Dialogue

Vocabulary

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Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
DAVID: Welcome to ChineseClass101.com. I'm David.
Amber: 大家好,我是安伯。(Dàjiā hǎo, wǒ shì ān bó.)
DAVID: And we’re here today with Upper Beginner, Season 1, Lesson 9 - Seeking treatment in China.
Amber: 对,在中国看医生。(Duì, zài zhōngguó kàn yīshēng.)
DAVID: Right, seeing the doctor. And, in China, a lot of people go see the doctor for really small complaints.
Amber: ah, 对,没错。(Duì, méi cuò.)
DAVID: Right. You’ve got a runny nose, you’ve got a headache. So our dialogue actually takes place in one of these situations.
Amber: 唔,没错。(Wú, méi cuò.)
DAVID: We have a patient who doesn’t sound like there’s anything serious.
Amber: 没错,就是不知道有什么问题。(Méi cuò, jiùshì bù zhīdào yǒu shé me wèntí.)
DAVID: They want the medicine.
Amber: Yeah.
DAVID: So this is casual Mandarin, as always, it’s the Chinese you’re going to hear everywhere in China.
Amber: 唔,来听对话吧!(Wú, lái tīng duìhuà ba!)
DIALOGUE
A: 大夫,我感冒了。(Dàifu, wǒ gǎnmào le.)
B: 什么症状?(Shénme zhèngzhuàng?)
A: 嗓子疼,有痰,还咳嗽。(Sǎngzi téng, yǒu tán, hái késòu.)
B: 不发烧流鼻涕吗?(Bù fāshāo liúbítì ma?)
A: 现在还不烧。(Xiànzài hái bù shāo.)
B: 头疼吗?(Tóuténg ma?)
A: 要是咳嗽厉害了就疼。(Yàoshì késòu lìhài le jiù téng.)
B: 那你别咳嗽吧。(Nà nǐ bié késòu ba.)
A: Doctor, I've got a cold.
B: What are the symptoms?
A: A sore throat, stuffed head and a cough.
B: You don't have a fever or running nose?
A: No fever yet.
B: How about a headache?
A: If I cough badly, it hurts.
B: Then don't cough.
POST CONVERSATION BANTER
DAVID: So, Amber, do you do this? Do you go to the hospital for minor complaints?
Amber: 我一般不去医院。(Wǒ yībān bù qù yīyuàn.)
DAVID: You don’t dare to go? I'm amazed at how many people will go see a doctor when they’ve got a cold.
Amber: 唔,对,没错, 哪个一般都是我自己解决。(Wú, duì, méi cuò, nǎge yībān dōu shì wǒ zìjǐ jiějué.)
DAVID: Ah, okay. So there’s either too much trust in the medical system or no trust at all. Anyway, our vocabulary today is about hospitals, and disease, and getting sick, how to talk about symptoms in particular. Let’s get to it.
VOCAB LIST
Amber: 感冒。(gǎnmào.)
DAVID: To have a cold.
Amber: 感 冒, 感冒, 症状。(gǎnmào, gǎnmào, zhèngzhuàng.)
DAVID: Symptom.
Amber: 症 状, 症状, 嗓子。(zhèngzhuàng, zhèngzhuàng, sǎngzi.)
DAVID: Throat.
Amber: 嗓 子, 嗓子, 有痰。(sǎngzi, sǎngzi, yǒu tán.)
DAVID: To be stuffed up.
Amber:有 痰, 有痰, 咳嗽。(yǒu tán, yǒu tán, késòu.)
DAVID: Cough.
Amber: 咳 嗽, 咳嗽, 发烧。(késòu, késòu, fāshāo.)
DAVID: To have a fever.
Amber: 发 烧, 发烧, 流鼻涕。(fāshāo, fāshāo, liúbítì.)
DAVID: To have a runny nose.
Amber: 流 鼻 涕, 流鼻涕, 头疼。(liúbítì, liúbítì, tóuténg.)
DAVID: To have a headache.
Amber: 头 疼, 头疼。(tóuténg, tóuténg.)
VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE
DAVID: Okay, so a lot of vocab we hope you don’t need to use.
Amber: Yeah, 因为 ……(Yīnwèi…….).
DAVID: But you know China’s a place where people get bad colds though.
Amber: Yeah.
