Learn key vocabulary to help you glide past customs and into China
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Anthony: Welcome to chineseclass101. I am Anthony. |
| Echo: 嗨，大家好，I’m Echo. (Hāi, dàjiā hǎo,I’m Echo.) |
| Anthony: And Echo, you look really excited. |
| Echo: Yes I am, how about you? |
| Anthony: I am excited as well. We have a brand new series. This is our first lesson in our second beginner series. |
| Echo: 没错！第一课。 (Méi cuò! Dì yī kè.) |
| Anthony: Today’s dialogue is extremely useful and I think all of our listeners are going to really enjoy it. |
| Echo: 对。 (Duì.) |
| Anthony: Why is that Echo? |
| Echo: Because if you come to China, this might be your first dialogue. |
| Anthony: That’s right. Coming in the country, you have to go through customs. So this dialogue takes place between the customs official and a traveler. |
| Echo: 对。 (Duì.) |
| Anthony: And hopefully this conversation will be as short as possible. You don’t want to go in on and on and asking more questions. |
| Echo: 对。 (Duì.) |
| Anthony: Before we go to the dialogue, if for any reason, there is something that you missed in the podcast, go to chineseclass101.com, sign up, become a premium subscriber, get your hands on these PDFs. |
| Echo: Right. |
| Anthony: They have the dialogues, they have the translations, they have the Chinese characters along with cultural insights and the grammar points. |
| Echo: Exactly. |
| Anthony: You can’t go wrong. With that, let’s go to the dialogue. |
| DIALOGUE |
| 我的护照。(Wǒ de hùzhào. ) |
| 签证在哪儿？(Qiānzhèng zài nǎr? ) |
| 在这儿。(Zài zhèr.) |
| 谢谢！(Xièxie!) |
| Anthony: One more time, a little bit slower. |
| 我的护照。(Wǒ de hùzhào. ) |
| 签证在哪儿？(Qiānzhèng zài nǎr? ) |
| 在这儿。(Zài zhèr.) |
| 谢谢！(Xièxie!) |
| [With English translation] |
| 我的护照。(Wǒ de hùzhào. ) |
| My passport. |
| 签证在哪儿？(Qiānzhèng zài nǎr? ) |
| Where is your visa? |
| 在这儿。(Zài zhèr.) |
| Here. |
| 谢谢！(Xièxie!) |
| Thank you. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Anthony: So we’re back from the dialogue, I really like that exchange. |
| Echo: Yeah, I like it too. |
| Anthony: It’s very useful. |
| Echo: And very simple. |
| Anthony: You know, you get off your 15-hr flight, you’re a little tired... |
| Echo: Yeah, you’re very tired. |
| Anthony: Very tired. The last thing you want to do is to get caught up at the customs, not knowing how to say “passport”. |
| Echo: Yes, so that’s why this dialogue is so useful. |
| Anthony: And that’s why our vocabulary section is even more useful. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| Anthony: So that’s why we have all the vocabulary that you’re gonna need to get through customs, to get into the country successfully. |
| Echo: 没错。 (Méi cuò.) |
| Anthony: Echo, take us to the vocab section. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Echo: 护照 (hùzhào) |
| Anthony: Passport. |
| Echo: 护照, 护照. 签证 (hùzhào, hùzhào. qiānzhèng) |
| Anthony: Visa. |
| Echo: 签证, 签证. 海关 (qiānzhèng, qiānzhèng. hǎiguān) |
| Anthony: Customs. |
| Echo: 海关, 海关. 签字 (hǎiguān, hǎiguān. qiānzì) |
| Anthony: Signature. |
| Echo: 签字, 签字. 哪儿 (qiānzì, qiānzì. nǎr) |
| Anthony: Where. |
| Echo: 哪儿, 哪儿. 这儿 (nǎr, nǎr. zhèr) |
| Anthony: Here. |
| Echo: 这儿, 这儿. 那儿 (zhèr, zhèr. nàr) |
| Anthony: There. |
| Echo: 那儿, 那儿. 谢谢 (nàr, nàr. xièxiè) |
| Anthony: Thank you. |
| Echo: 谢谢, 谢谢.(xièxiè, xièxiè.) |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Anthony: So we went through a lot of useful vocabulary there. The first word that we want to point out, the most crucial if you want to enter another country is you need a passport. |
| Echo: 护照, 护照. (Hùzhào, hùzhào.) |
| Anthony: Yes both fourth tones. So the first thing that might be said to you by the customs agent is, where is your passport? |
| Echo: 你的护照在哪儿？ (Nǐ de hùzhào zài nǎr?) |
| Anthony: And the wrong answer would be to say, what passport. |
| Echo: 什么护照？ (Shénme hùzhào?) |
| Anthony: You won’t be getting very far with that. |
| Echo: That will get you into trouble. |
| Anthony: Yeah. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| Anthony: The right answer is, here is my passport. |
| Echo: 我的护照在这儿。 (Wǒ de hùzhào zài zhèr.) |
| Anthony: One more time. |
| Echo: 我的护照在这儿。 (Wǒ de hùzhào zài zhèr.) |
| Anthony: So you hand the passport to the customs agent. He is flipping through it. You have 100 visas in there, you can’t find it. So he is going to ask you, where is the visa? |
| Echo: 你的签证在哪儿？ (Nǐ de qiānzhèng zài nǎr?) |
| Anthony: Where is your visa? |
| Echo: 你的签证在哪儿？ (Nǐ de qiānzhèng zài nǎr?) |
| Anthony: Here is my visa. |
