Dialogue

Vocabulary

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Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
David: Hi everyone and welcome to chineseclass101.com, the fastest, easiest and most fun way to learn Chinese.
Echo: 嗨,大家好,我是 (Hāi, dàjiā hǎo, wǒ shì) Echo.
David: And I am David. Hi everyone, I am David.
Echo: 嗨,大家好,我是 (Hāi, dàjiā hǎo, wǒ shì) Echo.
David: And we are back with
Echo: Chineseclass101.com
David: Right and we have season 1, lesson 14 at our Elementary level. The Newest Chinese Starbucks Locale.
Echo: That’s right.
David: Right. So in this lesson, we are going to talk about a famous landmark in Beijing.
Echo: This conversation takes place inside the Forbidden City at China’s newest Starbucks store.
David: Right and the conversation is between two tourists who are new to Beijing.
Echo: And they are speaking casual Mandarin.
David: As always. Now we are going to take you to the dialogue in a sec. Before we do, we want to talk a bit about our one on one tutoring service.
Echo: 没错,非常棒。(Méi cuò, fēicháng bàng.)
David: Yes. This is the elite package and for a touch over 80 bucks a month. You get an hour of conversation practice with a real Chinese speaker from here in Beijing.
Echo: That’s right.
David: Right. It’s a really…
Echo: Great deal.
David: It’s a really great deal and a great way to actually get speaking practice with someone who is going to give you one on one feedback. Let’s go to the dialogue. This is actually a true story.
Echo: 是的。(Shì de.)
DIALOGUE
A:欢迎来到故宫。(Huan1ying2 lai2 dao4 gu4gong1 。)
B:哇!故宫怎么这么大啊?(Wa1! gu4gong1 zen3me5 zhe4me5 da4 a5 ?)
A:没错儿,皇帝以前就住在这儿。(Mei2 cuo4r5 , Huang2di4 yi3qian2 jiu4 zhu4 zai4 zhe4r5 。)
B:你看,那儿有一个星巴克。(Ni3 kan4 ,Na4r5 you3 yi1 ge5 xing1ba1ke4 。)
A:哦,现在的故宫已经不是以前的故宫了。(O5 , Xian4zai4 de5 gu4gong1 yi3jing1 bu4 shi4 yi3qian2 de5 gu4gong1 le5 。)
Once more slowly.
A:欢迎来到故宫。(Huan1ying2 lai2 dao4 gu4gong1 。)
B:哇!故宫怎么这么大啊?(Wa1! gu4gong1 zen3me5 zhe4me5 da4 a5 ?)
A:没错儿,皇帝以前就住在这儿。(Mei2 cuo4r5 , Huang2di4 yi3qian2 jiu4 zhu4 zai4 zhe4r5 。)
B:你看,那儿有一个星巴克。(Ni3 kan4 ,Na4r5 you3 yi1 ge5 xing1ba1ke4 。)
A:哦,现在的故宫已经不是以前的故宫了。(O5 , Xian4zai4 de5 gu4gong1 yi3jing1 bu4 shi4 yi3qian2 de5 gu4gong1 le5 。)
Once more, with English translation.
A:欢迎来到故宫。(Huan1ying2 lai2 dao4 gu4gong1 。)
A:Welcome to the Forbidden City.
B:哇!故宫怎么这么大啊?(Wa1! gu4gong1 zen3me5 zhe4me5 da4 a5 ?)
B:Whoaa! The Forbidden City is huge!
A:没错儿,皇帝以前就住在这儿。(Mei2 cuo4r5 , Huang2di4 yi3qian2 jiu4 zhu4 zai4 zhe4r5 。)
A:That's right. The Emperor used to live here.
B:你看,那儿有一个星巴克。(Ni3 kan4 ,Na4r5 you3 yi1 ge5 xing1ba1ke4 。)
B:Hey look, there's a Starbucks over there.
A:哦,现在的故宫已经不是以前的故宫了。(O5 , Xian4zai4 de5 gu4gong1 yi3jing1 bu4 shi4 yi3qian2 de5 gu4gong1 le5 。)
A:Oh, the Forbidden City is different than it used to be.
POST CONVERSATION BANTER
David: I remember when I came to Beijing for the first time, what you get is you get those painting scams..
Echo: Yeah..
David: Where they – people pull you to room and try to sell you you know paintings for a lot of money that were really cheap. So they moved those guys out and they moved in a Starbucks.
Echo: That’s a…
David: It’s a step up.
Echo: Good move.
David: And then they moved it out again. I think it was what? 2007 because people complained.
