Learn about a phrase that can be rather confusing
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Chris: Welcome to chineseclass101.com. I am David. |
| Echo: Hi, 大家好, 我是Echo。(Dàjiā hǎo, wǒ shì Echo.) |
| Chris: And we are here today with lower beginner, season 1, Lesson 23. |
| Echo: What a Cute Chinese Child! |
| Chris: Right, all Chinese children are cute. |
| Echo: 噢! 谢谢!(Ō! Xièxiè!) |
| Chris: Right until they become sullen teenagers. |
| Echo: Umm… |
| Chris: Then the cuteness stops. |
| Echo: 中国人觉得外国小孩很可爱 like dolls.(Zhōngguó rén juédé wàiguó xiǎohái hěn kě'ài like dolls) |
| Chris: Like small children in general are cute. That’s the takeaway from this lesson. |
| Echo: Right. |
| Chris: Anyway, we’ve got a dialogue talking about how cute, how cute your daughter is. Casual Mandarin as always. |
| Echo: useful stuff. |
| Chris: Let’s get to it. |
| DIALOGUE |
| A:您的女儿真可爱。(Nín de nǚér zhēn kěài.) |
| B:哈哈，谢谢。她可淘气了。(Hāhā, xièxiè.Tā kě táoqìle.) |
| A:她多大了？(Tāduōdà le?) |
| B:下个月2岁。(Xià gè yuè liǎng suì.) |
| A:长得真像妈妈。(Zhǎngde zhēn xiàng māma.) |
| Chris: Once more, a bit slower. |
| A:您的女儿真可爱。(Nín de nǚér zhēn kěài.) |
| B:哈哈，谢谢。她可淘气了。(Hāhā, xièxiè.Tā kě táoqìle.) |
| A:她多大了？(Tāduōdà le?) |
| B:下个月2岁。(Xià gè yuè liǎng suì.) |
| A:长得真像妈妈。(Zhǎngde zhēn xiàng māma.) |
| Chris: And now with an English translation. |
| Echo:您的女儿真可爱。(Nín de nǚér zhēn kěài.) |
| Chris: Your daughter is really cute. |
| Echo: 哈哈，谢谢。她可淘气了。(Hāhā, xièxiè.Tā kě táoqìle.) |
| Chris: Thanks. She can be very naughty too. |
| Echo: 她多大了？(Tāduōdà le?) |
| Chris: How old is she? |
| Echo: 下个月2岁。(Xià gè yuè liǎng suì.) |
| Chris: She will be two next month. |
| Echo: 长得真像妈妈。(Zhǎngde zhēn xiàng māma.) |
| Chris: She looks a lot like her mother. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Chris: You can have this conversation with any Chinese parent. |
| Echo: 没错(Méi cuò), And they will love it. |
| Chris: Right because every Chinese child is both 可爱 (Kě'ài) and 淘气.(Táoqì.) |
| Echo: 孩子都差不多。(Háizi dōu chàbùduō.) |
| Chris: Okay well you said that Echo, not me. Anyway let’s get to our vocab today. |
| Echo: Okay. 您.(Nín.) |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Chris: You |
| Echo: 您, 您, 女儿。(Nín, nín, nǚ'ér.) |
| Chris: Daughter. |
| Echo:女儿,女儿,可爱。(Nǚ'ér, nǚ'ér, kě'ài.) |
| Chris: Cute |
| Echo: 可爱,可爱, 淘气。(Kě'ài, kě'ài, táoqì.) |
| Chris: Naughty. |
| Echo: 淘气,淘气,下个月。(Táoqì, táoqì, xià gè yuè.) |
| Chris: Next month. |
| Echo: 下个月,下个月,岁。(Xià gè yuè, xià gè yuè, suì.) |
| Chris: Age |
| Echo: 岁,岁,长得。(Suì, suì, zhǎng dé.) |
| Chris: To look. |
| Echo: 长得,长得,像。(Zhǎng dé, zhǎng dé, xiàng.) |
| Chris: Like |
| Echo: 像,像。(Xiàng, xiàng.) |
| Chris: Let’s take a closer look at some of these words and phrases, right. First we had the polite form of you. |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Echo: 您。(Nín.) |
| Chris: You |
| Echo: 您。(Nín.) |
| Chris: Right which is the character you and then it’s a heart underneath… |
| Echo: Right. |
| Chris: Because we love you. Right it does. It means we are concerned about you. Next we have the word for daughter. |
| Echo: 女儿。(Nǚ'ér.) |
| Chris: Daughter. |
| Echo: 女儿。(Nǚ'ér.) |
| Chris: When you say this, try sliding the third tone of 女 into the儿 which is kind of rising. |
| Echo: Yeah 女儿。(Nǚ'ér.) |
| Chris: Right and a reminder that this is not the Beijing accent. |
| Echo: It’s not the R 发音(Fāyīn). it’s not the 儿 (Er) sound. |
| Chris: And when you say this, try sliding the 女 (Nǚ) into the sound that follows though it dips and it comes back up in one motion. |
| Echo: 女儿。(Nǚ'ér.) |
| Chris: Daughter. |
| Echo: 女儿。(Nǚ'ér.) |
| Chris: As in your daughter is really cute. |
