.
右拐?(Yòu guǎi?)
Turn right?
对,就这儿右拐。小心!(Duì, jiù zhè'er yòu guǎi. Xiǎoxīn!)
Yes, just here turn right. Be careful!
POST CONVERSATION BANTER
Canaan: Now, what a ride that was.
Jane: And the driver didn’t seem to know the road well.
Canaan: Yeah all sorts of crazy drivers in the Beijing roads these days. I think you’d probably be better off renting a car and driving yourself.
Jane: Yeah. I have seen so many ads around for car renting companies and the price looked pretty reasonable if they were real.
Canaan: Umm but remember if you are a foreigner, you have to convert your license first to get an international driver’s license and then familiarize yourself with the Beijing road system before you really get out there.
Jane: You know I used to think that I would never want to drive in China with a traffic like this but then the friend asked me, which do you prefer? Sitting behind the steering to being controlled yourself or you trust a stranger like a crazy taxi driver to steering it for you? I thought that does make some sense.
Canaan: Yeah that does actually now that I think about it. Well, regardless of whether you are planning on getting behind the wheel yourself or if you are hoping to get someone to do it for you, I think the vocabulary that we’ve got here will come in handy in either situation.
VOCAB LIST
Jane: 走 (zǒu)
Canaan: To walk.
Jane: 走 走 (Zǒu zǒu)
Jane: 拐 (guǎi)
Canaan: To turn.
Jane: 拐 拐 (Guǎi guǎi)
Jane: 停 (tíng)
Canaan: To stop.
Jane: 停 停(Tíng tíng)
Jane: 右转 (yòu zhuǎn)
Canaan: Right turn.
Jane: 右转 右转 (Yòu zhuǎn yòu zhuǎn)
Jane: 左转 (zuǒ zhuǎn)
Canaan: Left turn.
Jane: 左转 左转 (Zuǒ zhuǎn zuǒ zhuǎn)
Jane: 一直走 (yìzhí zǒu)
Canaan: Go straight.
Jane: 一直走 一直走 (Yīzhí zǒu yīzhí zǒu)
Jane: 小心 (xiǎoxīn)
Canaan: Be careful.
Jane: 小心 小心 (Xiǎoxīn xiǎoxīn)
VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE
Canaan: All right. Let’s look at the usages of some of the words that we just heard.
Jane: 好的 (hǎo de) The first word is 走 (zǒu)
Canaan: To walk.
Jane: 走 (zǒu)
Canaan: A very common sentence you hear a lot when people are leaving.
Jane: 我走了。(Wǒ zǒu le .)
Canaan: I am leaving.
Jane: 我走了。(Wǒ zǒu le .)
Canaan: And there is another phrase related
Jane: 不好走 (bù hǎo zǒu)
Canaan: Difficult to get to or difficult to get around. Now our next word is
Jane: 左转 (zuǒ zhuǎn)
Canaan: Left turn.
Jane: 左转 (zuǒ zhuǎn)
Canaan: Left turn. And it’s opposite counterpart
Jane: 右转 (yòu zhuǎn)
Canaan: Right turn.
Jane: 右转 (yòu zhuǎn)
Canaan: Right turn. Can we have an example?
Jane: 我家在前面左转。(Wǒ jiā zài qiánmiàn zuǒzhuǎn .)
Canaan: My house is up the road and turn left.
Jane: 我家在前面左转。(Wǒ jiā zài qiánmiàn zuǒzhuǎn .)
Canaan: Now the word for turn that we just heard 转 (zhuǎn) also has a synonym
Jane: 拐 (guǎi)
Canaan: Which means exactly the same thing.
Jane: So you can also say 左拐 (zuǒguǎi)
Canaan: Left turn.
Jane: And 右拐 (yòuguǎi)
Canaan: Right turn. Exactly, they mean the same thing. So now, you just heard a few times the first character in those words which are both position words meaning left
Jane: 左 (zuǒ)
Canaan: And right
Jane: 右 (yòu)
Canaan: So let’s look back at the position words we’ve learned up till now and make sure that they are still fresh in our memory. So what else do we have?
Jane: 前 (qián) 后 (hòu)
Canaan: Front and behind.
Jane: 上 (shàng) 下 (xià)
Canaan: Up and down as well as in the word for inside such as inside a room.
Jane: 里 (lǐ) as in 屋里(wū lǐ)
Canaan: We have yet to learn the word for outside but don’t worry, that’s coming soon.
Jane: So a sample sentence 我在左边出口等你。(Wǒ zài zuǒbiān chūkǒu děng nǐ)
Canaan: I will wait for you at the left exit.
Jane: 我在左边出口等你(Wǒ zài zuǒbiān chūkǒu děng nǐ)
Canaan: And the word that we heard there 左边(zuǒbiān) the left side is the same as 左(zuǒ)
Jane: And of course 右边(yòubiān) you can just simply say 右(yòu)
Canaan: Right. Now for directions, don’t call for a left turn or a right turn or a back up but rather a straightforward advance then
Jane: 一直走 (yìzhí zǒu)
Canaan: Go straight.
Jane: 一直走 (yìzhí zǒu)
Canaan: So you can give directions to the taxi drivers like this.
Jane: 前边右拐再一直走。(qiánbiān yòu guǎi zài yìzhí zǒu .)
Canaan: Turn right up ahead, then go straight.
Jane: 前边右拐再一直走。(qiánbiān yòu guǎi zài yìzhí zǒu .)
Canaan: Turn right up ahead, then go straight. Now here we are with today’s last word which is in fact a review from a previous lesson.
Jane: 小心 (xiǎoxīn)
Canaan: Which everybody should remember. Therefore we are going to teach you another one in addition to this word which has a similar meaning.
Jane: 当心 (dāngxīn)
Canaan: Meaning watch out.
Jane: 当心 (dāngxīn)
那里车多不好走,你要当心。(Nàlǐ chē duō bù hǎo zǒu, nǐ yào dāngxīn.)
Canaan: The traffic there is bad and it’s difficult to get around, you should watch out.
Jane: 那里车多不好走,你要当心。(Nàlǐ chē duō bù hǎo zǒu, nǐ yào dāngxīn.)
Canaan: Now with that, we are going to drive right into the next section which is grammar.

