Learn how to say "still" and "also"
Now Playing: Lesson Audio
Get a breakdown of the dialogue and translations instantly with the Premium line-by-line Audio. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Get this lesson’s key vocab, their translations and pronunciations. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Unlock Lesson Notes and Transcripts for every single lesson. Sign Up for a Free Lifetime Account and Get 7 Days of Premium Access.
| INTRODUCTION |
| Frank: Hey, everyone. |
| Echo: Da jia hao! |
| Frank: Welcome back to ChineseClass101.com, Season 1, Lesson 13 in our Beginner series. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| Frank: I’m your host, Frank Fradella, and I’m joined in the studio by my beautiful and talented co-host, Echo. |
| Echo: 谢谢(Xièxiè). 我是(Wǒ shì)Echo |
| Frank: This dialogue takes place between a waitress and a customer. |
| Echo: Ma Li |
| Frank: That’s right, our old friend. |
| Echo: Our old friend. |
| Frank: The person is ordering food from a picture menu. |
| Echo: Yes. Exactly. It’s a casual speech. |
| Frank: Exactly. Let’s go ahead and listen to the dialogue now and we’ll be back in a second to take you through. |
| Echo: But before we do, as usual… |
| Frank: That’s right. Before we do, we want to remind you to head up to ChineseClass101.com because tones can be tricky when you’re just hearing them. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| Frank: So download the PDF transcripts and you can actually see them written out. That’s a really great tool. |
| Echo: Right. |
| Frank: Let’s get on to the dialogue. |
Lesson conversation |
|---|
| 马丽:小姐，我要这个。(MǍ LÌ: Xiǎojiě, wǒ yào zhège.) |
| 服务员:好的。(FÚWÙYUÁN: Hǎo de.) |
| 马丽:还要一个这个。(MǍ LÌ: Hái yào yī ge zhège.) |
| 服务员:好的。(FÚWÙYUÁN: Hǎo de.) |
| 马丽:两个那个。(MǍ LÌ: Liǎng ge nàge.) |
| 服务员:好。(FÚWÙYUÁN: Hǎo.) |
| 马丽:快点儿。好吗？(MǍ LÌ: Kuài diǎnr. Hǎo ma?) |
| Frank: One more time, a little slower. |
| 马丽:小姐，我要这个。(MǍ LÌ: Xiǎojiě, wǒ yào zhège.) |
| 服务员:好的。(FÚWÙYUÁN: Hǎo de.) |
| 马丽:还要一个这个。(MǍ LÌ: Hái yào yī ge zhège.) |
| 服务员:好的。(FÚWÙYUÁN: Hǎo de.) |
| 马丽:两个那个。(MǍ LÌ: Liǎng ge nàge.) |
| 服务员:好。(FÚWÙYUÁN: Hǎo.) |
| 马丽:快点儿。好吗？(MǍ LÌ: Kuài diǎnr. Hǎo ma?) |
| Echo: Okay. Here, we’re back. |
| Frank: We are back. I got to tell you, living in China, one of the things that surprise me the most was the menus. |
| Echo: Yeah. Because we have thousands of dishes. |
| Frank: Thousands. She’s not exaggerating. Thousands of dishes. They bring over these things in like in the size of… |
| Echo: Yeah. It’s now a menu. |
| Frank: …a phonebook. |
| Echo: Yeah. It’s a book. |
| Frank: Then the waiters will just stay in there and wait for you to decide. It’s so much pressure. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| Frank: It’s crazy. Let’s go ahead and take this dialogue line-by-line and translate it for you. |
| 马丽:小姐，我要这个。(MǍ LÌ: Xiǎojiě, wǒ yào zhège.) |
| Frank: Miss, I’d like of these. |
| 服务员:好的。(FÚWÙYUÁN: Hǎo de.) |
| Frank: Okay. |
| 马丽:还要一个这个。(MǍ LÌ: Hái yào yī ge zhège.) |
| Frank: I also want one of these. |
| 服务员:好的。(FÚWÙYUÁN: Hǎo de.) |
| Frank: Okay. |
| 马丽:两个那个。(MǍ LÌ: Liǎng ge nàge.) |
| Frank: Two of those. |
| 服务员:好。(FÚWÙYUÁN: Hǎo.) |
| Frank: All right. |
