Taking the Scenic Route in China

Dialogue

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Vocabulary

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Lesson Transcript

Lesson focus
Amber: Now, no Chinese vacation would be complete without a tour
Victor: Today’s lesson is a little break for everyone.
Amber: A tour of glorious Shanghai. But there's so much to see and do, we have choices.
Victor: But before we do that, let's review our last lesson, lesson 27.
Amber: Yes, in it we learned about the infamous 'le'
Victor: Yes, we learned about the 'le' that is used to indicated a completed action. It is a particle that is generally placed after the verb, or at the end of a sentence, to show something happened in the past.
Amber: Yes, remember Mike was telling about where he went.
Victor: Yes
Amber: And don't forget wàitān is the Bund, because you're going to want to go there when your turn comes to go to Shanghai.
Victor: We also learned a very good phrase
Amber: Yes, or alternatively, shenme ye...
Victor: Let's listen in and see what's in store.
Amber: OK well Mike is pretty doing everything... let's see what he gets up to in today's dialogue.
Ticket Agent: 下一位。
Ticket Agent: 下一位。
Mike: 你们这儿有什么旅行？
Ticket Agent: 我们有城市旅游，还有文化旅游。
Mike: 哪个好？
Ticket Agent: 城市旅游会去上海的重要景点。文化旅游会去五个博物馆，还会去上海老城。
Mike: 导游会说英语吗？
Ticket Agent: 对，她会说英语。
Mike: 我要文化旅游，两张票。
English Host: Let’s hear the conversation one time slowly.
Mike: 你们这儿有什么旅行？
Ticket Agent: 我们有城市旅游，还有文化旅游。
Mike: 哪个好？
Ticket Agent: 城市旅游会去上海的重要景点。文化旅游会去五个博物馆，还会去上海老城。
Mike: 导游会说英语吗？
Ticket Agent: 对，她会说英语。
Mike: 我要文化旅游，两张票。
English Host: Now let’s hear it with the English translation.
Ticket Agent: 下一位。
Amber: Next.
Mike: 你们这儿有什么旅行？
Amber: What tours do you have here?
Ticket Agent: 我们有城市旅游，还有文化旅游。
Amber: We have a city tour and we also have a culture tour.
Mike: 哪个好？
Amber: Which one is good?
Ticket Agent: 城市旅游会去上海的重要景点。文化旅游会去五个博物馆，还会去上海老城。
Amber: The city tour will go to Shanghai's main tourist spots. The culture tour will go to five museums and also will go to the old parts of Shanghai.
Mike: 导游会说英语吗？
Amber: Can the tour guide speak English?
Ticket Agent: 对，她会说英语。
Amber: Yes, she can speak English.
Mike: 我要文化旅游，两张票。
Amber: I'll go for the culture tour; two tickets.
POST CONVERSATION BANTER
Amber: Oh, Chinese tours. Have you been on one Victor?
Victor: _______________.
Amber: One day I will share my Chinese hostage tour stories.
Victor: Oh yeah?
Amber: No trip to China is complete without one!
Victor: OK well for today all the words in today’s dialogue just make me want to go on a trip. And that gets us right into our first vocabulary word.
Vocabulary and Phrases
Amber: Let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson.
: The first word we shall see is:
Victor: 下 [natural native speed]
Amber: down, next, bottom
Victor: 下 [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Victor: 下 [natural native speed]
: Next:
Victor: 旅行 [natural native speed]
Amber: travel, tour
Victor: 旅行 [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Victor: 旅行 [natural native speed]
: Next:
Victor: 文化 [natural native speed]
Amber: culture
Victor: 文化 [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Victor: 文化 [natural native speed]
: Next:
Victor: 旅游 [natural native speed]
Amber: travel, tour
Victor: 旅游 [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Victor: 旅游 [natural native speed]
: Next:
Victor: 哪 [natural native speed]
Amber: which
Victor: 哪 [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Victor: 哪 [natural native speed]
: Next:
Victor: 会 [natural native speed]
Amber: will
Victor: 会 [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Victor: 会 [natural native speed]
: Next:
Victor: 景点 [natural native speed]
Amber: tourist spots
Victor: 景点 [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Victor: 景点 [natural native speed]
: Next:
Victor: 老城 [natural native speed]
Amber: old city
Victor: 老城 [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Victor: 老城 [natural native speed]
: Next:
Victor: 导游 [natural native speed]
Amber: tour guide
Victor: 导游 [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Victor: 导游 [natural native speed]
KEY VOCABULARY AND PHRASES
Amber: Let's have a closer look at the usuage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson.
Victor: The first word/phrase we’ll look at is....
Victor: qu 旅行
Amber: Now here is an interesting cultural note. The word that is often used for ‘tour’ in Chinese is 旅行. Which is also the word for ‘travel’. And I think this is because Chinese people generally go on tours for their travel.
Victor:
Amber: Yes, like my hostage tour.
Victor: And in the first instance we hear them refer to the tour as旅行
/ 旅游
Amber: Now comes a very important word to learn for a China dweller. The word for city.
Victor: 城市
Amber: And Shanghai is so huge I’m certain a city tour would take hours.