DAVID: So, chances are, within a couple of months, you’re going to come down with something too. That said, what’s interesting about this vocab, I think, is that there are so many of these words that are nouns as well as verbs.
Amber: 没错(Méi cuò)。
DAVID: So it’s the name of the disease, as well as a verb meaning to have it.
Amber: 对(Duì)。
DAVID: Right? For instance, cold.
Amber: 感冒(Gǎnmào)。
DAVID: That’s a noun.
Amber: 对, 比如说 他的感冒很厉害(Duì, bǐrú shuō tā de gǎnmào hěn lìhài.)。
DAVID: “His cold is really 厉害(Lìhài). His cold is really bad.” But it can also be used as a verb.
Amber: 没错, 比如说 我感冒了。(Méi cuò, bǐrú shuō wǒ gǎnmàole.)
DAVID: Right, the 了 (Le) gives it away, change of state. “I just got a cold.”
Amber: 我感冒了。(Wǒ gǎnmàole.)
DAVID: Right. We see this with these other symptoms too. For instance, cough.
Amber: 咳嗽。(Késòu.)
DAVID: You could say, “His cough is really serious.”
Amber: 他的咳嗽很厉害。(Tā de késòu hěn lìhài.)
DAVID: His cough is really serious.
Amber: 对(Duì)。
DAVID: Or as a verb.
Amber: 你别咳嗽,我在看电影。 (Nǐ bié késòu, wǒ zài kàn diànyǐng.)
DAVID: Don’t cough, I'm watching a movie.
Amber: 对, 你别咳嗽,我在看电影。 (Duì, nǐ bié késòu, wǒ zài kàn diànyǐng.)
DAVID: Right. We see exactly the same thing with the word fever.
Amber: 发烧。(Fāshāo.)
DAVID: Right. This can be a noun.
Amber: 唔, 比如说我的发烧很厉害。(Wú, bǐrú shuō wǒ de fǎ shāo hěn lìhài.)
DAVID: Right. “My fever is very serious.” Or maybe “My fever is not that serious.”
Amber: 我的发烧不太厉害。(Wǒ de fǎ shāo bù tài lìhài.)
DAVID: Right. We can also use that, of course, as a verb.
Amber: 比如说你发烧了吗? 我们去医院吧!(Bǐrú shuō nǐ fāshāole ma? Wǒmen qù yīyuàn ba!)
DAVID: Do you have a fever? Let’s go to the hospital.
Amber: 唔, 你发烧了吗? 我们去医院吧!(Wú, nǐ fāshāole ma? Wǒmen qù yīyuàn ba!)
DAVID: Right. The word “runny nose”.
Amber: 流鼻涕。(Liú bítì.)
DAVID: Is different because our verb there is 流 (Liú).
Amber: 流。(Liú.)
DAVID: Right. But even for “headache”…
Amber: 头疼。(Tóuténg.)
DAVID: It can be a noun or a verb.
Amber: 没错。(Méi cuò.)
DAVID: So you could say, “Oh, my headache is really serious.”
Amber: 我的头疼很严重。(Wǒ de tóuténg hěn yánzhòng.)
DAVID: Right. Or you could go back to 厉害(Lìhài). “My headache is really, really bad.”
Amber: 对,我的头疼很厉害。(Duì, wǒ de tóuténg hěn lìhài.)
DAVID: Right. I think most Chinese people will use this as a verb though, so they’ll say…
Amber: 没错,我在头痛, 不能睡觉。(Méi cuò, wǒ zài tóutòng, bùnéng shuìjiào.)
DAVID: I’ve got headache, I can't get to sleep.
Amber: 我在头痛, 不能睡觉。(Wǒ zài tóutòng, bùnéng shuìjiào.)
DAVID: Right. So we’ve ran into this again and again in Chinese. It’s nouns that function as verbs too.
Amber: 对,没错。(Duì, méi cuò.)
DAVID: And it’s actually pretty easy because if you know the noun, you can fake it by using it as a verb.
Amber: 没错。(Méi cuò.)
DAVID: So that’s our critical vocab for today. Quickly, to review. Cold.
Amber: 感冒。(Gǎnmào.)
DAVID: Cough.
Amber: 咳嗽。(Késòu.)
DAVID: Fever.
Amber: 发烧。(Fāshāo.)
DAVID: Headache.
Amber: 头疼。(tóuténg.)
DAVID: You can use all of these as nouns or verbs.
Amber: 没错。(Méi cuò.)
DAVID: And, with that, let’s get to our grammar section.