| 马丽:快点儿。好吗？(MǍ LÌ: Kuài diǎnr. Hǎo ma?) |
| Frank: A little faster, okay? |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Frank: Okay. Most of the words in this dialogue should be pretty familiar to you by this point. |
| Echo: Yeah, as you may notice. |
| Frank: Exactly. So we’re going to have a kind of a review lesson for you. A little bit new, a little bit of the old stuff. We’ll take you right through it. |
| Echo: Right. |
| Frank: Let’s go ahead. The first word today is the word for “Miss” or a young girl. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Male: Now, the vocab section. |
| Echo: 小姐(xiǎojiě) [natural native speed]. |
| Frank: Miss or young girl. |
| Echo: 小姐(xiǎojiě) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 小姐(xiǎojiě) [natural native speed]. |
| Echo: 两(liǎng) [natural native speed]. |
| Frank: Two. |
| Echo: 两(liǎng) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 两(liǎng) [natural native speed]. |
| Echo: 快点儿(kuài diǎnr) [natural native speed]. |
| Frank: A bit faster. |
| Echo: 快点儿(kuài diǎnr) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 快点儿(kuài diǎnr) [natural native speed]. |
| KEY VOCABULARY AND PHRASES |
| Frank: Okay. Because this is a review lesson, there’s not a lot of new vocab. Let’s go ahead and go through with that one. The first word is “miss” or “young girl”. |
| Echo: 小姐.(xiǎojiě.) |
| Frank: Now there is a potential for this word to be misunderstood. |
| Echo: Yeah. Right. It depends on the situation, right? |
| Frank: Right. If you’re talking to somebody in the service industry, it’s okay to call them a “miss”. |
| Echo: 小姐。(xiǎojiě.) |
| Frank: For instance, in a restaurant, it’s perfectly acceptable to call your waitress “miss”. |
| Echo: 小姐.(xiǎojiě.) Yeah. |
| Frank: Right. The problem here is that recently, this has become a slang word for a prostitute. |
| Echo: Yes. |
| Frank: Out on the street, probably a word you want to shy away from. |
| Echo: Yeah. Right. But sometimes, if you can add a family name before it, before 小姐(xiǎojiě), it’s going to be fine. Like 王小姐(Wáng xiǎojiě), 马小姐(Mǎ xiǎojiě), it’s going to be fine. |
| Frank: Exactly. Move on to the next word. Our second word is… |
| Echo: 两。(Liǎng.) |
| Frank: Before, we learn the word for number two as… |
| Echo: 二。(Èr.) |
| Frank: We use this new word for counting things and telling time. Let’s have some examples. “It’s 2:00 o’clock”. |
| Echo: 两点。(Liǎng diǎn.) |
| Frank: How much are these two? |
| Echo: 这两个多少钱？(Zhè liǎng gè duōshǎo qián?) |
| Frank: I want to buy two. |
| Echo: 我想买两个。(Wǒ xiǎng mǎi liǎng gè.) |
| Frank: Okay? |
| Echo: Okay! |
| Frank: All right. |
| Echo: Yeah. Okay. |
| Frank: No. I mean, I’m giving you the next word in our vocabulary. |
| Echo: Oh, you mean 好吗?(Hǎo ma?) |
| Frank: Exactly. It’s I asked if everything is okay. |
| Echo: Yeah. 好吗?(Hǎo ma?) If you want to answer, it’s pretty simple too. 好的.(Hǎo de.) |
| Frank: Exactly. I think we should head on to grammar, okay? |
| Echo: Yeah. It’s grammar time! |
| Frank: Let’s do it. |
| Echo: 好的。(Hǎo de.) |
Lesson focus |
| Male: It’s grammar time! |
| Frank: Today’s grammar point is also to want something. |
| Echo: 还要(Hái yào). 还(Hái) means “still” and “also”. |
