Dialogue

Vocabulary

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Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
Anthony: Welcome to chineseclass101, the fastest, easiest and most fun way to learn Chinese.
Echo: 大家好,我是Echo。 (Dàjiā hǎo, wǒ shì Echo.)
Anthony: And I am Anthony. And today, we have our 7th lesson in our second season of our beginner series, the title is, The Elusive Chinese Toilet.
Echo: Right.
Anthony: Now in this lesson, we are going to learn about a few things. Bathroom and washroom vocabulary.
Echo: Right.
Anthony: In China, this is extremely important.
Echo: And today’s conversation takes place in a store.
Anthony: Yep and the conversation is between
Echo: Two guys.
Anthony: Maybe.
Echo: Yeah.
Anthony: Now the speakers are the same age. So they are going to be speaking casually. Before we go to the dialogue, if you are listening to our podcast on iTunes and you haven’t made it to the website yet, come to chineseclass101.com. It’s free and it’s fast. Isn’t that right Echo?
Echo: Right.
Anthony: Okay with that said, let’s go to the dialogue.
DIALOGUE
你们有洗手间吗? (Nǐmen yǒu xǐshǒujiān ma?)
有。 (Yǒu.)
在哪儿? (Zài nǎr?)
在二层。 (Zài èr céng.)
Anthony: One more time, a little bit slower.
你们有洗手间吗? (Nǐmen yǒu xǐshǒujiān ma?)
有。 (Yǒu.)
在哪儿? (Zài nǎr?)
在二层。 (Zài èr céng.)
Anthony: One more time with English.
Echo: 你们有洗手间吗? (Nǐmen yǒu xǐshǒujiān ma?)
Anthony: Do you have a washroom?
Echo: 有。 (Yǒu.)
Anthony: Yes.
Echo: 在哪儿? (Zài nǎr?)
Anthony: Where?
Echo: 在二层。 (Zài èr céng.)
Anthony: On the second floor.
POST CONVERSATION BANTER
Anthony: Okay so Echo, one thing that I’ve learned for sure from living in China is that you can’t have any assumptions.
Echo: What do you mean?
Anthony: Well back in the states, I would assume that a restaurant or a store would absolutely have a restroom. I won’t even bother with the question, do you have a bathroom? I will go straight to “where is the bathroom?”
Echo: Yeah.
Anthony: But this kind of logic has got me into a lot of trouble here on a few occasions.
Echo: Yes, a lot of places won’t have a washroom or a bathroom especially it’s more with restaurants and stores. They will just tell you to use 公共厕所。 (Gōnggòng cèsuǒ.)
Anthony: The dreaded public bathroom, and that’s an adventure in itself but luckily for all of our listeners, we have a great vocab section that will save you from all the silly mistakes that I’ve made here in China.
Echo: So let’s go on to the vocab section.
Anthony: Okay.
VOCAB LIST
Echo: 有 (yǒu)
Anthony: To have.
Echo: 有, 有. 洗手间 (yǒu, yǒu. xǐshǒujiān)
Anthony: Washroom.
Echo: 洗手间, 洗手间. 在 (xǐshǒujiān, xǐshǒujiān. zài)
Anthony: To be at.
Echo: 在, 在. 层 (zài, zài. céng)
Anthony: Floor, level.
Echo: 层,层. 打扫 (céng, céng. dǎsǎo)
Anthony: To clean.
Echo: 打扫,打扫. 厕所 (dǎsǎo, dǎsǎo. cèsuǒ)
Anthony: Toilet.
Echo: 厕所, 厕所. 手纸 (cèsuǒ, cèsuǒ. shǒuzhǐ)
Anthony: Toilet paper.
Echo: 手纸, 手纸. 肥皂 (shǒuzhǐ, shǒuzhǐ. féizào)
Anthony: Soap.
Echo: 肥皂, 肥皂. 毛巾 (féizào, féizào. máojīn)
Anthony: Towel.
Echo: 毛巾, 毛巾. (máojīn, máojīn.)
VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE
