Learn how to navigate complicated washroom situations
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| INTRODUCTION |
| David: Welcome to chineseclass101. I am David. |
| Echo: Hi! 大家好，我是(Dàjiā hǎo, wǒ shì)Echo. |
| David: And we are here with absolute beginner season 2, lesson 6. |
| Echo: This Chinese bathroom is occupied. |
| David: Right. The title says it all folks. Other podcasts, they will show you how to ask where the washroom is. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| David: Here we are taking you to the real, real encounters with China. |
| Echo: Right. This conversation takes place in the bathroom. |
| David: Yes and it’s between two strangers who are trying to speak as casually as they can given the circumstances right. So we’ve got a dialogue. We are going to take you there in a moment. Before we take you to the dialogue though, Echo, you had some words of encouragement for people who are thinking of commenting. |
| Echo: Yes if you have a comment or if you have a question or any feedback, you can always leave a comment on the side or write to us at contactus@chineseclass101.com. |
| David: Right. We forward all of the emails to Echo. So she has to deal with it. |
| Echo: Yeah I love to hear from you. |
| David: Yeah we do love to hear from you. For now though, let’s go on to the dialogue. |
| DIALOGUE |
| A: 洗手间有人吗？(Xǐshǒujiān yǒu rén ma?) |
| B: 有人，稍等！(Yǒu rén, shāoděng!) |
| A: 你快点儿！(Nǐ kuài diǎnr!) |
| B: 稍等！(Shāoděng!) |
| David: One more time, a bit slower. |
| A: 洗手间有人吗？(Xǐshǒujiān yǒu rén ma?) |
| B: 有人，稍等！(Yǒu rén, shāoděng!) |
| A: 你快点儿！(Nǐ kuài diǎnr!) |
| B: 稍等！(Shāoděng!) |
| David: And now with the English. |
| A: 洗手间有人吗？(Xǐshǒujiān yǒu rén ma?) |
| A: Is there anyone in the bathroom? |
| B: 有人，稍等！(Yǒu rén, shāoděng!) |
| B: There's someone in here, wait a moment. |
| A: 你快点儿！(Nǐ kuài diǎnr!) |
| A: Hurry up. |
| B: 稍等！(Shāoděng!) |
| B: Wait a moment. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Echo: It’s a good dialogue. |
| David: Yes it’s a gritty dialogue. This is |
| Echo: 你快点儿!(Nǐ kuài diǎn er!) |
| David: Yeah. We are going to use that. I have used that. Anyway, we’ve got lot of vocab here obviously. It’s about the washroom. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| David: This is critical vocab. So why don’t we get right to it? |
| Echo: 好(Hǎo) |
| VOCAB LIST |
| David: And now, the vocab section. |
| Echo: 洗手间(xǐshǒujiān) [natural native speed] |
| David: washroom |
| Echo: 洗手间(xǐshǒujiān) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Echo: 洗手间(xǐshǒujiān) [natural native speed] |
| Echo: 厕所(cèsuǒ) [natural native speed] |
| David: bathroom |
| Echo: 厕所(cèsuǒ) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Echo: 厕所(cèsuǒ) [natural native speed] |
| Echo: 马桶(mǎtǒng) [natural native speed] |
| David: toilet |
| Echo: 马桶(mǎtǒng) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Echo: 马桶(mǎtǒng) [natural native speed] |
| Echo: 水龙头(shuǐlóngtóu) [natural native speed] |
| David: water tap |
| Echo: 水龙头(shuǐlóngtóu) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Echo: 水龙头(shuǐlóngtóu) [natural native speed] |
| Echo: 手纸(shǒuzhǐ) [natural native speed] |
| David: toilet paper |
| Echo: 手纸(shǒuzhǐ) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Echo: 手纸(shǒuzhǐ) [natural native speed] |
| Echo: 上(shàng) [natural native speed] |
| David: to get on; on; top |
| Echo: 上(shàng) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Echo: 上(shàng) [natural native speed] |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| David: Okay. Let’s have a closer look at some of these words and phrases. |
| Echo: The first phrase is 洗手间.(xǐshǒujiān.) |
| David: Washroom. |
| Echo: 洗手间(xǐshǒujiān) |
| David: Washroom. And this is literally to wash. |
| Echo: 洗(Xǐ) |
| David: Hands. |
| Echo: 手(Shǒu) |
| David: Room. |
| Echo: 间(Jiān) |
| David: So the room where you wash your hands. |
| Echo: 洗手间.(Xǐshǒujiān) |
| David: Knowing this, we now know how to ask the crucial question. |
| Echo: 洗手间在哪儿？(Xǐshǒujiān zài nǎ'er?) |
| David: Where is the washroom? |
| Echo: 洗手间在哪儿？(洗手间在哪儿？) |
| David: Right but this is not the only way to say washroom. |
| Echo: You can also say 厕所.(Cèsuǒ) |
| David: Let’s hear that again. |
| Echo: 厕所.(Cèsuǒ.) |
| David: So this is a bit closer to toilet. |
| Echo: Yes. So another way to ask for the washroom is 厕所在哪儿？(Cèsuǒ zài nǎ'er?) |
| David: Where is the toilet? |
| Echo: 厕所在哪儿？(Cèsuǒ zài nǎ'er?) |
| David: Where is the toilet? |