| Frank: Exactly. Let’s hear some sample sentences of that. “I also want four of those”. |
| Echo: 我还要四个那个。(Wǒ hái yào sì gè nàgè.) |
| Frank: He still wants to go to China. |
| Echo: 他还要去中国。(Tā hái yào qù zhōngguó.) |
| Frank: You’ll hear a waitress say this a lot, “What else do you want?” |
| Echo: 你还要什么？您还要什么？(Nǐ hái yào shénme? Nín hái yào shénme?) |
| Frank: Great. Our next grammar point is something we would never do in an American restaurant. |
| Echo: Yeah? |
| Frank: Not ever. |
| Echo: Really? |
| Frank: You would never ask a waitress to hurry up the second you’d order your food. |
| Echo: 快点儿。(Kuài diǎn er.) |
| Frank: But it’s okay here. |
| Echo: Yeah, it’s okay in China. It’s totally fine. |
| Frank: It’s not rude at all? |
| Echo: No, it’s not. |
| Frank: Okay. |
| Echo: That’s why we have so many people here. So you got to tell them 快点儿.(Kuài diǎn er.) |
| Frank: Tell me a little lit bit more about this phrase. |
| Echo: Yeah. Actually, as we learned before, 快(Kuài) is an adjective. But here, we use 快点儿(Kuài diǎn er) and we turned it into a verb phrase, 快点儿(Kuài diǎn er), to make them hurry up. |
| Frank: So we can use this with other adjectives. |
| Echo: Yes. Exactly. Such as 慢点儿.(Màn diǎn er.) |
| Frank: “Slow down, please”. |
| Echo: Or if you are buying something and you want something cheaper, you will say 便宜点儿.(Piányí diǎn er.) |
| Frank: We ran into this in a very simple sentence, “Please speak more slowly”. |
| Echo: 请说慢点儿。(Qǐng shuō màn diǎn er.) |
| Frank: But right now, we want you to hurry up and go to ChineseClass101.com and sign up for your free lifetime account. |
| Echo: Right. Hurry up! 快点儿快点儿.(Kuài diǎn er kuài diǎn er.) |
| Frank: And we’ll see you there. But for now, from Beijing, I’m your host, Frank Fradella… |
| Echo: 我是(Wǒ shì) Echo. |
| Frank: … and we’ll see you next time. 再见(Zàijiàn) |
| Echo: 再见。(Zàijiàn.) |
Comments
HideSo you go into a store and you see things that you want -- a 'this,' and then another 'this,' and then a 'that' or two. What are YOUR thises and thats? Chime in in the comments!
你好 Hoàng Phi，
Thank you for your comment.
You can say: 现在我还在ChineseClass101学习中文。
Let us know if you have any questions.
Ngai Lam
Team ChineseClass101.com
现在我在ChineseClass101还做中文。
Phi
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 快点儿快点儿
robert
Hello Kanyalux,
你好！Yes normally 小姐 is used to address young women, for a waitress, we use 服务员, it means waiter or waitress.
As always, let us know if you have any questions.
Ngai Lam
Team ChineseClass101.com
Is “小姐” for a young woman only？Can I call a middle-aged waitress in the restuarant “小姐” too?
or you have another words ?
Thank you
Hello Pete
Nice to meet you.
I understand you'd like to know the difference between '请说慢一点儿。' and '请说慢点儿。'
Actually there is almost no difference in between these 2 lines, while the 1st line '请说慢一点儿。' is a little clearer and a little more emphatic.
The hard part of Chinese comparative forms is they come in many ways, such as 一点儿，比(than)，大得多（much bigger). Generally learners would meet 一点儿 or 比 at the beginning. Chinese people don't really realize we are using comparative forms, and only when we think from English perspective, or a similar language's perspective, we interpret them as comparative forms.
