Learn a little bit about Chinese superstition regarding the year of their birth and also about a colloquialism that's often used to talk about sequential events
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| INTRODUCTION |
| David: Welcome to chineseclass101.com. I am David. |
| Echo: Hi, 大家好, 我是(Dàjiā hǎo, wǒ shì) Echo。 |
| David: And we are here with lower beginner, season 1, Lesson 11. |
| Echo: What’s Your Chinese Sign? |
| David: Right. We are talking about the year of the pig, year of the rabbit. |
| Echo: Right not like zodiacs. |
| David: Yes not the western zodiac, the special Chinese zodiac. So Echo, we have a romantic dialogue today. |
| Echo: Sort of, yeah. It’s between a guy and a girl. |
| David: It’s 50% romantic. |
| Echo: Yes. |
| David: Yeah and it`s casual Mandarin. |
| Echo: As usual. |
| David: Let’s get to it. |
| DIALOGUE |
| A:你应该做我女朋友。(Nǐ yīnggāi zuò wǒ nǚpéngyǒu.) |
| B:为什么？ (Wèishénme ?) |
| A:因为你属兔。(Yīnwèi nǐ shǔ tù.) |
| B:什么意思？(Shénme yìsi ?) |
| A:我属蛇，我们在一起很合适。(Wǒ shǔ shé, wǒmen zài yìqǐ hěn héshì.) |
| B:蛇？不行不行，我最讨厌蛇了。(Shé ? Bùxíng bùxíng, wǒzuì tǎoyàn shé le.) |
| A:呃...... (E......) |
| B:想到蛇就恶心。 (Xiǎngdào shé jiù ěxīn.) |
| David: Once more, a bit slower. |
| A:你应该做我女朋友。(Nǐ yīnggāi zuò wǒ nǚpéngyǒu.) |
| B:为什么？ (Wèishénme ?) |
| A:因为你属兔。(Yīnwèi nǐ shǔ tù.) |
| B:什么意思？(Shénme yìsi ?) |
| A:我属蛇，我们在一起很合适。(Wǒ shǔ shé, wǒmen zài yìqǐ hěn héshì.) |
| B:蛇？不行不行，我最讨厌蛇了。(Shé ? Bùxíng bùxíng, wǒzuì tǎoyàn shé le.) |
| A:呃...... (E......) |
| B:想到蛇就恶心 (Xiǎngdào shé jiù ěxīn.) |
| David: And now with an English translation. |
| Echo: 你应该做我女朋友。(Nǐ yīnggāi zuò wǒ nǚpéngyǒu.) |
| David: You should be my girlfriend. |
| Echo: 为什么？ (Wèishénme ?) |
| David: Why? |
| Echo: 因为你属兔。(Yīnwèi nǐ shǔ tù.) |
| David: Because you were born in the year of the rabbit. |
| Echo: 什么意思？(Shénme yìsi ?) |
| David: What do you mean? |
| Echo: 我属蛇，我们在一起很合适。(Wǒ shǔ shé, wǒmen zài yìqǐ hěn héshì.) |
| David: I was born in the year of the snake. We will go well together. |
| Echo: 蛇？不行不行，我最讨厌蛇了。(Shé ? Bùxíng bùxíng, wǒzuì tǎoyàn shé le.) |
| David: Snake? Oh no, no, no. I hate snakes the most. |
| Echo: 呃...... (E......) |
| David: Ah! |
| Echo: 想到蛇就恶心。(Xiǎngdào shé jiù ěxīn.) |
| David: As soon as I think of snakes, I get nauseous. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Echo: Do you like snakes? |
| David: Yes. I do. |
| Echo: I mean they can be… |
| David: Better than rats. Well I mean, year of the rat is the rough one. |
| Echo: Yes. |
| David: But it’s auspicious when it’s your year. |
| Echo: Me? |
| David: Are you a rat? |
| Echo: No I am a tiger. |
| David: Here is a chineseclass101 tip. When it is your year, you have to wear red. |
| Echo: Yes. |
| David: Right. |
| Echo: Right. |
| David: This is auspicious. |
| Echo: Yeah especially like red belt. |
| David: Or red underwear. |
| Echo: Yes. |
| David: So now you know… |
| Echo: But not the whole year, just you know the New Year Eve. |
| David: Important days of the year. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| David: Anyway, let’s get to our vocab section. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Echo: 应该。(Yīnggāi.) |
| David: Should. |
| Echo: 应该,应该,做。(Yīnggāi, yīnggāi, zuò.) |
| David: To be |
| Echo:做,做,女朋友。(Zuò, zuò, nǚ péngyǒu.) |
| David: Girlfriend. |
| Echo: 女朋友,女朋友,男朋友。(Nǚ péngyǒu, nǚ péngyǒu, nán péngyǒu.) |
| David: Boyfriend. |
| Echo: 男朋友, 男朋友,因为。(Nán péngyǒu, nán péngyǒu, yīnwèi.) |
