Learn how to bargain with the best
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Frank: Hey, everyone. |
| Echo: Da jia hao. |
| Frank: I'm your host, Frank Fradella. |
| Echo: 我是(Wǒ shì) Echo. |
| Frank: Welcome back to ChineseClass101com Season 1, Lesson 11 in our Beginner Series. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| Frank: Today is an exciting lesson on bargaining, on haggling, on making the deal. |
| Echo: Yes, especially important in China. |
| Frank: It's very important here. You got to have your haggling skills really sharp and we're going to help you get there. Today's dialogue is between a customer and a merchant. |
| Echo: Yeah. And our old friend Jang Fe is there. |
| Frank: That's right. He is the customer and he might be buying something a little special for somebody. It takes place probably at a bazaar or a flea market type of thing. And this is casual speech, right? |
| Echo: Yeah, this is casual. |
| Frank: All right, let's have a listen to it. |
| Echo: But before we do, as usual. |
| Frank: Before we do, that's right, we want you to head to ChineseClass101.com. Take a look at those PDF transcripts. You can download those things. Print them out at your rules. You take them with you on the go. Load them right into your iPod. And you can actually follow along with the lessons. |
| Echo: Exactly. |
| Frank: Very, very cool stuff. Let's go ahead and have a listen to the dialogue now. |
Lesson conversation |
|---|
| 张飞:这个多少钱？(ZHĀNG FĒI: Zhège duōshao qián?) |
| 服务员:这个二十块。(FÚWÙYUÁN: Zhège èrshí kuài.) |
| 张飞:十块怎么样？(ZHĀNG FĒI: Shí kuài zěnmeyàng?) |
| 服务员:不行，十八块。(FÚWÙYUÁN: Bùxíng, shíbā kuài.) |
| 张飞:十五块。(ZHĀNG FĒI: Shíwǔ kuài.) |
| 服务员:好。(FÚWÙYUÁN: Hǎo.) |
| English host: Slower this time. |
| 张飞:这个多少钱？(ZHĀNG FĒI: Zhège duōshao qián?) |
| 服务员:这个二十块。(FÚWÙYUÁN: Zhège èrshí kuài.) |
| 张飞:十块怎么样？(ZHĀNG FĒI: Shí kuài zěnmeyàng?) |
| 服务员:不行，十八块。(FÚWÙYUÁN: Bùxíng, shíbā kuài.) |
| 张飞:十五块。(ZHĀNG FĒI: Shíwǔ kuài.) |
| 服务员:好。(FÚWÙYUÁN: Hǎo.) |
| Frank: Okay, we're back. This is exactly the kind of stuff you're going to need if you're going to stay in China for any length of time. |
| Echo: Exactly. |
| Frank: If you come on vacation, you come to stay, no matter what, you're going to have this conversation. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| Frank: Let's go ahead and go through the dialogue and tell people what they're hearing. |
| 张飞:这个多少钱？(ZHĀNG FĒI: Zhège duōshao qián?) |
| Frank: How much is this? |
| 服务员:这个二十块。(FÚWÙYUÁN: Zhège èrshí kuài.) |
| Frank: This one is 20 yuan. |
| 张飞:十块怎么样？(ZHĀNG FĒI: Shí kuài zěnmeyàng?) |
| Frank: How about 10 yuan? |
| 服务员:不行，十八块。(FÚWÙYUÁN: Bùxíng, shíbā kuài.) |
| Frank: No deal, 18 yuan. |
| 张飞:十五块。(ZHĀNG FĒI: Shíwǔ kuài.) |
| Frank: 15 yuan. |
| 服务员:好。(FÚWÙYUÁN: Hǎo.) |
| Frank: Okay. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Echo: Okay. |
| Frank: All right, Echo, you know the savvy shop, I'm just going to stay away from the big bucks change around here. They've got best buy here and they've got a car for it and you're going to pay sticker price, but if you really want a deal, you got to go to the markets. |
| Echo: Exactly. |
| Frank: Absolutely. You got to start them in half and then you kind of haggle your way into somewhere in between there somewhere. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Frank: So let's go ahead and hit the vocab and give people the tools they need to do this kind of shopping. |
| Echo: Okay. |
| Frank: All right. |
| Echo: 十(shí) [natural native speed]. |
| Frank: 10 |
| Echo: 十 (shí)[slowly - broken down by syllable]. 十(shí) [natural native speed]. 二十(èrshí) [natural native speed] |
| Frank: Twenty (20). |
| Echo: 二十(èrshí) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 二十(èrshí) [natural native speed]. 怎么样(zěnmeyàng) [natural native speed] |
| Frank: How about. |
| Echo: 怎么样(zěnmeyàng) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 怎么样(zěnmeyàng) [natural native speed]. 不行(bùxíng) [natural native speed] |
| Frank: Not okay or no deal. |
| Echo: 不行(bùxíng) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 不行(bùxíng) [natural native speed]. 十八(shíbā) [natural native speed] |