Lesson focus

Jane: 好的 (hǎo de)
It’s grammar time.
Canaan: All right, today’s grammar is all about the word
Jane: 就 (jiù)
Canaan: Which is an incredibly complex adverb with a whole palette of meanings but today, we are only going to talk about a couple of them.
Jane: And the first usage we are going to talk about is from a dialogue 就这儿右拐。(jiù zhèr yòu guǎi.)
Canaan: Just turn right here.
Jane: 就这儿右拐。(jiù zhèr yòu guǎi.)
Canaan: Just turn right here. In this sentence, we’ve actually omitted a word
Jane: 在 (zài) So the whole sentence should be 就在这儿右拐。(jiù zài zhèr yòu guǎi .)
Canaan: Now that probably made the sentence structure clearer to many of us with 在这儿 (zài zhèr) indicating the place where the action 右拐 (yòu guǎi) is going to take place.
Jane: Therefore the adverb 就(jiù) is here for actual emphasis.
Canaan: Right. It indicates immediacy to be specific about it. So it’s like right here, just here.
Jane: 是的。(shì de .) Another sentence 就停这儿。(jiù tíng zhèr .)
Canaan: Just stop here.
Jane: 就停这儿。(jiù tíng zhèr .)
Canaan: And these are very, very useful sentences that you can use immediately when you are in a taxi. Now another usage of 就 jiù that we would like to introduce to you is when it is being used to express the limitations of an action in a given sentence.
Jane: So in this case, it usually can be translated as only.
Canaan: Right. Let’s look at a couple of sentences.
Jane: 我就睡了十分钟。(Wǒ jiù shuì le shí fēnzhōng .)
Canaan: I only slept for 10 minutes.
Jane: 我就睡了十分钟。(Wǒ jiù shuì le shí fēnzhōng .)
Canaan: Now you can use the word
Jane: 只 (zhǐ)
Canaan: In this sentence as well and the meaning is pretty much the same. Now 就 (jiù) usually sounds more colloquial than 只 (zhǐ) and it carries an aggressive, almost resentful emphasis to it.
Jane: It feels like the speaker is complaining.
Canaan: Yeah….
Jane: That he only got 10 minutes to sleep.
Canaan: Exactly. Okay one more sentence.
Jane: 他就会炒鸡蛋。(tā jiù huì chǎo jīdàn .)
Canaan: He can only fry eggs.
Jane: 他就会炒鸡蛋。(tā jiù huì chǎo jīdàn .)
Canaan: He can only fry eggs, that is to say, the only dish that he is able to make is fried eggs. So here you get the feeling that the speaker is complaining or criticizing somebody’s cooking skills.
Jane: 是的。(shì de) 他就会说四种语言。(tā jiù huì shuō sì zhǒng yǔyán .)
Canaan: He can only speak four different languages. Now this doesn’t seem too right. I mean somebody who can speak four languages is already pretty successful I would say in this respect. If you use 就 (jiù) in this sentence, it sounds like four languages is not enough.
Jane: Yeah and you can only say this if you can speak eight languages I guess.
Canaan: Right. As we said, there are other usages of the adverb 就 (jiù) that we will come across later on but for now, we hope that you’ve enjoyed the lesson.

Outro

Jane: Please do let us know if you have any questions, comments or feedbacks.
Canaan: Write to us at contactus@ChineseClass101.com or just leave something in the site.
Jane: 我是 (Jane。Wǒ shì Jane.)
Canaan: And I am Canaan.
Jane: 下次见吧。(xiàcì jiàn ba.)
Canaan: See you next time.

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