Lesson focus

M2: It’s grammar time!
DAVID: In today’s grammar section, we want to talk about this pattern.
Amber: 不什么什么吗?(Bù shénme shénme ma?)
DAVID: Right, and 什么什么 (Shénme shénme) means “something”.
Amber: Yeah.
DAVID: So there’s something in the middle.
Amber: 你总可以说什么什么, Yeah.(Nǐ zǒng kěyǐ shuō shénme shénme, Yeah.)
DAVID: Right. So, whatever. In this case it’s 不 (Bù) and then “something” and then 吗(Ma)?. And it’s a question.
Amber: 没错。(Méi cuò.)
DAVID: In our dialogue, we heard it in this line.
Amber: 不发烧流鼻涕吗?(Bù fāshāo liú bítì ma?)
DAVID: Don’t you have a fever or a runny nose?
Amber: 不发烧流鼻涕吗?(Bù fāshāo liú bítì ma?)
DAVID: And that’s actually interesting on its own because we took two verbs and put them together.
Amber: Yeah.
DAVID: And there’s no “and” in the middle there.
Amber: 没错。(Méi cuò.)
DAVID: So you could also say, “Don’t you have a fever and a headache?”
Amber: 不发烧头疼吗?(Bù fāshāo tóuténg ma?)
DAVID: Or “Don’t you have a headache and a cough?”
Amber: 不头疼咳嗽吗?(Bù tóuténg késòu ma?)
DAVID: Right, but this is a digression. A fun point, want to get back to this pattern, which is 不 (Bù) and then 吗 (Ma)? at the end.
Amber: 对。(Duì.)
DAVID: Two things to remember. As you know, this is a question because we’ve got the question marker…
Amber: 吗(Ma)?
DAVID: At the end of this sentence, right? So this means it’s a yes/no question, kind of expecting the answer “yes”.
Amber: 没错。(Méi cuò.)
DAVID: Maybe a little bit, you know. It’s not just yes/no. I think the answer is yes.
Amber: 没错, 事实上说话的人, 他觉得认为答案是 “是”。(Méi cuò, shìshí shàng shuōhuà de rén, tā juédé rènwéi dá'àn shì “shì”.)
DAVID: Yeah. “You do have a fever or a headache, right?”
Amber: 不发烧头疼吗?(Bù fāshāo tóuténg ma?)
DAVID: You do have a headache or a cough, don’t you?
Amber: 不头疼咳嗽吗?(Bù tóuténg késòu ma?)
DAVID: The second point is that we don’t have a subject in this sentence.
Amber: 没错。(Méi cuò.)
DAVID: In our last lesson, we actually talked a bit about this, how you can leave it out if you know what the subject is.
Amber: 对,因为已经知道主语 是什么。(Duì, yīn wéi yǐjīng zhīdào zhǔyǔ shì shénme.)
DAVID: Right. So we could actually add that. We could say “you” at the start of the sentence.
Amber: 你不头疼咳嗽吗?(Nǐ bù tóuténg késòu ma?)
DAVID: Don’t you have a headache and a cough?
Amber: 你不头疼咳嗽吗?(Nǐ bù tóuténg késòu ma?)
DAVID: Right. Now, here’s the interesting thing - what is this 不 doing?
Amber: Uhmm …….
DAVID: I give you the hard question.
Amber: 就是 ….. 一个感觉,很难说。(Jiùshì….. Yīgè gǎnjué, hěn nánshuō.)
DAVID: Right, it’s an emotion. And what’s interesting is it doesn’t change the meaning of the question.
