Dialogue

Vocabulary

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Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
David: Welcome to chineseclass101.com. I am David.
Echo: Hi, 大家好(Dàjiā hǎo), 我是(Wǒ shì)Echo。
David: And we are here with lower beginner, season 1, Lesson 8.
Echo: How Much Do You Love Chinese Cuisine?
David: Yes and we are talking about one kind of cuisine.
Echo: It’s very, very spicy.
David: Yes it’s from Sichuan.
Echo: Yeah.
David: You may have heard of it.
Echo: 我很喜欢。(Wǒ hěn xǐhuān.)
David: Yes Echo likes the hot pot but there is a ton of – ton of stuff there.
Echo: Yeah.
David: Anyway, our dialogue today is two friends who are deciding what to have for dinner.
Echo: Right and they are speaking casual Mandarin.
David: As always, let’s listen.
DIALOGUE
A:我们去吃四川菜怎么样?(Wǒmen qù chī Sìchuāncài zěnmeyàng ?)
B:行啊,四川菜不错。(Xíng a , Sìchuāncài búcuò.)
A:我最喜欢四川菜。又香又辣。(Wǒ zuì xǐhuān Sìchuāncài. Yòu xiāng yòu là.)
B:看着就有食欲。(Kànzhe jiù yǒu shíyù.)
A:走吧。(Zǒu ba.)
David: Once more a bit slower.
A: 我们去吃四川菜怎么样?(Wǒmen qù chī Sìchuāncài zěnmeyàng ?)
B: 行啊,四川菜不错。(Xíng a , Sìchuāncài búcuò.)
A: 我最喜欢四川菜。又香又辣。(Wǒ zuì xǐhuān Sìchuāncài. Yòu xiāng yòu là.)
B: 看着就有食欲。(Kànzhe jiù yǒu shíyù.)
A: 走吧。(Zǒu ba.)
David: And now with an English translation.
Echo: 我们去吃四川菜怎么样?(Wǒmen qù chī Sìchuāncài zěnmeyàng ?)
David: Let’s go eat Sichuan food. How about that?
Echo: 行啊,四川菜不错。(Xíng a , Sìchuāncài búcuò.)
David: Okay. Sichuan food is not bad.
Echo: 我最喜欢四川菜。又香又辣。(Wǒ zuì xǐhuān Sìchuāncài. Yòu xiāng yòu là.)
David: Sichuanese food is my favorite. It’s both fragrant and spicy.
Echo: 看着就有食欲。(Kànzhe jiù yǒu shíyù.)
David: Just looking at it gives you an appetite.
Echo: 走吧。(Zǒu ba.)
David: Let’s go.
POST CONVERSATION BANTER
David: And this is true. Looking at Sichuanese food, it is enough to make anyone feel hungry.
Echo: Yum yum yum!
David: Spicy and fragrant and…
Echo: That’s right.
David: Anyway, our theme today is obviously food. So let’s get to the vocab.
Echo: Okay. 四川菜。(sìchuān cài)
VOCAB LIST
David: Sichuanese food.
Echo: 四川菜, 四川菜, 不错。(sìchuān cài, sìchuān cài, búcuò)
David: Not bad.
Echo: 不错, 不错, 最。(búcuò, búcuò, zuì.)
David: Most.
Echo: 最, 最, 喜欢。(zuì, zuì, xǐhuān.)
David: To like.
Echo: 喜欢, 喜欢, 香。(xǐhuān, xǐhuān, xiāng.)
David: Fragrant.
Echo: 香, 香, 辣。(xiāng, xiāng, là)
David: Spicy.
Echo: 辣, 辣, 食欲。(là, là, shíyù)
David: Appetite.
Echo: 食欲, 食欲, 又....又....(shíyù, shíyù, yòu....yòu....)
David: Both, and.
Echo: 又....又.... , 又....又....(yòu....yòu.... , yòu....yòu....)
David: The first word I want to look at in that list is appetite.
VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE
Echo: 食欲。(shíyù.)
David: Appetite.
Echo: 食欲。(shíyù.)
David: And this is actually – it’s the toughest word and it’s not that frequently heard.
Echo: Right because this is a little bit more like – like…
David: It’s a bit formal.
Echo: Yeah a little bit more formal.
David: So I mean you may hear it but you are much more likely to hear people say something else.
Echo: Yeah for example, 我今天不想吃东西。(Wǒ jīntiān bùxiǎng chī dōngxī.)
David: Well that’s really straightforward. I don’t want to eat today. There is you know 不想吃.(Bùxiǎng chī.)
I am not hungry.
Echo: Or 我今天没胃口。(Wǒ jīntiān méi wèikǒu.)
David: Yes. That’s not to have
Echo: 胃口。(Wèikǒu.)
David: An appetite. Right and obviously if you are really hungry
Echo: 有胃口。(Yǒu wèikǒu.)
