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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.
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