Anthony: In today’s vocabulary section, the running theme is bathroom. So keep that in mind.
Echo: Yeah.
Anthony: The first word we look at is
Echo: 有 (yǒu)
Anthony: Now we went over this in a grammar section in our earlier podcast and it means to have.
Echo: 有 (yǒu)
Anthony: To have.
Echo: 这儿有洗手间吗? (Zhè'er yǒu xǐshǒujiān ma?)
Anthony: Is there a washroom here?
Echo: 这儿有洗手间吗? (Zhè'er yǒu xǐshǒujiān ma?)
Anthony: Yes this is a vital question. No matter where you are in China, you need to know how to ask this.
Echo: 洗手间 (xǐshǒujiān)
Anthony: This word means washroom.
Echo: 洗手间 (xǐshǒujiān)
Anthony: And I love how literal this translation is.
Echo: 洗 (Xǐ)
Anthony: Clean.
Echo: 手 (Shǒu)
Anthony: Hand.
Echo: 间 (Jiān)
Anthony: Room.
Echo: Yeah.
Anthony: Hand cleaning room. I love it.
Echo: 洗手间在哪儿? (Xǐshǒujiān zài nǎr?)
Anthony: Where is the washroom?
Echo: 洗手间在哪儿? (Xǐshǒujiān zài nǎr?)
Anthony: Okay and our next vocab word.
Echo: 在 (zài)
Anthony: This is a verb that means to be at.
Echo: 在 (zài)
Anthony: As in the sentence
Echo: 我在饭馆里。 (Wǒ zài fànguǎn lǐ.)
Anthony: I am inside the restaurant.
Echo: 我在饭馆里。层。 (Wǒ zài fànguǎn lǐ. Céng.)
Anthony: This means floor or level.
Echo: 层。我家在三层。 (Céng. Wǒjiā zài sān céng.)
Anthony: My apartment is on the third floor.
Echo: 我家在三层。 (Wǒjiā zài sān céng.)
Anthony: If you are living in the city, you are probably living in an apartment building.
Echo: Yeah.
Anthony: So you are probably going to be
Echo: 在三层 (Zài sān céng)
Anthony: Yeah. You are probably going to be up high.
Echo: Or 在二十层. (Zài èrshí céng.)
Anthony: So the next word
Echo: 打扫 (Dǎsǎo)
Anthony: To clean.
Echo: 打扫 (Dǎsǎo)
Anthony: To clean.
Echo: 你打扫了吗? (Nǐ dǎsǎole ma?)
Anthony: Have you cleaned?
Echo: 你打扫了吗? (Nǐ dǎsǎole ma?)
Anthony: Yes my mother told me this quite often as a kid.
Echo: Anthony! 你打扫了吗? (Nǐ dǎsǎole ma?)
Anthony: It worked really well. I feel like I am a pretty cleanly person right now as an adult.
Echo: That’s very good. 厕所。 (Cèsuǒ.)
Anthony: Toilet.
Echo: 厕所。 (Cèsuǒ.)
Anthony: As in
Echo: 我想上厕所。 (Wǒ xiǎng shàng cèsuǒ.)
Anthony: I need to go to the toilet.
Echo: 我想上厕所。 (Wǒ xiǎng shàng cèsuǒ.)
Anthony: Now if you want to go to the toilet, you want to make sure you have this.
Echo: 手纸。 (Shǒuzhǐ.)
Anthony: And this is toilet paper.
Echo: 手纸。 (Shǒuzhǐ.)
Anthony: But I think the translation in Chinese is a little prettier, hand paper.
Echo: Yeah.
Anthony: Okay so you don’t want to hear this sentence.
Echo: 没有手纸了。 (Méiyǒu shǒuzhǐle.)
Anthony: There is no more toilet paper.
Echo: 没有手纸了。 (Méiyǒu shǒuzhǐle.)
Anthony: Okay. On to our next word.
Echo: 肥皂 (féizào)
Anthony: Soap.
Echo: 肥皂。有肥皂吗? (Féizào. Yǒu féizào ma?)
Anthony: Do you have any soap?
Echo: 有肥皂吗? (Yǒu féizào ma?)
Anthony: Most often than not, in bathrooms here in China, you will find that they don’t have paper towels per say but they will have small towels.
Echo: Yeah 毛巾,毛巾。 (Máojīn, máojīn.)
Anthony: As in
Echo: 毛巾不干净。 (Máojīn bù gānjìng.)
Anthony: The towel is not clean.
Echo: 毛巾不干净。 (Máojīn bù gānjìng.)
Anthony: Okay. So that wraps up our bathroom and washroom vocabulary section. Now on to our grammar point.

