Dialogue

Vocabulary (Review)

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Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
David: Welcome to chineseclass101.com. I am David.
Echo: Hi, 大家好, 我是Echo。(Dàjiā hǎo, wǒ shì Echo.)
David: And we are here today with lower beginner, season 1, Lesson 17.
Echo: Asking for help in Chinese.
David: Right. So we have a dialogue that takes place in someone’s house. It’s them and a friend. They are asking the friend to give them a hand.
Echo: 没错 (Méi cuò) And they are speaking casual Mandarin as always.
David: Right. Let’s get to the dialogue.
DIALOGUE
A:可以帮我个忙吗?(Kěyǐ bāng wǒ gè máng ma?)
B: 没问题,做什么? (Méi wèntí, zuò shénme?)
A: 帮我扶一下,我要换灯泡。(Bāng wǒ fú yíxià, wǒ yào huàn dēngpào.)
B: 这样行吗?(Zhèyàng xíng ma?)
A:就这样,谢谢。(Jiù zhèyàng, xièxiè.)
B: 没事。(Méishì.)
David: Once more a bit slower.
A:可以帮我个忙吗?(Kěyǐ bāng wǒ gè máng ma?)
B: 没问题,做什么? (Méi wèntí, zuò shénme?)
A: 帮我扶一下,我要换灯泡。(Bāng wǒ fú yíxià, wǒ yào huàn dēngpào.)
B: 这样行吗?(Zhèyàng xíng ma?)
A:就这样,谢谢。(Jiù zhèyàng, xièxiè.)
B: 没事。(Méishì.)
David: And now with an English translation.
Echo:可以帮我个忙吗?(Kěyǐ bāng wǒ gè máng ma?)
David: Can you lend me a hand?
Echo: 没问题,做什么?(Méi wèntí, zuò shénme?)
David: No problem, what do you want me to do?
Echo: 帮我扶一下,我要换灯泡。(Bāng wǒ fú yíxià, wǒ yào huàn dēngpào.)
David: Hold this for me. I need to change the light bulb.
Echo: 这样行吗?(Zhèyàng xíng ma?)
David: Like this?
Echo: 就这样,谢谢。(Jiù zhèyàng, xièxiè.)
David: Yes thank you.
Echo:没事。(Méishì.)
David: You are welcome.
POST CONVERSATION BANTER
Echo: So David, 你换过灯泡吗? (Nǐ huànguò dēngpào ma?)
David: I need to change the light bulb, are you kidding? Yes, yes why don’t we just move on right away and take a look at some of the words in this lesson.
Echo: Okay. 可以。(Kěyǐ.)
VOCAB LIST
David: Can.
Echo: 可以,可以,帮。(Kěyǐ, kěyǐ, bāng.)
David: To help.
Echo: 帮,帮,扶。(Bāng, bāng, fú.)
David: To hold.
Echo: 扶,扶,换。(Fú, fú, huàn.)
David: To change.
Echo:换,换,一下。(Huàn, huàn, yīxià.)
David: A bit.
Echo: 一下,一下,灯泡。(Yīxià, yīxià, dēngpào.)
David: Light bulb.
Echo: 灯泡,灯泡,这样。(Dēngpào, dēngpào, zhèyàng.)
David: This way.
Echo: 这样,这样,没事。(Zhèyàng, zhèyàng, méishì.)
David: You are welcome.
Echo: 没事,没事。(Méishì, méishì.)
David: There are a lot of more tricky words in this. So let’s move on to them right away. Echo, the first one I want to touch on is this verb to hold.
VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE
Echo: 扶。(Fú.)
David: To hold.
Echo: 扶。(Fú.)
David: Because it’s not exactly to hold.
Echo: 对, 这个更多的好像就是, 这不是把它全放在你的手里, 你就是帮忙。(Duì, zhège gèng duō de hǎoxiàng jiùshì, zhè bùshì bǎ tā quán fàng zài nǐ de shǒu lǐ, nǐ jiùshì bāngmáng.)
David: Yes it’s not holding your hand and grasping you, it’s more like supporting it.
Echo: 没错, 没错, 比如说你可以扶什么人, 或者是什么东西都可以。(Méi cuò, méi cuò, bǐrú shuō nǐ kěyǐ fú shénme rén, huòzhě shì shénme dōngxī dū kěyǐ.)
David: Right. So if someone is kind of leaning on you and you are kind of holding them up
Echo: 对, 你可以....(Duì, nǐ kěyǐ....)
David: By the arm, you should lift or 扶。(Fú.)
Echo: 对。(Duì.)
David: Right like you are lifting up their arm to help them.
Echo: 没错, 可以扶老人过马路。(Méi cuò, kěyǐ fú lǎorénguò mǎlù.)
David: Right. That’s to 扶 an old lady across the road.
Echo: 对, 你不是抱他们过马路。(Duì, nǐ bùshì bào tāmenguò mǎlù.)
David: Yeah.
Echo: You 扶他们过马路。(Fú tāmenguò mǎlù.)
David: Yes it’s impolite if you 抱 them.
Echo: No那很恐怖, 不然你可以帮别人扶椅子。(Nà hěn kǒngbù, bùrán nǐ kěyǐ bāng biérén fú yǐzi.)
David: Yes to kind of – that’s holding a chair for them.
Echo:对, 比如说 我去换灯泡, 你帮我扶一下椅子。(Duì, bǐrú shuō wǒ qù huàn dēngpào, nǐ bāng wǒ fú yīxià yǐzi.)
David: Yeah. Moving on, we have the verb
Echo: 换。(Huàn.)
David: Which we’ve run into before. There we were using it to change money.
Echo: 对, 换钱, 换美元。(Duì, huànqián, huàn měiyuán.)
David: Yes. So to change US dollars into Renminbi.
Echo: 唔, 把美元换成人民币。(Wú, bǎ měiyuán huàn chéng rénmínbì.)
David: Right. Here it just means to change, to change light bulbs.
Echo: 对, 换灯泡, 或者是换水龙头。(Duì, huàn dēngpào, huòzhě shì huàn shuǐlóngtóu.)
David: Right. Our next word has a secret sound tucked at the end.
Echo: 一下。(Yīxià.)
David: Can you hear it?
Echo: 一下。(Yīxià.)
David: Yeah it’s not 一下 it’s 一下。
Echo: 对 With the R.
David: Yes it’s got these and that’s standard Mandarin, that’s not the Beijing accent although down it says, people will drop it off sometimes. How do we use this?
Echo: Well we use 一下 after verbs.
David: Right.
Echo: To make it sound more polite.
David: Yeah to make it sound like it’s not a big deal.
Echo: 对, 比如说等一下。(Duì, bǐrú shuō děng yīxià.)
David: Wait a little bit.
Echo: 或者说扶一下。(Huòzhě shuō fú yīxià.)
David: Right. Just you know, hold it up for a little bit. It won’t take long.
Echo: 换一下。(Huàn yīxià.)
David: Yes. Last but not least, we have the word for light bulb.
Echo: 灯泡。(Dēngpào.)
David: Light bulb.
Echo: 灯泡。
David: Which is, literally its lantern bubble?
Echo: 唔, 对, 灯泡, 挺好的我觉。(Wú, duì, dēngpào, tǐng hǎo de wǒ jué.)
David: Sometimes, you need to change the lantern bubble.
Echo: 换灯泡。(Huàn dēngpào.)
David: Right. Okay and with that, let’s get on to our grammar section.
Echo: 好! (Hǎo!)

