Learn how to compare two subjects
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Brendan: Welcome to Chineseclass101.com, the fastest, easiest and most fun way to learn Chinese. I’m Brendan. |
| Echo: 嗨，大家好，我是Echo. (Hāi, dàjiā hǎo, wǒ shì Echo.) |
| Brendan: And we’re coming at you today with Lower Intermediate Series, Season 1, Lesson 14 – “The big topics”. Now, we’ve covered small talk before, we’ve covered small conversation, we’ve covered weekend activities. |
| Echo: Yes. |
| Brendan: But, today, we’re going to tell you how to talk about big issues. |
| Echo: Exactly. |
| Brendan: National issues, population issues… |
| Echo: Right. |
| Brendan: Linguistic issues. |
| Echo: But, the two speakers are still speaking casual mandarin. |
| Brendan: Yes, it is, it’s a casual language, let’s face it. Before we get to the dialogue, just a reminder. If you want to fine tune your pronunciation, one of the best things you can do for it is to log on and voice our voice recording tool. |
| Echo: Right. |
| Brendan: It will let you record yourself speaking Chinese then play yourself back so that you can listen and pick out any mistakes you might be making. |
| Echo: That’s right. |
| Brendan: There is, as far as I know, no better way of improving your pronunciation than this. |
| Echo: 同意。(Tóngyì.) |
| Brendan: Let’s get to the dialogue. Oh, snap. Told him. |
| DIALOGUE |
| A:你知道吗，中国的网民比美国多。(Nǐ zhīdào ma， zhōngguó de wǎngmín bǐ Měiguó duō.) |
| B:我知道。(Wǒ zhīdào.) |
| A:你知道吗，中国有五十六个民族。(Nǐ zhīdào ma, Zhōngguó yǒu wǔshíliù ge mínzú.) |
| B:知道。(Zhīdào.) |
| A:你知道吗，中国有二百九十二种语言。(Nǐ zhīdào ma, Zhōngguó yǒu èrbǎi jiǔshíèr zhǒng yǔyán.) |
| B:你知道吗，你说得太多了。(Nǐ zhīdào ma, nǐ shuō de tài duō le.) |
| Brendan: Once more, slowly. |
| A:你知道吗，中国的网民比美国多。(Nǐ zhīdào ma， zhōngguó de wǎngmín bǐ Měiguó duō.) |
| B:我知道。(Wǒ zhīdào.) |
| A:你知道吗，中国有五十六个民族。(Nǐ zhīdào ma, Zhōngguó yǒu wǔshíliù ge mínzú.) |
| B:知道。(Zhīdào.) |
| A:你知道吗，中国有二百九十二种语言。(Nǐ zhīdào ma, Zhōngguó yǒu èrbǎi jiǔshíèr zhǒng yǔyán.) |
| B:你知道吗，你说得太多了。(Nǐ zhīdào ma, nǐ shuō de tài duō le.) |
| Brendan: And now, with English translation. |
| A:你知道吗，中国的网民比美国多。(Nǐ zhīdào ma， zhōngguó de wǎngmín bǐ Měiguó duō.) |
| A: Did you know China has more Internet users than the U.S? |
| B:我知道。(Wǒ zhīdào.) |
| B: I knew that. |
| A:你知道吗，中国有五十六个民族。(Nǐ zhīdào ma, Zhōngguó yǒu wǔshíliù ge mínzú.) |
| A: Did you know China has fifty-six ethnicities? |
| B:知道。(Zhīdào.) |
| B: I knew that. |
| A:你知道吗，中国有二百九十二种语言。(Nǐ zhīdào ma, Zhōngguó yǒu èrbǎi jiǔshíèr zhǒng yǔyán.) |
| A: Did you know China has 292 languages? |
| B:你知道吗，你说得太多了。(Nǐ zhīdào ma, nǐ shuō de tài duō le.) |
| B: Did you know you talk too much? |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Echo: 被发现了。 |
| Brendan: Yes, well, you know, and a lot of time people hear will talk a lot about China, you know, 5000 years of history, 56 ethnicities, 292 languages and… |
| Echo: 这就有点太...大家都知道。 You know, if you really want to talk about these kind of things, you don’t want to add 你知道吗？ |
| Brendan: Yes, it’s this sort of a nerdy show off kind of thing. |
| Echo: Right. |
| Brendan: And as you said, everybody knows. So, let’s get to the stuff that people might not know… |
| Echo: Right. |
| Brendan: Which is at first, the vocabulary for this. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Echo: 人口 (rénkǒu) |
| Brendan: “Population” |
| Echo: 网民 (wǎngmín) |
| Brendan: “Internet user” |
| Echo: 经济 (jīngjì) |
| Brendan: “Economy” |
| Echo: 世界大国 (shìjièdàguó) |
| Brendan: “Global power” |
| Echo: 生产 (shēngchǎn) |
| Brendan: “Manufacturing” |
| Echo: 民族 (mínzú) |