| David: Because. |
| Echo: 因为, 因为,属。(Yīnwèi, yīnwèi, shǔ.) |
| David: To belong to. |
| Echo:属, 属,合适。(Shǔ, shǔ, héshì.) |
| David: Suitable. |
| Echo: 合适,合适,讨厌。(Héshì, héshì, tǎoyàn.) |
| David: To detest. |
| Echo: 讨厌,讨厌,恶心。(Tǎoyàn, tǎoyàn, ěxīn.) |
| David: Nauseous. |
| Echo: 恶心,恶心。(Ěxīn, ěxīn.) |
| David: Lots of words to highlight here. First a reminder of the pronunciation of because |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Echo: 因为。(Yīnwèi.) |
| David: Because. |
| Echo: 因为。(Yīnwèi.) |
| David: Because that’s the formal pronunciation Echo. |
| Echo: 因为。(Yīnwèi.) |
| David: Right but in China, everyone also says it this way. |
| Echo: 因为。(Yīnwèi.) |
| David: Right. So second tone or fourth tone both are okay. |
| Echo: But if you are taking Chinese tests |
| David: Yeah they will mark you wrong if you put that in the second tone but everyone says it in the second tone. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| David: It sounds better in the second tone. That’s what I think. We have some more words here. Echo, how about this word for nauseous? |
| Echo: 恶心。(Ěxīn.) |
| David: Nauseous. |
| Echo: 恶心。 (Ěxīn.) |
| David: It doesn’t just mean physically sick. |
| Echo: No it doesn’t. |
| David: Yeah so it can also mean disgusted or… |
| Echo: Yeah or 你真恶心。 (Nǐ zhēn ěxīn.) |
| David: Oh if someone says something nasty or vulgar, you can say that. |
| Echo: Yeah or it can be just a joke or 这个菜真恶心。(Zhège cài zhēn ěxīn.) |
| David: And if there is something that is really |
| Echo: 恶心。(Ěxīn.) |
| David: You are going to find that a lot of people |
| Echo: 讨厌。(Tǎoyàn.) |
| David: To detest. |
| Echo: 我真讨厌这个菜。(Wǒ zhēn tǎoyàn zhège cài.) |
| David: Yes. I really hate this dish. |
| Echo: 我真讨厌这个菜。 (Wǒ zhēn tǎoyàn zhège cài.) |
| David: Right. This word, you do have to be careful with if you are a man… |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| David: Because it’s much more commonly used by women. |
| Echo: Yeah especially when you use this word alone. |
| David: Yeah. |
| Echo: Yeah like 讨厌 (Tǎoyàn) or 你讨厌。(Nǐ tǎoyàn.) |
| David: Or with 讨厌鬼。(Tǎoyàn guǐ.) |
| Echo: Yeah 讨厌鬼。(Tǎoyàn guǐ.) |
| David: This is – you will hear younger kind of teenage girls say this. It’s kind of the Chinese equivalent of valley talk, I guess. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| David: So be careful but it’s so common. I mean even men will use it. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| David: Right. Do the test. |
| Echo: 讨厌 (Tǎoyàn) And last but not least, we have the word 合适。(Héshì.) |
| David: Suitable. |
| Echo: 合适。 (Héshì.) |
| David: Right and we are just highlighting this because it’s easily confused with another word. |
| Echo: 没错, 适合。(Méi cuò, shìhé.) |
| David: Which is the verb. |
| Echo: Yeah and 合适 (Héshì) here is an adjective. |
| David: Right. So you could say that something is very suitable. |
| Echo: 这件衣服很合适。(Zhè jiàn yīfú hěn héshì.) |
| David: Or you could use this verb and say that something suits you or it’s suitable for someone. |
| Echo: 对, 这件衣服 适合你。 (Duì, zhè jiàn yīfú shìhé nǐ.) |
| David: Yeah. Both are okay, everyone mixes them up. Just be a bit careful with that. |
| Echo: 对。(Duì.) |
| David: Okay and with that, let’s get on to our grammar point which is fun. |
| Echo: 好的。(Hǎo de.) |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| David: It’s grammar time. In previous lessons, we’ve taught you the |
