Dialogue

Vocabulary

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Lesson Notes

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Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
Frank: Hey, everyone.
Echo: Da jia hao.
Frank: Welcome back to ChineseClass101.com Season 1, Lesson 7 in our Beginner Series.
Echo: Lesson 7.
Frank: We are really getting up there now. I'm your host Frank Fradella and I'm joined in the studio today by the outrageously awesome Echo.
Echo: Thank you.
Frank: Today's dialogue is between our old friends.
Echo: Zhang Fei and Mali.
Frank: Takes place in a restaurant.
Echo: Yes.
Frank: They might be on a date.
Echo: Maybe, but the strange thing is Mali took a friend with her.
Frank: Let's find out what's going on there.
Echo: Yes.
Frank: But before we do, we want to remind you, head up to ChineseClass101.com, become a premium subscriber where you can download our transcripts so that you can follow along with these lessons. You'll learn twice as fast and then half the cost of a regular like university education.
Echo: Yes, it's much better than the textbook.
Frank: Absolutely. Let's get on with the dialogue.

Lesson conversation

张飞:她是谁?(ZHĀNG FĒI: Tā shì shéi?)
马丽:你不知道吗?(MǍ LÌ: Nǐ bù zhīdào ma?)
张飞:我不知道。(ZHĀNG FĒI: Wǒ bù zhīdào.)
马丽:她是我的朋友。马丽:她叫李芳。(MǍ LÌ: Tā shì wǒ de péngyou.Tā jiào Lǐ Fāng.)
English Host: Let's listen to that one more time, just a bit slower
张飞:她是谁?(ZHĀNG FĒI: Tā shì shéi?)
马丽:你不知道吗?(MǍ LÌ: Nǐ bù zhīdào ma?)
张飞:我不知道。(ZHĀNG FĒI: Wǒ bù zhīdào.)
马丽:她是我的朋友。马丽:她叫李芳。(MǍ LÌ: Tā shì wǒ de péngyou.Tā jiào Lǐ Fāng.)
Frank: Okay, we're back. I don't know if that really clarified anything. Are they on a date?
Echo: Yes, it's very unclear.
Frank: I think it's going to depend on who's paying the bill here. Maybe we'll find out in the next lesson.
Echo: Right.
Frank: But for now let's translate this one line by line. Let's do it.
张飞:她是谁?(ZHĀNG FĒI: Tā shì shéi?)
Frank: Who is she?
马丽:你不知道吗?(MǍ LÌ: Nǐ bù zhīdào ma?)
Frank: You don't know?
张飞:我不知道。(ZHĀNG FĒI: Wǒ bù zhīdào.)
Frank: I don't know.
马丽:她是我的朋友。马丽:她叫李芳。(MǍ LÌ: Tā shì wǒ de péngyou.Tā jiào Lǐ Fāng.)
Frank: She's my friend. She is called Li Fang.
POST CONVERSATION BANTER
Frank: Okay, we're about to head into the vocab section right now. Not a lot of new vocab this week, so it's going to be strong in review.
Echo: Yeah, it's going to be a review lesson.
Frank: Yeah, we're going to drive everything home for you, make sure you know all the good stuff before we take any further down the term pipe.
Echo: Yes.
VOCAB LIST
Frank: Okay, let's do the vocab.
Echo: 她(tā) [natural native speed]
Frank: She.
Echo: 她(tā) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 她(tā) [natural native speed]. 谁(shéi) [natural native speed]
Frank: Who.
Echo: 谁(shéi) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 谁(shéi) [natural native speed]. 知道(zhīdào) [natural native speed]
Frank: To know.
Echo: 知道(zhīdào) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 知道(zhīdào) [natural native speed]. 朋友(péngyou) [natural native speed]
Frank: Friend.
Echo: 朋友(péngyou) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 朋友(péngyou) [natural native speed]
KEY VOCABULARY AND PHRASES
Frank: Okay, we told you there wasn't that much new stuff in this lesson, but we are going to drive everything home. One of the really interesting things in this lesson though is the word for she.
Echo: 她.(tā.)
Frank: You've heard us used this before. Now, if you're really paying attention, you've heard that when I asked Echo to say the word for he.
Echo: 他.(tā)
Frank: It sounds exactly the same.
Echo: Yes, it is exactly the same.
Frank: It is exactly the same, it sounds exactly the same. It's pronounced exactly the same. The characters are different. And if you look at the transcript, you'll see this.
Echo: And by the way, the word for "it" in Chinese is also 它.(tā.)
Frank: So he, she and it all sound identical.
Echo: Yes.
Frank: Let's hear them again.
Echo: 他 她 它.(Tā tā tā.)
Frank: Let's put those into sentences, you can actually hear them in context. Who is he?
Echo: 他是谁?(Tā shì shéi?)
Frank: Who is she?
Echo: 她是谁?(Tā shì shéi?)
Frank: It is good.
Echo: 它很好.(Tā hěn hǎo.)
Frank: All three of them sound identical. How do you tell on context?
Echo: Well, we don't know. It depends on the situations.
Frank: It's entirely context though.
Echo: Yes. Know the situation.
Frank: Right. The next word we wanted to talk about was the word for who.
Echo: 誰.(shéi.)
Frank: This means who or whom. In English, we have two different words for it and it depends on the situation, but here, it's just the one.
Echo: Yes, 誰.(shéi.)
Frank: Let's hear some examples of this word in action. We've already given you this one, let's do it again. Who is he?
Echo: 他谁谁?(Tā shéishéi?)
Frank: If someone shows up at your door, you might say this …
Echo: 你是谁?(Nǐ shì shéi?)
Frank: Who are you? And if you've got an amnesia, you might try this one out.
Echo: 我是谁?(Wǒ shì shéi?)
Frank: Who am I? Exactly.
Echo: Very lost.
Frank: And if you don't know, you would say …
Echo: 我不知道.(Wǒ bù zhīdào.)
Frank: Which means I don't know. It also brings us into our next vocab point, the verb to know.
Echo: 知道.(Zhīdào.)
Frank: Just like before, if you want to make this negative, you put 不 in front of it.
Echo: 不知道.(Bù zhīdào.)
Frank: I don't know.
Echo: 我不知道.(Wǒ bù zhīdào.)
Frank: You don't know.
Echo: 你不知道.(Nǐ bù zhīdào.)
Frank: Okay. And that about covers all the vocab. We're going to play a little game with you now.
Echo: Game time, my favorite part.
Frank: It is. We're going to review some of the stuff you've already learned using vocabulary you've already got. What we're going to do is Echo is going to say the word in Chinese. We're going to give you a little space to guess on your own and then I'm going to give you the translation.
Echo: Correct.
Frank: Are you ready? Let's do it.
Echo: 在.(Zài.)
Frank: To be located at.
Echo: 中文(Zhōngwén).
Frank: Chinese.
Echo: 英文.(Yīngwén.)
Frank: English.
Echo: 饿.(È.)
Frank: Hungry.
Echo: 忙.(Máng.)
Frank: Busy.
Echo: 想.(Xiǎng.)
Frank: To wish for.
Echo: 去.(Qù.)
Frank: To go.

