Learn about China's wacky weather, especially in the spring
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| INTRODUCTION |
| David: Welcome to chineseclass101.com. I am David. |
| Echo: Hi! 大家好，我是(Dàjiā hǎo, wǒ shì)Echo. |
| David: Yes Echo was back this week. |
| Echo: Yes. |
| David: And we are here with absolute beginner season 2 lesson 14. |
| Echo: Lightning never strikes twice. |
| David: Right unless you are in China when it strikes all the time. So we’ve actually got a lesson here that is about bad weather. |
| Echo: That’s right. |
| David: And how to talk about it. |
| Echo: Right. |
| David: So we’ve got a dialogue that takes place inside between two people who are going out. |
| Echo: Right and it is about to rain. |
| David: Yes and they are family members. So they are speaking casually as always. |
| Echo: That’s right. |
| David: Echo, before we go to the dialogue, there is something you wanted to say. |
| Echo: We love comments guys. |
| David: Right. |
| Echo: So… |
| David: If you have any questions or if you have any comments… |
| Echo: Please leave your comment on the site or write to us at contactus@chineseclass101.com |
| David: Right. With that said, let’s go to the dialog. |
| DIALOGUE |
| A: 打闪了。(Dǎ shǎn le.) |
| B: 快下雨了。(Kuài xiàyǔ le.) |
| A: 带伞吧。(Dài sǎn ba.) |
| B: 我们明天去吧。(Wǒmen míngtiān qù ba.) |
| David: One more time, a bit slower. |
| A: 打闪了。(Dǎ shǎn le.) |
| B: 快下雨了。(Kuài xiàyǔ le.) |
| A: 带伞吧。(Dài sǎn ba.) |
| B: 我们明天去吧。(Wǒmen míngtiān qù ba.) |
| David: And now with the English. |
| A: 打闪了。(Dǎ shǎn le.) |
| A: Lightning strike. |
| B: 快下雨了。(Kuài xiàyǔ le.) |
| B: It's about to rain. |
| A: 带伞吧。(Dài sǎn ba.) |
| A: Bring an umbrella. |
| B: 我们明天去吧。(Wǒmen míngtiān qù ba.) |
| B: How about we go tomorrow. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| David: It’s sort of like a poem, short lines. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| David: Only it’s about rain. |
| Echo: Right. |
| David: Right. So I actually think if you are in China, you don’t need to worry about rain that much. |
| Echo: Why? |
| David: Because as soon as it starts raining, people spree out to sell umbrellas. |
| Echo: 哦，对。(Ó, duì.) |
| David: Right. So you don’t need to worry…. |
| Echo: And they ask for like 10 块(Kuài) for a umbrella. |
| David: 10 块？(Kuài?) They ask for 15 块(Kuài) in Shanghai. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| David: But really it’s not that bad. |
| Echo: Low quality umbrella. |
| David: Yeah but… |
| Echo: 10 块(Kuài) or 15 块。(Kuài.) |
| David: Any way, we have got a lot of vocab here that’s about the weather. So let’s get to it. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| David: And now the vocab section. |
| Echo: 打雷。(Dǎléi.)[natural native speed] |
| David: To thunder. |
| Echo: 打雷。(Dǎléi.)[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Echo: 打闪。(Dǎ shǎn.)[natural native speed] |
| David: To have lightning. |
| Echo: 打闪。(Dǎ shǎn.)[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Echo: 打闪。(Dǎ shǎn.)[natural native speed] |
| Echo: 风。(Fēng.) |
| David: Wind. |
| Echo: 风。(Fēng.)[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Echo: 风。(Fēng.)[natural native speed] |
| Echo: 下雨。(Xià yǔ.) |
| David: To rain. |
| Echo: 下雨。(Xià yǔ.)[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Echo: 下雨。(Xià yǔ.)[natural native speed] |
| Echo: 下雪。(Xià xuě.) |
| David: To snow. |
| Echo: 下雪。(Xià xuě.)[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Echo: 下雪。(Xià xuě.)[natural native speed] |
| Echo: 快。(Kuài.) |
| David: Quickly. |
| Echo: 快。(Kuài.)[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Echo: 快。(Kuài.)[natural native speed] |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| David: Okay in today’s vocab, we are talking about types of bad weather and there are two patterns we want to pull your attention to. Right, so Echo, there are two words here. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| David: That kind of leap off the page. |
| Echo: The first one is 打闪。(Dǎ shǎn.) |
| David: Which is to have lightning. |
| Echo: 打闪。(Dǎ shǎn.) |
| David: And where there is lightning, there is also.. |
| Echo: 打雷。(Dǎléi.) |
| David: To have thunder. |
| Echo: 打雷。(Dǎléi.) |
| David: To thunder. And an interesting point, there are both verbs. |
| Echo: Right. |
| David: Right. The nouns are just |
| Echo: 闪。(Shǎn.) |
| David: Which is lightning. It means flash. |
| Echo: Yeah or 雷.(Léi.) |
| David: Which means thunder. |
| Echo: 闪，打闪。雷，打雷。(Shǎn, dǎ shǎn. Léi, dǎléi.) |
| David: Right. So that’s the first pattern that we are running into here. Verbs are starting with |
| Echo: 打。(Dǎ.) |
| David: Right and that means to hit. |
| Echo: Right. |