Lesson focus

Anthony: Today’s grammar point is actually a review. You heard it in our vocab section. Now we are bringing it to you again in our grammar section.
Echo: That’s right, and the word is 有。 (Yǒu.)
Anthony: Let’s hear that one more time.
Echo: 有。 (Yǒu.)
Anthony: If you remember from lesson 3, this word means to have.
Echo: 有。 (Yǒu.)
Anthony: Now a basic sentence will consist of a subject.
Echo: Like 我 (Wǒ)
Anthony: The verb.
Echo: 有 (Yǒu)
Anthony: And finally the object.
Echo: Like something.
Anthony: Yeah the thing that’s being owned. Okay we heard this sentence in the dialogue.
Echo: 你们有洗手间吗? (Nǐmen yǒu xǐshǒujiān ma?)
Anthony: Do you have a bathroom?
Echo: 你们有洗手间吗? (Nǐmen yǒu xǐshǒujiān ma?)
Anthony: What we are going to be teaching you today is the easiest way to answer this question. All you are doing is repeating the verb
Echo: 有。 (Yǒu.)
Anthony: That’s of course if you have it.
Echo: Yes.
Anthony: So I ask you, do you have a bathroom?
Echo: 你们有洗手间吗? (Nǐmen yǒu xǐshǒujiān ma?)
Anthony: If you have a bathroom, how would you respond?
Echo: We can say 有。 (Yǒu.)
Anthony: Just one word. That’s extremely easy.
Echo: 有。(Yǒu.)
Anthony: Okay. We have a few more sample sentences where Echo is going to ask the question and then she is going to respond.
Echo: Yeah. 他有钱吗? (Tā yǒu qián ma?)
Anthony: Does he have money?
Echo: 有。 (Yǒu)
Anthony: Yes, he does have money.
Echo: 他有钱吗?有。 (Tā yǒu qián ma? Yǒu.) Next one. 你有时间吗? (Nǐ yǒu shíjiān ma?)
Anthony: Do you have time?
Echo: 有。(Yǒu)
Anthony: Yes.
Echo: Yeah.
Anthony: Do you have time?
Echo: We all love to hear that.
Anthony: Do you have time for me?
Echo: 你有时间吗?有。 (Nǐ yǒu shíjiān ma? Yǒu.)
Anthony: Okay and our next sample sentence.
Echo: 你家有电话吗? (Nǐ jiā yǒu diànhuà ma?)
Anthony: Does your house have a telephone?
Echo: 你家有电话吗? (Nǐ jiā yǒu diànhuà ma?)
Anthony: So Echo, if somebody asks you if you have something and you do have it, how do you respond?
Echo: 有。 (Yǒu)
Anthony: One word, it’s that simple.
Echo: 有。 (Yǒu)

Outro

Anthony: Okay and that does it for our grammar section. To our premium members out there, don’t forget to subscribe to the premium feed.
Echo: One of our most powerful web 2.0 features to date.
Anthony: The premium feed gives you the power to easily and effortlessly get all of the content.
Echo: Right like audio files, PDFs, videos, get everything we have.
Anthony: And we got a lot of content. Everything with just a click of a button and you can get it through iTunes.
Echo: Right.
Anthony: Not a premium member and want to test it out. You can get the sample feed at chineseclass101.com.
Echo: Right.
Anthony: And if you really like the sample feed, you can subscribe to a premium membership. It only costs $10 a month. So with that, from Beijing, I am Anthony.
Echo: 我是Echo。 (Wǒ shì Echo.)
Anthony: Thanks for listening and we will see you next week.
Echo: 下周见吧。 (Xià zhōu jiàn ba.)
Anthony: Bye bye.
Echo: Bye bye.

Grammar

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