Amber: 没错,就是一个问题。(Méi cuò, jiùshì yīgè wèntí.)
DAVID: Yeah, it’s like you say “didn’t you” or “don’t you” at the end of an English sentence.
Amber: 没错。(Méi cuò.)
DAVID: Right? The question is still a yes/no question.
Amber: Right.
DAVID: And we’re still expecting me the answer “yes”.
Amber: 没错, 就是因为有这个 “不”,所以你在....你在暗示我希望是一个”是” 的回答。。(Méi cuò, jiùshì yīnwèi yǒu zhège “bù”, suǒyǐ nǐ zài.... Nǐ zài ànshì wǒ xīwàng shì yīgè” shì” de huídá..)
DAVID: Yeah. It’s the emotion, but the meaning of the sentence hasn’t changed.
Amber: 没错。(Méi cuò.)
DAVID: So if we take it out, it’s exactly the same.
Amber: 对,意思还是一样的。(Duì, yìsi háishì yīyàng de.)
DAVID: Right. So we’re going to give you just a couple of more examples. The thing to note here is just that it’s about being polite and it’s kind of like adding that “didn’t you” or “don’t you” at the end of an English sentence.
Amber: 没错。(Méi cuò.)
DAVID: Let’s have some examples.
Amber: 比如说 不想咳嗽吗?(Bǐrú shuō bùxiǎng késòu ma?)
DAVID: You want to cough, don’t you?
Amber: 不想咳嗽吗?(Bùxiǎng késòu ma?)
DAVID: Don’t you want to cough?
Amber: 另外一个 小黄今天不来吗?(Lìngwài yīgè xiǎo huáng jīntiān bù lái ma?)
DAVID: That’s a tricky one because we have a subject and a date right at the start of the sentence.
Amber: 没错, 小黄今天不来吗?(Méi cuò, xiǎo huáng jīntiān bù lái ma?)
DAVID: 小黄 (Xiǎo huáng) “today”.
Amber: 不来吗?(Bù lái ma?)
DAVID: “Not to come”. “Didn’t he come today?”
Amber: 唔,我们看到 ”不” “吗”,然后有一个 “来”。(Wú, wǒmen kàn dào” bù” “ma”, ránhòu yǒu yīgè “lái”.)
DAVID: Right. So it’s the same structure tucked in a longer sentence.
Amber: 没错。(Méi cuò.)
DAVID: Let’s have one more example.
Amber: 你的感冒不是很厉害吗?(Nǐ de gǎnmào bùshì hěn lìhài ma?)
DAVID: Maybe someone shows up at work unexpectedly, you might ask them that.
Amber: 没错, 你的感冒不是很厉害吗?(Méi cuò, nǐ de gǎnmào bùshì hěn lìhài ma?)
DAVID: You’re cold. Wasn’t it really serious? Why are you coming to infect us?
Amber: 没错,什么事?还来?(Méi cuò, shénme shì? Hái lái?)
DAVID: Yeah. Let’s hear that one more time.
Amber: 你的感冒不是很厉害吗?(Nǐ de gǎnmào bùshì hěn lìhài ma?)
DAVID: And again, as with all of our sentences, the takeaway with this pattern is it’s a rhetorical pattern. We’re still a yes/no question and we’re still expecting the answer “yes”, so the 不 (Bù) here, it serves a rhetorical function.
Amber: 没错。(Méi cuò.)

Outro

DAVID: Kind of like in English when we say “didn’t you” or “isn’t that the case?” So, with that said, we’re at the end of our show. From Beijing, I'm David.
Amber: 我是安伯。(Wǒ shì ān bó.)
DAVID: Thanks for listening and we’ll see you on the site.
Amber: 网上见。(Wǎngshàng jiàn.)

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