Dialogue

Vocabulary (Review)

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Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
Anthony: Welcome to chineseclass101, the fastest, easiest and most fun way to learn Chinese.
Echo: 嗨,大家好,我是Echo。(Hāi, dàjiā hǎo, wǒ shì Echo.)
Anthony: And I am Anthony and this is our 22nd lesson in our second season of our beginner series.
Echo: And the title for this lesson is the Chinese professional.
Anthony: Yes today’s lesson focuses on work and different types of jobs.
Echo: Yeah here in China, it is very common for strangers to ask you what you do.
Anthony: And how much you make?
Echo: Yeah but don’t be offended if they asked you about your salary because that is Chinese culture.
Anthony: Yeah and you can always say that you are unemployed. That may stop the questions.
Echo: One easy answer is to say, you are a teacher.
Anthony: So in our lesson today, we are going to go over a couple of cultural differences when it comes to talking about work. On the website, we have a cultural insight that is embedded in our PDFs.
Echo: Yeah.
Anthony: Echo, how much does it cost to sign up with the basic subscription.
Echo: Very petty…
Anthony: Yes.
Echo: Only $4
Anthony: Yes $4 and you can get your hands on these PDFs and you are going to be studying faster and better. Okay with that said, let’s go into the dialogue.
DIALOGUE
你做什么工作?(Nǐ zuò shénme gōngzuò?)
我是老师 (Wǒ shì lǎoshī.)
你教什么?(Nǐ jiāo shénme?)
我教数学和体育。(Wǒ jiāo shùxué hé tǐyù.)
Anthony: One more time, a little bit slower.
你做什么工作?(Nǐ zuò shénme gōngzuò?)
我是老师 (Wǒ shì lǎoshī.)
你教什么?(Nǐ jiāo shénme?)
我教数学和体育。(Wǒ jiāo shùxué hé tǐyù.)
Anthony: One more time with English.
Echo: 你做什么工作?(Nǐ zuò shénme gōngzuò?)
Anthony: What job do you do?
Echo: 我是老师 (Wǒ shì lǎoshī.)
Anthony: I am a teacher.
Echo: 你教什么?(Nǐ jiāo shénme?)
Anthony: What do you teach?
Echo: 我教数学和体育。(Wǒ jiāo shùxué hé tǐyù.)
Anthony: I teach math and gym.
POST CONVERSATION BANTER
Anthony: Okay so for foreigners living in China, being a teacher is a pretty common profession.
Echo: Yes it is very easy to find a job as an English teacher here in China.
Anthony: Yes the supply doesn’t quite meet the demand since basically every Chinese child is required to learn English in some form or another.
Echo: Yeah that’s very true and China has a lot of kids.
Anthony: Yeah lot of kids. Okay so you know Echo, when I first came to China right after I graduated college, I found a teaching job.
Echo: How did you like it?
Anthony: It was an interesting and challenging experience but a good one, but a good one.
Echo: So you will be using this vocabulary very frequently.
Anthony: That’s right. Talking about what you do, job, stuff like that.
Echo: Uh-huh.
Anthony: So we are going to take you through these vocabulary words one at a time and then we are going to give you a sample sentence and a little bit of cultural insight.
Echo: Right. So on to the vocab section now.
Anthony: Okay.
VOCAB LIST
Anthony: And now the vocab section.
Echo: 做 (zuò)
Anthony: To do.
Echo: 做, 做. 工作 (zuò, zuò. gōngzuò)
Anthony: Job.
Echo: 工作, 工作. 老师 (gōngzuò, gōngzuò. lǎoshī)
Anthony: Teacher.
Echo: 老师, 老师. 教 (lǎoshī, lǎoshī. jiāo)
Anthony: To teach.
Echo: 教, 教. 数学 (jiāo, jiāo. shùxué)
Anthony: Mathematics.
Echo: 数学, 数学. 体育 (shùxué, shùxué. tǐyù)
Anthony: Athletics.
Echo: 体育, 体育. 工程师 (tǐyù, tǐyù. gōngchéngshī)
Anthony: Engineer.
Echo: 工程师, 工程师. 经理 (gōngchéngshī, gōngchéngshī. jīnglǐ)
Anthony: Manager.
Echo: 经理, 经理. (jīnglǐ, jīnglǐ.)