| Frank: Eighteen (18). |
| Echo: 十八(shíbā) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 十八(shíbā) [natural native speed]. 十五(shíwǔ) [natural native speed] |
| Frank: Fifteen (15). |
| Echo: 十五(shíwǔ) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 十五(shíwǔ) [natural native speed]. |
| KEY VOCABULARY AND PHRASES |
| Frank: Okay, now last time, we gave you the numbers from 1 to 10. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| Frank: Let's go ahead and have a quick review of that. Let's hear them 1 to 10. |
| Echo: 一, 二, 三, 四, 五, 六, 七, 八, 九, 十.(Yī, èr, sān, sì, wǔ, liù, qī, bā, jiǔ, shí.) |
| Frank: Okay. It's time for some bigger numbers now. Now, we heard the number 20 in the dialogue. |
| Echo: 二十.(èrshí.) |
| Frank: Tell me how that's constructed. |
| Echo: Two, ten, 二十.(èrshí.) |
| Frank: Two, tens, is a 20. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| Frank: What about a 30? |
| Echo: 三十.(sānshí.) |
| Frank: 40? |
| Echo: 四十.(sìshí.) |
| Frank: 50. |
| Echo: 五十.(wǔshí.) |
| Frank: It's just that easy. It's two tens, three tens, four tens, five tens. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| Frank: Before 20 though, as we heard in the dialogue, like the number 18, it's? |
| Echo: 十八.(shíbā.) |
| Frank: 10 plus 8. And that's it. So if you want to offer somebody, say, this is 11 kuai. |
| Echo: 这个十一块.(Zhège shíyī kuài.) |
| Frank: That is 46 kuai. |
| Echo: 那个四十六块.(Nàgè sìshíliù kuài.) |
| Frank: How about 88 kuai. |
| Echo: 八十八块怎样？(Bāshíbā kuài zěnyàng?) |
| Frank: 60 kuai is too expensive. |
| Echo: 六十块太贵了.(Liùshí kuài tài guì le.) |
| Frank: It sure is especially for that thing, okay. |
| Echo: 不行.(bùxíng.) |
| Frank: No deal. |
| Echo: 不行.(bùxíng.) |
| Frank: Echo, tell us about this phrase, 不行.(bùxíng.) |
| Echo: 不行(bùxíng) is no deal, right? So 不(Bù) means no, negative, as we learned before and 行(xíng) is okay, so 不行(bùxíng) is not okay. And because 行(xíng) is not an adjective here, so when we ask deal or no deal, we should say 不行.(bùxíng.) |
| Frank: Okay. |
| Echo: That's very simple actually. |
| Frank: It's very, very simple. |
| Echo: You have to just translate it literally. |
| Frank: There's actually a show by that name. |
| Echo: How about we move onto my favorite part now? |
| Frank: Echo, you got yourself a deal. |
| Echo: Okay, let's do it. |
Lesson focus |
| Frank: Today's lesson only has one grammar point, but it's a do see. |
| Echo: A very important one. |
| Frank: A very important one, it's how about. |
| Echo: 怎么样.(zěnmeyàng.) |
| Frank: Sounds very good, let's hear it one more time. |
| Echo: 怎么样.(zěnmeyàng.) Actually we learned this before. |
| Frank: We have. |
| Echo: Yes. In the sentence 今天怎么样.(Jīntiān zěnme yàng.) |
| Frank: How are you today? You can actually use this in a lot of ways to ask questions. Let's hear some of them. Is this thing any good? |
| Echo: 这个怎么样?(Zhège zěnme yàng?) |
| Frank: How about we speak English? |
| Echo: 我们说英语怎么样?(Wǒmen shuō yīngyǔ zěnme yàng?) |
| Frank: How about I'll give you 25 kuai, okay? |
| Echo: 二十五块怎么样?(Èrshíwǔ kuài zěnme yàng?) |
| Frank: Now, the easiest way to remember this is that in English, we would say, how about something. |
| Echo: Something, yeah. |
| Frank: Right and in Chinese, it's this thing, how about it? |
| Echo: Yeah, 二十五块怎么样？(Èrshíwǔ kuài zěnme yàng?) |
| Frank: Echo, one more time, let's hear how you ask how people are doing today. |
| Echo: 你们今天怎么样？(Nǐmen jīntiān zěnme yàng?) |
| Frank: And we do want to know how you guys are doing, so please head up to ChineseClass101.com. Leave us a comment. |
| Echo: And tell us. |
| Frank: And absolutely we do want to know. We'll see you there, but for now from Beijing, I'm Frank Fradella. |
| Echo: I'm Echo. |
| Frank: And we'll see you next time. 再见.(Zàijiàn.) |
| Echo: 再见.(Zàijiàn.) |
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Comments
HideWhat's the best price you've ever gotten by haggling? How did you do it -- by establishing a rapport with the seller, talking to them person to person, and eventually wheedling them down, or by walking in there guns blazing and taking no prisoners? Share your secrets in the comments!
