Dialogue

Vocabulary

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Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
David: Welcome to chineseclass101. I am David.
Echo: 嗨,大家好. (Hāi, dàjiā hǎo.)
David: And we are here with lesson 12 in our first elementary series.
Echo: 第十二课。(Dì shí'èr kè.)
David: That’s the spot. We are talking about the spot where they’ve taken their thumb and pressed it into your ribs. So we’ve got a conversation again that’s between a customer and a masseuse and if you go for massage in China, you are going to use this stuff.
Echo: Yeah.
David: So let’s get you to the dialogue. Before we do it though, we want to remind you, we’ve got a lot of digital tools in our premium learning center.
Echo: Yes.
David: Including things like voice recording tools where you can record your voice and hear how you actually sound speaking Chinese.
Echo: Right.
David: This is really important for practicing the tones because a lot of the times what you think you are saying is not what you are saying.
Echo: Yeah.
David: So go to the premium learning center and check that stuff out and it’s going to make your Chinese better. For now though, let’s go right into the dialogue.
Echo: 好。(Hǎo.)
DIALOGUE
A.您觉得哪儿疼?(nín juéde nǎr téng?)
B.我的脖子和肩膀不太舒服。(wǒ de bózi hé jiānbǎng bùtàishūfu.)
A.这儿吗?(zhèr ma?)
B.往左点儿,再往上点儿。(wǎng zuǒ diǎnr, zài wǎngshàng diǎnr.)
A.这儿吗?(zhèr ma?)
B.对,就是这儿。(duì, jiùshì zhèr.)
Once more slowly.
A.您觉得哪儿疼?(nín juéde nǎr téng?)
B.我的脖子和肩膀不太舒服。(wǒ de bózi hé jiānbǎng bùtàishūfu.)
A.这儿吗?(zhèr ma?)
B.往左点儿,再往上点儿。(wǎng zuǒ diǎnr, zài wǎngshàng diǎnr.)
A.这儿吗?(zhèr ma?)
B.对,就是这儿。(duì, jiùshì zhèr.)
Once more, with English translation.
A.您觉得哪儿疼?(nín juéde nǎr téng?)
A: Where do you think it hurts?
B.我的脖子和肩膀不太舒服。(wǒ de bózi hé jiānbǎng bùtàishūfu.)
B: My neck and shoulder feel uncomfortable.
A.这儿吗?(zhèr ma?)
A: Here?
B.往左点儿,再往上点儿。(wǎng zuǒ diǎnr, zài wǎngshàng diǎnr.)
B: A little to the left. Now a little higher.
A.这儿吗?(zhèr ma?)
A: Here?
B.对,就是这儿。(duì, jiùshì zhèr.)
B: Yeah, right here.
POST CONVERSATION BANTER
David: So if you go for a massage, they will actually ask you this. They will say where does it hurt?
Echo: 对。(duì.)
David: And you can just say, I am just here for the massage.
Echo: Or 哪儿不舒服?(Nǎ'er bú shūfú?)
David: Give me the count?
David: Right. your back can’t working sitting down. So you can use this language to tell people.
Echo: 对,这对我来说特别有用。(Duì, zhè duì wǒ lái shuō tèbié yǒuyòng.)
David: Right. And between this lesson where we are saying where to do it and the last lesson where we’ve got lighter and heavier.
Echo: Yeah. 轻,重。(Qīng, zhòng.)
David: You are going to be set to get the best massage ever. So with that, let’s go to the vocab section. And now the vocab section.
VOCAB LIST
Echo: 觉得 (juéde)
David: To feel.
Echo: 不太 (bù tài)
David: Not very.
Echo: 舒服 (Shūfú)
David: Comfortable.
Echo: 往 (wǎng)
David: Towards.
Echo: 左 (zuǒ)
David: Left.
Echo: 右 (yòu)
David: Right.
Echo: 上 (shàng)
David: Up.
Echo: 下 (xià)
David: Down.
Echo: 就是 (jiùshì)
David: Precisely to be.
Echo: 就是 (jiùshì)
David: So our vocab in this lesson is mostly focused on giving directions. Now when you are giving directions, the first word you say is
VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE
Echo: 往。(Wǎng.)
David: Which means towards.
Echo: Right 往。(Wǎng.)
David: And then we are going to follow that with our direction.
Echo: 你再往左点儿。(Nǐ zài wǎng zuǒ diǎn er.)
David: That’s turn a little bit left again. Let’s simplify that though, towards the left.
Echo: 往左。(Wǎng zuǒ.)
David: Right and then in the full sentence
Echo: 你再往左点儿。(Nǐ zài wǎng zuǒ diǎn er.)