Lesson focus

Now, let's head over to the grammar section where the review continues. In previous lessons we've taught you how to make simple sentences with adjectives, like, Beijing and beautiful.
Echo: 北京很美.(Běijīng hěn měi.)
Frank: I am tired.
Echo: 我很累.(Wǒ hěn lèi.)
Frank: He is busy.
Echo: 他很忙.(Tā hěn máng.)
Frank: We also learned how to do simple sentences with verbs, subject plus the verb plus the object. Beijing is in China
Echo: 北京在中国.(Běijīng zài zhōngguó.)
Frank: She is my friend.
Echo: 她是我的朋友.(Tā shì wǒ de péngyǒu.)
Frank: A quick review point here, remember that if you want to change any of this into a question, you add this question marker.
Echo: 吗.(Ma.)
Frank: For example, do you know?
Echo: 你知道吗?(Nǐ zhīdào ma?)
Frank: Is she your friend?
Echo: 她是你的朋友吗?(Tā shì nǐ de péngyǒu ma?)
Frank: Is New York in America?
Echo: 纽约在美国吗?(Niǔyuē zài měiguó ma?)
Frank: Can you speak Chinese?
Echo: 你会说中文吗?(Nǐ huì shuō zhōngwén ma?)
Frank: Today, we learned another way to ask a question using the question word who.
Echo: 谁.(Shéi.)
Frank: As in, who is she?
Echo: 她是谁?(Tā shì shéi?) And here, the question word, 谁(Shéi) follows the verb, 她是谁?(Tā shì shéi?)
Frank: And the verb is to be.
Echo: 是.(Shì.)
Frank: Let's hear some examples of that, who is your friend?
Echo: 你的朋友是谁?(Nǐ de péngyǒu shì shéi?)
Frank: I don't know who she is.
Echo: 我不知道她是谁.(Wǒ bù zhīdào tā shì shéi.)
Frank: I want to know who she is.
Echo: 我想知道她是谁.(Wǒ xiǎng zhīdào tā shì shéi.)
Frank: That brings us to the end of today's lesson. But before we go, we do want to remind you that you can subscribe to us on iTunes so you can get these lessons downloaded daily to your favorite MP3 player. And take us with you wherever you go.
Echo: Yes.
Frank: But for now from Beijing, I'm host Frank Fradella.
Echo: I'm Echo.
Frank: And we'll see you next time. 再见.(Zàijiàn.)
Echo: Bye-bye.

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