Listen to lesson:

Move your mouse pointer over (or touch, from your mobile device) any Chinese words or phrases to get a translation.

Adam: Hello, I’m Adam.

Kirin: 欢迎来到第九十课.

Adam: Today’s lesson builds upon what was taught in lesson 30 of our series. Back then we translated some phrases that were being used in each lesson into Chinese. We’re now ready to do that again with some more phrases that you tend to hear in each lesson.

Let’s begin with the name of our course. How would you say that in Chinese?

Kirin: 上网学中文.

Adam: Do you remember how to say “internet” in Chinese? We learned that in lesson 65.

Kirin: 网路.

Adam: Now that means “the internet.” To say “get online” we would say

Kirin: 上网.

Adam: We’ve defined 上 in the past to mean “before.” It can also mean “up”, or in this context, “on” so that gives us a literal definition of “On internet”

Kirin: 上网.

Adam: Or “get online.” So back to the title of our course.

Kirin: 上网学中文

Adam: which literally means “get Online study Chinese.” So from now on, we’re going to do it in Chinese. So today’s lesson could be introduced as.

Kirin: 上网学中文第九十课.

Adam: So after the intros we usually have the dialogue two times – at regular speed and then a slowed-down version, with pauses allowing you to repeat after the speaker. We then translate the dialogue for you line by line. Let’s look at the word for “line” or “sentence.”

Kirin: 句子. 第四声和第五声.

Adam: So if we wanted to say “the first line is” we would say:

Kirin: 第一句是…

Adam: Simple enough. So expect to hear that used in future lessons. Now usually each lesson introduces a few new vocabulary words which are made up of different Chinese characters. Do you remember how to say “character” in Chinese? We learned that in lesson 61

Kirin: 字.

Adam: Now sometimes we want to refer to “words” which are made up of multiple characters. So how do you say “word” in Chinese?

Kirin: 单词. 第一声和第二声.

Adam: Now many times, words are made up characters we’ve seen before. Let’s look at how we would say this in Chinese. First the word for “before.”

Kirin: 以前. 第三声和第二声.

Adam: This is the opposite of “after” or “later”, which we’ve seen before as

Kirin: 以后.

Adam: Now this is a good time to talk about tenses in Chinese. Unlike English, you don’t have to worry about different tenses of verbs. Instead, you can change tenses by adding additional particles or time words to the sentence. The most popular particle for past tense is 了 which indicates a change in situation. We’ll now look at another past tense particle.

Kirin: 过. 第四声.

Adam: This is used to form a present perfect tense. The best way to show its usage is through the use of a simple example. If you wanted to say “I see” you would say

Kirin: 我看.

Adam: If you wanted to say “I saw”, you would say

Kirin: 我看了.

Adam: If you wanted to say “I have seen” you would say

Kirin: 我看过了.

Adam: So back to what I wanted to say which was “We’ve studied this character before.”

Kirin: 这个字我们以前学过了.

Adam: Similarly if I wanted to say “We’ve studied these characters before” we’d say

Kirin: 这些字我们以前都学过了.

Adam: Notice the use of the plural measure word there as well as the addition of 都 giving us “These characters we before all studied.”

Kirin: 这些字我们以前都学过了.

Adam: Great, so let’s move on to another question I sometimes ask in lessons. “Do you remember what this means?” So first, the verb “to remember.”

Kirin: 记得. 第四声和第五声.

Adam: So to ask my question I’d ask

Kirin: 你记得是什么意思吗?

Adam: “Do you remember what this means?” At the end of many lessons I talk about getting more practice since that’s the only way to learn a language. Let’s look at the word for practice.

Kirin: 练习. 第四声和第二声.

Adam: So to say “more practice” you’d say

Kirin: 更多的练习.

Adam: You may remember 更 from lesson 83 means “more of something”; so

Kirin: 更多.

Adam: Means “even more.” So based on what you know, see if you can translate the following piece of advice.

Kirin: 如果你想要更多的练习，你可以上网到…

So that meant “If you would like more practice, you can go to” The character 到 translated as meaning “to”. In this lesson’s podcast review we will summarize the different words and concepts used in today’s lesson, while introducing some new examples. It’s important to understand them since we will be utilizing them in future lessons.

Before we go, rather than using the regular goodbye phrase we normally use, we’ll use the phrase of encouragement we learned in lesson 64

Kirin: 你们继续加油!

Listen to lesson:


Move your mouse pointer over (or touch, from your mobile device) any Chinese words or phrases to get a translation.

Adam: Hello, I’m your host, Adam.

Kirin: 欢迎来到我们第八十九课.

Adam: We’ll being today’s lesson by listening to a short dialogue by our native Chinese speakers; then break it down for you.

Raphael: 让我们先听一次今天的对话.

Cindy: 今天你看上去很高兴.
Yann: 因为我最喜欢的那个歌星会给大家签名. 希望我能见到他.
Cindy: 你最好早一点儿去. 我想你大概会排很长时间的队.
Yann: 说得对. 我现在就去排队.

Raphael: 让我们再重复一遍今天的对话.

Kirin: 今天你看上去很高兴.
因为我最喜欢的那个歌星会给大家签名. 希望我能见到他.
你最好早一点儿去.
我想你大概会排很长时间的队.
说得对.
我现在就去排队.

Raphael: 让我们来翻译今天的对话.

Adam: Let’s begin with the first line.

Kirin: 今天你看上去很高兴.

Adam: We’ve seen all these words before but in different combinations. There’s a new expression there

Kirin: 看上去.

Adam: The literal meaning is “look up go”, which can extend to “look upwards”, which can further extend to a meaning of “appear to be.”

Kirin: 今天你看上去很高兴.

Adam: “Today, you appear to be very

Kirin: 高兴.

Raphael: 高兴 是什么意思?

Adam: That’s the word “to be happy.” So that gives us “You appear to be very happy today.”

Kirin: 今天你看上去很高兴.

Adam: To which the man replies.

Kirin: 因为我最喜欢的那个歌星会给大家签名.

Adam: Can you figure out the first part? Because I 最喜欢的. That means “I most like” or “my favorite.” That’s followed by a new word.

Raphael: 歌星. 两个第一声.

Adam: The breakdown of those two characters is “song star” as in a “singing superstar” or “famous singer.”

Kirin: 因为我最喜欢的那个歌星会给大家签名.

Adam: The 那个 specifies a particular superstar you have in mind. So that gives us “Because my favorite singer.”

Kirin: 因为我最喜欢的那个歌星会给大家签名.

Adam: The 会 here is being used as a future tense as in “is going to” 给大家 – give everyone. We then have another new word.

Raphael: 签名. 第一声和第二声

Adam: And that means “signature” or “to sign your name.” So the sentence translates to “Because my favorite singer is signing autographs for everyone.”

Kirin: 因为我最喜欢的那个歌星会给大家签名.

Adam: He then adds.

Kirin: 希望我能见到他.

Adam: So there’s another new verb there.

Raphael: 希望. 第一声和第四声.

Adam: And that’s the verb “To wish for” or “to hope.”

Kirin: 希望我能见到他.

Adam: We then have 能 meaning “able to” followed by 见到. Can you figure out what 见到 means? It means the action of meeting. So that gives us “I hope that I am able to meet him.”

Kirin: 希望我能见到他.

Adam: The woman then offers some advice.

Kirin: 你最好早一点儿去.

Adam: We’ve seen all these words before. Literally, that’s “You best early a little go.”

Kirin: 你最好早一点儿去.

Adam: As in “It would be best if you left a little early.”

Kirin: 你最好早一点儿去.

Adam: She then adds.

Kirin: 我想你大概会排很长时间的队.

Adam: Let’s look at what we know there.

Kirin: 我想你大概会.

Adam: I think you probably will.

Kirin: 很长时间.

Adam: A long time. So what does she think he will do for a long time?

Raphael: 排队. 第二声和第四声.

Adam: and that means “To stand in line.” So you can see the two characters there are split up to give us

Kirin: 排很长时间的队

Adam: meaning “To line up for a long time.”

Kirin: 我想你大概会排很长时间的队.

Adam: I think you will probably line up for a long time.

Kirin: 我想你大概会排很长时间的队.

Adam: To which the man replies.

Kirin: 说得对.

Adam: This is an expression used to say “What you say is correct.”

Kirin: 说得对.

Adam: As in, “you’re right”

Kirin: 说得对.

Adam: He then adds.

Kirin: 我现在就去排队.

Adam: You’ve seen the 就 particle used quite commonly in recent lessons. It was previously described as meaning “only.” Here it’s being used to state that this is the only option. As in “I’ll go stand in line right now.”

Kirin: 我现在就去排队.

Raphael: 让我们再重复一遍今天的对话.

Kirin: 今天你看上去很高兴.
因为我最喜欢的那个歌星会给大家签名. 希望我能见到他.
你最好早一点儿去.
我想你大概会排很长时间的队.
说得对.
我现在就去排队.

Raphael: 让我们再听一次今天的对话.

Cindy: 今天你看上去很高兴.
Yann: 因为我最喜欢的那个歌星会给大家签名. 希望我能见到他.
Cindy: 你最好早一点儿去. 我想你大概会排很长时间的队.
Yann: 说得对. 我现在就去排队.

Listen to lesson:


Move your mouse pointer over (or touch, from your mobile device) any Chinese words or phrases to get a translation.

Adam: Hello there, I’m Adam.

Kirin: 让我们来学习第八十八课.

Adam: Today’s lesson builds upon lesson 27 of our course and continues a dialogue we started in our last lesson. A woman was telling a man that her friend was coming to town and needed a hotel room. Let’s listen to the rest of the conversation, then break it down for you.

Raphael: 让我们先听一次今天的对话.

Yann: 他这次要待多久?
Cindy: 就几天.
Yann: 告诉他不要忘了带护照和信用卡. 他们不收现金.

Raphael: 让我们再重复一遍今天的对话.

Kirin: 他这次要待多久?
就几天.
告诉他不要忘了带护照和信用卡.
他们不收现金.

Raphael: 让我们来翻译今天的对话.

Adam: Let’s begin with the first line.

Kirin: 他这次要待多久?

Adam: So there’s a new word here.

Raphael: 待. 第一声.

Adam: And that’s the verb “to stay.” So that gives us “he wants to stay” 多久? Do you remember what that means? We saw this question in lesson 20, asking “How long?”

Kirin: 他这次要待多久?

Adam: So he is literally asking “He this time want stay how long?” or “How long will he stay this time?”

Kirin: 他这次要待多久?

Adam: To which the woman replies.

Kirin: 就几天.

Adam: We saw the 就 particle recently in lesson 83 meaning “only.” That’s followed by

Kirin: 几天.

Adam: This is an interesting construction. Normally, “几?” is a question word asking “How many?” So this could be a question asking “how many days?” However, in this case, it’s not a question, it’s an answer. So in this case, 几 changes from meaning “how many” to meaning “some” or “a few.”

Kirin: 就几天.

Adam: So in this context, she’s actually saying “only a few days”

Kirin: 就几天.

Adam: Compare the difference in tones between the 久 in “多久?” and the 就 in “就几天.” Using the wrong tone can give the wrong meaning. Back to our dialogue, the man then offers some advice.

Kirin: 告诉他不要忘了带护照和信用卡.

Adam: We saw the verb 告诉 a couple of lessons ago. Do you remember what it means? It’s the verb “to tell.” So that gives us “tell him”, followed by

Kirin: 不要忘了.

Adam: There’s a new word in there.

Raphael: 忘. 第四声.

Adam: And that’s the verb “to forget.” Now 不要, on its own, means “don’t want” but when combined with another verb like we have here the meaning changes to “don’t” followed by the verb so in this case that gives us “Don’t forget”.

Kirin: 告诉他不要忘了带护照和信用卡.

Adam: We then have another new verb. 带, which uses a fourth tone. And that means “to carry” or “to bring.” So you can see another difference in tones between the 待 we saw earlier meaning “to stay” and the 带 that we have here.

Kirin: 告诉他不要忘了带护照和信用卡.

Adam: “Tell him don’t forget to bring”

Kirin: 护照和信用卡.

Adam: So, hopefully, you remember that from lesson 27 “passport and credit card”

Kirin: 护照和信用卡.

Adam: So together that gives us “Tell him not to forget to bring his passport and credit card.”

Kirin: 告诉他不要忘了带护照和信用卡.

Adam: He then adds.

Kirin: 他们不收现金.

Adam: So there are a couple more new words in there. First the verb “to receive.”

Raphael: 收. 第一声.

Adam: followed by the word for “cash.”

Raphael: 现金. 第四声和第一声.

Adam: So together that gives us “They don’t accept cash.”

Kirin: 他们不收现金.

Raphael: 让我们再重复一遍今天的对话.

Kirin: 他这次要待多久?
就几天.
告诉他不要忘了带护照和信用卡.
他们不收现金.

Adam: And let’s listen to the entire dialogue including our last lesson together.

Cindy: 我的朋友下个星期要到这个城市来. 你能帮我给他在旅馆订一个房间吗?
Yann: 没问题. 这附近就有一家新旅馆. 我听说很便宜. 他这次要待多久?
Cindy: 就几天.
Yann: 告诉他不要忘了带护照和信用卡. 他们不收现金.

Listen to lesson:


Move your mouse pointer over (or touch, from your mobile device) any Chinese words or phrases to get a translation.

Adam: Hello, I’m Adam.

Kirin: 欢迎来到第八十七课.

Adam: Today’s lesson builds upon lesson 26 of our series. So you’re welcome to review that lesson before continuing. Let’s begin by listening to a dialogue by our native Chinese speakers, and then break it down for you.

Raphael: 让我们先听一次今天的对话.

Cindy: 我的朋友下个星期要到这个城市来. 你能帮我给他在旅馆订一个房间吗?
Yann: 没问题. 这附近就有一家新旅馆. 我听说很便宜.

Raphael: 让我们再重复一遍今天的对话.

Kirin: 我的朋友下个星期要到这个城市来.
你能帮我给他在旅馆订一个房间吗?
没问题.
这附近就有一家新旅馆.
我听说很便宜.

Raphael: 让我们来翻译今天的对话.

Adam: Let’s begin with the first line.

Kirin: 我的朋友下个星期要到这个城市来.

Raphael: 朋友 是什么意思?

Adam: That means “friend”. That’s followed by

Kirin: 下个星期.

Adam: Do you know what that means? We’ve seen this format before describing “next week.”

Kirin: 我的朋友下个星期要到这个城市来.

Adam: So that gives us “Next week, my friend”

Kirin: 要到这个城市来.

Adam: So there a few verbs in there that hopefully make sense. “Want arrive this” followed by a new word.

Raphael: 城市. 第二声和第四声.

Adam: And that means “city.” So putting everything together gives us a literal translation of “My friend next week wants arrive this city come.”

Kirin: 我的朋友下个星期要到这个城市来.

Adam: That should be easy enough to figure out as “My friend is coming to town next week.”

Kirin: 我的朋友下个星期要到这个城市来.

Adam: Notice how the verb 要 here has a dual meaning, so this sentence could also be translated as meaning “My friend wants to come to town next week.” In any case, the woman then asks

Kirin: 你能帮我给他在旅馆订一个房间吗?

Raphael: 能 是什么意思?

Adam: We saw it in lesson 39, and it’s the verb meaning “to be able” to do something. The next verb there is 帮, which we saw in lesson 34 and is the verb “to help.” That’s followed by a few more words there that we should know. So the literal translation of the first part of the sentence is “you able to help me give me located in”. Hmmn…we’ll need to piece together the rest of this sentence to make any sense of it. The next word there is another new one.

Kirin: 旅馆.

Adam: And that means “hotel.” So what does he want to do in a hotel?

Kirin: 订一个房间.

Adam: There’s another new word there.

Raphael: 订. 第四声.

Adam: And that’s the verb “to book or reserve.” The last part we should know from lesson 26.