| Echo: 我的签证在这儿。 (Wǒ de qiānzhèng zài zhè'er.) |
| Anthony: Here is my visa. |
| Echo: 我的签证在这儿。 (Wǒ de qiānzhèng zài zhè'er.) |
| Anthony: Traveling through customs, there may be some paperwork or some forms that you may need to fill out. On the bottom is the place for your signature. So Echo, how do you say to sign? |
| Echo: 签字 (Qiānzì) |
| Anthony: One more time. |
| Echo: 签字 (Qiānzì) And this 签 (Qiān) is the same as 签证 (Qiānzhèng) |
| Anthony: And that of course is the word for visa. |
| Echo: Right 签证 (Qiānzhèng) |
| Anthony: And let’s hear to sign again. |
| Echo: 签字 (Qiānzì) |
| Anthony: So somebody hands your form, they may say, please sign your name. |
| Echo: 请签字 . (Qǐng qiānzì.) |
| Anthony: Most often than not, this form will be in Chinese. So you can say, where do I sign? |
| Echo: 在哪儿签字？ (Zài nǎ'er qiānzì?) |
| Anthony: Where do I sign? |
| Echo: 在哪儿签字？ (Zài nǎ'er qiānzì?) |
| Anthony: And of course, they will take their finger point to the place you need to sign and say, sign here. |
| Echo: 在这儿签字。 (Zài zhè'er qiānzì.) |
| Anthony: Not too difficult. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| Anthony: And since this process went so smoothly, the customs agent maybe inclined to thank you kindly. |
| Echo: 谢谢。 (Xièxiè.) |
| Anthony: Thank you. |
| Echo: 谢谢。 (Xièxiè.) |
| Anthony: So we’ve highlighted four important words. The first one being passport. |
| Echo: 护照。 (Hùzhào.) |
| Anthony: The next is visa. |
| Echo: 签证。 (Qiānzhèng.) |
| Anthony: And this is very similar to the word to sign. |
| Echo: 签字。 (Qiānzì.) |
| Anthony: And of course, the ever present, thank you. |
| Echo: 谢谢。 (Xièxiè.) |
| Anthony: Okay that’s it. Let’s go on to our grammar section. |
| Anthony: It’s grammar time. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Anthony: Today’s grammar focus is all about asking where things are and answering where things are. |
| Echo: Yes. |
| Anthony: Now there is two words in Chinese that are very similar sounding but mean two totally different things. They are the words for where |
| Echo: 哪儿 (nǎr) |
| Anthony: And the other is there |
| Echo: 那儿 (nàr) |
| Anthony: Now I want you to focus on the tonal differences. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| Anthony: Okay for the first one, where. |
| Echo: 哪儿 (nǎr) |
| Anthony: That’s third tone. |
| Echo: 哪儿 (nǎr) |
| Anthony: The second there. |
| Echo: 那儿 (nàr) |
| Anthony: Is fourth tone. |
| Echo: 那儿 (nàr) |
| Anthony: We have two sample sentences for you. The first one is, where is his passport. |
| Echo: 他的护照在哪儿？ (Tā de hùzhào zài nǎ'er?) |
| Anthony: Okay notice on the end of that sentence, there is a third tone. |
| Echo: 在哪儿？ (Zài nǎ'er?) |
| Anthony: And next his passport is there. |
| Echo: 他的护照在那儿。 (Tā de hùzhào zài nà'er.) |
| Anthony: His passport is there. |
| Echo: 他的护照在那儿。 (Tā de hùzhào zài nà'er.) |
| Anthony: You know it’s at fourth tone. |
| Echo: 在那儿。 (Zài nà'er.) |
| Anthony: In the sentence, his passport is there. We have the verb to be at. |
| Echo: 在 (Zài) |
| Anthony: Now this verb is going to be paired with where, there. |
| Echo: 在哪儿？在那儿。在哪儿？在那儿。 (Zài nǎ'er? Zài nà'er. Zài nǎ'er? Zài nà'er.) |
| Anthony: You are going to hear this structure very often. For example, in the sentence where is her visa? |
| Echo: 她的签证在哪儿？ (Tā de qiānzhèng zài nǎ'er?) |
| Anthony: Her visa is there. |
| Echo: 她的签证在那儿。 (Tā de qiānzhèng zài nà'er.) |
| Anthony: Before we go, there is one more thing that we want to cover and that’s the word for here. |
| Echo: 这儿。 (Zhè'er.) |
| Anthony: And we can see that in the structure |
| Echo: 在这儿。 (Zài zhè'er.) |
| Anthony: We have two sample sentences for you. The first one is, customs is here. |
| Echo: 海关在这儿。 (Hǎiguān zài zhè'er.) |
| Anthony: And the next one is, please sign here. |
| Echo: 请在这儿签字。 (Qǐng zài zhè'er qiānzì.) |
Outro |
| Anthony: So that’s our show. And if you have not yet come to chineseclass101.com, sign up for your free lifetime account. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| Anthony: With this account, you are going to get access to tons more online learning material. |
| Echo: 没错儿。 (Méi cuò ér.) |
| Anthony: Echo, how long does it take to sign up? |
| Echo: It will only take you 7 seconds. |
| Anthony: Seven seconds, you can’t lose. From Beijing, I am Anthony. |
| Echo: 我是Echo。 (Wǒ shì Echo.) |
| Anthony: Thanks for listening and we will see you next week. |
| Echo: Yeah. We will see you on the site. Bye bye. |
| Anthony: Bye bye. |
Comments
HideHow has your experience coming through Chinese immigration and customs been?