David: You are getting a little bit to the left. And that’s our first direction for you, left.
Echo: 左。(Zuǒ.)
David: Left.
Echo: 左。(Zuǒ.)
David: And the opposite of left is of course
Echo: 右。(Yòu.)
David: Right.
Echo: 右。(Yòu.)
David: Right. So left
Echo: 左。(Zuǒ.)
David: Right
Echo: 右。(Yòu.)
David: Sometimes you will be in a taxi and the taxi driver will ask you, do you want to turn left or turn right?
Echo: 往左还是往右?(Wǎng zuǒ háishì wǎng yòu?)
David: He is really saying towards the left or towards the right?
Echo: 往左还是往右?(Wǎng zuǒ háishì wǎng yòu?)
David: So you can reply, towards the left.
Echo: 往左。(Wǎng zuǒ.)
David: Or move a bit to the left.
Echo: 往左点儿。(Wǎng zuǒ diǎn er.)
David: Or towards the right.
Echo: 往右。(Wǎng yòu.)
David: A bit right.
Echo: 往右点儿。(Wǎng yòu diǎn er.)
David: And you could do this in the massage parlor as well. So towards your left
Echo: 往左。(Wǎng zuǒ.)
David: Towards your right.
Echo: 往右。(Wǎng yòu.)
David: And when they are getting really close, you want to add that
Echo: 往左点儿。(Wǎng zuǒ diǎn er.)
David: Right. Just add that
Echo: 点儿。(Diǎn er.)
David: Little bit. Our next two directions are of course up
Echo: 上。(Shàng.)
David: And down
Echo: 下。(Xià.)
David: Let’s hear them again.
Echo: 上。(Shàng.)
David: Fourth tone and it means up.
Echo: 下。(Xià.)
David: Also fourth tone and it means down.
Echo: 上,下。(Shàng, xià.)
David: So you can say towards the top.
Echo: 往上。(Wǎng shàng.)
David: Or towards the bottom.
Echo: 往下。(Wǎng xià.)
David: And you can also say a little bit
Echo: 往上点儿。(Wǎng shàng diǎn er.)
David: A bit higher.
Echo: 往下点儿。(Wǎng xià diǎn er.)
David: A bit lower. So if you are in a massage parlor, you might actually say this.
Echo: 往上点儿,哎呦, 往下点儿。(Wǎng shàng diǎn er, āi yōu, wǎng xià diǎn er.)
David: Move a bit higher up, a little bit lower.
Echo: 往上点儿,哎呦, 往下点儿。(Wǎng shàng diǎn er, āi yōu, wǎng xià diǎn er.)
David: Right. A little bit higher ah and they just cracked his spine, a little bit lower.
Echo: Good.
David: So to recap, we’ve just given you four directions. We’ve learned left.
Echo: 左。(Zuǒ.)
David: Right.
Echo: 右。(Yòu.)
David: Up
Echo: 上。(Shàng.)
David: Down
Echo: 下。(Xià.)
David: Switching gears for a moment, we also have a psychological verb in this lesson.
Echo: 觉得。(Juédé.)
David: This is second tone and then neutral tone.
Echo: 觉得。(Juédé.)
David: Right. This means to think or to feel.
Echo: 觉得。(Juédé.)
David: We use this mostly with emotions, feelings or opinions.
Echo: 比如说。我觉得她很漂亮。(Bǐrú shuō. Wǒ juédé tā hěn piàoliang.)
David: I think she is really pretty.
Echo:我觉得她很漂亮。(Wǒ juédé tā hěn piàoliang.)
David: Right. And here we see 很 (Hěn) which is very. What if we want to say she is not too pretty.
Echo: 不太 (Bù tài) We use this word. 我觉得她不太漂亮。(Wǒ juédé tā bù tài piàoliang.)
David: I don’t think she is too pretty.
Echo: 我觉得她不太漂亮。(Wǒ juédé tā bù tài piàoliang.)
David: Right. Our last word in the vocab section is another adverb which we covered in the last lesson’s grammar point.
Echo: 就,就是。(Jiù, jiùshì.)
David: And this means to be exactly.
Echo: 就是。(Jiùshì.)
David: As in
Echo: 就是这儿,很舒服。(Jiùshì zhè'er, hěn shūfú.)
David: It’s exactly here, oh that’s comfortable.
Echo: 就是这儿,很舒服。(Jiùshì zhè'er, hěn shūfú.)
David: Right. So our vocab section was not as painful as our dialogue. Lots of great words.
Echo: 很舒服。(Hěn shūfú.)
David: Yeah use them in the massage parlor, use them in the taxi. Use them getting directions on the street.
Echo: 没错。(Méi cuò.)
David: We’ve got a grammar point today that’s all about how we give directions though. Let’s get to that now. It’s grammar time. Okay so we promised you grammar point about giving directions.