Kirin: 房间.

Adam: Meaning “room” as in where you stay in a hotel.

Kirin: 你能帮我给他在旅馆订一个房间吗?

Adam: So looking at it again we have “You able to help me give him in a hotel reserve a room?” This is the format used to ask “Can you help me reserve a hotel room for him?”

Kirin: 你能帮我给他在旅馆订一个房间吗?

Adam: The tricky part of this question is the

Kirin: 给他订一个房间.

Adam: On the surface that literally means “Give him reserve a room”; however, this is the format used to say “Reserve a room for him.”

Kirin: 给他订一个房间.

Adam: The man then replies.

Kirin: 没问题.

Adam: There’s a phrase we first heard in lesson 19. Do you remember what that means? It means “No problem.”

Kirin: 没问题.

Adam: He then continues.

Kirin: 这附近就有一家新旅馆.

Adam: So there’s another new word in there.

Raphael: 附近. 两个第四声.

Adam: And that means “Nearby.”

Kirin: 这附近就有一家新旅馆.

Adam: The 这 in front is short for 这里 meaning “here.” So that gives us “near here.” In the next part of the sentence, we have the 就 particle that we have studied recently. We taught it as meaning “only” or in this case “just.” Here it emphasizes that we are going to find exactly what we are looking for. So “Near here there is just.” We then have another new word. 家 which uses the first tone is a measure word for commercial establishments, which in this case is

Kirin: 旅馆.

Adam: So here we have

Kirin: 一家新旅馆.

Adam: Do you remember what 新 means from the adjective 新的? That we saw in lesson 36 and means “new” so looking at this sentence again.

Kirin: 这附近就有一家新旅馆.

Adam: That gives us “Here nearby just has a new hotel.” In other words, “There’s a new hotel just near here.”

Kirin: 这附近就有一家新旅馆.

Adam: He then adds.

Kirin: 我听说很便宜.

Adam: Again, a couple more verbs we’ve seen before. The verb “to listen” and the verb “to speak.”

Kirin: 听说

Adam: together these two characters form “heard.” We then have the adjective

Kirin: 便宜

Adam: meaning “cheap.” So when you put that together we get

Kirin: 我听说很便宜.

Adam: “I hear speak very cheap.” You can extend that meaning to “I heard it spoken that it’s very cheap” or simply “I heard it’s very cheap.”

Kirin: 我听说很便宜.

Raphael: 让我们再重复一遍今天的对话.

Kirin: 我的朋友下个星期要到这个城市来.
你能帮我给他在旅馆订一个房间吗?
没问题.
这附近就有一家新旅馆.
我听说很便宜.

Raphael: 让我们再听一次今天的对话.

Cindy: 我的朋友下个星期要到这个城市来. 你能帮我给他在旅馆订一个房间吗?
Yann: 没问题. 这附近就有一家新旅馆. 我听说很便宜.

Listen to lesson:


Move your mouse pointer over (or touch, from your mobile device) any Chinese words or phrases to get a translation.

Adam: Hello, I’m Adam. With me today are our native Chinese speakers, Raphael and Kirin. Today’s lesson builds upon what was taught in lesson 25, which happens to be a telephone conversation. Let’s listen to it first before breaking it down for you.

Raphael: 让我们先听一次今天的对话.

Cindy: 喂?
Yann: 请问，王先生在吗?
Cindy: 对不起. 他现在不在. 请一小时后再打电话，好吗?
Yann: 那么麻烦你告诉他张老师找他.

Raphael: 让我们再重复一遍今天的对话.

Kirin: 喂?
请问，王先生在吗?
对不起. 他现在不在. 请一小时后再打电话，好吗?
那么麻烦你告诉他张老师找他.

Raphael: 让我们来翻译今天的对话.

Adam: Let’s begin with the first line.

Kirin: 喂?

Adam: This you may remember is the standard response when picking up the phone.

Kirin: 喂?

Adam: The man then asks.

Kirin: 请问，王先生在吗?

Adam: So this should all be review. Literally, that’s “May I ask, Wang Mr located?” Or simply, “May I ask, is Mr Wang there?”

Kirin: 请问，王先生在吗?

Adam: To which the woman replies.

Kirin: 对不起.

Raphael: 对不起 是什么意思?

Adam: You may remember that in Chinese this same expression can be used to say “Excuse me”, or in this case, “I’m sorry.”

Kirin: 对不起.

Adam: That’s followed by.

Kirin: 他现在不在.

Raphael: 现在 是什么意思?

Adam: That means “right now”. So the literal translation here is “He right now not located”.

Kirin: 他现在不在.

Adam: As in, “He is not here now.” The lady then adds.

Kirin: 请一小时后再打电话，好吗?

Adam: These are all words we’ve seen before. Do you remember what 小時 means? We saw it in our last lesson meaning “hour” as in “an hour of time.”

Raphael: 后 是什么意思?

Adam: That we saw in lesson 24 meaning “after.” So the first part literally gives us “Please one hour after”

Kirin: 请一小时后再打电话，好吗?

Adam: The end of the sentence 再打电话，好吗? Literally means “Again dial telephone, ok?” so putting this sentence together gives us “Please call again after an hour, ok?”

Kirin: 请一小时后再打电话，好吗?

Adam: To which the man responds.

Kirin: 那么麻烦你告诉他张老师找他.

Raphael: 麻煩 是什麼意思?

Adam: That we saw in lesson 32 meaning “troublesome” or “bothersome” so

Kirin: 麻烦你

Adam: is a polite expression used before asking someone to do something for you that may trouble them in some way. So what is he asking her to do?

Kirin: 那么麻烦你告诉他张老师找他.

Adam: There’s a new word in there.

Kirin: 告诉.

Adam: And that’s the verb “to tell.” So he’s asking her to tell Mr Wang something

Kirin: 那么麻烦你告诉他张老师找他.

Adam: 张老师 – Teacher Zhang. Unlike English, “teacher” is a title and is used with names, similarly to how you may call someone Doctor Zhang. So Teacher Zhang 找他.

Raphael: 找 是什么意思?

Adam: We’ve seen it in a couple of different contexts before. Here it means “to look for”; so Teacher Zhang is looking for him.

Kirin: 那么麻烦你告诉他张老师找他.

Adam: In that case, if it’s no trouble, please tell him that Teacher Zhang is looking for him.

Kirin: 那么麻烦你告诉他张老师找他.

Raphael: 让我们再重复一遍今天的对话.

Kirin: 喂?
请问，王先生在吗?
对不起. 他现在不在. 请一小时后再打电话，好吗?
那么麻烦你告诉他张老师找他.

Raphael: 让我们再听一次今天的对话.

Cindy: 喂?
Yann: 请问，王先生在吗?
Cindy: 对不起. 他现在不在. 请一小时后再打电话，好吗?
Yann: 那么麻烦你告诉他张老师找他.

Listen to lesson:


Move your mouse pointer over (or touch, from your mobile device) any Chinese words or phrases to get a translation.

Adam: Hello, I’m Adam.

Kirin: 大家好. 我是 Kirin. 欢迎来到我们第八十五课.

Adam: Today’s lesson continues a conversation that took place between a woman and a businessman in China. Let’s listen to the conversation and then break it down for you.

Raphael: 让我们先听一次今天的对话.

Cindy: 到中国要坐多长时间的飞机?
Yann: 大概十二个小时左右.
Cindy: 你坐十二个小时的飞机累不累?
Yann: 我觉得不太累.

Raphael: 让我们重复一遍今天的对话.

Kirin: 到中国要坐多长时间的飞机?
大概十二个小时左右.
你坐十二个小时的飞机累不累?
我觉得不太累.

Raphael: 让我们来翻译今天的对话.

Adam: Let’s begin with the first line of the dialogue.

Kirin: 到中国要坐多长时间的飞机?

Adam: So we’ve seen most of these words before. Let’s start with the end of the sentence and work our way back to the front.

Raphael: 飞机 是什么意思?

Adam: That means “airplane.” We saw it back in lesson 33. There, you may remember, we learned that

Kirin: 坐飞机.

Adam: means “to take a plane.” Here we have.

Kirin: 坐多长时间的飞机?

Adam: So there’s a new word in there.

Raphael: 长. 第二声.

Adam: And that means “long” as in length of time. So what do you think

Kirin: 多长?

Adam: means? Well we know that

Kirin: 多少?

Adam: means “How much?” So

Kirin: 多长?

Adam: means “How long?”

Kirin: 多长时间的飞机?

Adam: The next word

Kirin: 时间

Adam: we saw recently meaning “time”; so that literally gives us: “How long time of airplane?”

Kirin: 到中国要坐多长时间的飞机?

Adam: The first part of the sentence there is:

Kirin: 到中国.

Adam: Do you remember what the word

Kirin: 到

Adam: means? It means “to arrive.” So putting the entire sentence together gives us a rough definition of “Arrive China needs to take how long of flight?”

Kirin: 到中国要坐多长时间的飞机?

Adam: In other words “How long is the flight to China?”

Kirin: 到中国要坐多长时间的飞机?

Adam: To which the man replies.

Kirin: 大概十二个小时左右.

Adam: There’s a new word in there.

Raphael: 小时. 第三声和第二声.

Adam: If you look at the breakdown of this word, it’s made up of 小, which we know means “small” and

Kirin: 时

Adam: which we’ve seen before in

Kirin: 时间

Adam: and

Kirin: 时候

Adam: and refers to “time.” So literally that means “small time” which together forms the word for “hour”

Kirin: 大概十二个小时左右.

Adam: So how many hours is this flight?

Kirin: 十二个小时.

Adam: And that means… 12 hours. But it’s not exactly 12 hours is it?

Kirin: 大概十二个小时左右.

Adam: “It’s around 12 hours or so.” We know this from the 大概 meaning “approximately” and the 左右 meaning “left or right” or in this case, “more or less.”

Kirin: 大概十二个小时左右.

Adam: The lady then asks

Kirin: 你坐十二个小时的飞机累不累?

Adam: So you should understand the first part of this question. “You take a 12 hour flight.” That’s followed by a new word.

Raphael: 累. 第四声.

Adam: And that’s the verb “to be tired.”

Kirin: 累.

Adam: So at the end of the question she asks:

Kirin: 累不累?

Adam: “Tired not tired,” which you may recall is a way to ask “Aren’t you tired?”

Kirin: 你坐十二个小时的飞机累不累?

Adam: “Aren’t you tired from taking a 12 hour flight?”

Kirin: 你坐十二个小时的飞机累不累?

Adam: To which the man replies.

Kirin: 我觉得不太累.

Adam: Easy enough – literally, “I fell not too tired.” Or “I don’t feel very tired.”

Kirin: 我觉得不太累.

Raphael: 让我们重复一遍今天的对话.

Kirin: 到中国要坐多长时间的飞机?
大概十二个小时左右.
你坐十二个小时的飞机累不累?
我觉得不太累.

Raphael: 让我们再听一次今天的对话.

Cindy: 到中国要坐多长时间的飞机?
Yann: 大概十二个小时左右.
Cindy: 你坐十二个小时的飞机累不累?
Yann: 我觉得不太累.

Listen to lesson:


Move your mouse pointer over (or touch, from your mobile device) any Chinese words or phrases to get a translation.

Adam: Hello, I’m your host, Adam.

Kirin: 大家好. 我是 Kirin. 让我们来学习第八十四课.

Adam: Today’s lesson builds upon what was taught in lesson 23 of our course. We’ll begin by listening to a dialogue by our native Chinese speakers, then break it down for you line by line.

Raphael: 让我们先听一次今天的对话.

Cindy: 你经常来中国吗?
Yann: 我经常到中国来做生意.
Cindy: 你喜欢到这儿来吗?
Yann: 非常喜欢.

Raphael: 让我们重复一遍今天的对话.

Kirin: 你经常来中国吗?
我经常到中国来做生意.
你喜欢到这儿来吗?
非常喜欢.

Raphael: 让我们来翻译今天的对话.

Adam: Let’s begin with the first line of this dialogue.

Kirin: 你经常来中国吗?

Adam: So here we have a new word.

Raphael: 经常. 第一声和第二声.

Adam: And this means “often.”

Kirin: 经常.

Adam: Recently, we saw the word

Kirin: 平常

Adam: meaning “usually,” so you can see that they both share the word

Kirin: 常

Adam: which means “common”; so the first character indicates how common it is.

Kirin: 经常.

Adam: So the lady asks

Kirin: 你经常来中国吗?

Adam: As in “Do you often come to China?”

Kirin: 你经常来中国吗?

Adam: To which the man replies

Kirin: 我经常到中国来做生意.

Adam: The first part of the sentence has a literal meaning of “I often arrive China come.” The 来 here can be thought of as meaning “for the purpose of.” So what purpose does he often come to China for?

Raphael: 做生意 是什么意思?

Adam: That we saw recently meaning “to do business.” So he’s saying “I often come to China for business.”

Kirin: 我经常到中国来做生意.

Adam: The woman then asks.

Kirin: 你喜欢到这儿来吗?

Raphael: 喜欢 是什么意思?

Adam: That means “to like.” We then have a word there that we’ve touched on before.

Kirin: 这儿

Adam: This has the same meaning as:

Kirin: 这里

Adam: meaning “here.” In Northern parts of China you’re more likely to hear

Kirin: 这儿

Adam: and

Kirin: 那儿

Adam: in place of

Kirin: 这里

Adam: and

Kirin: 那里

Adam: So she’s literally asking “You like arrive here come?”

Kirin: 你喜欢到这儿来吗?

Adam: Or simply “Do you like coming here?” To which the man replies

Kirin: 非常喜欢.

Raphael: 非常 是什么意思?

Adam: That means “extremely.” You can see again how this follows the same pattern we saw earlier of

Kirin: 经常. 平常.

Adam: So he’s saying he “really likes coming here.”

Kirin: 非常喜欢.

Raphael: 让我们重复一遍今天的对话.

Kirin: 你经常来中国吗?
我经常到中国来做生意.
你喜欢到这儿来吗?
非常喜欢.

Adam: Ok, and let’s listen to the dialogue again at normal speed.

Cindy: 你经常来中国吗?
Yann: 我经常到中国来做生意.
Cindy: 你喜欢到这儿来吗?
Yann: 非常喜欢.

Listen to lesson:


Move your mouse pointer over (or touch, from your mobile device) any Chinese words or phrases to get a translation.

Adam: Hello, I’m Adam.

Kirin: 大家好. 我是 Kirin. 欢迎来到第八十三课.

Adam: Today’s lesson builds upon lesson 22, which talked about food. So let’s listen to a dialogue between our native Chinese speakers and then break it down for you.

Raphael: 我们先听一次今天的对话.

Yann: 我现在觉得真饿.
Cindy: 你想吃什么?
Yann: 随便. 什么都好.
Cindy: 炒饭，炒菜都好吗?
Yann: 如果有瓶啤酒就更好了.

Raphael: 让我们重复一遍今天的对话.

Kirin: 我现在觉得真饿.
你想吃什么?
随便. 什么都好.
炒饭，炒菜都好吗?
如果有瓶啤酒就更好了.

Raphael: 让我们来翻译今天的对话.

Adam: So let’s begin with the first line of the dialogue.

Kirin: 我现在觉得真饿.

Adam: So this should be a review from lesson 22 along with other words we’ve learned since then “I right now feel really hungry.”

Kirin: 我现在觉得真饿.

Adam: The woman then replies.

Kirin: 你想吃什么?

Adam: So again we’ve seen this construction before. Literally, that’s “You think eat what?”

Kirin: 你想吃什么?

Adam: The man then replies.

Kirin: 随便. 什么都好.

Adam: So here’s a new word.

Raphael: 随便. 第二声和第四声.

Adam: That’s made up of two words. The first

Raphael: 随

Adam: means “to follow”, while

Raphael: 便

Adam: we saw recently in

Raphael: 方便

Adam: meaning “convenient”. Together

Raphael: 随便.