Echo: Yeah.
David: Coffee in the Forbidden City!
Echo: Yeah but I guess, you foreigners must have liked it very much.
David: We like coffee. Anyway, we’ve got a lot of vocab which is about the Forbidden City and Starbucks. So why don’t we get to that now?
Echo: 好的。(Hǎo de.)
VOCAB LIST
David: And now the vocab section.
Echo: 故宫 (Gùgōng)
David: The Forbidden City.
Echo: 哇 (wa)
David: Wow!
Echo: 皇帝 (huángdì)
David: Emperor.
Echo: 以前 (yǐqián)
David: Before.
Echo: 住 (zhù)
David: To live.
Echo: 星巴克 (xīngbākè)
David: Starbucks.
Echo: 已经 (yǐjīng)
David: Already.
Echo: 皇宫 (huánggōng)
David: Imperial palace.
Echo: 皇宫 (huánggōng)
David: So our first word for today is a cultural icon in Beijing.
VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE
Echo: 故宫 (Gùgōng)
David: The Forbidden City.
Echo: 故宫。(Gùgōng.)
David: Right and where is the Forbidden City Echo?
Echo: 故宫就在北京的中心。(Gùgōng jiù zài běijīng de zhōngxīn.)
David: The Forbidden City is in the center of Beijing.
Echo: Right故宫就在北京的中心。(Gùgōng jiù zài běijīng de zhōngxīn.)
David: Right and we’ve got 就在 (Jiù zài) which is its right in the center of Beijing and it’s just north of Tiananmen square.
Echo: That’s right.
David: So this is a true story as we said. A few years ago, they put a Starbucks there.
Echo: 星巴克。(Xīngbākè.)
David: Starbucks.
Echo: 星巴克。(Xīngbākè.)
David: So you could say
Echo: 故宫以前有一个星巴克。(Gùgōng yǐqián yǒu yīgè xīngbākè.)
David: The Forbidden City had a Starbucks.
Echo: 很奇怪。(Hěn qíguài.)
David: Coffee.
Echo: 故宫以前有一个星巴克。(Gùgōng yǐqián yǒu yīgè xīngbākè.)
David: Anyway our next word is not really a word.
Echo: Right. It’s a sound you make 哇 (Wa)
David: Right its wow!
Echo: 哇。(Wa.)
David: Or whoa! Come on Echo, draw it out.
Echo: 哇。(Wa.)
David: Yeah.
Echo: 星巴克这么多。(Xīngbākè zhème duō.)
David: Wow! There are so many Starbucks.
Echo: Yeah 哇,星巴克这么多。(Wa, xīngbākè zhème duō.)
David: Right. It’s a natural sound. It’s kind of like whoa or wow.
Echo: It’s the way to explain your feelings.
David: Yeah to express surprise. So we’ve talked a bit about life after Starbucks. What about life before Starbucks.
Echo: 以前。(Yǐqián.)
David: Before.
Echo: 以前。以前皇帝住在故宫里。(Yǐqián. Yǐqián huángdì zhù zài gùgōng lǐ.)
David: In the past, the emperor lived in the Forbidden City.
Echo: 以前皇帝住在故宫里。(Yǐqián huángdì zhù zài gùgōng lǐ.)
David: Right and this introduces our next two words. In that sentence, we have the word for emperor.
Echo: 皇帝。(Huángdì.)
David: Emperor.
Echo: 皇帝。(Huángdì.)
David: Right. Where does the emperor live?
Echo: 皇宫。(Huánggōng.)
David: Imperial palace.
Echo: 以前皇帝住在皇宫里。(Yǐqián huángdì zhù zài huánggōng lǐ.)
David: In the past, the emperor lived in the imperial palace.
Echo: 以前皇帝住在皇宫里。(Yǐqián huángdì zhù zài huánggōng lǐ.)
David: Now you may be getting confused at this point because we’ve given you two words.
Echo: 故宫。(Gùgōng.)
David: And we’ve given you
Echo: 皇宫。(Huánggōng.)
David: Both of these are 宫 or palaces. What’s the difference?
Echo: 皇宫 (Huánggōng) is just the general word for a palace.
David: Yeah.
Echo: Where as 故宫 (Gùgōng) is specific to Beijing.
David: Right. So now that we’ve sorted that out, let’s move on to the grammar section. It’s a good one.
Echo: 好的。(Hǎo de.)