你好 robert groulx！
不用谢。(Bú yòng xiè.) = No need for thanks. You're welcome. 😇
谢谢 (Xièxie) for studying with us, it's great to have you here!
Let us know if you have any questions.
Kind regards,
雷文特 (Levente)
Team ChineseClass101.com
thank you for the lesson transcript
favorite phrase is 二十五块怎么样？
robert
Hello David,
Thank you for your comment. To say "3 (pieces) for 25", you can say 三个二十五块，怎么样？ or 二十五块三个，怎么样？
Keep it up, and let us know if you have any questions.
Ngai Lam
Team ChineseClass101.com
你好！
这个牛肉面多少钱？
我要三碗, 我很饿了。
谢谢！
I have a question about bargaining. Let's say, I want to buy potatoes and one piece is 10. How can I ask, how about 3 (pieces) for 25?
A:这个土豆多少钱？
B: 十块。
A: 二十五为三 怎么样？
B: 好。
Is this correct, am I right? 我对吗？
谢谢你！
你好 Celestine，
我不太明白你的意思。😅I don't quite understand what you meant, did you mean 'I'm ok now', as in the response to 'how are you?'
You can say ‘现在我很好’.
Thank you for learning with us. Let us know if you have any questions.
Ngai Lam
Team ChineseClass101.com
您好 老师！
现在，我是行。你呢？
Hi Erik
I can only give you answer in simplified Chinese:
-我有六瓶水。(This line like this is right. I erased 瓶. Both 個 and 瓶 are measure words, so you can keep only one, and 瓶 means 'bottle'.)
我要買六瓶水。( I erased 瓶.)
這個多少？（It's better to ask: 这个多少钱？ when asking a price)
這個十塊，怎馬樣？ goes to: 这个十块，怎么样？
The rest is fine:
不行，五塊。
好。
給您六瓶水。
多謝您。
Thanks for learning with us.
Amy
Team chineseclass101.com
How is my dialogue i type. I would like to know any suggestions if I need to improve my Chinese writing skills or reading. 多謝您.
我有六個瓶水。我要買六個瓶水。這個多少？這個十塊，怎馬樣？不行，五塊。 好。給您六個瓶水。多謝您。
Hi, Kieron,
Welcome to our class!
这个多少钱？ (simplified)
zhège duō shǎo qián ?
這個多少錢？ (traditional Chinese, used in Taiwan)
For 这个, though the Pinyin is 'zhège', we often pronounce as zhèige.
Wish you a good trip to Taiwan.:smile:
Cho
Team ChineseClass101.com
Hello! Just a little message, i didnt quite catch how you say 'how much is this?' Something on the lines of, zheige duo shou tian?
Going to taiwan in 3 months so learning as much as possible!!:open_mouth::open_mouth:
卫力，
不用谢。
You are getting progress certainly.
Cho
Team ChineseClass101.com
谢谢！
I don't have a clue as to formal, non-formal, or tone, but you are certainly helping me learn. Thanks again.
卫力
Hi 卫力，
我又给了你很多工作。
再次 is formal term with strong tone, so it is not often used.
很多...You know the reason...
Thank you.
Cho
Team ChineseClass101.com
Hi Evelyn Bach,
Thank you for your comment! We're glad that you're enjoying our lessons!
To see the vocab and dialogue transcripts in traditional characters, please make use of the Lesson Note pdf, or Lesson Materials section on this page. :grin:
Olivia
Team ChineseClass101.com
Hi,
I'm loving these lessons, just wondering if it's possible to get the vocab and dialogue transcripts in traditional characters?
你好 Cho 老师！
我再次给了你多工作。（Wǒ zàicì gěile nǐ duō gōngzuò.）Again, I've given you more work.
谢谢！
卫力
你好，卫力
非常正确。
这个六块钱。（正确）
那只狗四十块。（正确）
这两句句子都不用“是”。
Cho
Team ChineseClass101.com
大家好！
今天我有一个问题。In simple sentences with adjectives, we do not need to use 是 because it is included in the adjective. 我很高兴。Now, are numbers used as prices treated like adjectives. For example, are these sentences complete?
这个六块钱。This is six kuai.
那只狗四十块。That dog is 40 kuai.
卫力
Hi Isabel Paiva,
行 (xíng) means "something works, or something is OK"
好 (hǎo) means "well; good; ok"
So yes, depending on the contexts, we can say 好不好 (hǎo bù hǎo) "is it a good idea; are you ok with it?" or 行不行 (xíng bù xíng) "does it work?; is it allowed?; is it okay?"
Olivia
Team ChineseClass101.com
upss...
Can't I edit my comment? :unamused:
I meant "hao bu ha"o and "xing bu xing" -