Dialogue

Vocabulary

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Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
David: Welcome to chineseclass101.com. I am David.
Echo: Hi, 大家好, 我是 (Dàjiā hǎo, wǒ shì) Echo.
David: And we are here today with upper intermediate, season 1, Lesson 24. Must Love Dogs in China.
Echo: 对,在中国我们都很喜欢狗。 (Duì, zài zhōngguó wǒmen dōu hěn xǐhuān gǒu.)
David: Yes. That’s an order and we are going to find out why someone has to love dogs in our dialogue for today.
Echo: 对,今天我们的对话呢, 是在一个有钱的男人和一个记者之间发生的。 (Duì, jīntiān wǒmen de duìhuà ne, shì zài yīgè yǒu qián de nánrén hé yīgè jìzhě zhī jiān fāshēng de.)
David: Yes but the man is a bachelor and the question is why. So we are going to find out why in our dialogue which features casual Mandarin as always.
DIALOGUE
A 你平时有什么爱好? (A Nǐ píngshí yǒu shénme àihào?)
B 我喜欢打高尔夫,看些英文原版的电影,大部分时间还是去世界各地旅行。 (B Wǒ xǐhuān dǎ gāoěrfū, kàn xiē yīngwén yuánbǎn de diànyǐng, dàbùfēn shíjiān hái shì
qù shìjiè gèdì lǚxíng.)
A 那你会不会因为工作的关系经常出差呢? (A Nà nǐ huìbuhuì yīnwèi gōngzuò de guānxi jīngcháng chūchāi ne?)
B 不会,这些跑腿儿的事儿一般都是手下去做的。 (B Bùhuì, zhè xiē pǎotuir de shìr yībān dōu shì shǒuxià qù zuò de.)
A 那你一直是一个人生活的吗? (A Nà nǐ yīzhí shì yīgerén shēnghuó de ma?)
B 噢不,家里有个管家和两个保姆照顾我。 (B o bù, jiālǐ yǒu ge guǎnjiā hé liǎngge bǎomǔ zhàogu wǒ.)
A 那为什么不找个女朋友呢? (A Nà wèishénme bù zhǎo ge nǚpéngyou ne?)
B 哦,因为我认识的那些女人都不愿意每天和我的五只爱犬一起用餐。 (B ò, yīnwèi wǒ rènshi de nàxiē nǚrén dōu bùyuànyì měitiān hé wǒde wǔzhǐ àiquǎn yīqǐyòngcān.)
A: Do you have any hobbies?
B: I like to play golf, watch English movies and spend most of my time traveling around the world.
A: So do you need to travel much for business then?
B: No, these kinds of errands are usually done by my staff.
A: So have you always lived alone?
B: Oh no, I have a housekeeper and two housemaids to look after me.
A: Why don't you find a girlfriend then?
B: Oh, because none of the women I know want to eat together with me and my dogs.
POST CONVERSATION BANTER
Echo: 对, 我们这个对话里的最后一句有点儿 (Duì, wǒmen zhège duìhuà li de zuìhòu yījù yǒudiǎn er) tricky.
David: Yeah I mean it’s potentially offensive if you read it the wrong way.
Echo: 对。 (Duì.)
David: He is not saying he expects someone to eat with his dogs.
Echo: 不是不是!不是每天和他的狗一齐吃饭。 (Bùshì bùshì! Bùshì měitiān hé tā de gǒu yīqí chīfàn.)
David: He is saying – right it’s with him and his dogs.
Echo: 但这个地方呢, 这样说他隐含了一个意思,就是和我还有我的狗一齐吃饭。 (Dàn zhège dìfāng ne, zhèyàng shuō tā yǐn hánle yīgè yìsi, jiùshì hé wǒ hái yǒu wǒ de gǒu yīqí chīfàn.)
David: Yes it’s the inclusive there. Anyway, our vocab today is about young urban professionals, right especially for women over 30, guys over 35 who are living alone in the city.
VOCAB LIST
Echo: 对。 (Duì.)
David: So let’s get to our vocab.
Echo: 管家。 (Guǎnjiā.)
David: Housekeeper.
Echo: 管 家, 管家, 原版。 (guǎn jiā, guǎnjiā, yuánbǎn.)
David: Original edition.
Echo: 原 版, 原版, 出差。 (yuán bǎn, yuánbǎn, chūchāi.)
David: To go on a business trip.
Echo: 出 差, 出差, 跑腿儿。 (chū chāi, chūchāi, pǎotuir.)
David: To run errands.
Echo: 跑 腿 儿, 跑腿儿, 手下。 (pǎo tui r, pǎotuir, shǒuxià.)
David: Staff.
Echo: 手 下, 手下, 相亲。 (shǒu xià, shǒuxià, xiāngqīn.)