| Echo:您的女儿 真可爱。(Nín de nǚ'ér zhēn kě'ài.) |
| Chris: Yeah and this is not the Beijing accent. Just a reminder. |
| Echo: Yeah so don’t put them together. They are two syllables. |
| Chris: Yeah and if you are down south, you can’t just leave off the r as well. That would be weird. |
| Echo: 对。(Duì.) |
| Chris: They will mark you as a foreigner. Moving on, we have the two adjectives most often used to describe children. |
| Echo: 唔, 可爱。(Wú, kě'ài.) |
| Chris: Cute |
| Echo: 可爱。(Kě'ài.) |
| Chris: Right and |
| Echo:淘气。(Táoqì.) |
| Chris: Naughty. |
| Echo: 淘气。(Táoqì.) |
| Chris: And naughty is, |
| Echo: It’s not bad. |
| Chris: It’s kind of cute in Chinese. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| Chris: People will say, oh 淘气 (Táoqì) and they really mean what a great… |
| Echo: 小淘气。(Xiǎo táoqì.) |
| Chris: Right. It’s kind of indulgent. |
| Echo: 对, 有点儿。(Duì, yǒudiǎn er.) |
| Chris: So… |
| Echo: 所以这个不是不好的。(Suǒyǐ zhège bùshì bù hǎo de.) |
| Chris: Yeah the English naughty, it sounds kind of bad. What if it is 不好的。(Bù hǎo de.) |
| Echo: 这个孩子太淘气了。(Zhège háizi tài táoqìle.) |
| Chris: Ah it doesn’t sound negative right. It just sounds like you are more kind of… |
| Echo: We have nothing to say. |
| Chris: Lovingly exasperated. So there is not really anything negative you can do about the children who are running, screaming in circles around you in public. |
| Echo: Colloquially, you can say 太闹了.(Tài nàole.) |
| Chris: Hmm yeah but that didn’t mean |
| Echo: 这个是有点 (Zhège shì yǒudiǎn) negatively. |
| Chris: You are being loud and kind of disruptive yeah. |
| Echo: Yeah 太闹了,热闹的闹。(Tài nàole, rènào de nào.) |
| Chris: Yeah. If they are good, we’ve already learned that you can describe children also as |
| Echo: 乖。(Guāi.) |
| Chris: Which is kind of obedient and well behaved. |
| Echo: 在中国大家都喜欢 乖孩子。(Zài zhōngguó dàjiā dōu xǐhuān guāi háizi.) |
| Chris: I think people also like 淘气的孩子。(Táoqì de háizi.) |
| Echo: 对, 我们都说淘气的孩子很聪明, 如果一个妈妈说哎呀我的孩太淘气了, 你可以说啊...不不不, 淘气的孩子很聪明。(Duì, wǒmen dōu shuō táoqì de háizi hěn cōngmíng, rúguǒ yīgè māmā shuō āiyā wǒ de hái tài táoqìle, nǐ kěyǐ shuō a... Bù bù bù, táoqì de háizi hěn cōngmíng.) |
| Chris: So basically the Chinese language, it’s almost impossible to insult parents by describing their children in various ways. |
| Echo: Yeah very very 客气。(Kèqì.) |
| Chris: Moving on, we also wanted to highlight two more words and phrases. It’s next month. |
| Echo: 下个月。(Xià gè yuè.) |
| Chris: And last month. |
| Echo: 上个月。(Shàng gè yuè.) |
| Chris: Next month, I will be in Hong Kong. |
| Echo: 下个月 我在香港。(Xià gè yuè wǒ zài xiānggǎng.) |
| Chris: Last month, I was in Shanghai. |
| Echo: 上个月 我在上海。(Shàng gè yuè wǒ zài shànghǎi.) |
| Chris: Right. Trick to remember them, I like to think of a calendar because up is back in time and down is in the future. |
| Echo: 唔, 这个很有用。(Wú, zhège hěn yǒuyòng.) |
| Chris: Yeah and don’t forget that 个 as well. |
| Echo: 没错, 不要说下月, 我们说下个月。(Méi cuò, bùyào shuō xià yuè, wǒmen shuō xià gè yuè.) |
| Chris: Right. Okay moving on, our grammar point is about growing up to look like mom. It’s grammar time. Okay this is something, it’s easy to get wrong. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Echo: 对。(Duì.) |
| Chris: Because it doesn’t make any sense but Echo, what are we talking about today? |
| Echo: It’s about this word 长得。(Zhǎng dé.) |
| Chris: To grow up in a way that results in… |
| Echo: 长得。(Zhǎng dé.) |
| Chris: In our dialogue, we run into this in the following line. |
| Echo: 长得真像妈妈。(Zhǎng dé zhēn xiàng māmā.) |
| Chris: To look like one’s mother. |
| Echo:长得真像妈妈。(Zhǎng dé zhēn xiàng māmā.) |
