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: 大家好,我是Echo。 (Dàjiā hǎo, wǒ shì Echo.)
Anthony: And I am Anthony. Today we have lesson 9, A Trip to the Cinema.
Echo: In the second season of our beginner series.
Anthony: Now Echo, I got a question for you. Do you think you are a punctual person?
Echo: Yes I am always on time.
Anthony: So what do you do when you have some friends who are lagging behind?
Echo: Well I would just tell them 快点儿。 (Kuài diǎn er.)
Anthony: Yeah hurry up! And that is what today’s lesson is about. Getting to places in a timely fashion.
Echo: Right. Today you will learn how to make suggestions.
Anthony: Now this conversation takes place on a sidewalk while two guys are loitering and since these guys are good friends, they will be
Echo: Speaking casually.
Anthony: Before we go to the dialogue, I want to make a suggestion.
Echo: 快点儿。 (Kuài diǎn er.)
Anthony: For $10 a month, you can become a premium subscriber at chineseclass101.com. It’s a great deal. With this you will get access to the review and dialogue track. What this does is it gets you access to all the vocabulary…
Echo: Right.
Anthony: And sample sentences with the click of a button.
Echo: 没错。 (Méi cuò.)
Anthony: With that said, on to the dialogue.
DIALOGUE
我们走吧。 (Wǒmen zǒu ba.)
去哪儿? (Qù nǎr?)
去看电影! (Qù kàn diànyǐng!)
哦,对,快走吧。 (O, duì, kuài zǒu ba.)
Anthony: One more time a little bit slower.
我们走吧。 (Wǒmen zǒu ba.)
去哪儿? (Qù nǎr?)
去看电影! (Qù kàn diànyǐng!)
哦,对,快走吧。 (O, duì, kuài zǒu ba.)
Anthony: One more time with English.
Echo: 我们走吧。 (Wǒmen zǒu ba.)
Anthony: Let’s go.
Echo: 去哪儿? (Qù nǎr?)
Anthony: Where are we going?
Echo: 去看电影! (Qù kàn diànyǐng!)
Anthony: We are going to see a movie.
Echo: 哦,对,快走吧。 (O, duì, kuài zǒu ba.)
Anthony: All right, hurry up.
POST CONVERSATION BANTER
Anthony: So Echo, do you think the two people on our dialogue were going to see Avatar or the new Confucius movie?
Echo: It’s hard to say but I think Avatar is more popular in China now.
Anthony: Yeah it’s so popular that it’s already made a billion dollars in China.
Echo: And there are still so many people who are waiting for seeing it.
Anthony: Yeah and since there are so many people waiting to see it, ticket scalpers have begun to wait in line and buy tickets for them.
Echo: Right.
Anthony: And sell those tickets at a profit.
Echo: And we call them 黄牛。 (Huángniú.)
Anthony: Yeah yellow bulls.
Echo: 黄牛。 (Huángniú.)
Anthony: Trying to take advantage of excess demand.
Echo: Yeah.
Anthony: So Echo, besides waiting in line to see Avatar, we have some really important vocabulary to go over in this podcast. Isn’t that right?
Echo: 没错。 (Méi cuò.) And today’s vocab is mainly about time.
Anthony: Yes time. So if you are on time running late or in a rush…
Echo: Yeah.
Anthony: We have a great vocab lesson for you today.
Echo: Why don’t we go to our vocab section now?
Anthony: Right now.
Anthony: And now the vocab section.
VOCAB LIST
Echo: 走 (qù)
Anthony: To go.
Echo: 走, 走. 吧 (qù, qù. Ba)
Anthony: Suggestive particle.
Echo: 吧, 吧. 看 (Ba, Ba. kàn)
Anthony: To watch.
Echo: 看, 看. 电影 (kàn, kàn. diànyǐng)
Anthony: Movie.
Echo: 电影, 电影. 对 (diànyǐng, diànyǐng. duì)
Anthony: Correct.
Echo: 对, 对. 快 (duì, duì. kuài)
Anthony: Fast.
Echo: 快, 快. 一起 (kuài, kuài. yìqǐ)
Anthony: Together.
Echo: 一起, 一起. 先 (yìqǐ, yìqǐ. Xiān)
Anthony: First.
Echo: 先, 先. 稍等 (Xiān, Xiān. shāoděng)
Anthony: Wait a moment.
Echo: 稍等, 稍等. 按时 (shāoděng, shāoděng. ànshí)
Anthony: To be on time.
Echo: 按时, 按时. (ànshí, ànshí.)
VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE
Anthony: Okay. So Echo, let’s go over that first word that we saw in the vocab list.
Echo: 走。 (Zǒu.)
Anthony: To go.
Echo: 走。 (Zǒu.)
Anthony: And that’s third tone.
Echo: Right like 我走了。 (Wǒ zǒule.)
Anthony: This is, I am leaving.
Echo: 我走了。 (Wǒ zǒule.)
Anthony: Okay and our next one.
Echo: 吧。 (Ba.)
Anthony: And this is a suggestive particle.
Echo: 吧。你快来吧。 (Ba. Ba. Nǐ kuài lái ba.)
Anthony: Come quickly.
Echo: 你快来吧。 (Ba. Nǐ kuài lái ba.)
Anthony: Hurry on over here.
Echo: 对。 (Duì.)
Anthony: Correct.
Echo: Yeah if you want to agree with someone, you can use this word 对。 (Duì.)
Anthony: Right.
Echo: Okay right. 你说得对。 (Nǐ shuō dé duì.)
Anthony: What you are saying is correct.
Echo: Right Anthony, 你说得对。 (Nǐ shuō dé duì.)
Anthony: Or I could say hey Echo, the summers in Beijing are really hot.
Echo: 对,你说得真对。 (Duì, nǐ shuō dé zhēn duì.)
Anthony: Yeah you are right on the money.
Echo: Yeah and also this winter is really cold.
Anthony: Yes Echo, you are very right. Okay so what’s our next word?
Echo: 快 (Kuài)
Anthony: And this means fast.
Echo: Right 快。快点儿,好吗? (Kuài. Kuài diǎn er, hǎo ma?)
Anthony: Hurry up, okay.
Echo: 快点儿,好吗? (Kuài diǎn er, hǎo ma?)
Anthony: Now you can also find this word for “fast” in another important word and what is that word?
Echo: 快餐 (Kuàicān)
Anthony: Literally fast food.
Echo: 快餐 (Kuàicān)
Anthony: Great. Okay our next one.
Echo: 一起 (Yīqǐ)
Anthony: And this is together.
Echo: 一起 (Yīqǐ)
Anthony: Let’s hear that in a sample sentence.
Echo: 我们一起走吧。 (Wǒmen yīqǐ zǒu ba.)
Anthony: How about we go together?
Echo: 我们一起走吧。 (Wǒmen yīqǐ zǒu ba.)
Anthony: And our next word.
Echo: 先 (Xiān)
Anthony: First.
Echo: 先 (Xiān)
Anthony: Now this is the same character that we see in Mr.
Echo: Right 先生。 (Xiānshēng.) yeah but here the meaning is different, of course 先。你先走吧。 (Xiān. Nǐ xiān zǒu ba.)
Anthony: How about you go first?
Echo: If someone says 我们一起走吧 (Wǒmen yīqǐ zǒu ba) and you don’t really want to go with him or her, you can say 你先走吧。 (Nǐ xiān zǒu ba.)
Anthony: Yeah how about you go first, I am going to hang back.
Echo: Right or if you are busy with something else, yeah you can say 你先走吧 (Nǐ xiān zǒu ba) Okay next word. 稍等。 (Shāo děng.)
Anthony: Wait a moment.
Echo: Umm that’s very polite too 非常客气。 (Fēicháng kèqì.)
Anthony: Now I hear this word most often at the restaurant when I am asking him, hey where is my food?
Echo: Yeah they will say 稍等 (Shāo děng) yeah and after an hour…
Anthony: After an hour, my food still hasn’t come. Where is it and then they will say this sentence.
Echo: 稍等,马上来。 (Shāo děng, mǎshàng lái.)
Anthony: Yeah wait a moment! It’s on its way. It’s coming quickly so…
Echo: Yeah 稍等,马上来。 (Shāo děng, mǎshàng lái.) It’s coming right now.
Anthony: But they are lying. That never comes right now. So this is our last vocabulary word of the vocab section.
Echo: And we all love it. It’s 按时。 (Ànshí.)
Anthony: Yes to be on time.
Echo: Right. 按时。 (Ànshí.)
Anthony: On time.
Echo: 请按时来。 (Qǐng ànshí lái.)
Anthony: Please come on time.
Echo: Right, 请按时来。 (Qǐng ànshí lái.)
Anthony: Now my parents when I was in high school, they would always say this to me on the weekends.
Echo: 请按时回家。 (Qǐng ànshí huí jiā.)
Anthony: Yeah please be home on time.
Echo: Anthony, 请按时回家 (Qǐng ànshí huí jiā.)
Anthony: But it is more like if you don’t come home on time, you are grounded.
Echo: Yeah.
Anthony: Well that’s it for vocab section. Let’s go to the grammar.