Lesson focus

David: It’s grammar time. Okay, we are not going to go into grammar today so much as just reviewing some of these common words and phrases that start with a character
Echo: 没。(Méi.)
David: In the dialogue, we ran into two of these.
Echo: 唔, 第一个是 没问题。(Wú, dì yī gè shì méi wèntí.)
David: No problem.
Echo: 没问题。(Méi wèntí.)
David: No problem.
Echo: 第二个是 没事。(Dì èr gè shì méishì.)
David: Literally also no problem. Right?
Echo: But in the dialogue, it means you are welcome.
David: Yeah.
Echo: 没事。(Méishì.)
David: It’s not a big deal.
Echo: Yeah 没事。(Méishì.)
David: Yes there are a couple of other really common ones and we just wanted to review them. Echo?
Echo: 比如说 没关系, 我们的 old friend. (Bǐrú shuō méiguānxì, wǒmen de old friend.)
David: Yes which is literally you know, no connection, no relation.
Echo: 对不起, 没关系。(Duìbùqǐ, méiguānxì.)
David: Yeah it’s also kind of you are welcome or it’s not a big deal often.
Echo: 对, 其实这些词都可以通用 (Duì, qíshí zhèxiē cí dōu kěyǐ tōngyòng) They can use pretty much interchangeably and not in a lot of situations.
David: Yeah.
Echo: 比如说 谢谢,啊!没关系。(Bǐrú shuō xièxiè, a! Méiguānxì.)
David: Next we have
Echo: 没什么。(Méishénme.)
David: It’s nothing.
Echo: 没什么。(Méishénme.)
David: Right and that 什么 (Shénme) means anything. It’s not a question.
Echo: 对, 所以它也可以是 不客气的意思。(Duì, suǒyǐ tā yě kěyǐ shì bù kèqì de yìsi.)
David: Yeah.
Echo: 谢谢, 啊! 没什么。(Xièxiè, a! Méishénme.)
David: Yeah. So all of these are really casual.
Echo: 唔, 对, 很口语的 (Wú, duì, hěn kǒuyǔ de)
David: Right. Echo, let’s hear them again.
Echo: 没问题, 没事, 没关系, 没什么。(Méi wèntí, méishì, méiguānxì, méishénme.)
David: And again notice the special R tucked on the end of that second one.
Echo: 没事。(Méishì.)
David: Right. You’ve got to have that 没事 (Méishì)
Echo: 对, 不能说没事, 太奇怪了。(Duì, bùnéng shuō méishì, tài qíguàile.)
David: Yeah it will make you sound a bit weird. So maybe we should change the title of this lesson and have it about hidden R right?
Echo: Right.
David: Because if you leave them off in both cases
Echo: 唔, 就有事了。(Wú, jiù yǒushìle.)

Outro

David: Yes you will have 事 (Shì) okay and with that, we are out of time for today. Before we let you go Echo, something that you wanted to mention.
Echo: 没错。(Méi cuò.)
David: Number five. Yes if you have questions or comments, feel free to leave a note on our site.
Echo: 对。(Duì.)
David: We’d love to hear from you. For now though, that is all the time we have. From Beijing,
Echo: 我是Echo。(Wǒ shì Echo.)
David: And I am David.
Echo: 请大家给我们留言吧! 再见。(Qǐng dàjiā jǐ wǒmen liúyán ba! Zàijiàn.)
David: Bye bye.

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