| Chris: Right. So what it means and the way we translate it are different, right. The key thing here is that when we say something, it looks like something else. |
| Echo: 长得。(Zhǎng dé.) |
| Chris: Is used exclusively for people. |
| Echo: Yeah or animals. |
| Chris: Right. Well okay yeah. |
| Echo: Living things. |
| Chris: Yes you can describe your cat in this way. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| Chris: But if you are saying to someone friends since if you meet – if you meet someone, you say wow you are really handsome. |
| Echo: 你长得真帅。(Nǐ zhǎng dé zhēn shuài.) |
| Chris: Or wow, you are really pretty. |
| Echo: 你长得真漂亮。(Nǐ zhǎng dé zhēn piàoliang.) |
| Chris: That’s how we do it in Chinese. |
| Echo: Yes. |
| Chris: Right. |
| Echo: 长得 (Zhǎng dé) is always about the appearance. |
| Chris: Yes so it’s how you look and it’s also about kind of aging and growing into a way of resembling something. |
| Echo: 没错。(Méi cuò.) |
| Chris: This is different than the other ways we have in Chinese that are same. You look like – something… |
| Echo: Old friend we know 看起来。(Kàn qǐlái.) |
| Chris: To seem |
| Echo: 看起来。(Kàn qǐlái.) |
| Chris: To seem. Right. |
| Echo: Well lot of times, you can use 看起来 (Kàn qǐlái) when you want to use 长得.(Zhǎng dé.) |
| Chris: Well you can use it in some cases like you seem really tired. |
| Echo: Like appearance. 你看起来佷累。(Nǐ kàn qǐlái hěn lèi.) |
| Chris: Right or you look like you are a little bit sick. |
| Echo: 你看起来好像病了。(Nǐ kàn qǐlái hǎoxiàng bìngle.) |
| Chris: Right but that it’s transitory. It’s not something that’s staying with you forever and it’s not really describing your appearance. It’s describing something that passes. |
| Echo: 对(Duì), Even trickier, you can say things like 他看起来像是老师。(Tā kàn qǐlái xiàng shì lǎoshī.) |
| Chris: Right. The other thing to remember is that |
| Echo: 看起来。(Kàn qǐlái.) |
| Chris: Is often used for situations and objects especially with situations, you can see it seems this is more difficult than I thought. |
| Echo: 唔, 这个看起来比我想像的更难。(Wú, zhège kàn qǐlái bǐ wǒ xiǎngxiàng de gèng nán.) |
| Chris: Yeah or it seems it’s going to rain today. |
| Echo: 唔, 看起来今天要下雨。(Wú, kàn qǐlái jīntiān yào xià yǔ.) |
| Chris: Right. We would never use |
| Echo: 长得 (Zhǎng dé) No way. |
| Chris: Right because there is nothing that’s growing here. |
| Echo: Yeah and there is no people there right? |
| Chris: Yeah. |
| Echo: And you can also say things like 这个桌子 看起来不错。(Zhège zhuōzi kàn qǐlái bu cuò.) |
| Chris: Yeah. The table looks good. Okay so two key ways of saying that things look someway. |
| Echo: 长得, 看起來。(Zhǎng dé, kàn qǐlái.) |
| Chris: The first one is used for people’s appearances. You look handsome. |
| Echo: 你长得很帅。(Nǐ zhǎng dé hěn shuài.) |
| Chris: You look beautiful. |
| Echo: 你长得很漂亮。(Nǐ zhǎng dé hěn piàoliang.) |
| Chris: You look like your mother. |
| Echo: 你长得像你妈妈。(Nǐ zhǎng dé xiàng nǐ māmā.) |
| Chris: The other |
| Echo: 看起來。(Kàn qǐlái.) |
Outro |
| Chris: Use it for transitory states and situations. So that’s all the time we have. Before we let you go, we want to remind you about something in the premium learning center. |
| Echo: 唔, 没错, 我们的 Flashcards.(Wú, méi cuò, wǒmen de Flashcards.) |
| Chris: Right. A useful way to review. You can spend 2-3 minutes, go through all of the vocab we covered in the lesson. |
| Echo: 对, 这是一个很好的复习的办法。(Duì, zhè shì yīgè hěn hǎo de fùxí de bànfǎ.) |
| Chris: It helps get it into your mind. With that though, we are at the end of our lot of time. From Beijing, I am David. |
| Echo: 我是Echo。(Wǒ shì Echo.) |
| Chris: Thanks for listening and we will see you online. |
| Echo: 网上见。(Wǎngshàng jiàn.) Bye bye. |
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