Lesson focus

Anthony: Okay we are back and welcome to the grammar section. The focus of this lesson is about making a suggestion.
Echo: Right.
Anthony: In the dialogue, we heard this sentence.
Echo: 快走吧。 (Kuàizǒu ba.)
Anthony: Hey, how about you, hurry up.
Echo: 快走吧 (Kuàizǒu ba.) and 吧 (ba.) really softens the sentence up.
Anthony: Right so instead of making a command to hurry up, this turns into a suggestion, can you please hurry.
Echo: 快走吧, (Kuàizǒu,) and the 吧 (ba) here changes the statement into a suggestion.
Anthony: So we have a few examples here to show how this works. First we are going to say the statement.
Echo: Yeah.
Anthony: And then we are going to say the suggestion.
Echo: Right with adding 吧 (ba) there.
Anthony: That’s right. So let’s hear the first sample.
Echo: 我们一起走。 (Wǒmen yīqǐ zǒu.)
Anthony: We are going together.
Echo: 我们一起走。 (Wǒmen yīqǐ zǒu.)
Anthony: Yeah we are going together.
Echo: That sounds like an order.
Anthony: Yeah. So let’s hear the suggestion.
Echo: 我们一起走吧。 (Wǒmen yīqǐ zǒu ba.)
Anthony: And this is how about we go together?
Echo: 我们一起走吧。 (Wǒmen yīqǐ zǒu ba.)
Anthony: This version is a little less forceful. You are not dragging somebody against their will.
Echo: 没错。 (Méi cuò.)
Anthony: Okay another example.
Echo: 你先走。 (Nǐ xiān zǒu.)
Anthony: You go first.
Echo: 你先走。 (Nǐ xiān zǒu.)
Anthony: Now the suggestion.
Echo: 你先走吧。 (Nǐ xiān zǒu ba.)
Anthony: So this is a really easy way to soften a sentence up.
Echo: 没错, (Méi cuò,) to make it more polite.
Anthony: So the last thing we are going to go over in this grammar point is a little trick.
Echo: Right a lot of times you can drop that subject like instead of saying 你快一点儿吧。 (Nǐ kuài yīdiǎn er ba.)
Anthony: You please hurry up.
Echo: We can say 快一点儿吧。 (Kuài yīdiǎn er ba.)
Anthony: And this is just, let’s hurry up.
Echo: Yeah.
Anthony: So this is more general and it can be used to address a lot of people or just one person.
Echo: 没错。 (Méi cuò.)
Anthony: So this next example sentence, I get a lot of usage out of.
Echo: 说慢点儿。 (Shuō màn diǎn er.)
Anthony: Yeah this is, speak slower please.
Echo: Yeah 说慢点儿。 (Shuō màn diǎn er.)
Anthony: Yeah so I find that a lot of people, you know if you say a few sentences to them in Chinese, they will get the impression that you are fluent speaker.
Echo: Yeah.
Anthony: And you may even be a fluent speaker but they will start talking really fast and you want to tell them please slow down.
Echo: 说慢点儿。 (Shuō màn diǎn er.)
Anthony: If you don’t want to forcefully tell them and you want to just suggest it, you should say
Echo: 说慢点儿吧。 (Shuō màn diǎn er ba.)
Anthony: That’s right. So let’s take a look at one more example where we can omit the subject of the sentence.
Echo: 过来吧。 (Guòlái ba.)
Anthony: Yeah this is come over. Now you don’t need to specify who. Just say this in a general direction of a large group of people and then all of them will kind of come over.
Echo: 过来吧。 (Guòlái ba.)
Anthony: Okay great. So in review, when you want to change a statement into a suggestion, all you do is
Echo: Adding a 吧 (ba) at the end.
Anthony: Right. Now if you want, you can also omit the subject from the beginning of the sentence.
Echo: 没错。 (Méi cuò.)
Anthony: Okay so that does it for our grammar section.
Echo: Right.

Outro

Anthony: Okay now before we go, don’t forget to stop by chineseclass101.com and pick up the latest lesson notes. It has vocab, sample sentences, a grammar explanation and cultural insights. So with that, from Beijing, I am Anthony.
Echo: 我是Echo。 (Wǒ shì Echo.)
Anthony: And we will see you next time.
Echo: 下次见! (Xià cì jiàn!) Thanks for listening.
Anthony: Bye bye.
Echo: Bye bye.

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