Learn how to tell a taxi driver where you want to go
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Amber: Hey everybody, welcome back to ChineseClass101.com. I’m Amber. |
| Victor: 大家好(Dàjiā hǎo),我是(Wǒ shì) Victor. |
| Amber: And today is our Absolute Beginner Series, Season 1. Today’s lesson is Lesson 19. |
| Victor: Yup. And continuing with getting around, today we’re going to teach you, “I want to go here.” |
| Amber: Yeah. How to tell a taxi driver where you want to go. |
| Victor: Right. |
| Amber: And Victor, you know what else? Everyone’s going to be able to use the, write the address down on a piece of paper technique to its full capacity today. |
| Victor: It’s all connected. |
| Amber: Yes, by learning today’s dialogue. |
| Victor: Right. |
| Amber: It’s going to come in very handy. So in this lesson, you’ll learn how to tell a taxi driver where you want to go. |
| Victor: This conversation takes place in a taxi. |
| Amber: Yeah. And obviously, between the driver and the passenger. So before we listen to the dialog, we just want to remind everybody that they can comment on our website and ask questions. |
| Victor: Right. |
| Amber: It’s kind of a really good way to interact with other learners and also assess the teachers. If you have any questions, things you want to share, we’ll definitely get back to you. So come there and be part of the community of ChineseClass101. |
| Victor: Yeah, all about community building. |
| Amber: Making friends, making 朋友。(Péngyǒu.) |
| Victor: Through Chinese. That’s what it’s all about, right? |
| Amber: That’s right. Okay. So let’s take a listen to the conversation then. |
| DIALOGUES |
| Victor: 你想去哪儿？(Nǐ xiǎng qù nǎr?) |
| Amber: 我想去学院路。(Wǒ xiǎng qù xuéyuàn lù.) |
| Victor: 什么路？(Shénme lù?) |
| Amber: 看这儿。(Kàn zhèr.) |
| Victor: 哦，我知道了。学院路。好的。(O, wǒ zhīdào le. Xuéyuàn Lù. Hǎo de.) |
| Amber: One more time, a little slower. |
| Victor: 你想去哪儿？(Nǐ xiǎng qù nǎr?) |
| Amber: 我想去学院路。(Wǒ xiǎng qù Xuéyuàn Lù.) |
| Victor: 什么路？(Shénme lù?) |
| Amber: 看这儿。(Kàn zhèr.) |
| Victor: 哦，我知道了。学院路。好的。(O, wǒ zhīdào le. Xuéyuàn Lù. Hǎo de.) |
| Amber: One more time, with the English. |
| Victor: 你想去哪儿？(Nǐ xiǎng qù nǎr?) |
| Amber: Where do you want to go? |
| Amber: 我想去学院路。(Wǒ xiǎng qù Xuéyuàn Lù.) |
| Amber: I want to go to Xueyuan road. |
| Victor: 什么路？(Shénme lù?) |
| Amber: What road? |
| Amber: 看这儿。(Kàn zhèr.) |
| Amber: Look here. |
| Victor: 哦，我知道了。学院路。好的。(O, wǒ zhīdào le. Xuéyuàn Lù. Hǎo de.) |
| Amber: Oh, I know, Xueyuan road. Okay. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Amber: See how easy, when you show the paper all your problems melt away. |
| Victor: That’s it. Hopefully, they’re handwriting is good. |
| Amber: Yeah. So it sounds like we’re ending up at Xueyuan。Xueyuan road. |
| Victor: Yeah. |
| Amber: Very famous street in Shanghai. |
| Victor: Oh, yeah? |
| Amber: Yeah, lots of sort of, shopping and it’s kind of in the French concession so a lot of sort of, old European style buildings. It’s pretty cool. |
| Victor: Okay. Sounds like a good destination. |
| Amber: Okay. So let’s look at some of the vocabulary so that we can get there. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Victor: And now, the vocab section. |
| Victor: 去(qù) |
| Amber: To go. |
| Victor: 想(xiǎng) |
| Amber: Would like. To want. |
| Victor: 哪儿(nǎr) |
| Amber: Where? |
| Victor: 路(lù) |
| Amber: Road. |
| Victor: 什么(shénme) |
| Amber: What? |
| Victor: 看(kàn) |
| Amber: To look. |
| Victor: 这儿(zhèr) |
| Amber: Here. |
| Victor: 知道(zhīdào) |