Hello Gerald,
Thank you for your comment. 我学了... => 我学会了...
Keep up the good work and let us know if you have any questions.👍
Ngai Lam
Team ChineseClass101.com
大家好！谢谢你的课！
现在我学习Beginners Series 2 我很高兴！😄 我希望我能学更多！
这课很有用，我学了怎么说 passport, visa 和 customs!
我有一个智利护照 👍
谢谢你们！
Cho, 你好！
谢谢！ I should stick to the simple 和 or 也 when making conjunctions. I also need to remember when the 不 should be a 沒。 Your corrections really help the grammar stick.
卫力
卫力，你好，
我有美国护照和希腊护照。/我既有美国护照也有希腊护照。/我有美国护照也有希腊护照。
我没有去过中国，
have never been to （从来）没有去过
但是我希望有一天能拿了签证过去。
Cho
Team ChineseClass101.com
大家好，
This lesson is helpful and easy. I have an American and a Greek passport. I have never been to China, but I would like to have visa and go.
这个课很好用， 很容易。我有又美国护照又希腊护照。我不过去中国， 但是一天我想有签证和去。
（zhège kè hěn hǎo yòng, hěn róngyì. Wǒ yǒu měiguó hùzhào hé xīlà hùzhào. Wǒ méi guòqù zhōngguó, dànshì yītiān wǒ xiǎng yǒu qiānzhèng hé qù.）
卫力
P.S., the 拼音 in the transcript for the first time the dialogue is introduced alongside of the 汉字 is a great improvement!
Hi 小熊,
Thank you :)
I have only been to Guangzhou once. I felt like most people speak Cantonese rather than Mandarin there. I noticed more people speak Mandarin in Shenzhen.
Echo,
Team ChineseClass101.com
I have been in China for about two and a half years now and have been self studying with several "homegrown" books made in China by some universities such as the Beijing Language University. I have been a little frustrated by the quality, authenticity of the conversations, and the grammar explanations that left me feeling more confused than when I started to read. Also, when I would go to a bookstore to hunt for learning aids, I just felt so overwhelmed by the selection.
Enter CC101. I am now excited to learn Chinese and am very happy with the quality and content of each lesson. Echo is amazing by the way!
One thing, I lived in Beijing for a year and a half and got used to the beijing accent. When I moved for my boyfriend to Guangzhou, I really felt myself lost. I don't understand the variety of mandarin in Guangdong province and my listening has really suffered because of it. Any comments on how to improve my understanding of what I hear?
The description on this lesson made me laugh. My boyfriend and I got caught up in customs a couple of times because of a year's supply of deodorant.
Hi - this is similar to Gengo #7, but apart from there being more material in Gengo #7 (and some really useful phrases!), it explains the difference between 'nar' and 'nar' much better - this is a bit wooden. But all great stuff!
John
@蓝大卫 and CC101 listeners
I've been with CC101 since June, mainly doing video and audio editing, along with a lot of content creation and back end stuff. Now I'm behind the mic, and learning tons of new things. I came to China to become fluent in mandarin, so it really is a dream come true where I can get paid to do what I love.
Beijing is a really impressive city, and I am lucky to be here. It gets rather rough in the 2nd and 3rd tier cities in China, were creature comforts are harder to find. I spent some time in Henan teaching at 郑州大学 so this is where I got my first feel for being a teacher. It is a totally different perspective for a teacher, as opposed to a being a student.
I'm really looking forward to this season, and I hope all our CC101 listeners out there enjoy themselves, and learn a little at the same time.
Cheers, and see everyone on the site.
Anthony Paglino 小虎
Hey, Anthony.
I've seen you on some CC101 videos, how about a quick intro for us?
thx!
Thanks for listening. This is my first podcast here with CC101. Echo will definitely be giving everyone a "大家好！dàjiā hǎo" in the future. =)
@chali:
"da jia hao" --> Hello everyone
At the beginning of your lessons, Echo always says. "Da jia hao" (or something like that) before she says "wo shi Echo." What is this?
Thanks
chali
I'm not sure about China, but this past winter I visited Taiwan and I didn't really have to know Chinese to get through customs as they also speak English. So getting through customs and immigration was easy...