Dialogue

Vocabulary

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Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
Frank: Hey everyone!
Echo: Da jia hao!
Frank: Welcome back to ChineseClass101.com, Season 1, Lesson 2 in our Beginner Series. Today’s dialogue, we’re going to teach you how to say, “How are you doing?” .
Echo: How are you?
Frank: And how to answer that question as well. Today’s dialogue takes place between two friends.
Echo: Maybe in an office.
Frank: Exactly. So let’s go ahead and listen to the dialogue. But before we do, we want to remind you to head over to ChineseClass101.com, sign up for your free lifetime account.
Echo: It only takes you 20 seconds.
Frank: It’s just that easy. Now let’s head on to the dialogue.

Lesson conversation

张飞:嗨,马丽。你好吗?(Zhāng fēi: Hāi, mǎ lì. Nǐ hǎo ma?)
马丽:我很好。你呢?(Mǎ lì: Wǒ hěn hǎo. Nǐ ne?)
张飞:我不好。我很忙。(Zhāng fēi: Wǒ bù hǎo. Wǒ hěn máng.)
马丽:好的,再见。(Mǎ lì: Hǎo de, zàijiàn.)
Frank: Now once more, a little slower.
张飞:嗨,马丽。你好吗?(Zhāng fēi: Hāi, mǎ lì. Nǐ hǎo ma?)
马丽:我很好。你呢?(Mǎ lì: Wǒ hěn hǎo. Nǐ ne?)
张飞:我不好。我很忙。(Zhāng fēi: Wǒ bù hǎo. Wǒ hěn máng.)
马丽:好的,再见。(Mǎ lì: Hǎo de, zàijiàn.)
Frank: Okay, we’re back! Now we’re going to go through that dialogue one more time, except this time, we’re going to translate it for you. Echo, kick it off.
张飞:嗨,马丽。你好吗?(Zhāng fēi: Hāi, mǎ lì. Nǐ hǎo ma?)
Frank: Hi, Ma Li, how are you?
马丽:我很好。你呢?(Mǎ lì: Wǒ hěn hǎo. Nǐ ne?)
Frank: I’m good. And you?
张飞:我不好。我很忙。(Zhāng fēi: Wǒ bù hǎo. Wǒ hěn máng.)
Frank: I'm not good. I'm really busy.
马丽:好的,再见。(Mǎ lì: Hǎo de, zàijiàn.)
Frank: Okay, see you.
POST CONVERSATION BANTER
Frank: All right, Echo.
Echo: Yeah?
Frank: Now, do you think 张飞 (Zhang Fei) here was really busy or was he just kind of give her the brush off?
Echo: He is just heartless.
Frank: He’s just heartless.
Echo: Yes.
Frank: I think he was busy. I think he is genuinely busy.
Echo: No. He could just stop and talk to her for a second, right?
Frank: He could had given her a minute obviously.
Echo: Yeah.
Frank: All right. I’ll agree with that. Let’s go ahead and do the vocab for this lesson and get into the new words.
Echo: Okay.
Frank: Let’s do it.
VOCAB LIST
Male: Now, the vocab section.
Echo: 吗(Ma) [natural native speed].
Frank: Question marker.
Echo: 吗(Ma) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 吗(Ma) [natural native speed].
Echo: 很(Hěn) [natural native speed].
Frank: Very.
Echo: 很(Hěn) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 很(Hěn) [natural native speed].
Echo: 不(Bù) [natural native speed].
Frank: Not.
Echo: 不(Bù) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 不(Bù) [natural native speed].
Echo: 忙(Máng) [natural native speed].
Frank: Busy.
Echo: 忙(Máng) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 忙(Máng) [natural native speed].
Echo: 好的(Hǎo de) [natural native speed].
Frank: Okay.
Echo: 好的(Hǎo de) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 好的(Hǎo de) [natural native speed].
Echo: 再见(Zàijiàn) [natural native speed].
Frank: Good bye.
Echo: 再见(Zàijiàn)[slowly - broken down by syllable]. 再见(Zàijiàn) [natural native speed].
KEY VOCABULARY AND PHRASES
Frank: Okay we’re back. Echo, what’s the term we’re talk about today?
Echo: 你好吗(Nǐ hǎo ma) [natural native speed]
Frank: How are you?
Echo: Yeah.
Frank: Now in our first lesson, we told you that the word for “hello”..
Echo: Ni hao.
Frank: ...did not mean, “You good?”. Here, it actually does. When you add the sound at the end of the sentence.
Echo: 吗 (ma).
Frank: This is actually a question marker. This turns it into...
Echo: “How are you?”
Frank: Yeah, “How are you? Are you good?”.
Echo: 你好吗?(Nǐ hǎo ma?)
Frank: Exactly. Now this particular way to ask “how are you”, when would you use this?
Echo: We’ll use it in formal situations.
Frank: Okay. So like in our first lesson, Zhang Fei and Ma Li had just met.
Echo: This may be the second time they met each other.
Frank: Perfect time to use this. Now, when they become better friends, they might say..
Echo: 最近好吗?(Zuìjìn hǎo ma?)
Frank: How are you recently?
Echo: Or, 今天好吗?(Jīntiān hǎo ma?)
Frank: How are you today?
Echo: Uh-hmm.
Frank: So that question marker at the end of the sentence is really important. Let’s have a couple more examples of that. What about, “are you busy?”.
Echo: 你忙吗?(Nǐ máng ma?)
Frank: Are you tired?
Echo: 你累吗?(Nǐ lèi ma?)
Frank: Are you hungry?
Echo: 你饿吗?(Nǐ è ma?)
Frank: Are you cold?
Echo: 你冷吗?(Nǐ lěng ma?)
Frank: So hearing this question tag at the end of a sentence just lets you know that there’s a question there and you’re expected to answer that. Okay. What’s the next vocab point we want to talk about today?
Echo: 再見(Zàijiàn)
Frank: “Goodbye”. Now let’s take a look at these characters individually. The first one..
Echo: 再(Zài)
Frank: Means “again”. The second one?
Echo: 见(Jiàn)
Frank: Means “to see”. So I’ll see you again.
Echo: 再见(Zàijiàn)
Frank: What’s another way in Chinese to say “Goodbye”?
Echo: Between friends, we usually say “Bye-bye. Bye-bye”.
Frank: Now you might have thought that was English, but it’s actually not.
Echo: No. Perhaps they get tones there.
Frank: It’s a transliteration. Exactly. It’s a transliteration of the English term but it’s not actually.
Echo: Bye-bye.
Frank: Right. Let’s take a bite of the vocab right now and head over to grammar.
Echo: Yeah.