Adam: literally means “follow convenient”, and means “As you wish” or “Whatever is more convenient.”

Kirin: 随便.

Adam: He then continues

Kirin: 什么都好.

Adam: We’ve seen this construction recently too, literally meaning “what all good”, as in “Whatever you want is good with me.”

Kirin: 什么都好.

Adam: So these two words can be used separately or together meaning “As you wish, anything is fine for me.”

Kirin: 随便. 什么都好.

Adam: The woman then asks

Kirin: 炒饭，炒菜都好吗?

Adam: So there we have a couple of new words.

Raphael: 炒饭. 第三声和第四声.

Adam: Together that means “Fried rice.” We’ve seen the

Raphael: 饭

Adam: before in

Raphael: 吃饭.

Adam: The other dish she mentioned was

Raphael: 炒菜. 第三声和第四声.

Adam: The first character there is also “fried” which we just saw, while the second character we’ve seen in the word for “menu.”

Raphael: 菜单

Adam: On its own, it refers to “vegetables”; so together

Raphael: 炒菜

Adam: means “fried vegetables.”

Kirin: 炒饭，炒菜都好吗?

Adam: Would fried rice and fried vegetables both be okay for you?

Kirin: 炒饭，炒菜都好吗?

Adam: To which the man replies

Kirin: 如果有瓶啤酒就更好了.

Adam: So there are a few new words there to look at. The sentence starts with a word we learned a few lessons ago

Raphael: 如果

Adam: meaning “If.” We then have a new character.

Raphael: 瓶. 第二声.

Adam: That’s a measure word for bottled drinks.

Kirin: 瓶.

Adam: That’s followed by a very popular beverage.

Raphael: 啤酒. 第二声和第三声.

Adam: which means “beer.” Good word to know anywhere you go I suppose. The first character refers to “beer”, while the second character refers to “alcohol.”

Kirin: 啤酒.

Adam: We then have a particle of speech

Raphael: 就. 第四声.

Adam: This particle can have many meanings depending on how it’s used. In this context, it could be translated as meaning “only.” We then have our last new word

Raphael: 更. 第四声.

Adam: This is another word used to turn adjectives into their comparative form. So when combined with the 好, this gives us another way to say “better.”

Kirin: 如果有瓶啤酒就更好了.

Adam: So the literal translation of this sentence is “If have bottle beer only better.”

Kirin: 如果有瓶啤酒就更好了.

Adam: Which translates to “If there was a beer there, that would make it better.”

Kirin: 如果有瓶啤酒就更好了.

Raphael: 让我们重复一遍今天的对话.

Kirin: 我现在觉得真饿.
你想吃什么?
随便. 什么都好.
炒饭，炒菜都好吗?
如果有瓶啤酒就更好了.

Adam: And let’s listen to the conversation again at regular speed.

Yann: 我现在觉得真饿.
Cindy: 你想吃什么?
Yann: 随便. 什么都好.
Cindy: 炒饭，炒菜都好吗?
Yann: 如果有瓶啤酒就更好了.

Listen to lesson:


Move your mouse pointer over (or touch, from your mobile device) any Chinese words or phrases to get a translation.

Adam: Hello, I’m Adam.

Kirin: 今天我们学习第八十二课.

Adam: Today’s lesson builds upon what we learned in lesson 21 of our series talking about jobs. So let’s begin by listening to a short dialogue by our native Chinese speakers, and then break it down for you line by line.

Raphael: 让我们先听一次今天的对话.

Cindy: 你做什么工作?
Yann: 我在做生意.
Cindy: 你在做什么生意?
Yann: 我在做食品生意.

Raphael: 让我们再重复一遍.

Adam: Before we continue, you’ll notice that Raphael is using a new version of the phrase that is normally said at this point. There are a couple of new words in there.

Kirin: 重复.

Adam: That uses a second tone and a fourth tone and means “repeat.”

Kirin: 重复.

Adam: He then added another term.

Kirin: 一遍.

Adam: That’s the word 一, meaning one and a falling tone 遍, which is another way to say “time” giving us “one time.” So he’s saying “Let’s repeat it one more time.”

Raphael: 让我们再重复一遍.

Kirin: 你做什么工作?
我在做生意.
你在做什么生意?
我在做食品生意.

Raphael: 让我们来翻译今天的对话.

Adam: Great, so let’s begin with the first line.

Kirin: 你做什么工作?

Adam: If we go back to lesson 21, the man asked:

Kirin: 你的工作是什么?

Adam: Which literally meant “Your job is what?” Here we have:

Kirin: 你做什么工作?

Adam: Which literally means “You do what job” as in “What’s your job?”

Kirin: 你做什么工作?

Adam: To which the man replies.

Kirin: 我在做生意.

Adam: So there’s our next new word of the lesson.

Raphael: 生意. 第一声和第四声.

Adam: This word is made up of two characters we’ve seen before. 生, meaning life, and 意 from 意思, meaning “meaning” and, interestingly, when you put them together, a “life with meaning” refers to “business.”

Kirin: 我在做生意.

Adam: As in “I do business” or “I’m a businessperson.”

Kirin: 我在做生意.

Adam: The lady then asks.

Kirin: 你在做什么生意?

Adam: Now if we look at the first part of that sentence you can see the use of 在. We first saw that in lesson 20 meaning “to be located in.” Here it’s being used in a different context. When a verb is preceded with 在 like it is here, the meaning of the verb changes to mean “in the process of doing” that action. So in this example:

Kirin: 你在做什么生意?

Adam: The question can translate to mean “What business are you currently doing?”

Kirin: 你在做什么生意?

Adam: The man then replies.

Kirin: 我在做食品生意.

Adam: So there’s another new word in today’s lesson.

Raphael: 食品. 第二声和第三声.

Adam: The first character refers to “food”, while the second character refers to “product.” So the man is dealing with “food products”, or is in the food industry.

Kirin: 我在做食品生意.

Adam: I am in the business of food.

Kirin: 我在做食品生意.

Raphael: 让我们再重复一遍.

Kirin: 你做什么工作?
我在做生意.
你在做什么生意?
我在做食品生意.

Adam: And let’s listen to the conversation again at normal speed.

Cindy: 你做什么工作?
Yann: 我在做生意.
Cindy: 你在做什么生意?
Yann: 我在做食品生意.

Listen to lesson:


Move your mouse pointer over (or touch, from your mobile device) any Chinese words or phrases to get a translation.

Adam: Hello, I’m Adam.

Kirin: 大家好. 让我们来学习第八十一课.

Adam: Today’s lesson builds upon Lesson 20. Let’s begin by listening to a dialogue by our native Chinese speakers.

Raphael: 让我们先听一次今天的对话.

Cindy: 你最不喜欢星期几?
Yann: 星期二.
Cindy: 为什么?
Yann: 因为老板说 我每一个星期二都要加班.

Raphael: 让我们再听一次今天的对话. 请跟Kirin说.

Kirin: 你最不喜欢星期几?
星期二.
为什么?
因为老板说 我每一个星期二都要加班.

Raphael: 让我们来翻译今天的对话.

Adam: Let’s begin with the first line of this dialogue.

Kirin: 你最不喜欢星期几?

Adam: So there’s a new word in there.

Raphael: 最. 第四声.

Adam: This is a very important word as it allows you to easily create superlatives out of words. Previously, we saw the word

Raphael: 比较

Adam: which allowed us to create comparatives. So for example:

Raphael: 好

Adam: means “good.”

Raphael: 比较好

Adam: means “better.” Now if we wanted to say “best” we’d say

Raphael: 最好.

Adam: So pretty simple there. Getting back to our dialogue we have:

Kirin: 你最不喜欢星期几?

Raphael: 不喜欢 是什么意思?

Adam: That means “to not like” And the last word of the sentence.

Kirin: 星期几?

Adam: Literally means “week how many?” That’s one way to ask “Which day of the week?”

Kirin: 你最不喜欢星期几?

Adam: Which day of the week do you not like the most?

Kirin: 你最不喜欢星期几?

Adam: To which the man replies.

Kirin: 星期二.

Adam: Hopefully, you know that this means… Tuesday.

Kirin: 星期二.

Adam: The woman then asks.

Kirin: 为什么?

Adam: This is an important question that we learned in lesson 29. It means “Why?”

Kirin: 为什么?

Adam: To which the man replies.

Kirin: 因为老板说 我每一个星期二都要加班.

Adam: So most questions of the form “为什么?” are answered with:

Kirin: 因为

Adam: meaning “because.”

Kirin: 因为老板说 我每一个星期二都要加班.

Raphael: 老板 是什么意思?

Adam: That we learned in lesson 12 means “boss.” So that gives us “Because my boss said.” That’s followed by a new word in there.

Raphael: 每. 第三声.

Adam: Note that this has the same pronunciation as another character we’ve seen before.

Raphael: 美国 的 美.

Adam: As in the 美 in 美国 or America meaning “beautiful.” The 每 in today’s lesson is a different character with the same sound, and has a meaning of “every”

Kirin: 每一个星期二.

Adam: Note that we need a measure word after the 每 giving us

Kirin: 每一个

Adam: which means “every one of.”

Kirin: 因为老板说 我每一个星期二都要加班.

Adam: Because my boss said that every Tuesday I

Kirin: 都要加班.

Adam: We’ve seen these words before in different contexts.

Kirin: 都要.

Adam: 都, you may remember, means “all” while 要 means “want.” However, it has a different meaning here of “have to” or “need to.” This is the 要 from

Kirin: 需要.

Adam: We saw that in lesson 53 meaning “to need.”

Kirin: 因为老板说 我每一个星期二都要加班.

Adam: So that gives us “Because my boss says that every Tuesday I always need to…”

Kirin: 加班.

Adam: So this is made up of two characters we’ve seen before. We saw 加 in lesson 64 in the expression

Raphael: 继续加油

Adam: meaning “Continue to keep at it.” The literal translation of

Raphael: 加油

Adam: is “Add oil” as in to “refuel your engine.” The second character 班 we saw before in lesson 31 in the word

Raphael: 上班

Adam: meaning “to start work.” When you put the two together, you get

Raphael: 加班.

Adam: which gives us “add work” as in “overtime.”

Kirin: 因为老板说 我每一个星期二都要加班.

Adam: Because my boss says that every Tuesday I have to work overtime.

Kirin: 因为老板说 我每一个星期二都要加班.

Raphael: 让我们再听一次今天的对话. 请跟Kirin说.

Kirin: 你最不喜欢星期几?
星期二.
为什么?
因为老板说 我每一个星期二都要加班.

Adam: And let’s now listen to the dialogue again at normal speed.

Cindy: 你最不喜欢星期几?
Yann: 星期二.
Cindy: 为什么?
Yann: 因为老板说 我每一个星期二都要加班.

Listen to lesson:


Move your mouse pointer over (or touch, from your mobile device) any Chinese words or phrases to get a translation.

Adam: Hello, my name is Adam.

Kirin: 欢迎来到第八十课.

Adam: Today’s lesson builds upon lesson 19 of our series. Let’s begin by listening to a dialogue by our native Chinese speakers.

Raphael: 让我们先听一次今天的对话.

Cindy: 你平常几点吃早饭?
Yann: 大概七点左右. 如果我太晚起床, 我会晚一点儿吃.

Raphael: 让我们再听一次今天的对话. 请跟Kirin说.

Kirin: 你平常几点吃早饭?
大概七点左右.
如果我太晚起床, 我会晚一点儿吃.

Raphael: 让我们来翻译今天的对话.

Adam: Let’s start with the first line of the dialogue.

Kirin: 你平常几点吃早饭?

Adam: So there are a few new words there.

Raphael: 平常. 两个第二声.

Adam: The first character there means “equal”, while the second one means “common”, and together they form the word “usually” or “commonly.”

Kirin: 你平常几点吃早饭?

Adam: You may remember the question “几点?” from lesson 19 asking “What time?” So that gives us “What time do you usually…”

Kirin: 吃早饭.

Adam: So here’s our second new word of the day.

Kirin: 早饭.

Adam: This is made up of two characters we’ve seen before.

Kirin: 早.

Adam: That you may remember means “early.” We saw it before in the word

Kirin: 早上

Adam: meaning “morning.” The second syllable

Kirin: 饭

Adam: we saw before in

Kirin: 吃饭

Adam: meaning “to eat a meal.” The 饭 here can refer to “rice” or a “meal.” So together

Kirin: 早饭

Adam: means “early meal” which in this case means “breakfast.”

Kirin: 你平常几点吃早饭?

Adam: What time do you usually eat breakfast?

Kirin: 你平常几点吃早饭?

Adam: To which the man replies.

Kirin: 大概七点左右.

Adam: We saw 大概 in our last lesson, meaning “around.” Do you remember what 左右 means? It means “more or less.” So what time is this?

Kirin: 大概七点左右.

Adam: Around 7 o’clock, more or less.

Kirin: 大概七点左右.

Adam: He then adds:

Kirin: 如果我太晚起床, 我会晚一点儿吃.

Adam: So more new words for us here.

Raphael: 如果. 第二声和第三声.

Adam: This is an important word meaning “if.”

Kirin: 如果我太晚起床.

Adam: What do you think 太晚 means? 太 you may remember means “too much” of something, while 晚 we’ve seen before in 晚上 and means “late.” So together 太晚 means “too late.” We also have another new word in there.

Raphael: 起床. 第三声和第二声.

Adam: There are two characters there. The first one

Raphael: 起

Adam: means “to rise up”, while the second one

Raphael: 床

Adam: means “bed.” So together “to rise out of bed” means “to wake up.”

Kirin: 如果我太晚起床.

Adam: If I get up too late…

Kirin: 我会晚一点儿吃.

Adam: So let’s break down the rest of this sentence. 我会. The verb 会 has multiple meanings. Previously, we’ve seen it used in the context of “to be able to do something” as in

Kirin: 我会说中文.

Adam: Here it’s being used in a future context as in “I will” do something.

Kirin: 我会晚一点儿吃.

Adam: So what is he going to do?

Kirin: 晚一点儿吃.

Adam: We’ve seen all these words before. The literal translation here is “late a little eat.” So putting this together gives us

Kirin: 如果我太晚起床, 我会晚一点儿吃.

Adam: If I wake up too late, I will eat a little later.

Kirin: 如果我太晚起床, 我会晚一点儿吃.

Adam: Now before we leave you. In this lesson we saw the word for breakfast.

Kirin: 早饭.

Adam: We can use what we’ve learned to create the two other meals of the day. For example, “lunch.”

Kirin: 午饭.

Adam: That, of course, comes from the word

Kirin: 下午

Adam: meaning afternoon. Similarly, we have “dinner”

Kirin: 晚饭

Adam: from the word

Kirin: 晚上

Adam: meaning “evening.”

Raphael: 让我们再听一次今天的对话. 请跟Kirin说.

Kirin: 你平常几点吃早饭?
大概七点左右.
如果我太晚起床, 我会晚一点儿吃.

Adam: And let’s now listen to the conversation again at regular speed.

Cindy: 你平常几点吃早饭?
Yann: 大概七点左右. 如果我太晚起床, 我会晚一点儿吃.

Listen to lesson:


Move your mouse pointer over (or touch, from your mobile device) any Chinese words or phrases to get a translation.

Adam: Hello, I’m Adam.

Kirin: 大家好. 我是 Kirin. 让我们来学习第七十九课.

Adam: We’ll begin today’s lesson by listening to a short dialogue by native Chinese speakers, which builds upon vocabulary we have learned in the past; specifically lessons 18 and 19.

Raphael: 让我们先听一次今天的对话.

Cindy: 我要介绍一个女生让你认识.
Yann: 真的吗? 她几岁?
Cindy: 二十五左右.
Yann: 那她结婚了吗?
Cindy: 还没.