Lesson focus

David: It’s grammar time. Our grammar point today is
Echo: Verb complements.
David: Right which sounds intimidating.
Echo: But it’s not.
David: Right and we are going to make this simple for you. To start off, we all know what a verb is.
Echo: Right 来 or 住。(Lái or Zhù.)
David: Right 来 (Lái) means to come, we know and
Echo: 住。(Zhù.)
David: Means to live or to stay.
Echo: Yeah.
David: Now in Chinese, sometimes we can add things to the end of verbs that change the meaning of the verb slightly.
Echo: Right look at 来到.(Lái dào.) This has both 来 (Lái) to come and 到(dào) to arrive.
David: To come and arrive.
Echo: And 到 (dào) there is a verb complement.
David: Right. 到 tells us the result of 来。(Lái.)
Echo: Right 来到。(Lái dào.)
David: To come to a place. Okay this is a bit tricky. So we are going to simplify it by just looking at some sample sentences and picking out the verb complements. Echo, what’s our first example?
Echo: 我吃完饭了。(Wǒ chī wán fànle.)
David: I finished eating.
Echo: 吃完,我吃完饭了。(Chī wán, wǒ chī wán fànle.)
David: I finished eating. What’s next?
Echo: 你做完作业了吗?(Nǐ zuò wán zuòyèle ma?)
David: Have you finished your homework?
Echo: 你做完作业了吗?(Nǐ zuò wán zuòyèle ma?)
David: Right. So we have 做完 (Zuò wán) which is have you done and finished?
Echo: Our next example is 我想好了。(Wǒ xiǎng hǎole.)
David: I’ve thought of it.
Echo: 我想好了。(Wǒ xiǎng hǎole.) and 好 (Hǎo) is the verb complement there.
David: Okay. So our verb is 想 (Xiǎng) to think and the result is
Echo: 好。(Hǎo.)
David: It’s done or it’s finished.
Echo: Right 我想好了,你呢?(Wǒ xiǎng hǎole, nǐ ne.)
David: I thought about it. How about you?
Echo: One more 走到那儿太远了。(Zǒu dào nà'er tài yuǎnle.)
David: Walking there is too far.
Echo: 走到那儿太远了。(Zǒu dào nà'er tài yuǎnle.)
David: Okay. So now we’ve had some practice and we can identify verb complements. What are some of the most common ones?
Echo: Like in this lesson 到。(Dào.)
David: To arrive at.
Echo: We can say 开到。(Kāi dào.)
David: To drive to.
Echo: 飞到。(Fēi dào.)
David: To fly to.
Echo: 跑到。(Pǎo dào.)
David: To run to.
Echo: 走到。(Zǒu dào.)
David: To go to. Anything with movement, we can add 到。(Dào.)
Echo: We’ve also seen 好。(Hǎo.)
David: Which means to finish or to do something well.
Echo: 你吃好了吗?(Nǐ chī hǎole ma?)
David: Have you eaten well, are you full?
Echo: 你吃好了吗?(Nǐ chī hǎole ma?)
David: Sounds a bit strange in English, but its fine in Chinese.
Echo: Yeah 他还没有吃好。(Tā hái méiyǒu chī hǎo.)
David: Right. He still hasn’t eaten or maybe he’s eaten a bit but he is not full.
Echo: Right.
David: So by now we know
Echo: 到。(Dào.)
David: And
Echo: 好。(Hǎo.)
David: Let’s learn one more.
Echo: Yeah don’t forget 完。(Wán.)
David: To finish.
Echo: 做完。(Zuò wán.)
David: To finish doing.
Echo: 说完。(Shuō wán.)
David: To finish speaking.
Echo: Yeah there are a lot.

Outro

David: Yeah. There are tons of them and our dialogue for today has lot of 来到 (Lái dào) to come to.
Echo: Right.
David: Okay.
Echo: Not that difficult.
David: No. If you’d like more information on all of these verb complements though, the place you are going to get it is in our premium lesson PDF. If you are a premium subscriber, you can download it right from our site or get it from your premium RSS feed.
Echo: That’s right.
David: And if you are not a premium subscriber, sign up so you are not missing out on this stuff. It will help you make better progress.
Echo: 没错。(Méi cuò.)
David: Okay. With that though, that’s our podcast for today. From Beijing, I am David.
Echo: 我是 (Wǒ shì) Echo.
David: Thanks a lot for listening and we will see you on the site.
Echo: 网上见,再见。(Wǎngshàng jiàn, zàijiàn.)

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