| David: So it’s kind of like someone is in the sky kind of knocking around pots and pans. |
| Echo: 对(Duì)，Yeah I think it’s where it comes from. |
| David: Yeah. Anyway, those are verbs. Remember if you want just the nouns, you want… |
| Echo: 闪，雷。(Shǎn, léi.) |
| David: Echo, you were just teaching me this next saying people have with 闪。(Shǎn.) |
| Echo: 对。(Duì.) It’s very popular like next saying like if you say 我闪(Wǒ shǎn) and this means like I am…. |
| David: I am out of here. |
| Echo: Yeah or I am going to disappear. |
| David: Yeah that’s right. Something has become really awkward and so you say |
| Echo: 我闪。(Wǒ shǎn.) |
| David: Like I am out of here. |
| Echo: Yeah or you can add 先(Xiān) between there means first like 我先闪。(Wǒ xiān shǎn.) |
| David: Yeah like let me go first. |
| Echo: Yeah. It’s funny because it’s kind of like disappear. |
| David: Yeah, yeah. |
| Echo: It’s like I first disappear. |
| David: It’s like disappearing in a flash of light which is 闪(Shǎn), flash of light. |
| Echo: Right. |
| David: Any way, we’ve got two other words that follow similar pattern. These are |
| Echo: 下雨。(Xià yǔ.) |
| David: Which means to rain and |
| Echo: 下雪。(Xià xuě.) |
| David: Which means to snow. Let’s hear those again. |
| Echo: 下雨，下雪。(Xià yǔ, xià xuě.) |
| David: As before, those are both verbs. The nouns are |
| Echo: 雨。(Yǔ.) |
| David: Rain. |
| Echo:雪。(Xuě.) |
| David: Snow right and 下雨(Xià yǔ) here means downwards. |
| Echo: Right. |
| David: Or to fall. So the nouns are one character and the verbs again are two characters. Okay so when you want to put these in sentences, usually you want the verbs. |
| Echo: Right 下雨(Xià yǔ) and 下雪。(Xià xuě.) |
| David: For instance, you might want to say it’s raining. |
| Echo: 下雨了。(Xià yǔle.) |
| David: Or it’s snowing. |
| Echo: 下雪了。(Xià xuěle.) |
| David: Right. |
| Echo: Or 我先闪了。(Wǒ xiān shǎnle.) |
| David: Yeah. I am out of here and in all cases, the 了 there is change of state. It’s just started. Okay. With that said, let’s go on to the grammar section where we have got a great point about 快。(Kuài.) |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| David: The focus of our grammar point is |
| Echo: 快。(Kuài.) |
| David: Now we have run into this before as the adjective fast. |
| Echo: 快。(Kuài.) |
| David: As in the phrase very fast. |
| Echo: 很快。(Hěn kuài.) |
| David: Or the sentence you are speaking too quickly. |
| Echo: 你说得很快。(Nǐ shuō dé hěn kuài.) |
| David: Right. In our lesson today though, we are running into this as an adverb. Right, we are putting it in front of a verb. |
| Echo: That’s right. Like 快下雨了。(Kuài xià yǔle.) |
| David: It’s almost raining. |
| Echo:快下雨了。(Kuài xià yǔle.) |
| David: It’s about to rain and what it means here of course is soon, it will 下雨。(Xià yǔ.) Let’s have a couple more examples. |
| Echo: All right. 时间快到了。(Shíjiān kuài dàole.) |
| David: Time is almost up. |
| Echo: 时间快到了。(Shíjiān kuài dàole.) |
| David: Our time is almost up. You will hear that on tests. Next, another example with weather. |
| Echo: 快下雪了。(Kuài xià xuěle.) |
| David: It’s going to snow soon. |
| Echo: 快下雪了。(Kuài xià xuěle.) |
| David: It’s going to snow soon. |
| Echo: Or 我快到了。(Wǒ kuài dàole.) |
| David: This is one of my favorites and ... |
| Echo: Yeah you say 我快到了，我快到了。(Wǒ kuài dàole, wǒ kuài dàole.) |
| David: Yeah I am almost there. |
| Echo: But you arrive like half an hour later. |
| David: I am almost there. I will be there in an hour. |
| Echo: An hour later. |
| David: Yeah and if you are eating with someone like Echo, you will hear her say this. |
| Echo: 我快吃完了。别着急，我快吃完了。(Wǒ kuài chī wánliǎo. Bié zhāojí, wǒ kuài chī wánliǎo.) |
| David: I am almost done eating. Everyone else is done, not Echo. So just to sum up, if you see this in front of a verb, it’s being used as an adverb meaning quickly. |
| Echo: Right. |
| David: Instead of fast. |
| Echo: 快。(Kuài.) |
| David: And you are going to run into this especially with weather. It’s going to rain quickly. |
| Echo: 快下雨了。(Kuài xià yǔle.) |
| David: It’s going to snow quickly. |
| Echo: 快下雪了。(Kuài xià xuěle.) |
| David: Or maybe even quickly give me the umbrella. |
| Echo: 快给我雨伞。(Kuài gěi wǒ yǔsǎn.) |
Outro |
| David: Right. As always, we have got our grammar note written up in the PDF. And we’ve got lots of extra sample sentences for you in there. |
| Echo: 没错。(Méi cuò.) |
| David: So if you have any questions after listening to this lesson, be sure to go check that out. With that being said though, that’s our lesson for today. From Beijing, I am David. |
| Echo: 我是(Wǒ shì)Echo. |
| David: Thanks a lot for listening and we will see you on the site. |
| Echo: 网上见。(Wǎngshàng jiàn.) Bye bye. |
| David: Bye bye. |
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