Raphael: 让我们再听一次今天的对话. 请跟Kirin说.

Kirin: 我要介绍一个女生让你认识.
真的吗? 她几岁?
二十五左右.
那她结婚了吗?
还没.

Raphael: 现在我们开始翻译今天的对话.

Adam: Let’s start with the first line of this dialogue.

Kirin: 我要介绍一个女生让你认识.

Adam: Let’s first look at which words there we know.

Raphael: 介绍 是什么意思?

Adam: It’s the word “to introduce.” So the first part there becomes “I want to introduce a”

Kirin: 女生.

Adam: This word is made up of two characters we’ve seen before. The first character refers to “female.” We saw it before in

Kirin: 女儿

Adam: meaning “daughter” as well as

Kirin: 女朋友

Adam: meaning “girlfriend.” You could also say

Kirin: 女人

Adam: meaning “female person” or “woman.” Back to our word, the second character comes from the word for student.

Raphael: 学生.

Adam: So together

Kirin: 女生

Adam: refers to “a female student” or “a school age girl.” So in this context, it’s used to describe “a young woman.”

Kirin: 我要介绍一个女生让你认识.

Adam: The last part

Kirin: 让你认识

Adam: literally means “let you know.” So the entire sentence translates to “I want introduce a young woman let you know.”

Kirin: 我要介绍一个女生让你认识.

Adam: In other words, “I’d like to introduce a young woman to you.”

Kirin: 我要介绍一个女生让你认识.

Adam: To which the man replies.

Kirin: 真的吗? 她几岁?

Adam: So here we have two simple parts. The first part is “Really?”

Kirin: 真的吗?

Adam: And the second one asks “How old is she?”

Kirin: 她几岁?

Adam: So together that gives us, “Really? How old is she?”

Kirin: 真的吗? 她几岁?

Adam: The woman then replies.

Kirin: 二十五左右.

Adam: So “How old is she? 25 years old.” We saw the expression 左右 in lesson 42. It literally means “left right” but in this context means “more or less.”

Kirin: 左右

Adam: We could also add a

Kirin: 大概

Adam: in front of the sentence giving us “Around 25 years old or so.”

Kirin: 大概二十五岁左右.

Adam: The man then asks

Kirin: 那她结婚了吗?

Adam: So we saw 结婚 in lesson 18 and it’s the verb “to marry.” The 了 particle signifies past tense. So he’s asking “Is she married?”

Kirin: 那她结婚了吗?

Adam: We’ve seen the 那 particle a few times in recent conversations. Hopefully you can see how it is used to further conversations. The woman then replies.

Kirin: 还没.

Adam: And that’s a new expression. It’s short for 还没有. The literal translation is “still don’t have”, which is what is used to say “not yet.”

Kirin: 还没.

Raphael: 让我们再听一次今天的对话. 请跟Kirin说.

Kirin: 我要介绍一个女生让你认识.
真的吗? 她几岁?
二十五左右.
那她结婚了吗?
还没.

Adam: And let’s now listen to the dialogue again at normal speed.

Cindy: 我要介绍一个女生让你认识.
Yann: 真的吗? 她几岁?
Cindy: 二十五左右.
Yann: 那她结婚了吗?
Cindy: 还没.

Adam: Great; for more practice, you can listen to another similar conversation that tests your understanding of this and previous lessons. It’s available to Premium subscribers at Chineselearnonline.com.

Kirin: 我们下次再见.

Listen to lesson:


Move your mouse pointer over (or touch, from your mobile device) any Chinese words or phrases to get a translation.

Adam: Hello, my name is Adam.

Kirin: 大家好. 我是Kirin. 让我们来学习第七十八课.

Adam: In our last lesson, we listened to a conversation between a waiter and a customer. In today’s lesson, we’ll look at a similar conversation and what kind of questions a waiter may ask you when ordering tea or coffee.

Raphael: 让我们先听一次今天的对话.

Yann: 你要加糖吗?
Cindy: 不用，谢谢.
Yann: 那么，你要加奶精吗?
Cindy: 好，请加一点点.

Raphael: 让我们再听一次今天的对话. 请跟Kirin说.

Kirin: 你要加糖吗?
不用，谢谢.
那么，你要加奶精吗?
好，请加一点点.

Raphael: 让我们来翻译今天的对话.

Adam: So the first question the waiter asked was:

Kirin: 你要加糖吗?

Adam: So there are a couple of new words there.

Raphael: 加 – 第一声.

Adam: And that is the verb “to add”

Kirin: 你要加糖吗?

Adam: So “Do you want to add…?”

Raphael: 糖. 第二声.

Adam: And that’s our second word of the day meaning “sugar.” So he’s asking if she wants to add sugar to her tea or coffee.

Kirin: 你要加糖吗?

Adam: The woman then replies.

Kirin: 不用，谢谢.

Adam: We saw the verb 用 in lesson 22 meaning “to use.” The expression 不用 means “there is no use” or, in this context, “there is no need.”

Kirin: 不用，谢谢.

Adam: “There’s no need, thanks.”

Kirin: 不用，谢谢.

Adam: The waiter then asks his next question.

Kirin: 那么，你要加奶精吗?

Raphael: 那么 是什么意思?

Adam: That you may remember means “in that case.” So the waiter is asking if she wants to add something else.

Raphael: 奶精. 第三声和第一声.

Adam: We saw 奶 in our last lesson meaning “milk.” It comes from the word

Kirin: 牛奶

Adam: which literally means “cow milk.” 奶精 is the word used for “cream.” “In that case, do you want to add cream?”

Kirin: 那么，你要加奶精吗?

Adam: To which the lady replies.

Kirin: 好，请加一点点.

Adam: We saw 一点 way back in lesson 4 meaning “a little.” So 一点点 is how you would say “very little.”

Kirin: 好，请加一点点.

Adam: In northern parts of China you may hear them use a different term to say “a little.”

Kirin: 一点儿.

Adam: “Ok, please add a little.”

Kirin: 好，请加一点点.

Adam: Great, now before we leave you today, let’s do a quick review of the new vocabulary we learned in today’s lesson.

Kirin: 加.

Adam: To add.

Kirin: 糖.

Adam: Sugar.

Kirin: 不用.

Adam: No need to.

Kirin: 奶精.

Adam: Cream.

Kirin: 一点点.

Adam: Just a little.

Raphael: 让我们再听一次今天的对话. 请跟Kirin说.

Kirin: 你要加糖吗?
不用，谢谢.
那么，你要加奶精吗?
好，请加一点点.

Adam: And let’s now listen to the dialogue again at normal speed.

Yann: 你要加糖吗?
Cindy: 不用，谢谢.
Yann: 那么，你要加奶精吗?
Cindy: 好，请加一点点.

Adam: Great. If you’d like to expand upon this, listen to our podcast reviews, which give you other conversations that review this and previous lessons, while testing your understanding of the material. You can find them at Chineselearnonline.com.

Kirin: 我们下次再见.

.

Listen to lesson:


Move your mouse pointer over (or touch, from your mobile device) any Chinese words or phrases to get a translation.

Adam: Hello, my name is Adam.

Kirin: 大家好. 我是Kirin. 欢迎来到我们第七十七课.

Adam: Let’s begin like we do most lessons with a dialogue. Today’s dialogue takes place in a tea house between a waiter and a customer.

Raphael: 让我们先听一次今天的对话.

Yann: 小姐，请问你要喝什么?
Cindy: 你们有什么样的茶?
Yann: 我们什么茶都有.
Cindy: 你们有奶茶吗?
Yann: 有.
Cindy: 好，那我要一杯奶茶.

Raphael: 让我们再听一次今天的对话. 请跟Kirin说.

Kirin: 小姐，请问你要喝什么?
你们有什么样的茶?
我们什么茶都有.
你们有奶茶吗?
有.
好，那我要一杯奶茶.

Raphael: 让我们来翻译今天的对话.

Adam: Let’s take a closer look at this dialogue, starting with the first line.

Kirin: 小姐，请问你要喝什么?

Raphael: 小姐 是什么意思?

Adam: That means “miss.” This is a common term used to address a young woman whose name you may not know.

Raphael: 喝 是什么意思?

Adam: That’s the verb “to drink.” So the waiter is asking “Miss, may I ask, what do you want to drink?

Kirin: 小姐，请问你要喝什么?

Adam: The lady then replies.

Kirin: 你们有什么样的茶?

Adam: So this uses a new expression. “什么样的.” Previously, in lesson 16 we saw the expression “怎么样”, meaning “how about” or “what about.” Here we have “什么样的”, meaning “what kind of” 茶, which we’ve seen before, meaning “tea.”

Kirin: 你们有什么样的茶?

Adam: What kind of tea do you have?

Kirin: 你们有什么样的茶?

Adam: To which the waiter replies.

Kirin: 我们什么茶都有.

Adam: We’ve seen all these words before but in different contexts. “We what tea all have.”

Kirin: 我们什么茶都有.

Adam: And that’s how we say” We have whatever tea you want.”

Kirin: 我们什么茶都有.

Adam: The conversation then continues with the lady asking.

Kirin: 你们有奶茶吗?

Adam: So there’s our first new word there. 奶 which is the third tone and means “milk.”

Kirin: 你们有奶茶吗?

Adam: Do you have milk tea?

Kirin: 你们有奶茶吗?

Adam: To which the waiter replies…

Kirin: 有.

Adam: … meaning “have”, as in “Yes, we have that.”

Kirin: 有.

Adam: The woman then ends off by saying:

Kirin: 好，那我要一杯奶茶.

Adam: So you may remember 那 from our last lesson meaning “in that case.” So the literal translation here is “Ok, in that case, I want one cup milk tea.”

Kirin: 好，那我要一杯奶茶.

Adam: Now since we’ve talked about milk tea here, let’s look at a few other types of tea.

Kirin: 红茶.

Adam: Red tea or black tea.

Kirin: 绿茶.

Adam: Green tea.

Kirin: 乌龙茶.

Adam: Oolong tea. This is a popular tea in Chinese communities, made from Oolong tea leaves. It falls in range between black tea and green tea. How do you say Oolong again?

Raphael: 乌龙. 第一声跟第二声.

Adam: Great, so a bonus tea lesson for you today.

Raphael: 让我们再听一次今天的对话. 请跟Kirin说.

Kirin: 小姐，请问你要喝什么?
你们有什么样的茶?
我们什么茶都有.
你们有奶茶吗?
有.
好，那我要一杯奶茶.

Adam: And let’s now listen to the dialogue again at normal speed.

Yann: 小姐，请问你要喝什么?
Cindy: 你们有什么样的茶?
Yann: 我们什么茶都有.
Cindy: 你们有奶茶吗?
Yann: 有.
Cindy: 好，那我要一杯奶茶.

.

Listen to lesson:


Move your mouse pointer over (or touch, from your mobile device) any Chinese words or phrases to get a translation.

Adam: Hello, I’m Adam.

Kirin: 大家好. 我是Kirin. 欢迎来到第七十六课.

Adam: Today’s lesson begins with a dialogue that continues where our last lesson left off. If you remember, a man and a woman were trying to find time to meet to have a chat. The man had said he was free from Monday to Wednesday. Let’s listen to the rest of this conversation now.

Raphael: 让我们先听一次今天的对话.

Yann: 你哪个时间会比较方便?
Cindy: 星期二比较好.
Yann: 那，我们星期二见.
Cindy: 好，到时候见.

Raphael: 让我们再听一次今天的对话. 请跟Kirin说.

Kirin: 你哪个时间会比较方便?
星期二比较好.
那，我们星期二见.
好，到时候见.

Raphael: 让我们来翻译今天的对话.

Adam: Let’s begin with the first line of this dialogue.

Kirin: 你哪个时间会比较方便?

Adam: So there are a couple of new words here. Let’s look at the first part.

Raphael: 哪个 是什么意思?

Adam: That means “which.”

Raphael: 时间 – 第二声和第一声.

Adam: And that’s another way to say “period of time.” We then have the word 比较, which we saw last time meaning “comparatively” or “more”, followed by our next new word of the lesson.

Raphael: 方便. 第一声跟第四声.

Adam: And that means “convenient.”

Kirin: 你哪个时间会比较方便?

Adam: So that gives us “You which time will more convenient?” In other words, “Which time will be more convenient for you?”

Kirin: 你哪个时间会比较方便?

Adam: The lady then replies.

Kirin: 星期二比较好.

Adam: So, hopefully, you recognize that as “Tuesday more good.”

Kirin: 星期二比较好.

Adam: Or simply “Tuesday is better.”

Kirin: 星期二比较好.

Adam: The man then continues.

Kirin: 那，我们星期二见.

Adam: We saw 那么 in lesson 16 meaning “in that case.” This is a shorter form of that.

Kirin: 那，我们星期二见.

Adam: “In that case, we Tuesday 见.” This is the same 见 from 再见. You may remember, literally means “again meet.” So 星期二见 literally means “Tuesday meet.”

Kirin: 那，我们星期二见.

Adam: In that case, we’ll meet on Tuesday.

Kirin: 那，我们星期二见.

Adam: The woman then ends off by saying.

Kirin: 好，到时候见.

Adam: 时候, you may remember, also means “period of time.” So that gives us a translation of “Ok, arrive time meet.”

Kirin: 好，到时候见.

Adam: As in “Ok, we’ll meet then”

Kirin: 好，到时候见.

Raphael: 让我们再听一次今天的对话. 请跟Kirin说.

Kirin: 你哪个时间会比较方便?
星期二比较好.
那，我们星期二见.
好，到时候见.

Adam: And to put it in context, let’s listen to the entire dialogue that we’ve built up over the last few lessons.

Cindy: 你好，我很久没有看到你了.
Yann: 真抱歉. 我最近比较忙.
Cindy: 那么你什么时候会有空? 我们出来聊一聊吧.
Yann: 下个星期一到星期三，我都可以. 你哪个时间会比较方便?
Cindy: 星期二比较好.
Yann: 那，我们星期二见.
Cindy: 好，到时候见.

Adam: Great; now Premium subscribers can benefit from our Podcast review for this and earlier lessons on our website. So be sure to listen to them, then join us again next time for lesson 77.

Kirin: 我们下次再见.

.

Listen to lesson:


Move your mouse pointer over (or touch, from your mobile device) any Chinese words or phrases to get a translation.

Adam: Hello everyone. I’m your host, Adam.

Kirin: 大家好. 我是 Kirin. 让我们来学习第七十五课.

Adam: Today’s lesson continues a conversation we started in our last lesson. So let’s begin by listening to last time’s dialogue plus the second half forming today’s lesson.

Raphael: 让我们先听一次今天的对话.

Cindy: 你好，我很久没有看到你了.
Yann: 真抱歉. 我最近比较忙.
Cindy: 那么你什么时候会有空? 我们出来聊一聊吧.
Yann: 下个星期一到星期三，我都可以.

Raphael: 让我们再听一次今天的对话. 请跟Kirin说.

Kirin: 你好.
我很久没有看到你.
真抱歉.
我最近比较忙.
那么你什么时候会有空?
我们出来聊一聊吧.
下个星期一到星期三我都可以.

Raphael: 让我们来翻译今天的对话.

Adam: So as a refresher, let’s translate the lines from our last lesson.

Kirin: 你好，我很久没有看到你了.

Adam: Hello, I haven’t seen you for a long time.

Kirin: 真抱歉. 我最近比较忙.

Adam: I’m sorry, I’ve been busier recently. Let’s continue on with the next line from today’s lesson.

Kirin: 那么你什么时候会有空?

Adam: We’ve seen 那么 a few times before meaning “in that case.” What does “什么时候?” mean? It’s a question asking “when?”

Raphael: 空 是什么意思?

Adam: That means “free time.” So this question is asking “In that case, when will you have free time?”

Kirin: 那么你什么时候会有空?

Adam: Notice the user of 会 in this sentence. Compare the following two sentences.

