Dialogue

Vocabulary

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Lesson Transcript

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 have a slice of life lesson for you today, with Lower Intermediate Series, Season 1, Lesson 8 – “Road rage in China”.
Echo: 没错。 (Méi cuò.)
Brendan: This something we see on the road pretty much every day in Beijing.
Echo: Right. It’s about a traffic accident, only, not between two cars.
Brendan: Yes, and I know where I saw it in this thing. My heart is pretty much always with the cyclists.
Echo: Yes, mine too. Let’s go listen to the dialogue now. It’s in casual mandarin, as always.
Brendan: We’ll take you to the dialogue in just a moment. But, before we do, a quick reminder that one of the best ways to retain the vocabulary that we cover in these lessons is with our online flash cards.
Echo: Yes, 没错,生词卡。 (Méi cuò, shēngcí kǎ.)
Brendan: Yes, it’s a really easy way of reviewing the vocabulary and making sure that you remember it properly. Let’s go to the dialogue. Now, the real killers these days, actually, are electric bikes.
DIALOGUE
A:你把我的车划了! (Nǐ bǎ wǒ de chē huále !)
B:你的车!你看看我的自行车都成什么样了。 (Nǐ de chē! Nǐ kànkan wǒ de zìxíngchē dōu chéng shénmeyàng le.)
A:谁叫你骑车不小心!你找死吗? (Shéi jiào nǐ qíchē bùxiǎoxīn! Nǐ zhǎo sǐ ma?)
B:我不小心?是你开车不小心吧? (Wǒ bùxiǎoxīn? Shì nǐ kāichē bùxiǎoxīn ba?)
Brendan: Once more, slowly.
A:你把我的车划了! (Nǐ bǎ wǒ de chē huále !)
B:你的车!你看看我的自行车都成什么样了。 (Nǐ de chē! Nǐ kànkan wǒ de zìxíngchē dōu chéng shénmeyàng le.)
A:谁叫你骑车不小心!你找死吗? (Shéi jiào nǐ qíchē bùxiǎoxīn! Nǐ zhǎo sǐ ma?)
B:我不小心?是你开车不小心吧? (Wǒ bùxiǎoxīn? Shì nǐ kāichē bùxiǎoxīn ba?)
Brendan: And now, with English translation.
A:你把我的车划了! (Nǐ bǎ wǒ de chē huále !)
A: You scratched my car!
B:你的车!你看看我的自行车都成什么样了。 (Nǐ de chē! Nǐ kànkan wǒ de zìxíngchē dōu chéng shénmeyàng le.)
B: Your car? Look what happened to my bicycle.
A:谁叫你骑车不小心!你找死吗? (Shéi jiào nǐ qíchē bùxiǎoxīn! Nǐ zhǎo sǐ ma?)
A: What are you doing biking carelessly. You trying to get yourself killed?
B:我不小心?是你开车不小心吧? (Wǒ bùxiǎoxīn? Shì nǐ kāichē bùxiǎoxīn ba?)
B: Am carelessly, you are the one driving carelessly.
POST CONVERSATION BANTER
Echo: 完全同意,电动车。 (Wánquán tóngyì, diàndòng chē.)
Brendan: Yes. They’re lethal, actually. They’re really dangerous. They go as fast as cars do, sometimes faster.
Echo: Yes.
Brendan: And they make no noise at all.
Echo: They’re really heavy, too.
Brendan: Yes, that’s because they’ve all got these massive acid led batteries which totally defeats the point of, you know, being 环保 (Huánbǎo) when riding a bike.
Echo: Yes, anyway, our vocab section today is for all of you, bikers.
Brendan: Like your daily commute, it is filled with danger, mayhem and the promise of death around the next corner.
C: And now, the vocab section.
VOCAB LIST
Brendan: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson.
Echo: 撞车 (zhuàngchē)
Brendan: “To crash a car”
Echo: 保险 (bǎoxiǎn)
Brendan: “Insurance”
Echo: 刮蹭 (guā cèng)
Brendan: “To scratch”
Echo: 故障 (gùzhàng)
Brendan: “Breakdown”