| Amber: To know. |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Amber: Okay. Let’s take a closer look at the usage for some of these words and phrases. Okay. Well, first we’ll teach you the word for telling the driver to look. Well, it could be to like, look for someone, look out for someone I guess, but in this case, you want him to look at your address. |
| Victor: Yeah. |
| Amber: I guess maybe you want him to look at the road. Maybe you should do this when they’re stopped. |
| Victor: Stopped, parking. |
| Amber: But either way, you can use this verb to tell someone to look. What verb is that Victor? |
| Victor: It is 看(kàn) and it’s fourth tone. |
| Amber: Yeah. It means, “To look.” or “To see.” So the way that you do this, that probably works best is you, you kind of probably get in the backseat and there’s that barrier with the taxi. So you can kind of yell and point at the paper 看这儿(Kàn zhèr) like we heard in the dialog, right? |
| Victor: Right, right, right. |
| Amber: And you know, I find, Victor that there is somewhat a sense of relief on the driver’s face generally when he sees you do have a piece of paper, especially when you’re a foreigner. |
| Victor: Instead of trying to make out which one to say. |
| Amber: Exactly. |
| Victor: Well, now he sees the paper, gets what you’re saying and you may hear him say something like he does in our dialogue. He say’s Oh, 哦(Ó)，我知道了。(Wǒ zhīdàole.) |
| Amber: Right. So first of all, the “Oh.” doesn’t need much translation, it’s just “Oh.” |
| Victor: Um-hum. |
| Amber: Okay. It’s one of the few words, the same in English and Chinese. |
| Victor: And the next part is 我知道了(Wǒ zhīdàole).We hear the word for “To know,” which is 知道(Zhīdào) and 知(Zhī) is first tone, 道(Dào) is fourth tone. And the le here in the end is just a particle that you will learn more about later. But for now, just remember it as a phrase. In fact, you can just say ‘知道’(Zhīdào) and that’s enough too. |
| Amber: Yeah. So you can either say 我知道了 or知道 or知道了(Wǒ zhīdàole or zhīdào or zhīdàole). It’s kind of just an acknowledgement here. |
| Victor: So there must be a big relief. |
| Amber: Yes. |
| Victor: When you hear the driver say, “Oh, I know.” |
| Amber: Listen for those words and then you’ll know he’s saying, “Okay, I know, I know.” |
| Victor: Yeah, I know where you’re going. |
| Amber: Yeah. |
| Victor: And we have the taxi driver come up with another great acknowledgement expression as well, one you’ll hear quite often, indeed. |
| Amber: Yeah. |
| Victor: And that is ‘好的’(Hǎo de).. |
| Amber: Yeah. I like that expression. Kind of like all right, or okay. |
| Victor: Yeah. |
| Amber: Basically, it’s just the word good 好(Hǎo) plus the particle ‘的’(De). |
| Victor: Yeah. |
| GRAMMAR POINT |
| Victor: It’s grammar time. |
| Amber: Okay. So today’s grammar is a little review lesson for us all. |
| Victor: And this covers some of the things we’ve learned up to now in the series. |
| Amber: Yeah, in this Absolute Beginner Series. So first of all, let’s go back and remember how to express desire or to want. |
| Victor: Very important. |
| Amber: Yeah. In the case of our dialogue, they wanted to go to Xueyuan Lu. |
| Victor: Yes. They used 想(Xiǎng) third tone and it means, “Would like.” |
| Amber: Yeah. And then they used the verb for “To go.” Because they wanted to go somewhere, which is... |
| Victor: 去(Qù) it’s fourth tone and the pattern is 我想去(Wǒ xiǎng qù)… and then you can add the location or the place you’d like to go. |
| Amber: Right. So it’s literally, I would like to go and then blank for wherever you want to go. |