Kirin: 你什么时候有空?

Adam: When do you have time?

Kirin: 你什么时候会有空?

Adam: The extra 会 changes the meaning to “When will you have time?” Back to our dialogue, the woman then continues.

Kirin: 我们出来聊一聊吧.

Adam: We’ve seen 出 from the expression

Raphael: 出去

Adam: meaning “to go out.” That’s followed by the verb 来, which we talked about earlier meaning “to come.” It’s being used in a more general sense here as in to come together. That’s followed by a new character.

Raphael: 聊. 第二声.

Adam: This is the verb “to chat.” Now it’s being used in a different form here.

Kirin: 聊一聊.

Adam: In lesson 57 we looked at how verbs are sometimes repeated to soften the meaning. The example in that lesson was how the verb 看, on its own means “to look” while 看看 means “to take a look.” Another way to use this format is to add the character meaning “one” or “a” in the middle, giving us 看一看. The literal meaning would then be “look one look” or “look a look”, which becomes “take a look.” Getting back to today’s lesson we have:

Kirin: 聊一聊

Adam: which could translate to “chat a chat” or simply “have a chat.”

Kirin: 我们出来聊一聊吧.

Adam: The extra 吧 at the end was also seen in the lesson 57 and indicates a suggestion. So she is suggesting “We can go out and have a chat.”

Kirin: 我们出来聊一聊吧.

Adam: To which the man replies.

Kirin: 下个星期一到星期三，我都可以.

Adam: So this line starts with:

Kirin: 下个星期一.

Adam: Kirin says “goodbye” at the end of many lessons with:

Kirin: 我们下次再见.

Adam: There we have 下次 meaning “next time.” Here we have 下个. The 下 means “next”, while the 个 is a generic measure word for what follows which in this case is

Kirin: 星期一

Adam: Do you remember what 星期一 means? It literally means “week 1”, which translates to “Monday.” So

Kirin: 下个星期一

Adam: means “next Monday.” That’s followed by the verb 到, which we talked about earlier meaning “to arrive.” It is also used in the context of “until.” We saw that before in lesson 41 in the expression.

Kirin: 从这里到那里

Adam: which meant “From here to there.” So back to our example today, we have:

Kirin: 下个星期一到星期三，我都可以.

Adam: which translates to “Next Monday to Wednesday.” That’s followed by a very common expression in Chinese. 都可以. The 都, you may remember, means “all” while 可以 means “possible.” So together 都可以 means “all are possible” or in this case “any of them are fine.”

Kirin: 下个星期一到星期三，我都可以.

Adam: Next Monday to Wednesday – any of them work for me.

Kirin: 下个星期一到星期三，我都可以.

Raphael: 让我们再听一次今天的对话. 请跟Kirin说.

Kirin: 你好.
我很久没有看到你.
真抱歉.
我最近比较忙.
那么你什么时候会有空?
我们出来聊一聊吧.
下个星期一到星期三我都可以.

Adam: And let’s listen again to the dialogue at normal speed.

Cindy: 你好，我很久没有看到你了.
Yann: 真抱歉. 我最近比较忙.
Cindy: 那么你什么时候会有空? 我们出来聊一聊吧.
Yann: 下个星期一到星期三，我都可以.

.

Listen to lesson:


Move your mouse pointer over (or touch, from your mobile device) any Chinese words or phrases to get a translation.

Adam: Hello everyone, I’m Adam.

Kirin: 大家好. 我是 Kirin. 欢迎来到第七十四课.

Adam: Today’s lesson represents the 4th lesson of our Level Two series. It will expand upon what was taught in the 14th lesson of Level One. In a moment, we’ll listen to a dialogue by our native Chinese speakers.

Raphael: 让我们先听一次今天的对话.

Cindy: 你好，我很久没有看到你了.
Yann: 真抱歉. 我最近比较忙.

Raphael: 让我们再听一次今天的对话. 请跟Kirin说.

Kirin: 你好.
我很久没有看到你了.
真抱歉.
我最近比较忙.

Raphael: 让我们来翻译今天的对话.

Adam: Before we begin, let’s revisit the first line of lesson 14 from way back when.

Kirin: 好久不见.

Adam: Do you remember what that means? It means “long time no see.”

Kirin: 好久不见.

Adam: It’s used just like in English when you meet someone you haven’t met in a long time. In today’s dialogue we have.

Kirin: 你好，我很久没有看到你了.

Adam: This has a similar meaning. You may remember that 好久 means “long time.” So the 好 here is another way to say “so” or “very.” The most common way to say “very” is 很, which is what is being used in today’s lesson. 很久. Long time.

Kirin: 你好，我很久没有看到你了.

Adam: 没有, you may remember, is the opposite of 有, and means “not have.” That’s followed by 看到. Now we’ve seen 看 a few times before.

Raphael: 看 是什麼意思?

Adam: That means “to look” or “to see.” Here we have 看到. At the beginning of today’s lesson Kirin said 欢迎来到. That, of course, means “Welcome to.” The 来到 is made up of the verb 来, which means “to come”, and 到, which is the verb “to arrive.” The 到 can be added to verbs to indicate an action that has just been completed. So at the beginning of the lesson, since you have just arrived to the lesson, so to speak, we can say 来到. Similarly, in the dialogue the woman has just seen or met the man so she can use 看到.

Kirin: 你好，我很久没有看到你了.

Adam: So the literal translation here is “Hello, I very long time not have seen you.”

Kirin: 你好，我很久没有看到你了.

Adam: Or simply, “Hello, I haven’t seen you for a long time.” Now notice at the end we heard the 了 particle which signifies a change in situation. So I haven’t seen you in before but now I have.

Kirin: 你好，我很久没有看到你了.

Adam: To which the man replies.

Kirin: 真抱歉. 我最近比较忙.

Adam: So he began with 真抱歉. Do you remember what 抱歉 means? We saw that in lesson 25, to mean “sorry.” Here we have 真抱歉 meaning “really sorry.” So what is he sorry about?

Kirin: 我最近比较忙.

Adam: So there are a few new words there that are worth looking at. Let’s start with 最近.

Raphael: 最近. 两个第四声.

Adam: This word is made up of two characters. 最 meaning “the most”, and 近 which is the opposite of 远, which we saw in lesson 41 meaning “far.” So 近 means “close.” The “most close” here is referring to time, and is the term used to say “recently.”

Kirin: 我最近比较忙.

Adam: And that leads us to another new word.

Raphael: 比较. 第三声和第四声.

Adam: This word means “comparatively.” I’ll show you how it’s used in a moment. That’s followed by a word we saw back in lesson 14. 忙.

Raphael: 忙 是什么意思?

Adam: It means “busy.” So 比较忙 means “comparatively busy”, which is what is used to say “busier.”

Kirin: 我最近比较忙.

Adam: So the literal translation here is I recently busier. In other words, “I have been busier recently.”

Kirin: 我最近比较忙.

Adam: We’ll continue this dialogue in our next lesson. For now though

Raphael: 让我们再听一次今天的对话. 请跟Kirin说.

Kirin: 你好.
我很久没有看到你了.
真抱歉.
我最近比较忙.

Adam: And let’s listen again to the dialogue at a normal speed.

Cindy: 你好，我很久没有看到你了.
Yann: 真抱歉. 我最近比较忙.

.

Listen to lesson:


Move your mouse pointer over (or touch, from your mobile device) any Chinese words or phrases to get a translation.

Adam: Hello, my name is Adam.

Kirin: 大家好. 我是 Kirin. 让我们来学习第七十三课.

Adam: Today’s lesson is a little different as it’s going to step back a little and touch on the differences in dialects that you may encounter in spoken Chinese from one region to another.

China, as you may imagine, is a huge country both in area and population with over a billion speakers of Mandarin around the world, either as a first language or a second language, so you may encounter some differences between how different people speak the language. I understand that not all of you live in Chinese speaking communities and some of you may be getting ready for a trip abroad, so we’d like to get you accustomed to hearing different ways of speaking to help you understand the type of Chinese you may encounter in your travels.

Since we are based in Taiwan, our speakers tend to have a Taiwanese accent, which is similar to the type of Chinese spoken in Southern parts of China. In today’s lesson, I thought we’d touch upon the differences between the different dialects. In different parts of China they have different ways of saying certain things, and in Taiwan they have their own words and phrases too, similar to the differences in English you may encounter visiting England, Australia or North America.

Let’s begin with the language itself, Chinese and what they call it in different areas. We’ve taught you before:

Kirin: 中文

Adam: meaning “Chinese.” We’ve also taught you:

Kirin: 普通话

Adam: meaning “the standard language.” Now this term

Kirin: 普通话

Adam: is only used in China. In Taiwan they use a different term.

Kirin: 国语

Adam: So that’s made up of two characters. 国 which we’ve seen before in

Kirin: 中国

Adam: which on its own refers to “country.” We also have 语 which we’ve seen before in

Kirin: 语言

Adam: meaning language. So together

Kirin: 国语

Adam: meaning “country language”, and that’s what people refer to the Chinese language in Taiwan. So again.

Kirin: 普通话

Adam: in China and

Kirin: 国语

Adam: in Taiwan. Now another word we’ve encountered in our lessons, which is sometimes said differently in Taiwan, is the word for “and”, which in most parts of China is

Kirin: 和

Adam: but in Taiwan you may also hear it as:

Kirin: 和

Adam: Interestingly enough, this is the same character just pronounced differently in the two places. Now other differences that you may encounter are differences in tones when some words are pronounced. So I have a few words here that I’ll get our speakers to pronounce for us. So first, let’s start with the word for “week” and how you may hear it in Taiwan.

Kirin: 星期.

Adam: In China you may hear

Kirin: 星期.

Adam: So you can see that in Taiwan that use a first tone and a second tone, while in China that use two first tones. So again

Kirin: 星期

Adam: in Taiwan, and

Kirin: 星期

Adam: in China. Let’s try another one. The phrase “That’s okay” or “It doesn’t matter.”

Kirin: 没关系.

Kirin: 没关系.

Adam: So here we have the opposite difference. In Taiwan that use two first tones, while in China that use a first tone and the fifth tone or neutral tone.

Kirin: 没关系.

Kirin: 没关系.

Adam: Now in Northern China, regions like Beijing, for example, they have their own way of saying certain words. The word “Who” in Northern China is:

Kirin: 谁.

Adam: While in other parts it’s

Kirin: 谁.

Adam: So again

Kirin: 谁.

Adam: and

Kirin: 谁.

Adam: As well to say “there” and “here” you may hear

Kirin: 那儿, 这儿

Adam: in Northern China and

Kirin: 那里, 这里

Adam: In other parts. So again, this isn’t really that big a deal since everyone still understands you no matter which version you choose to use. All it does is identify which region you’re from, so I recommend you pick the words or versions you’re most comfortable with and use them from here on. The Notes section for this lesson on our website summarizes these differences plus adds a few other ones for you to take note of. So thanks for listening to us today, and please join us again next time for Lesson 74.

Kirin: 再见.

.

Listen to lesson:


Move your mouse pointer over (or touch, from your mobile device) any Chinese words or phrases to get a translation.

Adam: Hello everyone, I’m your host, Adam.

Kirin: 大家好. 我是 Kirin. 让我们来学习第七十二课.

Adam: Today’s lesson continues where our last one left off. If you remember, a lady was looking at a photograph and asking questions about the people in it. So before we begin today’s lesson, let’s listen to the dialogue again from last time.

Cindy: 照片上的这个人是谁?
Yann: 他是我叔叔.
Cindy: 他长得真帅.
Yann: 对啊. 我也这么认为.

Adam: And let’s now listen to the dialogue forming today’s lesson.

Raphael: 让我们先听一次今天的对话.

Cindy: 他旁边的那个人是谁?
Yann: 那是我的婶婶.
Cindy: 她长得也非常漂亮.
Yann: 对啊.

Raphael: 让我们再听一次今天的对话. 请跟Kirin说.

Kirin: 他旁边的那个人是谁?
那是我的婶婶.
她长得也非常漂亮.
对啊.

Raphael: 让我们来翻译今天的对话.

Adam: In our dialogue last time, the first line was:

Kirin: 照片上的这个人是谁?

Adam: That meant “Who is this person in the photograph.” In today’s dialogue, we begin with:

Kirin: 他旁边的那个人是谁?

Adam: There’s a new word there.

Raphael: 旁边. 第二声跟第一声.

Adam: Now this word has a similar construction to a couple of other words we’ve seen in the past.

Kirin: 前面, 后面.

Adam: Do you remember what those mean? They mean “in front of” and “behind”, respectively.

Kirin: 前面, 后面.

Adam: So here we have

Kirin: 旁边

Adam: meaning “to the side of” or “next to.”

Kirin: 他旁边的那个人是谁?

Adam: So that gives us “Who is the person standing next to him?”

Kirin: 他旁边的那个人是谁?

Adam: To which the man replies.

Kirin: 那是我的婶婶.

Adam: So let’s compare this with the second line from last time’s dialogue.

Kirin: 他是我叔叔.

Adam: So that meant “He is my uncle.” Here we have.

Kirin: 那是我的婶婶.

Adam: So you can see the 他 is being replaced with 那. That’s similar to replacing “He is my” with “That is my.”

Kirin: 那是我的婶婶.

Adam: And here we have another new family member.

Raphael: 婶婶. 第三声跟第五声.

Adam: Now this refers to an “Aunt” but more specifically “the wife of your father’s younger brother.” Yes, I know; this can get quite confusing. We’ve seen how members of your immediate family are separated into older brothers and younger sisters. Well, now you can see what happens when you get into members of your extended family and have to deal with paternal and maternal relationships as well. Rather than going through all the relations in detail here, we have summarized them in the Vocabulary section of our website; so feel free to study them there, if you wish to.

Adam: The woman then continues.

Kirin: 她长得也非常漂亮.

Adam: So again, comparing this with our last conversation, there we had

Kirin: 他长得真帅.

Adam: which meant “He’s grown to be really handsome.” In today’s lesson we’re referring to a woman though who isn’t handsome of course. She is.

Kirin: 她长得也非常漂亮.

Adam: Which translates to “She also grown into very.” We then have 非常 which we’ve seen a couple of times before meaning “extremely” followed by our last new word

Raphael: 漂亮. 两个第四声.

Adam: And that, you may guess, means “beautiful”

Kirin: 她长得也非常漂亮.

Adam: “She has also grown to be extremely beautiful.” To which the man replies:

Kirin: 对啊.

Adam: As in: “He agrees.”

Kirin: 对啊.

Raphael: 让我们再听一次今天的对话. 请跟 Kirin 说.

Kirin: 他旁边的那个人是谁?
那是我的婶婶.
她长得也非常漂亮.
对啊.

Adam: And let’s now listen to both dialogues from last time and today’s lesson.

Cindy: 照片上的这个人是谁?
Yann: 他是我叔叔.
Cindy: 他长得真帅.
Yann: 对啊. 我也这么认为.
Cindy: 他旁边的那个人是谁?
Yann: 那是我的婶婶.
Cindy: 她长得也非常漂亮.
Yann: 对啊.

.

Listen to lesson:


Move your mouse pointer over (or touch, from your mobile device) any Chinese words or phrases to get a translation.

Adam: Hello everyone, I’m Adam.

Kirin: 大家好. 我是 Kirin. 欢迎来到第七十一课.

Adam: We’ll begin today’s lesson by listening to a short dialogue by our native Chinese speakers, then proceed to break it down for you line by line.

Raphael: 让我们先听一次今天的对话.

Cindy: 照片上的这个人是谁?
Yann: 他是我叔叔.
Cindy: 他长得真帅.
Yann: 对啊. 我也这么认为.

Raphael: 让我们再听一次今天的对话. 请跟 Kirin 说.

Kirin: 照片上的这个人是谁?
他是我叔叔.
他长得真帅.
对啊. 我也这么认为.