Echo: 意外 (yìwài)
Brendan: “Accident”
Echo: 安全 (ānquán)
Brendan: “Safety” or “safe”
Echo: 安全带 (ānquándài)
Brendan: “Seatbelt”
Echo: 喇叭 (lǎba)
Brendan: “Horn”
Echo: 单行道 (dānxíngdào)
Brendan: “One way street”
Echo: 单行道 (dānxíngdào)
VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE
Brendan: So, our vocabulary this lesson is actually pretty straight forward.
Echo: 故障 (gùzhàng)
Brendan: Yes, we’re starting with the worst. This means “a breakdown”.
Echo: 故障 (gùzhàng)
Brendan: We use this when something technical goes wrong.
Echo: 他的车出了个很严重的故障。 (Tā de chē chūle gè hěn yánzhòng de gùzhàng.)
Brendan: “His car had a serious breakdown.”
Echo: 他的车出了个很严重的故障。 (Tā de chē chūle gè hěn yánzhòng de gùzhàng.)
Brendan: You know, maybe the engine fell out, but actually it happened to me in a cab once.
Echo: Yes.
Brendan: So, the engine falls out onto the road and that leads to a?
Echo: 撞车 (zhuàngchē)
Brendan: Yes, crashing the car.
Echo: 撞车 (zhuàngchē)
Brendan: Now, this is a noun and also a verb.
Echo: Yes, 撞. (Zhuàng.)
Brendan: Now, 撞 (Zhuàng) means “to collide”.
Echo: And 车 (Chē) is, of course, “car”.
Brendan: Right.
Echo: So, you can say 那边撞车了. (Nàbiān zhuàngchēle.)
Brendan: “Hey, there’s a car crash over there.”
Echo: 那边撞车了 (Nàbiān zhuàngchēle.)
Brendan: Literally, “over there collide cars” or “over there cars have collided”.
Echo: Yes, so 撞车是一种意外。 (Zhuàngchē shì yī zhǒng yìwài.)
Brendan: Right. And that of course means “accident”.
Echo: Yes. 意外。 (Yìwài.)
Brendan: So, “an accident”, or most literally “something unexpected”.
Echo: 意外. (Yìwài.) Or, we can also say 事故,那边是出意外了吗? (Shìgù, nà biān shì chū yìwàile ma?)
Brendan: “Is there an accident over there?”
Echo: Or, 那边是有事故了吗? (Nà biān shì yǒu shìgùle ma?)
Brendan: “Is there a car accident over there?” The big difference is that 事故 (Shìgù) is more specific to cars. 意外 (Yìwài) is any kind of accident.
Echo: Yes, and we use 出意外. (Chū yìwài.)
Brendan: Literally, “to emerge”.
Echo: And 出事故 (Chū shìgù) is the same verb.
Brendan: Right. For a “breakdown”. Just remember that accidents come out of nowhere.
Echo: Yes, and yes they do. You hopefully have 保险. (Bǎoxiǎn.)
Brendan: “Insurance”
Echo: 保险 (bǎoxiǎn)
Brendan: “Insurance”. Now, that’s not just “car insurance”, that’s any kind of insurance.
Echo: yes, 比如说:医疗保险。 (Bǐrú shuō: Yīliáo bǎoxiǎn.)
Brendan: “Medical insurance”
Echo: 养老保险。 (Yǎnglǎo bǎoxiǎn.)
Brendan: “Old age insurance”
Echo: Great.
Brendan: Really, pensioned or stipend. Now, finally, we’ve got some ways to avoid accidents.
Echo: 安全带。 (ānquándài)
Brendan: Which is “seatbelt”.
Echo: And 喇叭。 (Lǎbā.)
Brendan: Which is “a horn”.
Echo: 安全带,喇叭。 (Ānquán dài, lǎbā.)
Brendan: So, remember, when you get in your car, you want to fasten your seatbelt.
Echo: 系安全带。 (Xì ānquán dài.)
Brendan: And, if you’re a Chinese driver, you really want to:
Echo: 按喇叭。 (Àn lǎbā.)
Brendan: Yes, “to press the horn” or “to push the horn”.
Echo: Yes.
Brendan: All right. Now, baring all that in mind, let’s move on to the grammar section.