Victor: Yes, I might opt for the one Maike didn’t opt for, the 文化旅游
Amber: Another word our listeners should know… the word for culture
Victor: 文化
Amber: Now what are the highlights of the city tour?
Victor: Something very important. The 重要景点
Amber: The word for important being
Victor: 重要
Amber: And what is so important that they are seeing?
Victor: The 景点
Amber: Yes, literally ‘scenic spots’
Victor: 景 is the word for ‘scene’, 点 is the word for spot or point.
Amber: What about the culture tour, the 文化旅游. What does it have in store?
Victor: Well more 博物馆
Amber: Museums. Yeah but Mike’s been there done that.
Victor: But what I think is the highlight is the上海老城
Amber: Ah now, I think we know the first part, Shanghai. Then this word is made up of 2 words, shortened.
Victor: Yes, in true Chinese abbreviated form, they take the word for ‘old’ which is ‘old’
Amber: Then they add the word for ‘city’, which we learned earlier ‘chengshi’.
Victor: then they just shorten it to ‘laocheng’
Amber: And we can all guess what that means right?
Victor: Old city So上海老城 is Shanghai old city
Amber: My favorite parts.
Victor: I think I would take the文化旅游
Amber: Well, obviously, like yourself Victor, Maike is a cultured sort of man, and opted for that too.
Victor: And lastly we have something no tour could be complete without, the 导游
Amber: Oh I can see her now with the little red flag in hand for everyone to follow.
Victor: OK we have a couple grammar points for you!
Amber: We’re going to get into a little grammar jargon, but not too much. Just enough to help you understand ‘adjectival verbs’
Victor: Yeah basically adjectival verbs are like adjectives in English.
Amber: Words used to describe a person place thing etc.
Victor: So some examples of these kinds of descriptive words in Chinese would be ‘gao’ tall, ‘pang’ fat, etc.
Amber: OK so unlike adjective in English, however, you do not use ‘to be’ to link these adjectival verbs. So what I mean is, in English we say ‘He is tall’ But in Chinese it doesn’t work like that.
Victor: No, rather we just say ‘ta gao’. Or, if we want to add emphasis, we can use an intensifier word like ‘hen’ which is like ‘very’.
Amber: OK so lets try another descriptive word. How about ‘busy’
Victor: OK the word for busy is ‘mang’. So if I wanted to say she is busy, I could say ‘ta mang’. Or, ‘ta hen mang’.
Amber: So pretty easy. Now another descriptive word we can use is our favorite little word ‘hao’.
Victor: And why we are on this topic of adjectival verbs is to also show you how this sentence works. It’s the one where Maike hears about the tours that are on offer.
Amber: Yes, and he wants to know which one is better, so he says
Victor: 哪个好?
Amber: Which one is good.
Victor: Simple as that. We know the word for that is na, 4th tone, sometimes pronounced ‘nei4’. Well the word for which is almost the same—same pinyin but 3rd tone, ‘na3’ or ‘nei3’, whichever you prefer.
Amber: That na4 or nei4. Which na3 or nei3.
Victor: So the phrase to make a comparison with that we see in the dialogue is
Amber: It basically just says ‘which good’, from the context we can see that what he is really asking is ‘which is better’.
Victor: 哪个好? So if you wanted to say, which one is taller, you just say哪个高?
Amber: Or which one tastes better
Victor: 那个好吃。
Amber: How do you say, ‘which of the two hosts are better’.
Victor: haha
Amber: OK OK we wont ask them that.
Victor: OK now onto another point we see in the lesson, that is, using the verb会
Amber: Ah yes. The many faces of 会.
Victor: Well today we see two of the faces. One, we have learned before.
Amber: Let’s start with the one we know, just a quick review.
Victor: They are both the same character. The difference is context. The first 会 is the one that expresses ability to do something. Like ‘我会说英文。’
Amber: And in the dialogue we hear
Victor: 导游会说英语吗？
Amber: Does the tour guide speak English.
Victor: OK now the other会 is one we’ve all been waiting for… because it helps us to express the future tense.
Amber: Yes, so会 is actually a modal verb, and we can say it’s a rough equivalent to ‘will’ in English.
Victor: So let’s hear it in the dialogue… not to be confused with the ability ‘hui’.
Amber: Well it’s when the ticket lady is talking abou the places that the tour will go.
Victor: She says
Amber: So you will hear the ‘hui’ slipped in there right before the ‘qu’, or the verb ‘to go’.
Victor: So the order is much like English. ‘I will go…’ ‘wo hui qu’.
Amber: So I can make future tense this easily!?
Victor: Yes!
Amber: So like, I will go to China.
Victor: 我会去北京。
Amber: I will hit you.
Victor: 我会打你。

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Taking the Scenic Route in China

Want to Understand & Master the Chinese Dialogue 100%?

Learn New Words FAST with this Lesson’s Vocab Review List

Unlock In-Depth Explanations & Exclusive Takeaways with Printable Lesson Notes

Lesson focus