| Echo: Yeah so 洗手间(Xǐshǒujiān) is a bit nicer. 厕所(Cèsuǒ) is more dirty. |
| David: Right. |
| Echo: But it depends. |
| David: Okay and there is a special verb we use for going to the washroom. |
| Echo: Yeah let’s say 上(Shàng). |
| David: Which literally means to get up on. |
| Echo: 上厕所(Shàng cèsuǒ) |
| David: To go to the washroom. |
| Echo: 上厕所(Shàng cèsuǒ) |
| David: I need to go to the washroom. Now some restaurants won’t have a toilet. So if you just want to wash your hands, you are best of just telling them directly. |
| Echo: 我想洗手.(Wǒ xiǎng xǐshǒu) |
| David: I want to wash my hands. |
| Echo: 我想洗手.(Wǒ xiǎng xǐshǒu) |
| David: I want to wash my hands. |
| Echo: And if you need to go to washroom, you can also say 上厕所(Shàng cèsuǒ). |
| David: Right which we’ve already covered. |
| Echo: 我想上厕所.(Wǒ xiǎng shàng cèsuǒ.) |
| David: That’s I need to go to the washroom. I need to use the toilet right? |
| Echo: Right. So you can put two sentences we just learned together 我想上厕所，洗手间在哪儿？(Wǒ xiǎng shàng cèsuǒ, xǐshǒujiān zài nǎ'er?) |
| David: I want to go to the toilet, where is the washroom. So that’s really clear. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| David: And if you were lucky, you are going to find a bathroom with one of these. |
| Echo: 马桶(Mǎtǒng) |
| David: Which is the toilet. |
| Echo: 马桶(Mǎtǒng) |
| David: The beautiful western toilet. |
| Echo: 马桶(Mǎtǒng) |
| David: Yeah. Anyway, one more reminder since this is China. If you go to the washroom, there is something you should take with you. |
| Echo: Yeah 手纸(Shǒuzhǐ) |
| David: Toilet paper. |
| Echo: Don’t forget 手纸(Shǒuzhǐ) |
| David: Which is literally hand |
| Echo: 手(Shǒu) |
| David: Paper. |
| Echo: 纸(Zhǐ) |
| David: Yeah. You have been warned. Let’s get to the grammar section. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| David: Okay, our grammar section today is all about this verb. |
| Echo: 有(Yǒu) |
| David: This means to have |
| Echo: 有(Yǒu) |
| David: To have |
| Echo: 你有手纸吗？(Nǐ yǒu shǒuzhǐ ma?) |
| David: Do you have toilet paper? |
| Echo: 你有手纸吗？(Nǐ yǒu shǒuzhǐ ma?) |
| David: In our lesson though, we see this without talking about objects that belong to people. |
| Echo: Right. We saw this word in this sentence. 洗手间有人吗？(Xǐshǒujiān yǒurén ma?) |
| David: Is there anyone in the washroom? |
| Echo: 洗手间有人吗？(Xǐshǒujiān yǒurén ma?) |
| David: Is there anyone in the washroom? |
| Echo: Right and that in answer, 有人，稍等！(Yǒurén, shāo děng!) |
| David: There is someone here. Please wait. |
| Echo: 有人，稍等！(Yǒurén, shāo děng!) |
| David: We could think about this as possession. It’s as if the washroom has a person but really we are talking about existence. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| David: As if there is a person. |
| Echo: So in Chinese, we will use 有(Yǒu) to say things exist. |
| David: Right. For instance. |
| Echo: 洗手间有人吗？(Xǐshǒujiān yǒurén ma?) |
| David: Is there anyone in the bathroom? |
| Echo: 洗手间有人吗？这里没有手纸.(Xǐshǒujiān yǒurén ma? Zhèlǐ méiyǒu shǒuzhǐ.) |
| David: There is no toilet paper here. |
| Echo: 这里没有手纸.(Zhèlǐ méiyǒu shǒuzhǐ.) |
| David: Right. We see this not only with places but also with times. |
| Echo: 今天晚上有派对.(Jīntiān wǎnshàng yǒu pàiduì.) |
| David: There is a party tonight. |
| Echo: 今天晚上有派对.(Jīntiān wǎnshàng yǒu pàiduì.) |
| David: So a quick review. Whenever you want to say there is |
| Echo: We use 有.(Yǒu.) |
| David: There is a washroom. |
| Echo: 有洗手间(Yǒu xǐshǒujiān) |
| David: There is a person. |
| Echo: 有人(Yǒurén) |
| David: There is toilet paper. |
| Echo: 有手纸(Yǒu shǒuzhǐ) |
| David: Or the negative, there is no washroom. |
| Echo: 没有洗手间(Méiyǒu xǐshǒujiān) |
| David: There is no toilet paper. |
| Echo: 没有手纸(Méiyǒu shǒuzhǐ) |
| David: We told you this was a depressing lesson. So this is a bit tricky but you are going to get the hang of it really quickly. |
Outro |
| David: Okay, so that’s our lesson for today. Before we go, we want to tip the hat about one of the more powerful features on chineseclass101.com. |
| Echo: Line-by-Line audio. |
| David: Right. On the site in the Premium learning center, you can click a button and you can hear every line again and again and again. You can listen until every word becomes clear. |
| Echo: 没错.(Méi cuò.) |
| David: So try the Line-by-Line audio at chineseclass101.com. |
| Echo: You will like it. |
| David: For now though, from Beijing, I am David. |
| Echo: 我是(Wǒ shì)Echo. |
| David: Thanks a lot for listening and we will see you on the site. |
| Echo: 再见.(Zàijiàn.) |
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