David: To go on a blind date.
Echo: 相 亲, 相亲, 爱犬。 (xiāng qīn, xiāngqīn, àiquǎn.)
David: Pet dog.
Echo: 爱 犬, 爱犬, 用餐。 (ài quǎn, àiquǎn, yòngcān.)
David: To have a meal.
Echo: 用 餐, 用餐。 (yòng cān, yòngcān.)
VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE
David: Let’s have a closer look at some of these words and phrases. The first word we want to look at is
Echo: 管家。 (Guǎnjiā.)
David: Housekeeper.
Echo: 管家。 (Guǎnjiā.)
David: This is an old fashioned word. So it’s somewhat like butler in English.
Echo: 对,但是如果你是有钱人的话,一般家里还会有管家。 (Duì, dànshì rúguǒ nǐ shì yǒu qián rén dehuà, yībān jiālǐ hái huì yǒu guǎnjiā.)
David: Yeah. It’s the head butler position but this is not an 阿姨 (Āyí).
Echo: No.
David: Or someone who’s just going to come over and clean.
Echo: 他...他自己觉得这个管家自己觉得他的职位应该比阿姨高得多。 (Tā... Tā zìjǐ juédé zhège guǎnjiā zìjǐ juédé tā de zhíwèi yīnggāi bǐ āyí gāo dé duō.)
David: Right. Its professional position but they still have to do housekeeping and errands and that sort of thing.
Echo: 唔,对,比如说遛狗。 (Wú, duì, bǐrú shuō liú gǒu.)
David: Right. Walk the dog or
Echo: 对,管理家庭的琐事。 (Duì, guǎnlǐ jiātíng de suǒshì.)
David: Yes just taking care of household matters. The next word we wanted to touch on, we translated as staff.
Echo: 手下。 (Shǒuxià.)
David: Staff.
Echo: 手下。 (Shǒuxià.)
David: Which is only half true because it’s got to be your staff.
Echo: 对,没错。 (Duì,méicuò.)
David: Right. You can’t go to a restaurant and call the employees.
Echo: 哈哈哈!你们都是手下。 (Hāhā hā! Nǐmen dōu shì shǒuxià.)
David: Right because it implies that someone is under your hand, right. So they are on your staff.
Echo: 对,所以你可以说 我在公司里是一个帐目经理,我手下有两个员工。 (Duì, suǒyǐ nǐ kěyǐ shuō wǒ zài gōngsī lǐ shì yīgè zhàng mù jīnglǐ, wǒ shǒuxià yǒu liǎng gè yuángōng.)
David: Yeah, which is using it descriptively, I, under my hand, have.
Echo: 对,我手下有两个员工, 或者你也可以说 我有两个手下。 (Duì, wǒ shǒuxià yǒu liǎng gè yuángōng, huòzhě nǐ yě kěyǐ shuō wǒ yǒu liǎng gè shǒuxià.)
David: I have two underlyings.
Echo: 我有两个手下。 (Wǒ yǒu liǎng gè shǒuxià.)
David: Right. In this lesson, we have 儿发音 (Er fāyīn) word prominently in this phrase.
Echo: 跑腿儿。 (Pǎotuǐ er.)
David: To run errands.
Echo: 跑腿儿, 对, 如果我们分开来看这个词就是跑, run. 对吧!然后..... (Pǎotuǐ er, duì, rúguǒ wǒmen fēnkāi lái kàn zhège cí jiùshì pǎo, run. Duì ba! Ránhòu......)
David: Yeah it is running legs.
Echo: 对,所以就是一般很多的比较刚性公司的, 比较初级的手下。 (Duì, suǒyǐ jiùshì yībān hěnduō de bǐjiào gāngxìng gōngsī de, bǐjiào chūjí de shǒuxià.)
David: Yes.
Echo: 他们做的工作可能就是跑腿的。 (Tāmen zuò de gōngzuò kěnéng jiùshì pǎotuǐ de.)
David: Right. So this is like a male clerk. The job that you are doing is,
Echo: 跑腿儿。 (Pǎotuǐer.)
David: Right but it’s not just running. You’ve got to be doing errands. You’ve got to be doing work.
Echo: 对,比如说去买一些办公用品呀! (Duì, bǐrú shuō qù mǎi yīxiē bàngōng yòngpǐn ya!)
David: Yes. Basically [*] it’s not an Olympic sport.
Echo: No, no. 别担心。 (Bié dānxīn.)
David: Right and our last word is
Echo: 出差。 (Chūchāi.)
David: To go on a business trip.
Echo: 出差。 (Chūchāi.)
David: And we are going to hear a lot more about this word in just a sec.
Echo: 对,我们的语法时间。 (Duì, wǒmen de yǔfǎ shíjiān.)