| Brendan: “Ethnicity” |
| Echo: 少数民族 (shǎoshùmínzú) |
| Brendan: “Ethnic minority” |
| Echo: 多数 (duōshù) |
| Brendan: “Majority” |
| Echo: 语言 (yǔyán) |
| Brendan: “Language” |
| Echo: 语言 (yǔyán) |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Brendan: So let’s take a look and slightly more detail about how these words are used. |
| Echo: Ok. The first word is 人口。(Rénkǒu.) |
| Brendan: Yes, and that’s “population”. |
| Echo: Yes, and it’s very popular topic in China. |
| Brendan: Yes, I mean, if you’re using this word in the context of China, there’s one sentence in particular that you’re going to hear a lot. |
| Echo: Yes. 中国的人口很多。(Zhōngguó de rénkǒu hěnduō.) |
| Brendan: “China has a very big population.” |
| Echo: 中国的人口很多。(Zhōngguó de rénkǒu hěnduō.) In English, we’ll say “big”, in Chinese we’ll say 多。(Duō.) |
| Brendan: Right. |
| Echo: Instead of 大。(Dà.) |
| Brendan: Right. It’s literally you’re saying “the population is many”. |
| Echo: And so, 中国的网民也很多。(Zhōngguó de wǎngmín yě hěnduō.) |
| Brendan: “Chinese netizens” or “Chinese Internet users” are also 很多。(Hěnduō.) |
| Echo: Right. 网民，中国的网民也很多。(Wǎngmín, zhōngguó de wǎngmín yě hěnduō.) |
| Brendan: “There are many Internet users.” |
| Echo: 所以奇怪的人也很多。(Suǒyǐ qíguài de rén yě hěnduō.) |
| Brendan: Yes, yes. Well, that’s hard to avoid, especially online. Not you guys, of course. Now, another thing that you’ve probably heard a lot especially recently… |
| Echo: Yes. |
| Brendan: Is in connection not just to the number of Internet users, not just to the population, but also to China’s economy. |
| Echo: 经济。(Jīngjì.) |
| Brendan: And here again a sentence that you’ll hear a lot. |
| Echo: 这个国家的经济很好。(Zhège guójiā de jīngjì hěn hǎo.) |
| Brendan: “This country’s economy is very good.” |
| Echo: Or, you can say 这个国家的经济发展很快。(Zhège guójiā de jīngjì fāzhǎn hěn kuài.) |
| Brendan: “This country’s economy is developing very quickly.” |
| Echo: Like, talking about China. |
| Brendan: Yes. |
| Echo: So, 世界大国们纷纷表示抗议。(Shìjiè dàguómen fēnfēn biǎoshì kàngyì.) |
| Brendan: So, “The major global powers are expressing one after the other their opposition.” |
| Echo: 对，世界大国。(Duì, shìjiè dàguó.) |
| Brendan: “The major global powers” |
| Echo: 对，现在世界大国们纷纷表示抗议。(Duì, xiànzài shìjiè dàguómen fēnfēn biǎoshì kàngyì.) |
| Brendan: Now, one of the reasons that China’s economy… |
| Echo: 经济 (Jīngjì) |
| Brendan: Has developed so quickly is manufacturing. |
| Echo: 生产行业 (Shēngchǎn hángyè) or we can also say 制造业,(Zhìzào yè,) especially in the South part of China. |
| Brendan: Yes, there are many, manufacturing businesses down South. |
| Echo: 南方的生产行业很庞大。(Nánfāng de shēngchǎn hángyè hěn pángdà.) |
| Brendan: “There are many, manufacturing businesses down South.” |
| Echo: 南方的生产行业很庞大。(Nánfāng de shēngchǎn hángyè hěn pángdà.) |
| Brendan: And now, other big topics, something you’ll see in the news more or less, especially at certain times of year, is China’s ethnic composition. There are a lot of different ethnicities in China. |
| Echo: Yes, 民族。(Mínzú.) |
| Brendan: And how many ethnicities are there? |
| Echo: 中国有56个民族。(Zhōngguó yǒu 56 gè mínzú.) |
| Brendan: “China has 56 ethnicities.” |
| Echo: 中国有56个民族。(Zhōngguó yǒu 56 gè mínzú.) or you can say 中国是一个多民族国家。(Zhōngguó shì yīgè duō mínzú guójiā.) |
| Brendan: Yes, “China is a multi ethnic country.” |
| Echo: 中国是一个多民族国家。(Zhōngguó shì yīgè duō mínzú guójiā.) And most of these 民族 (Mínzú) are 少数民族。(Shǎoshù mínzú.) |
| Brendan: “The majority of ethnicities are in fact ethnic minorities.” |
| Echo: 这个地区有很多的少数民族。(Zhège dìqū yǒu hěnduō de shǎoshù mínzú.) |