Anthony: So today’s vocabulary section focuses on work.
VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE
Echo: And different types of jobs.
Anthony: Okay so Echo, introduce us to our first word.
Echo: 做 (Zuò)
Anthony: And this is the verb for to do.
Echo: 做 (Zuò)
Anthony: And this also means to work.
Echo: Right.
Anthony: Working and living in China, people are always curious as to what your job is.
Echo: Yeah.
Anthony: So you are going to hear this next one very often.
Echo: 你做什么工作?(Nǐ zuò shénme gōngzuò?)
Anthony: What job do you do?
Echo: 你做什么工作?(Nǐ zuò shénme gōngzuò?)
Anthony: Okay and at the end of that sentence, we heard this word.
Echo: 工作 (Gōngzuò)
Anthony: Job.
Echo: 工作。我的工作很忙。(Gōngzuò. Wǒ de gōngzuò hěn máng.)
Anthony: My work is very busy, my job is very busy.
Echo: Yeah 我的工作很忙。(Wǒ de gōngzuò hěn máng.)
Anthony: So lot of people that come to China have this profession.
Echo: As we mentioned before 老师 (Lǎoshī)
Anthony: Teacher
Echo: 老师。我是英语老師。(Lǎoshī. Wǒ shì yīngyǔ lǎoshī.)
Anthony: I am an English teacher.
Echo: 我是英语老師。(Wǒ shì yīngyǔ lǎoshī.)
Anthony: Okay and our next word
Echo: 教 (Jiào)
Anthony: To teach
Echo: 教 (Jiào)
Anthony: That’s first tone.
Echo: 你教中文嗎?(Nǐ jiào zhōngwén ma?)
Anthony: Do you teach Chinese?
Echo: 你教中文嗎?(Nǐ jiào zhōngwén ma?)
Anthony: Yeah this is a good one to know if you need a personal Chinese tutor.
Echo: Yeah.
Anthony: The great thing about living in China is anybody on the streets can be your Chinese teacher.
Echo: 数学 (Shùxué)
Anthony: Mathematics.
Echo: 数学 (Shùxué)
Anthony: That’s fourth tone, second tone.
Echo: 他是数学教授。(Tā shì shùxué jiàoshòu.)
Anthony: He is a math professor.
Echo: And the word 教授 (Jiàoshòu) means professor. 他是数学教授。(Tā shì shùxué jiàoshòu.)
Anthony: Okay and our next word.
Echo: 体育 (Tǐyù)
Anthony: Athletics or sports.
Echo: Yeah 体育 (Tǐyù)
Anthony: That’s third tone and fourth tone.
Echo: 我是体育老師。(Wǒ shì tǐyù lǎoshī.)
Anthony: I am the sports teacher or I am the gym coach.
Echo: 我是体育老師。(Wǒ shì tǐyù lǎoshī.)
Anthony: Okay so Echo, one interesting thing to note about this word for athletics is we are located right down the street from the workers stadium here in Beijing.
Echo: Yeah 公园体育场 (Gōngyuán tǐyùchǎng)
Anthony: Okay this is the place in Beijing where you can catch soccer games, concerts and they have a really good night life area right around the stadium. So if any of our listeners are visiting Beijing, we definitely recommend coming to this place.
Echo: 公园体育场 (Gōngyuán tǐyùchǎng)
Anthony: Okay now on to our next word.
Echo: 工程师。(Gōngchéngshī.)
Anthony: Engineer.
Echo: 工程师。我男朋友是工程师。(Gōngchéngshī. Wǒ nán péngyǒu shì gōngchéngshī.)
Anthony: My boyfriend is an engineer.
Echo: 我男朋友是工程师。 (Wǒ nán péngyǒu shì gōngchéngshī.)
Anthony: Echo, I have a question. Here in China, do women aspire to marry an engineer?
Echo: Not particularly.
Anthony: Okay but it does have a stable income.
Echo: Yes it does.
Anthony: And that’s important right?
Echo: Yes.
Anthony: Okay great. Another job that has a stable income.
Echo: Yeah.
Anthony: With a little bit of prestige is this.
Echo: 经理 (Jīnglǐ)
Anthony: Manager.
Echo: 经理。他是我的经理。(Jīnglǐ. Tā shì wǒ de jīnglǐ.)
Anthony: Yes he is my manager.
Echo: 他是我的经理。(Tā shì wǒ de jīnglǐ.)
Anthony: Okay so we’ve gone over a lot of words for talking about work such as
Echo: 工作 (Gōngzuò)
Anthony: Job
Echo: 老師 (Lǎoshī)
Anthony: Teacher
Echo: And the verb 做 (Zuò)
Anthony: To do. All right, great that does it for our vocab section. Now on to the grammar. It’s grammar time.