Lesson focus

C: It’s grammar time.
Brendan: Ok, our grammar focus today is on the?
Echo: “把”字句 (“Bǎ” zìjù)
Brendan: We’ve seen this before. But where did we see it in this dialogue?
Echo: In this sentence: 你把我的车划了。 (Nǐ bǎ wǒ de chē huàle.)
Brendan: “You scratched my car.”
Echo: 你把我的车划了。 (Nǐ bǎ wǒ de chē huàle.)
Brendan: Now, literally, that’s “You took”…
Echo: 你把 (Nǐ bǎ)
Brendan: “My car”
Echo: 我的车 (Wǒ de chē)
Brendan: “And scratched it.”
Echo: 划了 (Huàle)
Brendan: This should all be reviewed. But let’s look at one more sentence.
Echo: 你把我的书弄脏了。 (Nǐ bǎ wǒ de shū nòng zāng le.)
Brendan: “You took my book and made it dirty.”
Echo: 你把我的书弄脏了。 (Nǐ bǎ wǒ de shū nòng zāng le.)
Brendan: No, really, that’s “You got my book dirty.”
Echo: Right.
Brendan: What we want to emphasize today, anyway, is that the “把”字句。 (“Bǎ” zìjù.) Now, this is the mirror opposite of the?
Echo: “被”字句 (“Bèi” zìjù)
Brendan: We learned about that in Lesson 3.
Echo: 没错。 (Méi cuò.)
Brendan: You can take any 把 (Bǎ) sentence and turn it into a 被 (Bèi) sentence.
Echo: Without changing the meaning of the sentence.
Brendan: Well, it doesn’t change the meaning per say, but it does change the emphasis.
Echo: True. Consider the sentence 你把我的书弄脏了。 (Nǐ bǎ wǒ de shū nòng zāng le.)
Brendan: To make that into a passive sentence, we would say?
Echo: 我的书被你弄脏了。 (Wǒ de shū bèi nǐ nòng zāng le.)
Brendan: Or “My book was dirtied by you.”
Echo: 我的书被你弄脏了。 (Wǒ de shū bèi nǐ nòng zāng le.)
Brendan: “My book was made dirty by you.” Let’s hear those two sentences together.
Echo:你把我的书弄脏了。我的书被你弄脏了。 (Nǐ bǎ wǒ de shū nòng zāng le. Wǒ de shū bèi nǐ nòng zāng le.)
Brendan: Right. Now, there’s a difference in emphasis here.
Echo: 没错。 (Méi cuò.)
Brendan: In the first one, the emphasis is on?
Echo: 你。 (Nǐ.)
Brendan: Right. “YOU got my book dirty.” In the second one, the emphasis is on?
Echo: 我的书。 (Wǒ de shū.)
Brendan: Right. “MY BOOK was dirtied by you.” Let’s have another example.
Echo: 车被他开进了单行道。 (Chē bèi tā kāi jìnle dānxíng dào.)
Brendan: “The car was driven onto a one way road by him.”
Echo: 车被他开进了单行道。 (Chē bèi tā kāi jìnle dānxíng dào.)
Brendan: Now, what if we change that to a “把”字句? (“Bǎ” zìjù?)
Echo: 他把车卡进了单行道。 (Tā bǎ chē kǎ jìnle dānxíng dào.)
Brendan: Right. “He drove his car onto a one way road.”
Echo: Yes, let’s hear those two again.车被他开进了单行道。他把车卡进了单行道。 (Chē bèi tā kāi jìnle dānxíng dào. Tā bǎ chē kǎ jìnle dānxíng dào.)
Brendan: So, this is actually a pretty simple point conceptually. You can turn any 把 (Bǎ) sentence into a 被 (Bèi) sentence. And vice versa.
Echo: But they have a different emotion.
Brendan: And a different emphasis. Now that you are at the Intermediate Level, we’re going to be paying more attention to how a Chinese feels.
Echo: 没错。 (Méi cuò.)
Brendan: And speaking of how mandarin feels, there is really no better way to get a sense of natural mandarin, the rhythms of it, the feelings of it, that the shades of meaning, than talking to a native speaker.
Echo: 没错。 (Méi cuò.)
Brendan: If you’re interested in getting professional feedback from a native speaker on your Chinese, send us an e-mail at contactus@Chineseclass101.com and we’ll set you up with a free trial with one of our tutors.
Echo: 没错。 (Méi cuò.)

Outro

Brendan: And that does it for today. We hope you enjoyed the lesson. If you have any questions or comments…
Echo: You can always write to contactus@Chineseclass101.com
Brendan: And we look forward to hearing from you.

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