Grammatically, both '请说慢一点儿。' and '请说慢点儿。' are comparative forms. Practically, it also depends on if the speaker means it or not, since ‘一点儿’ is similar to ‘一下儿’， which means a soft way in talking.
I know it sounds confusing. So....., you may consider ‘一点儿’ has 2 functions, one is to compose a comparative form, the other is to make the tone softer. And they may be mixed together.
I think you have spotted the image of Chinese language so far. The difference you are asking about is native Chinese level, and you can understand them better if you are in China.
Thanks for learning with us. If you have any other questions, just let us know.
Amy
Team ChineseClass101.com
Hello
In lesson 4， you said that saying 'please speak more slowly' in Chinese is 请说慢一点儿。
But in this lesson you said that saying 'please speak more slowly' is 请说慢点儿。
I would like to know there are any differences in meaning between these two sentence.
Thank you
Hi Carol
Like what I mentioned in the reply: 'For English phrase 'ladies and gentlemen', Chinese version is '女士们，先生们'。'
女士们: ladies
先生们: gentlemen
Both of them are plural, with 们 as the plural suffix. And their single forms:
女士: lady
先生: gentleman
Thanks for learning with us.
Amy
Team ChineseClass101.com
Please translate: 女士们，先生们'
Hi BT
On behalf of Frank and Echo, I'm replying your comment. In main land China, and probably in Singapore as well(but I don't know Singapore mandarin well), 小姐 may not be a better as a polite form to address ladies. But you may use 女士 instead. 女士 means: lady(not as a title), Mrs or Ms. As a polite way, it's all right to be used to address girls and women in official occasions. For English phrase 'ladies and gentlemen', Chinese version is '女士们，先生们'。
Amy
Team ChineseClass101.com
Hi Frank and Echo,
I am from Singapore. Both of you are doing a wonderful job in teaching Mandarin. I have a question. I understand that 小姐 is a tricky phrase to use when interacting with folks out on the streets. What is an acceptable substitute?
Thanks very much
BH
Hello, Dustin,
小狗情是什么？
What is "小狗情"?
Next time, you can also give the English translation to us, so we can tell you if there is a mistake in Chinese.?
Cho
Team ChineseClass101.com
请问， 给我一百汉堡包， 还要一千小狗情。谢谢。
Hi, colette good,
Thank you for your posting.
You mean there are three Chinese words for "OK", 好，好的，好嘛, right?
And could you please tell me the meaning of the last sentence?
Cho
Team ChineseClass101.com
Da jia hao
wode mingzi shi Colette, wo kan zhe ge' OK' yong zhongwen you san ge danci...
hao, hao de, hao ma . Ni you geng dou le ma?
Ye , mei quanxi ma?
colette
Hi, Alex,
Thank your for sharing your experience to us.
I think it well be very helpful to many learners.
Remembering the sound is really important!
Thank you.
Cho
Team ChineseClass101.com
I wish to share how I learnt basic mandarin. It was the other way around by memorizing the tones and then the Chinese characters. I found learning Mandarin via pinyin very confusing and difficult to pronounce by following pinyin. Now when I read pinyin, I find it very simple because I have already memorized the tones. I hope that by sharing my experience of learning Mandarin, it could help western learners to easily pickup Mandarin tones and not fall into the pinyin trap.
谢谢你！
I keep trying to construct sentences just a bit above my level. The desire to communicate and the inability to do so really helps drive a person to learn a language.
再见，
卫力
你好，卫力，
To translate 'but I know English easily' is :
但是英语更容易懂。(literal translation: but English is more easy to be understanded.)
In this case, the object comes to be the subject because it is the point of the sentence. So we omit 'I' here.
From the literal translation, we can see that 'easy' is not an adverb, so we don't use is as 容易地.
And actually you compare English with Chinese, so we use comparative degree by 更.
Cho
Team ChineseClass101.com