Lesson focus

Male: It’s grammar time!
Frank: Today’s grammar point is about adjectives and using them in a sentence, simple sentences like “I am good”.
Echo: 我很好。(Wǒ hěn hǎo.)
Frank: Or “I’m busy”.
Echo: 我很忙。(Wǒ hěn máng.)
Frank: I’m hungry.
Echo: 我很饿。(Wǒ hěn è.)
Frank: Or I’m tired.
Echo: 我很累。(Wǒ hěn lèi.)
Frank: The structure for the sentence is really simple. It’s subject...
Echo: 很。(Hěn.)
Frank: ...and then the adjective.
Echo: Yes.
Frank: Let’s hear those one more time. “I’m good”.
Echo: 我很好。(Wǒ hěn hǎo.)
Frank: “I’m hungry”.
Echo: 我很饿。(Wǒ hěn è.)
Frank: “I’m tired”.
Echo: 我很累。(Wǒ hěn lèi.)
Frank: “I’m busy”.
Echo: 我很忙。(Wǒ hěn máng.)
Frank: So the sentence structure here is just that simple. It’s subject...
Echo: 我(Wǒ)
Frank: …plus the word for “very”…
Echo: 很(Hěn)
Frank: …plus the adjective.
Echo: 忙(Máng) or something else.
Frank: Exactly. 我很忙(Wǒ hěn máng). All right. Now let’s learn how to say those sentences in the negative. “I’m not good”.
Echo: 我不好。(Wǒ bù hǎo.)
Frank: I’m not busy.
Echo: 我不忙。(Wǒ bù hǎo.)
Frank: “I’m not tired”.
Echo: 我不累。(Wǒ bù lèi.)
Frank: “I’m not hungry”.
Echo: 我不饿。(Wǒ bù è.)
Frank: 我不好,我很忙.(Wǒ bù hǎo, wǒ hěn máng.) The sentence structure here is exactly the same, except you’re changing…
Echo: 很。(Hěn.)
Frank: …with…
Echo: 不。(Bù.)
Frank: That makes it negative. Let’s have some more sample sentences, like “he’s not tired”.
Echo: 他不累。(Tā bù lèi.)
Frank: “She’s not good”.
Echo: 她不好。(Tā bù hǎo.)
Frank: “You’re not hungry”.
Echo: 你不饿。(Nǐ bù è.)
Frank: “He’s not busy”.
Echo: 他不忙。(Tā bù máng.)
Frank: So now you know how to use adjectives and build a positive and negative form; positive with…
Echo: 很。(Hěn.)
Frank: …and negative with…
Echo: 不。(Bù.)
Frank: Just that simple.
Echo: If you are listening at home, there’ something you should know.
Frank: That’s right. We do want you to know about those PDF transcripts up on the side of ChineseClass101.com.
Echo: Yeah.
Frank: Everything is written out for you, the whole dialogue, so become a premium subscriber.
Echo: Yeah.
Frank: Download those transcripts and play along with a home game.
Echo: Right.
Frank: That does it for today, Echo. From our studios here in Beijing, we’d like to say…
Echo: Something we just learned today.
Frank: That’s right! We learned to say 再见(Zàijiàn).
Echo: Bye-bye.

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