Lesson focus

David: It’s grammar time. Our grammar point today is not about a word. It’ about a character.
Echo: 对。 (Duì.)
David: It’s about a particularly tricky one.
Echo: 就是这个出差的 “差”。 (Jiùshì zhège chūchāi de “chāi”.)
David: Right. Now you’ve run into this character meaning something else. Now let’s get the obvious thing out of the way. What is it doing in this word meaning business?
Echo: 出差, 这个里边呢它的发音我们要听好是 “差”。 (Chūchāi, zhège lǐbian ne tā de fǎ yīn wǒmen yào tīng hǎo shì “chāi”.)
David: Right. First tone
Echo: “差”。 (“chāi”.)
David: And this is an older usage. In imperial China, there used to be a position.
Echo: 对,是一种工作的名字, 比如说差役。 (Duì, shì yī zhǒng gōngzuò de míngzì, bǐrú shuō chāiyì.)
David: Right. That’s the name of the position.
Echo: 对。 (Duì.)
David: And it’s someone who would go out to do things for…
Echo: 衙门。 (Yámén.)
David: Yes for someone who works in the ministerial department.
Echo: 对,其实就有点像今天在派出所里工作的警察。 (Duì, qíshí jiù yǒudiǎn xiàng jīntiān zài pàichūsuǒ lǐ gōngzuò de jǐngchá.)
David: Yeah.
Echo: 差不多这样的工作去抓坏人回来。 (chàbuduō zhèyàng de gōngzuò qù zhuā huàirén huílái.)
David: Right. So it used to be a position that involves sending people out to do things.
Echo: 对,这个后来就延伸成为了 “差” 这个字动词的意思。 (Duì, zhège hòulái jiù yánshēn chéngwéile “chāi” zhège zì dòngcí de yìsi.)
David: Right. So we have two meanings for
Echo: 差。 (chāi.)
David: You are going to see the words that are nouns referring to business.
Echo: 对,比如说出差,或者是差使。 (Duì, bǐrú shuō chūchāi, huòzhě shì chāishǐ.)
David: Right. To go out on business or official adherence.
Echo: 对。 (Duì.)
David: The second meaning is a verb meaning to send someone out, to dispatch.
Echo: 比如说差遣,或者差人去做。 (Bǐrú shuō chāiqiǎn, huòzhě chāi rén qù zuò.)
David: Yeah. Now the reason this confuses everyone is because of course we’ve run into this character with a totally different pronunciation.
Echo: 唔,我们听过 “差”。 (Wú, wǒmen tīngguò “chā”.)
David: Or
Echo: 差。 (Chà.)
David: Right. Not just one but two. The most common is the word
Echo: 差。 (Chà.)
David: Which we hear in words like
Echo: 差不多。 (chàbuduō.)
David: And here it means a difference.
Echo: 对。 (Duì.)
David: Right. The difference is not big. It’s more or less the same.
Echo: Uhmm, 差不多, 比如说 秘书做的工作差不多都是跑腿的。 (chàbuduō, bǐrú shuō mìshū zuò de gōngzuò chàbuduō dōu shì pǎotuǐr de.)
David: And the reason this is confusing is that in the first tone, one of the meanings is exactly the same.
Echo: 对, 差。 (Duì, chā.)
David: It also means a difference as in
Echo: 差别,差距。 (Chābié, chājù.)
David: Right which is
Echo: Difference.
David: Right, which is difference. So these two pronunciations are very similar with this meaning, difference.
Echo: 对, 差不多, 或者是差别。 (Duì, chàbuduō, huòzhě shì chābié.)
David: Right. That confuses a lot of people and then this makes it even worse. There is yet another meaning for this character in the fourth tone.
Echo: 对,差,比如说太差了! (Duì, chà, bǐrú shuō tài chàle!)
David: Poor quality.
Echo: 对, 一般我们说质量太差了。 (Duì, yībān wǒmen shuō zhìliàng tài chàle.)
David: Right. It’s something that’s inferior, subpar.
Echo: 对。 (Duì.)
David: Right. So there are really three meanings for this character and three different pronunciations.
Echo: 差, 差, and 差。 (chāi, chā, and chà.)

Outro

David: Beware of the differences and you won’t have any problems. For now though, that’s all the time we have in this lesson. From Beijing, I am David.
Echo: 我是 (Wǒ shì) Echo.
David: Thanks for listening and we will see you on the site.
Echo: 谢谢大家, 我们网上见吧! (Xièxiè dàjiā, wǒmen wǎngshàng jiàn ba!)

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