| Brendan: “There are many ethnic minorities in this region.” |
| Brendan: That region’s probably the South-West, right? |
| Echo: Yes, 差不多。“少数”的反义词是“多数”(Chàbùduō.“Shǎoshù” de fǎnyìcí shì “duōshù”) |
| Brendan: Right. And that simply means “majority”. |
| Echo: 多数，我站在大多数这边。(Duōshù, wǒ zhàn zài dà duōshù zhè biān.) |
| Brendan: “I’m on the side of the majority.” |
| Echo: Yes, so you can add 大 (Dà) before it, too. 大多数.(Dà duōshù.) Ok, the last word is, of course, 语言。(Yǔyán.) |
| Brendan: Yes. We saved the best for last, or at least my favorite for last… |
| Echo: Yes, me too. |
| Brendan: It’s “language”. |
| Echo: Yes. 你说什么语言 (Nǐ shuō shénme yǔyán) Brendan？ |
| Brendan: What languages do I speak? Well, I speak a couple, some better than others. Mostly English and Mandarin. |
| Echo: Ok. |
| Brendan: Now, that’s about it for vocabulary. Bare this in mind and we’re going to discuss the grammar point for today’s lesson. |
| Echo: Right. 如果你们想说好这个语言，需要好好学习我们的 (Rúguǒ nǐmen xiǎng shuō hǎo zhège yǔyán, xūyào hǎo hào xuéxí wǒmen de) grammar point. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Brendan: Now, for grammar, what we’re going to talk about today is something that we see in the very first line of this dialogue. |
| Echo: Yes, 比。中国的网民比美国多。(Bǐ. Zhōngguó de wǎngmín bǐ měiguó duō.) |
| Brendan: “China’s netizens”, “比”,(“Bǐ”) “the United States”, “many”. And so that means, is “China has more Internet users than the U.S.” or, literally, “China’s Internet users are more plentiful than the U.S.” |
| Echo: 中国的网民比美国多。(Zhōngguó de wǎngmín bǐ měiguó duō.) |
| Brendan: So, what we have here is a comparison. |
| Echo: Right. We learned this before, right? So, let’s just give some more examples. 地铁要比公交快多了。(Dìtiě yào bǐ gōngjiāo kuài duōle.) |
| Brendan: “The subway is way faster than the bus.” |
| Echo: 美国的经济比很多国家好。(Měiguó de jīngjì bǐ hěnduō guójiā hǎo.) |
| Brendan: “The United States’ economy is better than many countries’.” |
| Echo: 所以在我们的后两个句子里，还有在我们的对话里的句子里有一点不一样。(Suǒyǐ zài wǒmen de hòu liǎng gè jùzi lǐ, hái yǒu zài wǒmen de duìhuà li de jùzi li yǒu yīdiǎn bù yīyàng.) |
| Brendan: Yes, so, if we look at those last two sentences, or if we look at the first sentence in the dialogue, there’s a slight difference, a kind of a subtle one, from the patterns that we’ve learned before. |
| Echo: Let’s take the sentence in the dialogue as example 中国的网民比美国多。(Zhōngguó de wǎngmín bǐ měiguó duō.) |
| Brendan: “There are more Internet users in China than the United States.” |
| Echo: But I didn’t say中国的网民比美国的网民多。(Zhōngguó de wǎngmín bǐ měiguó de wǎngmín duō.) |
| Brendan: Or, in these other sentences that we just saw. |
| Echo: 美国的经济比很多国家好。(Měiguó de jīngjì bǐ hěnduō guójiā hǎo.) And we didn’t say美国的经济比很多国家的经济好。(Měiguó de jīngjì bǐ hěnduō guójiā de jīngjì hǎo.) |
| Brendan: The reason is there’s no need to. If we’re comparing things, chances are we’re comparing the same thing. |
| Echo: Like 网民 (Wǎngmín) or 经济。(Jīngjì.) |
| Brendan: And so, in all of these cases, there’s no need to repeat the noun again. Instead, we simply make it possessive. “Your score is higher than hers.” |
| Echo: 你的分数比她的高。(Nǐ de fēnshù bǐ tā de gāo.) |
Outro |
| Brendan: So, that’s it for our grammar point. If you have any questions about it… |
| Echo: You can always write to us at contactus@Chineseclass101.com or leave a comment on the site. |
| Brendan: It will take a moment of your time and you will make our day. We’ve been looking forward to hearing from you for quite a while. |
| Echo: 没错 (Méi cuò) |
| Brendan: From… |
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