Raphael: 让我们来翻译今天的对话.

Adam: Let’s begin with the first line.

Kirin: 照片上的这个人是谁?

Adam: So that sentence begins with our first new word of the lesson.

Raphael: 照片. 两个第四声.

Adam: And that’s the word for “photograph.”

Kirin: 照片.

Adam: That’s followed by 上的. We saw 上 recently in 网路上. Do you remember what that meant? That meant “on the internet” so the 上 has a meaning of “on.” Now while in English we might refer to something “in” a photograph, in Chinese we refer to something “on” a photograph. So what’s in this photograph?

Kirin: 照片上的这个人是谁?

Raphael: 谁 是什么意思?

Adam: It’s the question word asking “who?” So the man is asking “Who is the person in this photograph?”

Kirin: 照片上的这个人是谁?

Adam: To which the woman replies.

Kirin: 他是我叔叔.

Adam: Now we know that 他 could be “he” or “she” but since we’ve learned before that

Kirin: 叔叔

Adam: means “uncle”, we know that 他 here refers to “he.”

Kirin: 他是我叔叔.

Adam: “He is my uncle.” Now a couple of lessons ago when this word was introduced, it was introduced as meaning an informal “uncle” even for someone who wasn’t related to you. However, it also has a more specific meaning of “father’s younger brother” so you have to derive from context whether it’s the formal or informal version being used. Note also that the possessive 的 can sometimes be removed when referring to people or objects that are very close to you.

Kirin: 他是我叔叔.

Adam: The woman then continues.

Kirin: 他长得真帅.

Adam: We saw 长 before in Lesson 47 in the term 长大. Do you remember what that means? That means “to grow up.” Here we have

Kirin: 长得

Adam: which means “to grow into.” So what has he grown to be?

Kirin: 他长得真帅.

Adam: So “he has grown to be really,” followed by a new word for us.

Raphael: 帅. 第四声.

Adam: And that’s a word meaning “handsome.” So putting these together gives us “He has grown to be really handsome.”

Kirin: 他长得真帅.

Adam: Or simply “He looks really handsome.”

Kirin: 他长得真帅.

Adam: To which the lady replies.

Kirin: 对啊. 我也这么认为.

Raphael: 对啊 是什么意思?

Adam: It’s an exclamation stating “Right!”

Kirin: 对啊. 我也这么认为.

Adam: I also 这么. We’ve seen 这么 before described as being “so very.” It can also mean “in this manner.”

Kirin: 我也这么认为.

Adam: Which leads us to our last new word for this lesson.

Raphael: 认为. 第四声和第二声.

Adam: This means “to have the opinion of” or “to believe.”

Kirin: 我也这么认为.

Adam: So this can mean: “I also have the same opinion.”, or simply “I think so too.”

Kirin: 我也这么认为.

Raphael: 让我们再听一次今天的对话. 请跟 Kirin 说.

Kirin: 照片上的这个人是谁?
他是我叔叔.
他长得真帅.
对啊. 我也这么认为.

Adam: And let’s listen to the dialogue again at normal speed.

Cindy: 照片上的这个人是谁?
Yann: 他是我叔叔.
Cindy: 他长得真帅.
Yann: 对啊. 我也这么认为.

.

Listen to lesson:


Move your mouse pointer over (or touch, from your mobile device) any Chinese words or phrases to get a translation.

Adam: Hello, I’m your host, Adam.

Kirin: 大家好. 我是 Kirin. 欢迎来到第七十课.

Adam: We’ll begin today’s lesson by listening to a dialogue that takes place in a department store. A lady is shopping for clothes and then approaches the salesman.

Raphael: 让我们先听一次今天的对话.

Cindy: 先生. 我想买这件衣服. 请问，可以试穿吗?
Yann: 可以. 前面有试衣间.
Cindy: 谢谢.

几分钟后.

Yann: 你穿这件衣服很好看. 你真的应该买.
Cindy: 我也觉得很好看. 好，我要买这件.

Raphael: 让我们再听一次今天的对话. 请跟 Kirin 说.

Kirin: 先生.
我想买这件衣服.
请问，可以试穿吗?
可以.
前面有试衣间.
谢谢.
几分钟后
你穿这件衣服很好看. 你真的应该买.
我也觉得很好看.
好，我要买这件.

Raphael: 让我们来翻译今天的对话.

Adam: So let’s break down this dialogue for you line by line starting with the first line.

Kirin: 先生. 我想买这件衣服.

Raphael: 先生 是什么意思?

Adam: That means “Mister.” The lady is calling the salesman over and doesn’t know his name, so she uses this title.

Kirin: 先生. 我想买这件衣服.

Adam: We’ve seen the rest of the words before. “I am thinking of buying

Kirin: 这件衣服.”

Adam: We saw this term before. Do you want to remember what it means? “This item of clothing.”

Kirin: 这件衣服.

Adam: So together this gives us “Sir, I am thinking of buying this item of clothing.”

Kirin: 先生. 我想买这件衣服.

Adam: She then asks another question.

Kirin: 请问，可以试穿吗?

Adam: So we know that the lady is asking “May I ask, can I

Kirin: 试穿.”

Adam: The last word is made up of two characters.

Raphael: 试穿. 第四声跟第一声.

Adam: The 试 means “to try”, while the 穿 we’ve seen used before with 衣服. Do you remember what it means? It’s the verb “to wear.” So

Kirin: 试穿.

Adam: together literally means “try wear” so she’s asking “May I try this on?”

Kirin: 请问，可以试穿吗?

Adam: The man then replies.

Kirin: 可以.

Adam: As in “Yes, you’re able to.”

Kirin: 可以. 前面有试衣间.

Adam: So some more words we’ve seen before.

Raphael: 前面 是什么意思?

Adam: We saw it in lesson 56. It means “in front of.” So 前面有 literally means “in front of has” or “in front of us there is a

Kirin: 试衣间.

Adam: Now this is make up of three characters. The first character 试 we just saw means “to try.” That’s followed by 衣 which comes from the word 衣服 meaning clothes. So that gives us “try clothes” followed by the character 间 from the word 房间, which we saw in lesson 26. 间 is a measure word for rooms. So

Kirin: 试衣间

Adam: means “changing room” or “fitting room.”

Kirin: 前面有试衣间.

Adam: “There is a fitting room up front.” The woman then says:

Kirin: 谢谢.

Adam: Which we should know by now. “Thanks.”

Kirin: 谢谢.

Adam: We then hear our narrator say:

Kirin: 几分钟后.

Adam: We’ve seen 几 before as a question asking “how many?” It can also be used in a statement to mean “a few.” So here we have a few 分钟. You may remember 分 from lesson 19 regarding time. 分 on its own refers to a unit. The 钟 uses the first tone and refers to a clock. So 分钟 refers to a unit on a clock, in other words, a minute.

Kirin: 几分钟后.

Adam: The last word 后 we’ve seen as well. We saw it back in lesson 24 in the phrase.

Kirin: 五天后.

Adam: Do you remember what that meant? That meant “After five days.” So the 后 here means “after” or “later.” So the narrator is telling us “a few minutes later.”

Kirin: 几分钟后.

Adam: Let’s listen to as the conversation continues a few minutes later.

Kirin: 你穿这件衣服很好看.

Adam: So again, all words we’ve seen before. The literal translation is “You wear this item of clothing very good look.”

Kirin: 你穿这件衣服很好看.

Adam: In other words, “This item of clothing looks very good on you.”

Kirin: 你穿这件衣服很好看.

Adam: The salesman then continues.

Kirin: 你真的应该买.

Adam: That gives us “You really” followed by a couple more words that we’ve seen before.

Raphael: 应该 是什么意思?

Adam: We saw it back in lesson 48 meaning “should.” “You really should want buy.”

Kirin: 你真的应该买.

Adam: In other words, “You should buy it.”

Kirin: 你真的应该买.

Adam: The woman then replies.

Kirin: 我也觉得很好看.

Raphael: 觉得 是什么意思?

Adam: We saw it in lesson 37 meaning “to think or to feel.” So the translation here is “I also feel very good look” or more simply “I also think it looks great.”

Kirin: 我也觉得很好看.

Adam: She then ends off by saying.

Kirin: 好，我要买这件.

Adam: “Ok, I want to buy this one.”

Kirin: 好，我要买这件.

Raphael: 让我们再听一次今天的对话. 请跟 Kirin 说.

Kirin: 先生.
我想买这件衣服.
请问，可以试穿吗?
可以.
前面有试衣间.
谢谢.
几分钟后
你穿这件衣服很好看. 你真的应该买.
我也觉得很好看.
好，我要买这件.

Adam: And let’s listen to the dialogue again at normal speed.

Cindy: 先生. 我想买这件衣服. 请问，可以试穿吗?
Yann: 可以. 前面有试衣间.
Cindy: 谢谢.
几分钟后
Yann: 你穿这件衣服很好看. 你真的应该买.
Cindy: 我也觉得很好看. 好，我要买这件.

.

Listen to lesson:


Move your mouse pointer over (or touch, from your mobile device) any Chinese words or phrases to get a translation.

Adam: Hello, my name is Adam.

Kirin: 大家好. 我是 Kirin. 让我们来学习第六十九课.

Adam: We’ll begin today’s lesson by listening to a short dialogue. This dialogue practices some of what we’ve learned before while introducing some new vocabulary.

Raphael: 让我们先听一次今天的对话.

Yann: 你看! 今天这里有特价.
Cindy: 特价多少?
Yann: 全部都打五折.
Cindy: 哦，真的都很便宜!

Raphael: 让我们再听一次今天的对话. 请跟 Kirin 说.

Kirin: 你看! 今天这里有特价.
特价多少?
全部都打五折.
哦，真的都很便宜!

Raphael: 让我们来翻译今天的对话.

Adam: Let’s break down this dialogue for you starting with the first line.

Kirin: 你看! 今天这里有特价.

Raphael: 看 是什么意思?

Adam: That’s the verb “to look at”; so “你看” literally means “You look” or simply “Look!”

Kirin: 你看! 今天这里有特价.

Adam: So that gives us “Look, today.” What’s he asking the lady to look at today?

Kirin: 今天这里有特价.

Raphael: 这里 是什么意思?

Adam: That means “here.” So 这里有 gives us “here have” 特价.

Raphael: 特价 是两个第四声.

Adam: 特价 comes from the word

Kirin: 特別

Adam: meaning “special” and

Kirin: 价钱

Adam: meaning “price”; so together 特价 means “special price” or “sale.”

Kirin: 今天这里有特价.

Adam: Literally, that’s “Today here have sale.” In other words “There’s a sale here today.”

Kirin: 今天这里有特价.

Adam: The woman then replies.

Kirin: 特价多少?

Adam: So you may figure this out. We’ve seen “多少?” before from “多少钱?” That literally means “How much money?” So 多少 on its own means “how much?”

Kirin: 特价多少?

Adam: Sale how much? In other words, “How much is the sale?” or “What is the sale?”

Kirin: 特价多少?

Adam: The man then replies.

Kirin: 全部都打五折.

Adam: So here’s another new word for us.

Raphael: 全部. 第二声跟第四声.

Adam: And that means “completely,” or in this case “everything.”

Kirin: 全部都打五折.

Adam: Notice we have the character 都 meaning “all” there as well, to emphasize that it covers everything. The next part 打五折 is three characters. The first character 打 is the third tone. We saw it before in:

Kirin: 打电话

Adam: There, it meant “to dial a telephone,” but it also has a meaning of “to hit” or, in this case, “to break up.” That’s followed by 五, which is the number five, and 折, which is the second tone and also refers to “breaking something up.” So together

Kirin: 打五折

Adam: means “to break into 5.” This is what is used to say “50% off.”

Kirin: 全部都打五折.

Adam: Everything is 50% off. Now it’s important to note that in Chinese communities during sales, the percentage of the price you pay is promoted rather than the percentage discount you get off. So if you see a big 7, for example, that doesn’t mean 70% off; it means you pay 70%, so it’s actually 30% off. So the lower the number, the better the sale. Back to our dialogue, the man then says.

Kirin: 哦，真的都很便宜!

Adam: We’ve seen all these words before.

Raphael: 真的 是什么意思?

Adam: That means “really.” 都 we see again meaning “all”, followed by 很便宜.

Raphael: 便宜 是什么意思?

Adam: That means “cheap” or “inexpensive.”

Kirin: 哦，真的都很便宜!

Adam: So, literally, that’s “really all very cheap.” In other words, wow, everything’s really cheap!

Kirin: 哦，真的都很便宜!

Raphael: 让我们再听一次今天的对话. 请跟 Kirin 说.

Kirin: 你看! 今天这里有特价.
特价多少?
全部都打五折.
哦，真的都很便宜!

Adam: And let’s listen to the dialogue again at normal speed.

Yann: 你看! 今天这里有特价.
Cindy: 特价多少?
Yann: 全部都打五折.
Cindy: 哦，真的都很便宜!

.

Complete transcript for ChineseLearnOnline Lesson 068.

Listen to lesson:


Move your mouse pointer over (or touch, from your mobile device) any Chinese words or phrases to get a translation.

Hosts: Adam Menon / Kirin Yang

Adam: ChineseLearnOnline.com Lesson 68: Showing respect.

Hello, and welcome to our progressive course teaching Mandarin Chinese, I’m your host, Adam.

Kirin: 大家好. 我是Kirin. 欢迎来到第六十八课.

Adam: Today’s lesson is a little different from our usual style. We are going to focus more about the subject of respect in Chinese culture and how it differs from Western culture. While it’s great that you are taking the time and effort to learn the Chinese language, it’s equally important to learn about culture and customs to make sure you approach people in the right manner without offending anyone.

We’ll being today’s lesson by talking about how you address various people you may meet. We’ve of course taught in the past that the standard greeting for most situations is 你好. This is used with people who are on the same social status as yourself. If you want to greet someone who is either much older than you or has a higher social status, then there is a modified version that we use.

Kirin: 您好.

Adam: So pretty close, except we’re using a new character here.

Raphael: 您, 第二声.

Adam: Now I talked about people having different levels of social status. Some professions for example tend to command a lot of respect. Teachers are one such profession. So when you greet your teacher you’ll need to say something along the lines of:

Kirin: 老师好.

Adam: Do you remember what the literal translation of 老师 is? It means “old master.” The word for old 老 is given to people worthy of respect, which differs from Western culture where people may not like to be called “old.” So the next time someone refers to you as

Kirin: 老外

Adam: which literally means “old outsider” don’t take offense to it.

When greeting someone, you can also bow your head slightly towards them. So many classes in school begin with all the students standing up at the start of class and bowing together while saying:

Kirin: 老师好.

Adam: In the past, we’ve looked at names and titles of different types of people. So let’s take a quick look at how names and titles are used together. In Chinese, unlike in Western culture, the family name comes first. So Mr Wang for example would be:

Kirin: 王先生.

Adam: Mrs Li would be:

Kirin: 李太太.

Adam: Now, one thing to note is that a woman doesn’t necessarily take the family name of her husband. She may instead decide to keep her maiden name so don’t assume that Mr Wang’s wife is Mrs Wang.

Now getting back to Mrs Li, if she was a teacher, she would then be:

Kirin: 李老师.

Adam: Unlike Western culture, unless you’re close friends with someone, people don’t usually refer to each other on a first name basis. If two friends are really close they may have nicknames for each other such as

Kirin: 小李

Adam: meaning Little Li or

Kirin: 老王

Adam: meaning “older Wang.” So, hopefully, you can see how these names and titles work. In general, when you address someone of a higher social rank than you, or you just want to give them respect. Such as a student to a teacher or an employee to an employer, you use a last name and a title. Respect is also shown the other way – when addressing someone in a lower rank the full name last name first is used. Finally, when children are addressing elders outside of their family, there are two words you may hear:

Kirin: 阿姨.

Adam: This is equivalent to “Auntie” in English.