Lesson focus

Echo: Today’s grammar point focuses on a verb plus 什么。(Shénme.)
Anthony: And we use this when we want to know information about an action that has already been done, it is still going on or that will happen in the future.
Echo: Yeah.
Anthony: Now we heard this sentence in the dialogue.
Echo: 你教什么?(Nǐ jiào shénme?)
Anthony: What do you teach?
Echo: 你教什么?(Nǐ jiào shénme?)
Anthony: And literally this is, you to teach what.
Echo: Right. We have some more examples I remember, they always follow the same pattern. Verb plus 什么。你吃什么?(Shénme. Nǐ chī shénme?)
Anthony: What do you want to eat?
Echo: 你吃什么?(Nǐ chī shénme?)
Anthony: Okay our next one.
Echo: 她要什么?(Tā yào shénme?)
Anthony: What does she want?
Echo: 她要什么?你说什么?(Tā yào shénme? Nǐ shuō shénme?)
Anthony: What did you say?
Echo: 你说什么?(Nǐ shuō shénme?)
Anthony: Okay so we’ve just done some simple samples. Now let’s take it one step further.
Echo: Yeah.
Anthony: And add an object to the end of the sentence.
Echo: If you wanted to put 什么 (Shénme) together with a verb phrase, we should put 什么 (Shénme) in between the verb and its object.
Anthony: Right. So the pattern for this is
Echo: A verb plus 什么 (Shénme) plus the object.
Anthony: So Echo, take us through some sample sentences where we put an object to the end of the sentence.
Echo: Okay. First of all, in the dialogue, we heard this 你做什么工作?(Nǐ zuò shénme gōngzuò?)
Anthony: Yes what job do you do?
Echo: 你做什么工作?(Nǐ zuò shénme gōngzuò?) Here 做工作 (Zuò gōngzuò) is a verb phrase and object at the end is 工作。(Gōngzuò.)
Anthony: Yep the word for job.
Echo: 你听什么音乐?(Nǐ tīng shénme yīnyuè?)
Anthony: What music do you listen to?
Echo: 你听什么音乐?(Nǐ tīng shénme yīnyuè?) And 听音乐 (Tīng yīnyuè) is a verb object phrase.
Anthony: Right. So our next example.
Echo: 他看了什么电影?(Tā kànle shénme diànyǐng?)
Anthony: What movie did he watch?
Echo: 他看了什么电影?(Tā kànle shénme diànyǐng?) And notice it is past tense here because we put a 了 (Le) after 看。(Kàn.)
Anthony: So Echo, I am really curious about this next question.
Echo: 中国人唱什么歌?(Zhōngguó rén chàng shénme gē?)
Anthony: Yes Chinese people sing what song, what do Chinese people sing?
Echo: Yeah 中国人唱什么歌?(Zhōngguó rén chàng shénme gē?)
Anthony: So Echo, what do Chinese people sing?
Echo: I guess 周杰伦 (Zhōujiélún)
Anthony: Yeah Jay Chou yeah it’s pretty popular.
Echo: Yeah.
Anthony: But lately, he’s been doing a lot of ads for potato chips and cell phones and such.
Echo: Yeah and also that like...
Anthony: You know another person who is pretty famous and who is also singer as Jackie Chan.
Echo: Yes.
Anthony: And he is not that good of a singer but that’s okay, his Chinese Kung Fu makes up for it. Yes and Chinese people do love the singing.
Echo: Yes.
Anthony: Okay so in review, we went over asking about actions.
Echo: Yes you can create a simple sentence by using a verb plus 什么 (Shénme)
Anthony: Right, right and you can also create a verb phrase by using this pattern.
Echo: A verb plus 什么 (Shénme) plus an object.
Anthony: Right. So our final sample sentence for today is
Echo: 你学什么?(Nǐ xué shénme?)
Anthony: Yes what do you study?
Echo: 我学中文。(Wǒ xué zhōngwén.)
Anthony: I study Chinese. And the best way to study Chinese Echo is what?
Echo: It’s chineseclass101.com
Anthony: All right. So if you want to learn Chinese, come to chineseclass101.com, sign up for your free lifetime account. All it takes is your email address.
Echo: Right.

Outro

Anthony: Okay so from Beijing, I am Anthony.
Echo: 我是Echo。(Wǒ shì Echo.)
Anthony: Thanks for listening and we will see you next time.
Echo: 下次见,(Xià cì jiàn,) Bye bye.

Grammar

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