Dialogue

Vocabulary

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Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
Echo: 嗨,大家好,我是Echo. (Hāi, dàjiā hǎo, wǒ shì Echo.)
Dave: And I am Dave Lyons. Welcome to season 2 of the elementary series of chineseclass101.com where we study modern Chinese in a fun and educational format.
Echo: Right. So brush up on the Chinese that you started learning long ago or start learning today.
Dave: Thanks for being here with us today. In this lesson, we are going to tell you what it’s like to live in Shanghai in the winter.
Echo: Right. It’s really cold and they don’t have heating.
Dave: Yeah. So our dialogue is taking place in Shanghai at the home of one of our speakers when his girlfriend comes over.
Echo: Right.
Dave: And she is used to having indoor heating.
Echo: Yeah like me. Some of us like to say warm.
Dave: Right. I guess she is probably from the north. So the speakers are couple and because of that, they are as always speaking casual Mandarin.
Echo: 没错。 (Méi cuò.)
Dave: Let’s listen to the dialogue but first, do you ever read the lesson notes while you listen to chineseclass101? We received an email recently from one student about it. And we’d like to hear some feedback from the rest of you…
Echo: Yeah.
Dave: About whether this is a method you use. So please leave your feedback in the comments section of this lesson.
Echo: 没错。 (Méi cuò.)
Dave: Let’s listen to the dialogue.
DIALOGUE
A:你家真冷啊…… (nǐ jiā zhēn lěng a...)
B:哦,暖气坏了,两个都不热。 (ò, nuǎnqì huài le, liǎng ge dōu bù rè.)
A:能开空调吗? (néng kāi kōngtiáo ma?)
B:空调夏天就坏了。 (kōngtiáo xiàtiān jiù huài le.)
A:这样啊,我下次再来吧…… (zhèyàng a, wǒ xiàcì zài lái ba ...)
Dave: One more time, a bit slower.
A:你家真冷啊…… (nǐ jiā zhēn lěng a...)
B:哦,暖气坏了,两个都不热。 (ò, nuǎnqì huài le, liǎng ge dōu bù rè.)
A:能开空调吗? (néng kāi kōngtiáo ma?)
B:空调夏天就坏了。 (kōngtiáo xiàtiān jiù huài le.)
A:这样啊,我下次再来吧…… (Why don't I come back next time...)
Dave: One more time with English.
Echo: 你家真冷啊…… (nǐ jiā zhēn lěng a...)
Dave: Your house is really cold.
Echo: 哦,暖气坏了,两个都不热。 (ò, nuǎnqì huài le, liǎng ge dōu bù rè.)
Dave: Oh the heaters are broken. Neither is hot.
Echo: 能开空调吗? (néng kāi kōngtiáo ma?)
Dave: Can we turn on the air-conditioning?
Echo: 空调夏天就坏了。 (kōngtiáo xiàtiān jiù huài le.)
Dave: And the air-conditioning broke back in the summer.
Echo: 这样啊,我下次再来吧…… (zhèyàng a, wǒ xiàcì zài lái ba ...)
Dave: Why don’t I come back next time? This is a true story.
POST CONVERSATION BANTER
Echo: Right. Shanghai is really cold in winter.
Dave: Yeah we are not lying here. In the North of China, buildings have central heating but down south.
Echo: Yeah they only have like small air conditioners. So it can get really cold inside.
Dave: And that’s actually the theme of our vocab section today. So bundle up because it’s cold outside. And now the vocab section.
VOCAB LIST
Echo: 冷 (lěng)
Dave: Cold.
Echo: 凉快 (liángkuài)
Dave: Cool.
Echo: 热 (rè)
Dave: Hot.
Echo: 暖和 (nuǎnhuo)
Dave: Warm.
Echo: 暖气 (nuǎnqì)
Dave: Heater.
Echo: 空调 (kōngtiáo)
Dave: Air conditioner.
Echo: 就 (jiù)
Dave: Then.
Echo: 夏天 (xiàtiān)
Dave: Summer.
Echo: 冬天 (dōngtiān)
Dave: Winter.
Echo: 冬天 (dōngtiān)
VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE
Dave: Okay. Let’s have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases in this lesson.
Echo: And the first word is 冷 (Lěng)
Dave: And this means cold as in the sentence, today is really cold.
Echo: 今天很冷。 (Jīntiān hěn lěng.)
Dave: Today is really cold.
Echo: 今天很冷。 (Jīntiān hěn lěng.)
Dave: So 冷 (Lěng) is cold but what if it’s just cool?
Echo: That’s 凉快。 (Liángkuai)
Dave: Cool.
Echo: 凉快。 (Liángkuai)
Dave: Yesterday was cool.
Echo: 昨天很凉快。 (Zuótiān hěn liángkuai.)
Dave: Yesterday was cool.
Echo: 昨天很凉快。 (Zuótiān hěn liángkuai.) No it wasn’t.
Dave: Maybe it was cool in Shanghai, here in Beijing, it was really cold.
Echo: That’s true but in Shanghai, they have no central heating. So it’s probably really cold there too.
Dave: Right and we all need to keep warm.
Echo: Right 暖和。 (Nuǎnhuo)
Dave: Warm.
Echo: 暖和。 (Nuǎnhuo)
Dave: For example, it’s warm inside.
Echo: 里面和暖和。 (Lǐmiàn hé nuǎnhuo.)
Dave: It’s warm inside.
Echo: 里面和暖和。 (Lǐmiàn hé nuǎnhuo.)
Dave: That is, it’s warm inside unless my heater is not hot.
Echo: 我的暖气不热。 (Wǒ de nuǎnqì bù rè.)
Dave: My heater is not hot.
Echo: 我的暖气不热。 (Wǒ de nuǎnqì bù rè.)
Dave: In that case, I turn on my air conditioner.
Echo: Right and the word for air conditioner is 空调。 (Kòngtiáo)
Dave: I used to live in the south and in the winter, we were always asking people to please turn on the air conditioner.
Echo: 请打开空调。 (Qǐng dǎkāi kòngtiáo.)
Dave: Because there were no heaters, we would have to use our air conditioners for heat. So again, we would say, please turn on the air conditioner.
Echo: 请打开空调。 (Qǐng dǎkāi kòngtiáo.)
Dave: Okay and that wraps it up for our vocab section and so let’s move on to grammar. It’s grammar time. Okay so in the grammar section, we are going to focus on one word. The word