Raphael: 阿姨. 第一声跟第二声.

Adam: For men you may hear:

Kirin: 叔叔.

Adam: meaning “uncle”

Raphael: 叔叔. 第一声跟第五声.

Adam: In our previous lessons, we’ve taught you how to answer questions, such as “Where are you from? What’s your job? Are you married? Do you have any kids?” etc. It’s important to know that this aspect of Chinese culture is very straightforward and people have no hesitation asking such questions to you. So while it may be impolite in Western culture to ask too many personal questions, it’s quite normal and expected in Chinese culture.

Similarly, this intimacy can be extended to daily conversation. For example, you may meet a friend and right away he asks you:

Kirin: 你吃饭了吗?

Adam: Literally, asking “have you eaten?” In general, if you want to leave a good impression, while visiting a Chinese community, learn to be extremely humble. Deflect any praise that may come your way with phrases such as:

Kirin: 哪里哪里?

Adam: When asking questions, be sure to preface them with

Kirin: 对不起. 请问?

Adam: If you need to interrupt someone, use the phrase:

Kirin: 不好意思.

Adam: And, of course, like in any other country, don’t forget to say

Kirin: 谢谢.

Adam: So, hopefully, these culture tips will help you on your way. You can find all these summarized in the vocabulary section of our website ChineseLearnOnline.com. Take the time to go through them, then join us again next time for our next lesson.

Kirin: 再见!

.

Listen to lesson:


Move your mouse pointer over (or touch, from your mobile device) any Chinese words or phrases to get a translation.

Adam: Hello everyone, my name is Adam.

Kirin: 你们好. 我是 Kirin. 欢迎来到第六十七课.

Adam: Today’s lesson continues where our last one left off. We will listen to a dialogue that we started in our last lesson and then finish it off today and see what we can learn from it.

Raphael: 让我们先听一次今天的对话.

Yann: 你好. 我要买这些东西.
Cindy: 好，这件衣服是伍佰九十块. 这本书是三百六十块. 这罐饮料是两百一十块. 一共是一千一百六十块.
Yann: 我给你一千两百块.
Cindy: 找你四十块.

Raphael: 让我们再听一次今天的对话. 请跟 Kirin 说.

Kirin: 你好. 我要买这些东西.
好，这件衣服是伍佰九十块. 这本书是三百六十块. 这罐饮料是两百一十块. 一共是一千一百六十块.
我给你一千两百块.
找你四十块.

Raphael: 现在我们开始翻译今天的对话.

Adam: Let’s begin by translating the lines we learned in our last lesson.

Kirin: 你好. 我要买这些东西.

Adam: Hello, I want to buy these items.

Kirin: 好，这件衣服是伍佰九十块.

Adam: Ok, this item of clothing is 590 dollars.

Kirin: 这本书是三百六十块.

Adam: This book is 360 dollars.

Kirin: 这罐饮料是两百一十块.

Adam: This beverage is 210 dollars. Let’s now listen to the next line of the conversation from today’s lesson.

Kirin: 一共是一千一百六十块.

Adam: So here’s a new word: 一共.

Raphael: 一共. 第二声跟第四声.

Adam: And that means “altogether”. So it’s commonly used when you’re counting several objects and then have to give a final total at the end. So what is the final total of the sale?

Kirin: 一共是一千一百六十块.

Adam: So can you figure out how much that is?

Kirin: 一千一百六十块.

Adam: One thousand one hundred and sixty dollars.

Kirin: 一千一百六十块.

Adam: The man then says.

Kirin: 我给你一千两百块.

Raphael: 给 是什么意思?

Adam: It’s the verb “to give.” So how much is he giving?

Kirin: 一千两百块.

Adam: “One thousand two hundred dollars.” So when shopping, when you’re ready to pay for your purchase you tell the cashier “I am giving you one thousand two hundred dollars.”

Kirin: 我给你一千两百块.

Adam: Now in this case there is some change required. So what does the cashier say?

Kirin: 找你四十块.

Adam: So we’ve seen this word before 找 in a different context. We taught it in lesson 48 to mean “to look for.” Here, however, it’s the same character but is used to mean “to return to you”; so the cashier gives back the change and says:

Kirin: 找你四十块.

Adam: I’m giving back to you 40 dollars.

Kirin: 找你四十块.

Adam: So you can see the common words that are used when shopping and paying for items as well as get a review of working with some numbers. If you listen to our podcast review for this lesson, you will find another example conversation with different numbers used in a slightly different manner to give you other ways of using what you’ve learned today. For now though,

Raphael: 让我们再听一次今天的对话. 请跟 Kirin 说.

Kirin: 你好. 我要买这些东西.
好，这件衣服是伍佰九十块. 这本书是三百六十块. 这罐饮料是两百一十块. 一共是一千一百六十块.
我给你一千两百块.
找你四十块.

Adam: And let’s listen to the dialogue again at normal speed.

Yann: 你好. 我要买这些东西.
Cindy: 好，这件衣服是伍佰九十块. 这本书是三百六十块. 这罐饮料是两百一十块. 一共是一千一百六十块.
Yann: 我给你一千两百块.
Cindy: 找你四十块.

.

Listen to lesson:


Move your mouse pointer over (or touch, from your mobile device) any Chinese words or phrases to get a translation.

Adam: Hello everyone. I’m your host, Adam.

Kirin: 你们好. 我是Kirin. 欢迎来到第六十六课.

Adam: In today’s lesson we will revisit numbers and introduce some new measure words for different items. We will begin by listening to a dialogue that takes place in a department store as a customer comes up to the counter to pay for his items.

Raphael: 让我们先听一次今天的对话.

Yann: 你好. 我要买这些东西.
Cindy: 好，这件衣服是伍佰九十块. 这本书是三百六十块. 这罐饮料是两百一十块.

Raphael: 让我们再听一次今天的对话. 请跟 Kirin 说.

Kirin: 你好. 我要买这些东西.
好，这件衣服是伍佰九十块. 这本书是三百六十块. 这罐饮料是两百一十块.

Raphael: 让我们来翻译今天的对话.

Adam: So let’s break down this dialogue starting with the first line.

Kirin: 你好. 我要买这些东西.

Adam: The first part should be easy: “Hello, I want” that’s followed by the verb 买.

Raphael: 买，是什么意思?

Adam: It’s of course the verb “to buy.” So what is it that he wants to buy?

Kirin: 这些东西.

Adam: In the past we’ve used 这个 meaning “This” for a single item. Here we have 这些 which can be translated to “these” for plural items.

Raphael: 些，是第一声.

Adam: So that’s our first new measure word in today’s lesson used for multiple items.

Kirin: 这些东西.

Adam: 东西 we learned back in lesson 34. Do you remember what it means? It means “thing” or “an item.” So here we have “these items.”

Kirin: 这些东西.

Adam: So the first sentence translates to “Hello, I want to buy these items.”

Kirin: 你好. 我要买这些东西.

Adam: The salesperson then replies.

Kirin: 好，这件衣服是五百九十块.

Adam: So let’s begin with the first item there.

Kirin: 这件衣服.

Adam: So here we have our second new measure word. 件.

Raphael: 件，第四声.

Adam: So what is 件 being used to describe here?

Kirin: 衣服.

Adam: Ah yes, do you remember what 衣服 means? We saw it in lesson 36 meaning “clothes.” So that gives us “this item of clothing.” So in Chinese, most objects require a measure word in front of them to describe them. In English we say this “item” of clothing. In Chinese we say:

Kirin: 这件衣服.

Raphael: 所以这件衣服多少钱?

Kirin: 这件衣服五百九十块.

Adam: Did you understand how much it was?

Kirin: 五百九十块.

Adam: 590 dollars. Must be Taiwanese dollars we’re talking about here. What else is he buying?

Kirin: 这本书是三百六十块.

Adam: So there’s our third new measure word.

Raphael: 本，第三声.

Adam: And that’s a measure word for…

Kirin: 书.

Adam: Do you remember what a 书 is? We saw it back in lesson 10 and that means “book.”

Kirin: 这本书.

Raphael: 然后这本书多少钱?

Kirin: 这本书三百六十块.

Adam: So, can you figure out how much that was?

Kirin: 三百六十块.

Adam: 360 dollars.

Raphael: 还有一个东西.

Kirin: 这罐饮料是两百一十块.

Adam: So our fourth new measure word for today is…

Raphael: 罐，第四声.

Adam: And that’s a measure word for 饮料. Do you remember what 饮料 is? We saw it in lesson 53 meaning “drink” or “beverage.”

Kirin: 这罐饮料.

Adam: And how much was that?

Kirin: 两百一十块.

Adam: 210 dollars. So hopefully this gives you a better idea of how measure words work. You basically have to know what measure word applies for what item you’re dealing with. In the Premium notes for this lesson you will see a list of common measure words and what kind of items they are associated with.

Raphael: 让我们再听一次今天的对话. 请跟 Kirin 说.

Kirin: 你好. 我要买这些东西.
好，这件衣服是伍佰九十块. 这本书是三百六十块. 这罐饮料是两百一十块.

Adam: And let’s listen to the dialogue again at normal speed.

Yann: 你好. 我要买这些东西.
Cindy: 好，这件衣服是伍佰九十块. 这本书是三百六十块. 这罐饮料是两百一十块.

.

Listen to lesson:


Move your mouse pointer over (or touch, from your mobile device) any Chinese words or phrases to get a translation.

Adam: I’m your host, Adam.

Kirin: 大家好. 我是 Kirin. 让我们来学习第六十五课.

Adam: We’ll begin today’s lesson by listening to a short dialogue by our native Chinese speakers, then proceed to break it down for you line by line.

Raphael: 让我们先听一次今天的对话.

Raphael: 你为什么喜欢来中国?
Kirin: 我很喜欢中国的文化，还有你们的语言.
Raphael: 你是在哪里学的中文?
Kirin: 我是自己从网路上学的.
Raphael: 哦，你真的很厉害.

Raphael: 让我们再听一次今天的对话. 请跟 Kirin 说.

Kirin: 你为什么喜欢来中国?
我很喜欢中国的文化.
还有你们的语言.
你是在哪里学的中文?
我是自己从网路上学的.
你真的很厉害.

Raphael: 现在我们翻译今天的对话.

Adam: So let’s break this dialogue down for you, starting with the first line.

Kirin: 你为什么喜欢来中国?

Adam: We’ve seen all these words before.

Raphael: 为什么 是什么意思?

Adam: That’s a question asking “why?” So the literal translation of this sentence is “You why like come China?”

Kirin: 你为什么喜欢来中国?

Adam: The woman then replies.

Kirin: 我很喜欢中国的文化，还有你们的语言.

Adam: So this sentence begins “I very like Chinese 文化.” That’s our first new word of the day.

Raphael: 文化. 第二声跟第四声.

Adam: The 文 is the same 文 from 中文, which we know referred to language. Here, 文化 refers to “culture.” So “I like Chinese culture very much.”

Kirin: 我很喜欢中国的文化，还有你们的语言.

Adam: You may remember 还有 from lesson 18 meaning “additionally”. 你们的, you may remember, means “your” in the plural and we then have our second new word of the lesson.

Raphael: 语言. 第三声跟第二声.

Adam: Together, these two characters mean “language.”

Kirin: 语言

Adam: So again, “I like Chinese culture and your language very much.”

Kirin: 我很喜欢中国的文化，还有你们的语言.

Adam: The man then asks.

Kirin: 你是在哪里学的中文?

Adam: We’ve seen all these words before. Let’s look at the literal meaning. “You are located where study Chinese?”

Kirin: 你是在哪里学的中文?

Adam: As in “Where did you study Chinese?”

Kirin: 你是在哪里学的中文?

Adam: The 的 particle there connects the study with the Chinese as in the Chinese that you study.

Kirin: 你是在哪里学的中文?

Adam: To which the woman answers.

Kirin: 我是自己从网路上学的.

Adam: So there we have a few new words.

Raphael: 自己. 第四声跟第三声.

Adam: And that means “self.” So 我自己 means “I myself.”

Kirin: 我是自己从网路上学的.

Adam: 从 you may remember means “from” followed by 网路.

Raphael: 网路. 第三声跟第四声.

Adam: The 网 refers to a “network” while 路 we’ve seen before means “road” or “path.” So together, “network path” refers to “the internet.”

Kirin: 我是自己从网路上学的.

Adam: So “I myself from

Kirin: 网路上.”

Adam: 上 we’ve seen before from 上午 in the context of “before” or “previous”. It can also be used in the context of “on top of” or “on”. So

Kirin: 网路上

Adam: means “on the internet.”

Kirin: 我是自己从网路上学的.

Adam: I studied by myself on the internet.

Kirin: 我是自己从网路上学的.

Adam: To which the man replies.

Kirin: 你真的很厉害.

Adam: “You really very 厉害.”

Raphael: 厉害. 两个第四声.

Adam: This is an interesting word as the dictionary translation reads “terrible, severe, devastating”; however, it’s commonly used when something is very good as well. So here we have “You are really great or impressive.”

Kirin: 你真的很厉害.

Raphael: 让我们再听一次今天的对话. 请跟 Kirin 说.

Kirin: 你为什么喜欢来中国?
我很喜欢中国的文化.
还有你们的语言.
你是在哪里学的中文?
我是自己从网路上学的.
你真的很厉害.

Adam: And let’s listen to the dialogue again at normal speed.

Raphael: 你为什么喜欢来中国?
Kirin: 我很喜欢中国的文化，还有你们的语言.
Raphael: 你是在哪里学的中文?
Kirin: 我是自己从网路上学的.
Raphael: 哦，你真的很厉害.

Listen to lesson:


Move your mouse pointer over (or touch, from your mobile device) any Chinese words or phrases to get a translation.

Adam: Hello, I’m your host, Adam.

Kirin: 大家好. 我是 Kirin. 欢迎来到第六十四课.

Adam: This level builds upon the lessons learned in Level 1. We’ll begin today’s lesson by listening to a dialogue, then break it down for you.

Raphael: 让我们先听一次今天的对话.

Yann: 你好. 你是哪一国的人?
Cindy: 我是日本人.
Yann: 可是你的中文怎么说得这么好.
Cindy: 哪里，哪里. 我要学的还很多.
Yann: 继续加油.
Cindy: 谢谢，我会的.

Raphael: 让我们再听一次今天的对话. 请跟 Kirin 说.

Kirin: 你好. 你是哪一国的人?
我是日本人.
可是你的中文怎么说得这么好.
哪里，哪里.
我要学的还很多.
继续加油.
谢谢，我会的.

Raphael: 现在我们开始翻译今天的对话.

Adam: The first few lines are review starting with:

Kirin: 你好.

Adam: Hello.

Kirin: 你是哪一国的人?

Adam: “What country are you from?” The literal translation is “You are which one country’s person?”

Kirin: 你是哪一国的人?

Adam: The lady then replies.

Kirin: 我是日本人.

Adam: We saw the same line back in lesson 20. “I am Japanese.”

Kirin: 我是日本人.

Adam: The man then says.

Kirin: 可是你的中文怎么说得这么好.

Adam: Literally that’s “But your Chinese how speak so good.” Don’t confuse 怎么 meaning “how” with 这么 which we saw in Lesson 52 meaning “so very.”

Kirin: 可是你的中文怎么说得这么好.

Adam: “But your Chinese is so good.” The lady then replies.

Kirin: 哪里，哪里.

Adam: So here’s something new. We know that 哪里 means “where?” 哪里，哪里 is a common expression used in situations where you want to deflect praise away from yourself by politely disagreeing with the speaker. So the man complimented her Chinese and she replied with

Kirin: 哪里，哪里.

Adam: As in “Where’s this great Chinese that you speak of?”

Kirin: 哪里，哪里.

Adam: The woman then adds.

Kirin: 我要学的还很多.

Adam: We’ve seen all these words before but in a different order. The literal translation here is “I want study additionally a lot.”