| Echo: 一....就... (Yī.... Jiù...) |
| David: Structure which means as soon as something happens.. |
| Echo: Then… |
| David: Then, something else happens. |
| Echo: Yeah it’s very commonly used. |
| David: Yeah for instance |
| Echo: 我一来, 他就走了。(Wǒ yī lái, tā jiù zǒule.) |
| David: As soon as I showed up, he left. |
| Echo: 我一来, 他就走了。(Wǒ yī lái, tā jiù zǒule.) |
| David: Right. So it’s not the number one, it’s saying as soon as this happens, 就 (Jiù) then something else happens. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| David: We see something fun in our dialogue though. |
| Echo: Umm right. It’s actually in the last sentence. 想到蛇 就恶心。(Xiǎngdào shé jiù ěxīn.) |
| David: Let’s hear that again. |
| Echo: 想到蛇 就恶心。 (Xiǎngdào shé jiù ěxīn.) |
| David: So we are missing the subject which is 你 (Nǐ) but we are also missing the |
| Echo: 一.(Yī). |
| David: Right. |
| Echo: Yeah we don’t want to have a 就 (Jiù) there. |
| David: Right. It’s the same pattern. It’s this 一....就... (Yī.... Jiù...) pattern… |
| Echo: Right. |
| David: But we’ve dropped the 一 because we don’t need it. |
| Echo: If we put the subject and 一 back into the sentence, it should be 我一想到蛇就恶心。(Wǒ yī xiǎngdào shé jiù ěxīn.) |
| David: As soon as I think of snakes, then I get disgusted. |
| Echo: Right. 我一想到蛇就恶心。(Wǒ yī xiǎngdào shé jiù ěxīn.) |
| David: Yeah and people will also translate this as when, when I think of snakes, then I get disgusted. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| David: But in this case, the thing to note is it’s a colloquial omission… |
| Echo: Yes. |
| David: Of the 一 but it’s the same pattern. Now Echo, you’ve got a couple of examples of this for us just to help us work it out. |
| Echo: 没错, 看到属蛇的人, 她就高兴。(Méi cuò, kàn dào shǔ shé de rén, tā jiù gāoxìng.) |
| David: When she sees someone born in the year of the snake, she is excited. |
| Echo: 看到属蛇的人, 她,就高兴。(Kàn dào shǔ shé de rén, tā, jiù gāoxìng.) |
| David: She takes astrology very seriously. |
| Echo: 唔,有点迷信。(Wú, yǒudiǎn míxìn.) |
| David: Yes. |
| Echo: 她的朋友拿了钱 就走了。(Tā de péngyǒu nále qián jiù zǒule.) |
| David: Her friend took the money and left. As soon as she got her hands on the money, she was gone. |
| Echo: 孩子睡着觉, 就安静了。(Háizi shuìzhe jué, jiù ānjìngle.) |
| David: That’s for any new parents listening. |
| Echo: 孩子睡着觉, 就安静了。(Háizi shuìzhe jué, jiù ānjìngle.) |
| David: As soon as the child fell asleep, it was quiet. Right, so again this is a simple pattern. |
| Echo: Yeah 一....就... (Yī.... Jiù...) |
| David: As soon as something, something else. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| David: The important thing to note here is that sometimes we are going to drop that e in the colloquial Mandarin. |
| Echo: Yeah but it still means the same thing. |
Outro |
| David: Yeah and with that, we are done our lesson for today. Let us remind you if you haven’t yet, you can visit us at chineseclass101.com |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| David: And give us your email address for a free lifetime account. |
| Echo: Yeah. It will only take you 7 seconds. |
| David: Or less…. |
| Echo: Or even yeah less. |
| David: With that though, that is all the time we have. From Beijing, I am David. |
| Echo: 我是Echo。(Wǒ shì Echo.) |
| David: Thanks for listening and we will see you on the site. |
| Echo: 我们网上见吧! (Wǒmen wǎngshàng jiàn ba!) |
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