David: To have an appetite. And that’s a great word too because it’s stomach and mouth stuck together.
Echo: That’s right.
David: Right. Very direct. So you can say
Echo: 食欲。(Shíyù.)
David: I am really hungry.
Echo: 我今天很有食欲。(Wǒ jīntiān hěn yǒu shíyù.)
David: Or you can say
Echo: 胃口, 我今天很有胃口。(Wèikǒu, wǒ jīntiān hěn yǒu wèikǒu.)
David: Right. I like the second. I think you are going to hear it more certainly in the north.
Echo: Yeah.
David: Moving on Echo, what’s the next word we want to highlight?
Echo: The next one is 最.(Zuì.)
David: Most as in Sichuanese food is the hottest in China.
Echo: 对, 四川菜是中国最辣的菜。(Duì, sìchuān cài shì zhōngguó zuì là de cài.)
David: Sichuanese food is the hottest food in China.
Echo: 四川菜是中国最辣的菜。(Sìchuān cài shì zhōngguó zuì là de cài.)
David: Right or we could swap out adjectives. We could say, Sichuanese food is the most fragrant in China.
Echo: 四川菜是中国最香的菜。(Sìchuān cài shì zhōngguó zuì xiāng de cài.)
David: Yeah and that fragrant itself is kind of tricky because in English, you know we use it to describe flowers. In China, I mean it’s food, it’s flavors, it’s one of these Chinglish words that you know, fragrant mountain..
Echo: 香山。(Xiāngshān.)
David: You will run into it a lot.
Echo: So in Chinese, 香(Xiāng) can be like…
David: It’s a good thing.
Echo: Yeah.
David: It’s a good thing. No one is going to describe 拉鸡 (垃圾)(Lā jī (lèsè))
Echo: This is smell and it’s also like the taste.
David: It’s a good smell and a good taste and it’s kind of fresh and it invigorates your senses.
Echo: 太香了。(Tài xiāngle.)
David: Yes. And it works its way to so many place names. So we have like fragrant mountain and fragrant mansions and all of that.
Echo: Yeah.
David: Moving on, what’s next?
Echo: 辣(Là) is a word we mentioned.
David: Yes spicy and hot.
Echo: That’s right 很辣。(Hěn là.)
David: Yeah. It’s both of them too. So…
Echo: Yeah like you can say 这个菜很辣。(Zhège cài hěn là.)
David: Yeah and most of the time it means it’s hot but there is no real word in Chinese to describe peppery in the sense of being kind of spicy without burning your throat but this is the one everyone uses.
Echo: 辣。(Là.)
David: And when you go to a restaurant, people are going to ask you, you know, how hot do you want it.
Echo: 你想要多辣的?(Nǐ xiǎng yào duō là de?)
David: How hot do you want it?
Echo: 你想要多辣的?(Nǐ xiǎng yào duō là de?) or they will probably just say 你能吃辣的吗?(Nǐ néng chī là de ma?)
David: Yeah can you eat hot and you can specify for them. You can say, you know just a little bit hot.
Echo: 微辣。(Wēi là.)
David: Just a little hot.
Echo: 微辣。(Wēi là.)
David: Or you can say it like medium.
Echo: 中辣。(Zhōng là.)
David: Medium hot.
Echo: 中辣。(Zhōng là.)
David: And of course, you should know how to say hottest.
Echo: 最辣。(Zuì là.)
David: I want it the hottest.
Echo: 我要最辣的。(Wǒ yào zuì là de.)
David: Right.
Echo: Or there is another word, a bonus one 变态辣。(Biàntài là.)
David: Oh that is perverted hot. Right, don’t get that. You really, you don’t want that.
Echo: Or you can try.
David: You know, it’s not – you know, you think it’s a good idea when you are ordering and then it really isn’t.
Echo: Yeah anyway, let me repeat that word one more time so that you can remember. 变态辣。(Biàntài là.)
David: Okay. If you take Echo’s advice, you can send her the hate mail. For now, let’s move from our vocab on to our grammar point.
Echo: Okay.