Lesson focus

Echo: 就。 (Jiù)
Dave: Which is used for emphasis.
Echo: 就。 (Jiù)
Dave: So we heard this word in the following sentence in the dialogue.
Echo: 空调夏天就坏了。 (Kòngtiáo xiàtiān jiù huàile.)
Dave: The air conditioner broke back in the summer.
Echo: 空调夏天就坏了。 (Kòngtiáo xiàtiān jiù huàile.)
Dave: The air conditioner has been broken since the summer. So the word
Echo: 就 (Jiù)
Dave: Is used in this sentence to emphasize that the air conditioner has been broken for a long time.
Echo: Yeah.
Dave: So here are a couple of more examples.
Echo: 他上午就去了。 (Tā shàngwǔ jiù qùle.)
Dave: He’s been gone since this morning.
Echo: 他上午就去了。 (Tā shàngwǔ jiù qùle.)
Dave: He’s been gone since this morning. So in this sentence, it is now afternoon or evening.
Echo: Yeah.
Dave: And the morning was a while ago.
Echo: That’s right. Did you know he left a long time ago?
Dave: Yeah I had no idea.
Echo: Yeah.
Dave: Okay. Here is the next one.
Echo: 我的暖气上个月就坏了。 (Wǒ de nuǎnqì shàng gè yuè jiù huàile.)
Dave: My heater has been broken since last month.
Echo: 我的暖气上个月就坏了。 (Wǒ de nuǎnqì shàng gè yuè jiù huàile.)
Dave: My heater has been broken since last month and it might be the case that not only is that true, but you might end up also saying, the heater in his house has been hot since yesterday.
Echo: 他家的暖气昨天就热了。 (Tā jiā de nuǎnqì zuótiān jiù rèle.)
Dave: The heater in his house has been hot since yesterday.
Echo: 他家的暖气昨天就热了。 (Tā jiā de nuǎnqì zuótiān jiù rèle.)
Dave: And it’s not fair.
Echo: Right.
Dave: My heater has been broken for so long and his heater has been fixed.
Echo: Yeah.
Dave: Why me?
Echo: Well I can’t explain it to you.
Dave: I know.
Echo: Yeah, I am sorry. I feel bad for you Dave.
Dave: It’s been a tough winter.
Echo: Yeah.
Dave: So in these examples, we always use the word
Echo: 就。 (Jiù)
Dave: Following a word indicating time such as yesterday
Echo: 昨天。 (Zuótiān)
Dave: Winter
Echo: 冬天。 (Dōngtiān)
Dave: Summer
Echo: 夏天。 (Xiàtiān.)
Dave: Or last month.
Echo: 上个月。 (Shàng gè yuè.)
Dave: All of these are past tense but the word can also be used for the present tense.
Echo: Right.
Dave: And so that leads us to our last example
Echo: 现在就该说再见了。 (Xiànzài jiù gāi shuō zàijiànle.)
Dave: Now it’s time to say goodbye.
Echo: 现在就该说再见了。 (Xiànzài jiù gāi shuō zàijiànle.)

Outro

Dave: Okay that’s just about it for today but before we go, some of our listeners already know about the m most powerful tool on chineseclass101.com.
Echo: Right. It’s line by line audio.
Dave: The perfect tool for rapidly improving listening comprehension. You can use it to listen to lines of the conversation over and over again…
Echo: Right.
Dave: And listen to each word and syllable in the dialogue until it becomes clear. Basically we’ve broken down the dialogue into comprehensible bite size sentences.
Echo: You can try the line by line audio in the premium learning center at chineseclass101.com.
Dave: Along with a host of other tools that can help you learn Chinese more quickly and more effectively.
Echo: 没错。 (Méi cuò.)
Dave: And that wraps things up for this week. From Beijing, I am Dave Lyons.
Echo: 我是Echo. (Wǒ shì Echo.) Take care everybody and we will see you next time.
Dave: Hope to see you then. Bye bye.
Echo: Bye bye.

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