Lesson focus

David: So there are few directions we want to go over. We’ve already done the first four in the vocab section.
Echo: Yeah.
David: What are they Echo?
Echo: They are 上。(Shàng.)
David: That means up.
Echo: 下。(Xià.)
David: Down.
Echo: 下。(Xià.)
David: You can also use these when you are getting into and out of vehicles. For instance
Echo: 上车。(Shàng chē.)
David: To get into a car.
Echo: Or 下车。(Xià chē.)
David: Right. To get out of a car or maybe the subway. Our next two words, we’ve also covered. They are left
Echo: 左。(Zuǒ.)
David: And right
Echo: 右。(Yòu.)
David: Sometimes especially in taxis, you are going to hear people say the left side.
Echo: 左边。(Zuǒbiān.)
David: Or the right side.
Echo: 右边。(Yòubiān.)
David: Great. When we want to give people directions, there is a special word we want to put right at the front.
Echo: 往。(Wǎng.)
David: Let’s hear that one more time.
Echo: 往。(Wǎng.)
David: So that’s third one and it means towards. So we say towards
Echo: 往。(Wǎng.)
David: And then the direction we want to move in.
Echo: 比如说,往左。(Bǐrú shuō, wǎng zuǒ.)
David: Towards the left.
Echo: 往右。(Wǎng yòu.)
David: Towards the right. Now when we have a verb for instance to go left or to go right, the word order in Chinese is different from English. Specifically we put our verb after the direction.
Echo: 没错 (Méi cuò) Like 往左走。(Wǎng zuǒ zǒu.)
David: Go left.
Echo: 往右走。(Wǎng yòu zǒu.)
David: Go right. When you are in a cab, you are often going to hear people say this.
Echo: 往左转。(Wǎng zuǒ zhuǎn.)
David: Turn left.
Echo: 往右转。(Wǎng yòu zhuǎn.)
David: Turn right.
Echo: Yeah notice that we will use the verb 转。(Zhuǎn.)
David: Right which means to turn. And another thing to notice is that we are putting our preposition 往 in front of the verb.
Echo: Yeah. In front of everything.
David: Right. So this is Chinese word order. It’s not special for this. We have the preposition, direction, and then our verb.
Echo: 往左转。(Wǎng zuǒ zhuǎn.)
David: Towards the left, to turn.
Echo: Yeah let’s get an example 在红绿灯往右转。(Zài hónglǜdēng wǎng yòu zhuǎn.)
David: At the red light, turn right.
Echo: 在红绿灯往右转。(Zài hónglǜdēng wǎng yòu zhuǎn.)
David: At the stoplight, make a right turn. Now this is really tricky actually because we’ve got two prepositional phrases. First we’ve got at the stoplight
Echo: 在红绿灯。(Zài hónglǜdēng.)
David: Then we’ve got a second prepositional phrase, towards the right.
Echo: 往右转。(Wǎng yòu zhuǎn.)
David: And then the verb at the end, to turn. This is really tricky for a lot of people.
Echo: Yeah just remember to put preposition of place.
David: Yeah.
Echo: Before everything, before the sentence.
David: And practice, practice, practice. Speak to yourself.
Echo: Yeah.
David: So our next example.
Echo: 往上点儿。往下点儿。(Wǎng shàng diǎn er. Wǎng xià diǎn er.)
David: Move up a little, move down a little.
Echo: 往上点儿。往下点儿。(Wǎng shàng diǎn er. Wǎng xià diǎn er.)
David: And this is close to what we had in our dialogue. One thing to pay attention to here is the verb is omitted.
Echo: Yeah.
David: Right. So we are leaving out the verb because it’s clear what we are talking about. You know, give me a massage there, move your hands or go in that direction.
Echo: 对。(Duì.)
David: So if people know what you are talking about, you don’t need the verb. If they don’t, you can always add it on at the end.
Echo: Yeah.
David: And that’s our grammar point for you.
Echo: 很简单。(Hěn jiǎndān.)
David: Right. So to all of our listeners, we are going to give you a direction now.
Echo: Go straight towards chineseclass101.com
David: Right and sign up for that premium subscription if you haven’t yet. You are going to get all of these study tools in the premium learning section.
Echo: Yeah.
David: Flashcards, study aids…
Echo: Voice recording tool.
David: Yeah as well as these great PDFs and we’ve taken our grammar points and notes and we’ve stuck them all in there. So it’s really good.
Echo: Yeah.

Outro

David: It’s better than any textbook you are going to find. So that’s our podcast for today. We hope you enjoyed it. As always, if you have any questions, email us at
Echo: Contact us at chineseclass101.com
David: We would love to hear from you. 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: 网上见吧 (Wǎngshàng jiàn ba) Bye bye.

Grammar

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