Lesson focus

David: It’s grammar time. Okay anytime, we have a pattern in the vocab section, people can see the grammar section here. Of course, we are talking about
Echo: 又....又....(Yòu.... Yòu....)
David: Both and
Echo: 又....又....(Yòu.... Yòu....)
David: Right. This is the pattern and here is how we use it in the dialogue.
Echo: 我最喜欢四川菜 (Wǒ zuì xǐhuān sìchuān cài), 又香又辣。(Yòu xiāng yòu là.)
David: I really like Sichuanese food both fragrant and hot.
Echo: 又香又辣。(Yòu xiāng yòu là.)
David: Now we’ve got the subject that comes first and then this compound phrase.
Echo: Yeah.
David: Which in this case has adjectives. So for a simpler sentence, we could say that, I mean what would we say about Beijing Duck?
Echo: 北京烤鸭, 又香又脆。(Běijīng kǎoyā, yòu xiāng yòu cuì.)
David: Beijing Duck is both fragrant and crispy, right. I don’t know how it is dumplings. What do we describe dumplings as?
Echo: 饺子, 饺子又好吃又好看。(Jiǎozi, jiǎozi yòu hào chī yòu hǎokàn.)
David: Yeah and this is kind of introducing us to the second point we want to make about this which is in this case, we are mixing adjectives.
Echo: Right.
David: Right. So you can say that it is fragrant and spicy.
Echo: 又香又辣。(Yòu xiāng yòu là.)
David: You can say that something is good looking and good tasting.
Echo: 又好看, 又好吃。(Yòu hǎokàn, yòu hào chī.)
David: Right and of course they should be related.
Echo: Yeah they are like similar.
David: Yeah. So I mean if you are using two wildly different and unexpected adjectives, people are going to be confused.
Echo: But you can say 又大又小(Yòu dà yòu xiǎo) . It doesn’t make any sense.
David: You know, conceptually that would make sense but you know, if you describe something you know like it’s both convenient and…
Echo: Not convenient.
David: Its fragrance, you know that’s sort of weird, right. The tricky thing here is though that you don’t just need to use adjectives. You could also use…
Echo: We can use verbs. For example, 我又想吃, 又不敢吃四川菜。(Wǒ yòu xiǎng chī, yòu bù gǎn chī sìchuān cài.)
David: I both want to have Sichuanese food and yet don’t dare to eat it.
Echo: 我又想吃, 又不敢吃四川菜。(Wǒ yòu xiǎng chī, yòu bù gǎn chī sìchuān cài.)
David: Right and again there is a conceptual relation there. I want to eat it but I don’t dare eat Sichuanese food.
Echo: That’s right.
David: Right. One more example with verbs.
Echo: 听到这个消息, 他高兴得又叫又跳。(Tīng dào zhège xiāoxī, tā gāoxìng dé yòu jiào yòu tiào.)
David: When he heard this news, he was so excited that he…
Echo: 又叫又跳。(Yòu jiào yòu tiào.)
David: Both cried and jumped.
Echo: 听到这个消息, 他高兴得又叫又跳。(Tīng dào zhège xiāoxī, tā gāoxìng dé yòu jiào yòu tiào.)
David: And that’s good in Chinese.
Echo: Yeah.
David: Right. In English, maybe it’s awkward in Chinese, it’s good, right?
Echo: Umm…
David: So again, it’s a really simple grammar pattern.
Echo: That’s right. 又....又....(Yòu.... Yòu....)
David: And it means both A and B. And you have to use conceptually related adjectives or verbs and don’t mix them up.
Echo: No.
David: You can’t have an adjective first and then a verb.
Echo: No, no, no, no, no….

Outro

David: Right. People are going to look at you like you are crazy. So don’t do that. With that though, that is the end of our lesson.
Echo: Yeah.
David: Before we go Echo, something you want to remind people.
Echo: Make sure to leave us comments if you have questions.
David: Right and we’ve got an email address too. Contact us at chineseclass101.com.
Echo: 没错。(Méi cuò.)
David: We will do our best to get back to you.
Echo: Umm…
David: For now though, from Beijing, I am David.
Echo: 我是(Wǒ shì) Echo。
David: Thanks for listening and we will see you on the site.
Echo: 网上见吧!(Wǎngshàng jiàn ba!) Bye bye.

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