Kirin: 我要学的还很多.

Adam: In other words, “I still have a lot more to study.”

Kirin: 我要学的还很多.

Adam: The man then replies.

Kirin: 继续加油.

Adam: So here we have some new words. The first word has two characters.

Raphael: 继续. 两个第四声.

Adam: And that is the word “to continue.”

Raphael: 继续.

Adam: We then have a very popular phrase.

Raphael: 加油. 第一声跟第二声.

Adam: 加, on its own, means “to add” and 油 means “oil” Together they mean “refuel” as in what you do to your car or in this case “refuel your own energy” or simply “Keep going!”

Raphael: 加油.

Adam: So together.

Kirin: 继续加油.

Adam: Means “Continue to keep at it.”

Kirin: 继续加油.

Adam: The woman then replies.

Kirin: 谢谢，我会的.

Adam: Again, we know these words as “Thanks, I am able to” or in this context, “Thanks, I will.”

Kirin: 谢谢，我会的.

Raphael: 让我们再听一次今天的对话. 请跟 Kirin 说.

Kirin: 你好. 你是哪一国的人?
我是日本人.
可是你的中文怎么说得这么好.
哪里，哪里.
我要学的还很多.
继续加油.
谢谢，我会的.

Adam: And let’s listen to the dialogue again at normal speed.

Yann: 你好. 你是哪一国的人?
Cindy: 我是日本人.
Yann: 可是你的中文怎么说得这么好.
Cindy: 哪里，哪里. 我要学的还很多.
Yann: 继续加油.
Cindy: 谢谢，我会的.

Listen to lesson:


Move your mouse pointer over (or touch, from your mobile device) any Chinese words or phrases to get a translation.

Adam: Hello everyone, I’m your host, Adam.

Kirin: 大家好. 我是 Kirin. 欢迎来到第六十三课.

Adam: Looking back at Level One, in our third lesson there talked about some basic introductions, so this being the third lesson of Level Two we’ll review and expand upon these a little. We’ll begin by listening to an introduction and then break it down and analyze it for you.

Raphael: 请听下面的自我介绍.

Cindy: 你好，我姓赖，叫 Cindy. 我二十六岁. 我是中国人可是我在英国长大. 我现在是老师. 我在北京大学教书. 我的兴趣是看书还有看电影.

Adam: Interesting. Let’s break it down for you. We should know what the first few lines mean.

Kirin: 你好，我姓赖，叫 Cindy.

Adam: “Hello, my last name is Lai and my first name is Cindy.” Literally this is: “You good, I last name Lai called Cindy.”

Kirin: 你好，我姓赖，叫 Cindy.

Adam: Her next line was:

Kirin: 我二十六岁.

Adam: Hopefully, you can figure that out as: I’m 26 years old.

Kirin: 我二十六岁.

Adam: She then says.

Kirin: 我是中国人可是我在英国长大.

Adam: Again, not much new here if you’re up to date on all our previous lessons. “I’m Chinese but I grew up in England.”

Kirin: 我是中国人可是我在英国长大.

Adam: She then continues.

Kirin: 我现在是老师.

Raphael: 老师 是什么意思?

Adam: That means “teacher.” So she’s literally saying “I right now am teacher” or “I’m a teacher now.”

Kirin: 我现在是老师.

Adam: She then adds.

Kirin: 我在北京大学教书.

Adam: So there are some new words to look at here.

Kirin: 北京大学.

Adam: You may remember

Raphael: 学

Adam: from

Raphael: 学生

Adam: meaning “student.” So

Raphael: 学

Adam: is the verb “to study.”

Raphael: 大学

Adam: literally means “big study” and means “university.” Similarly, you could have

Raphael: 中学

Adam: for “middle school” or

Raphael: 小学

Adam: for “elementary school.” So back to our example here, she’s in Beijing University, and what does she do there?

Kirin: 教书.

Adam: So there are two new characters there.

Raphael: 教 跟 书 都是第一声. 教

Adam: is the verb “to teach”, while

Raphael: 书

Adam: we’ve actually seen before – it means “book.” When you put them together you get the verb “to teach.”

Kirin: 教书.

Adam: Many verbs in Chinese need a noun to go with them to make any sense. If there isn’t one we add one. So in this case we can’t just say “I teach at Beijing University,” you have to specify what it is you teach, so we usually just add a

Kirin: 书

Adam: meaning “teach from books.”

Kirin: 教书.

Adam: We’ve seen some of these types of verbs before. Give us a couple of examples, Kirin.

Kirin: 吃饭.

Adam: Do you remember what that means? It means “to eat a meal.” So you wouldn’t ask “Do you want to eat?” You’d have to ask “Do you want to eat a meal?”

Kirin: 你要吃饭吗?

Adam: Give us another example.

Kirin: 开车.

Adam: Do you remember what that means? It means “to drive a car.” So in English, you might ask someone “can you drive?” but in Chinese, you’d have to ask:

Kirin: 你会开车吗?

Adam: As in, “Can you drive a car?” So back to our example here. The lady has just told us “I teach at Beijing University.”

Kirin: 我在北京大学教书.

Adam: She then continues.

Kirin: 我的兴趣是看书还有看电影.

Adam: So there’s another new word for us.

Raphael: 兴趣. 两个第四声.

Adam: So these two characters put together, give us “interest”, as in, what you find interesting. So she’s saying her interests are:

Kirin: 看书还有看电影.

Raphael: 看 是什么意思?

Adam: That’s the verb “to look at.” So she likes to look at two things. The first, we saw earlier

Kirin: 书

Adam: meaning “book.” So to look at a book means to read it.

Kirin: 看书.

Adam: The other thing she likes to look at is

Kirin: 看电影.

Adam: We saw this in lesson 55. Do you remember what that means? It means “to see a movie.”

Kirin: 看电影.

Adam: So her interests are reading and watching movies.

Kirin: 我的兴趣是看书还有看电影.

Adam: So there you have it. You should be able to give a more detailed introduction now than you could in lesson 3 of level one. Let’s listen to the lady’s introduction again.

Cindy: 你好，我姓赖，叫 Cindy. 我二十六岁. 我是中国人可是我在英国长大. 我现在是老师. 我在北京大学教书. 我的兴趣是看书还有看电影.

Adam: Great; now for an added challenge, listen to the podcast review for this lesson available to all subscribers for free which will give you another similar introduction. See if you can figure it out based on what we’ve taught you thus far. Then join us again next time for lesson 64.

Kirin: 我们下次再见.

Listen to lesson:

Move your mouse pointer over (or touch, from your mobile device) any Chinese words or phrases to get a translation.

Adam: Hello, I’m Adam.

Kirin: 大家好. 我是 Kirin. 欢迎来到第六十二课.

Adam: This is level 2 of our series, which builds upon what was taught in level 1. Our last lesson focused on the five tones, which built off the first lesson of Level 1. Today we’ll build upon the second lesson of Level 1 which was Greetings. By now you should all be well familiar with 你好, and 大家好. Today we’ll learn a few new greetings depending on the time of day.

Now we first learned the different times of day back in Lesson 19. So let’s do a quick review of them starting with “morning.”

Kirin: 早上.

Adam: Afternoon.

Kirin: 下午.

Adam: Night.

Kirin: 晚上.

Adam: Great, so if you wanted to say “Good morning” how would you do that?

Kirin: 早上好.

Adam: Easy enough. Literally, “morning good.”

Kirin: 早上好.

Adam: Now in Taiwan you’re likely to hear a different version.

Kirin: 早安.

Adam: So there’s a new character there, 安.

Kirin: 安 是第一声，安.

Adam: So 安 here can mean “quiet or peaceful”; so it’s like wishing someone a peaceful morning.

Kirin: 早安.

Adam: Similarly, to wish someone “Good afternoon,” you could say:

Kirin: 午安.

Adam: Again, that’s used in Taiwan whereas in other parts of China you may hear:

Kirin: 下午好.

Adam: Just like in English, “Goodnight” is used when you’re leaving rather than as an initial greeting. So here, too, we’re back to:

Kirin: 晚上好.

Adam: So that again is used in China while

Kirin: 晚安

Adam: is used in Taiwan. Try and figure out which of these the people around you are using and go with that form. Now getting back to Lesson 2, we learned that 再见 is the most common way to say “goodbye.” Let’s listen to a few other versions.

Kirin: 再会.

Adam: The 再 is the same 再 from 再见 while the 会 we’ve also seen before as in “to be able to do something” so we’re basically saying “We’ll see you again.”

Kirin: 再会.

Adam: If you wanted to specifically say “See you next time” you could say:

Kirin: 下次见.

Adam: We’ve seen both these words before. The 下 here is the same 下 from 下午, while the 次 we’ve seen before in lesson 23 in 第一次, as in “first time.” Originally we had explained the meaning of 下 as “after.” It can also be used to mean “next” so here 下次 means “next time.”

Kirin: 下次见.

Adam: For more formal occasions we can use a longer form:

Kirin: 我们下次再见.

Adam: Which literally means “We’ll see you next time.”

Kirin: 我们下次再见.

Adam: We’ll now switch our focus a little bit to our Premium podcasts since that’s what we’ll be using from hereon to test whether you understand this material. Our goal in Level 2 is to switch more of the in-lesson dialogue into Chinese which means we’ll need to teach you some of the phrases we’ll be using from hereon. So let’s start with the first one:

Kirin: 请用中文翻译下面的题目.

Adam: So that may seem like much, but we’ve seen all these words before. Let’s see how much of it you remember.

Kirin: 用 是什么意思?

Adam: That’s the verb “to use”

Kirin: 翻译 是什么意思?

Adam: That means “translate”

Kirin: 下面的 的是什么意思?

Adam: This one needs to be broken down. We know that 下 can mean next or after. You may also remember the 面 from 前面 and 后面, which we saw back in Lesson 56 meaning “side.” So in this context 下面的 means “the next part.” Let’s see what else you remember.

Kirin: 题目 是什么意思?

Adam: We originally taught 题目 in lesson 36 to mean “subject” or “topic.” It can also be used to mean question or sentence in question. So putting this all together gives us:

Kirin: 请用中文翻译下面的题目.

Adam: Which literally means “Please use Chinese translate the next part sentence.”

Kirin: 请用中文翻译下面的题目.

Adam: Which basically means “Please translate the following into Chinese.”

Kirin: 请用中文翻译下面的题目.

Adam: Similarly, you could also say:

Kirin: 请用中文翻译下面的问题.

Adam: 问题, you may remember, from 没问题 in Lesson 19 meaning “no problem.” So 问题 can mean “problem” or “question.” So here the meaning of the sentence is: “Please translate the following question into Chinese.”

Kirin: 请用中文翻译下面的问题.

Adam: Now that we know the word for “question,” let’s look at the word for “answer.”

Kirin: 回答.

Adam: So there are two characters there.

Kirin: 回 是第二声. 答 也是第二声.

Adam: So knowing what we’ve learned so far, how would you say: “Please use Chinese to answer the following question”?

Kirin: 请用中文回答下面的问题.

Listen to lesson:


Move your mouse pointer over (or touch, from your mobile device) any Chinese words or phrases to get a translation.

Adam: Hello, and welcome to Lesson 61. I’m your host Adam.

Kirin: 大家好. 我是Kirin. 欢迎来到第六十一课.

Adam: Today’s lesson also marks the beginning of level two of our series, which means a slight bump in the level of difficulty used here. Over the next little while we will try and convert more of the lesson teaching into Chinese bit by bit. As always though, transcripts and translations of everything we say here is available in the Premium section of our website.

We’re going to begin level 2 by expanding on what was taught in level one. Now if we look back to our first ever lesson, that was on the four tones. There’s also a fifth tone which we’ve come across, which is a neutral tone. By now, you’ve hopefully mastered the differences between the tones and are comfortable enough to start discussing them in Chinese, so that’s what we’ll do from here on. So Kirin, how do we say “The five tones” in Chinese?

Kirin: 五种声调.

Adam: So let’s break that down. Five 种. You may remember, 种 from lesson 25 as a measure word meaning “kind” or “type.” So that gives us five kind 声调 which is our first new word of the day and literally means “sound tone.”

Kirin: 声调.

Adam: We’ll come back to this in a moment. Now the five tones we talked about earlier in English are referred to in the same order as first, second, third, fourth and fifth tones in Chinese. So the first tone in Chinese is:

Kirin: 第一声.

Adam: The second tone is

Kirin: 第二声.

Adam: The third tone is

Kirin: 第三声.

Adam: And the fourth tone is

Kirin: 第四声.

Adam: So, hopefully, you get the hang of that. And lastly we have the neutral tone which is:

Kirin: 第五声.

Adam: Now in our course, we’ll refer to the neutral tone as the fifth tone. But in Chinese, they call it the neutral tone which is 轻声.

So when learning Chinese you, of course, will come across new words from time to time and may need to know what tones are used. Now first, I need to make a distinction between “word” and “characters.” In English, of course, words are broken down into letters of the alphabet. The Chinese language doesn’t use letters, of course, it uses Chinese characters. So some words may consist of one or more Chinese characters, each of which uses one of the five tones that we just talked about. So first Kirin, why don’t you tell us how you say “character” in Chinese.

Kirin: 字.

Adam: Again

Kirin: 字.

Adam: So if I wanted to know what tone a particular character used, how would I ask that?

Kirin: 这个字是哪一种声调?

Adam: Which literally means “this character is which kind tone?”

Kirin: 这个字是哪一种声调?

Adam: So I could start by asking:

Kirin: 字 是哪一种声调?

Adam: And how would you answer that?

Kirin: 字 是第四种声调.

Adam: So, hopefully, you see how that works. Let’s go back to 声调 which we learned today. This word can be broken down into two characters 声 and 调. So let me ask you:

Kirin: 声，这个字是哪一种声调?

声 是第一种声调.

Adam: So again, literally, she answered: 声 is first type of tone.

Kirin: 声 是第一种声调.

Adam: Alright, and let me ask:

Kirin: 调，这个字是哪一种声调?

调 是第四种声调.

Adam: Great, so I hope you can get the hang of this.

Now, of course, many times one or more characters are combined to form a word. To keep things clear, we’ll separate them as we did with 声调. So Kirin why don’t you pick a word we’ve learned before and ask us what tones are used there.

Kirin: 好，昨天，昨 是哪一声?

Adam: Great, so a little shorter form of that question. And how would we answer that?

Kirin: 昨 是第二声.

Adam: So you can see the shorter form is used to answer this as well. Let’s try another one.

Kirin: 汉堡的 汉 是第几声?

Adam: So yet another way to ask this same question. 汉堡的 汉 means the 汉 in 汉堡.

Kirin: 汉堡的 汉 是第几声?

Adam: 第几声? You may remember that 几 means “how many?” So the literal form of this question is the 汉 in 汉堡 is “which tone?” as in “which position number?”

Kirin: 汉堡的 汉 是第几声?

Adam: So how would you answer that?

Kirin: 汉 是第四声.

Adam: You can see more of these examples in the podcast review for this lesson. For now though, let’s review the vocabulary taught in today’s lesson.

Kirin: 五种声调.

Adam: The five tones.

Kirin: 第一声.

Adam: The first tone.

Kirin: 第二声.

Adam: The second tone.

Kirin: 第三声.

Adam: The third tone.

Kirin: 第四声.

Adam: The fourth tone.

Kirin: 第五声.

Adam: The fifth tone, or the neutral tone.

Kirin: 轻声.

Adam: Neutral tone.

Kirin: 第几声?

Adam: Which tone?

Kirin: 字.

Adam: Character.

So that’s the new vocabulary for you to study today. We’ll be adding more to this in our next lesson; so please join us for that.

As this is the first lesson of level two, some of the premium features are available for free to try out. So take a look that on our website and then decide whether or premium subscription suits you, then join us again next time for lesson 62.

Kirin: 再见.