| Victor: Yeah. |
| Amber: So I could say, maybe I’m here in New York, I could say, 我想去中国(Wǒ xiǎng qù zhōngguó). |
| Victor: Yeah. |
| Amber: It means, “I would like to go to China.” |
| Victor: Good. So in this dialogue, we also learned another ”where” question. Now remember that in Chinese questions, asking the location of something, the “Where.” or 哪儿(Nǎr) or 哪里(Nǎ lǐ) comes at the end instead of the beginning of the sentence. |
| Amber: Right. So in English of course, we’d say, where would you like to go? But in Chinese we would say... |
| Victor: It’s a little different, you say 你想去哪儿？(Nǐ xiǎng qù nǎ'er?) |
| Amber: You would like to go where? |
| Victor: Right. |
| Amber: Yeah. And also, don’t forget in this dialog, we also heard the word for “What.” in Chinese. |
| Victor: 什么(Shénme). |
| Amber: So for example, when the taxi driver wanted to know what road it was, he just said... |
| Victor: ‘什么路’(Shénme lù). |
| Amber: Right. |
| Victor: So most times, when asking a question using 什么(Shénme), the 什么(Shénme) comes at the end as we heard in earlier lessons, for example “你想吃什么？(Nǐ xiǎng chī shénme?)”. However, you can also make a simple what question when you are making inquiry about a noun. In this case, “What road?” |
| Amber: Yeah. So if it’s just, you’re asking about a thing, you can just simply say ‘shenme’ plus the thing. |
| Victor: 什么路?(Shénme lù?) |
| Amber: Right, what road? |
| Victor: Yeah, what road? |
| Amber: Yeah, yeah. And you know, it kind of reminds me of another thing you hear using this sort of structure, Victor quite often in Chinese. So there’s people when they don’t know what you’re talking about or like what’s going on, they’ll just say ‘什么东西？”(Shénme dōngxī?). |
| Victor: 什么东西？(Shénme dōngxī?) |
| Amber: Which literally means, “What thing?” |
| Victor: Yeah. |
| Amber: 东西(Dōngxī) being the word for “Thing.” It’s kind of just like, basically like, “Huh, what’s that?” |
| Victor: Did you hear that in Shanghai? |
| Amber: Yeah. |
| Victor: Yeah, because I think in the north, it takes kind of like a different meaning. It’s like when you’re kind of surprised and can’t believe something’s happening just like 什么东西(Shénme dōngxī) is like, “What kind of matter?” |
| Amber: Yeah, similar. |
| Victor: Almost. |
| Amber: Similar. |
| Victor: It’s like, “Whatever, I can’t believe this is happening.” |
| Amber: Yeah. Depends on your tone of voice. |
| Victor: Right. |
| Amber: So it’s kind of a side point. |
| Victor: Yeah. |
| Amber: But the same structure. You’ll hear it. Okay, well that’s about it for this lesson. 好的(Hǎo de) |
| Victor: 好的(Hǎo de) |
| Amber: But just before we go, make sure everybody, you should take a test. We wouldn’t be teachers if we didn’t give you a test. |
| Victor: Oh, a test. |
| Amber: So, are you ready to test what you learned today? How can they do it Victor? |
| Victor: Well, we have this really nice functional website and you can use the lesson specific flashcards in the learning center. |
| Amber: Yeah. And basically, they have all the vocab characters that we learned today and you can quiz yourself. |
| Victor: Right. |
| Amber: Try and burn them into your brain |
| Victor: Yeah, and there’s a reason why everyone uses flashcards, because they work. |
| Amber: Yeah. |
| Victor: So, do that. |
| Amber: And they’re so fun. |
| Victor: Yeah. |
| Amber: Okay, Victor, we'll let everyone listen one last time to the dialogue and we will see you all next time. |
Outro |
|---|
| Amber:再见!(Zàijiàn!) |
| Victor:再见!(Zàijiàn!) |
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