Learn about a high degree adverb and how to become accustomed to your new life in China
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| INTRODUCTION |
| David: Hi everyone and welcome to chineseclass101.com. The fastest, easiest and most fun way to learn Chinese. I am David and I am joined in the studio by |
| Echo: Hi! 大家好，我是(Dàjiā hǎo, wǒ shì)Echo. |
| David: Today we have absolute beginner season 2 lesson 18. The easy way. This is the lesson in which we are going to learn how to talk about the level of difficulty of things, whether something is simple or really, really difficult. |
| Echo: That’s right and this conversation takes place in a repairer shop. |
| David: Right. It’s between two coworkers who are fixing a broken microwave and since they are coworkers and they know each other, they are speaking casual mandarin as always. |
| Echo: That’s right. |
| David: Now before we take you to the dialogue, Echo, you’ve got something you would like to remind people. |
| Echo: Yes. Guys, we do love to see your comments. |
| David: So if you have any questions or comments, just visit chineseclass101.com and leave them on the site. |
| Echo: 没错儿。(Méi cuò ér.) |
| David: That being said though, let’s get to the dialogue. |
| DIALOGUE |
| A: 这个怎么用？(Zhègè zěnme yòng?) |
| B: 很简单， 你看。(Hěn jiǎndān, nǐ kàn.) |
| A: 这么简单？谢谢！(Zhème jiǎndān? Xièxie!) |
| B: 不客气。(Bú kèqì.) |
| David: One more time, a bit slower. |
| A: 这个怎么用？(Zhègè zěnme yòng?) |
| B: 很简单， 你看。(Hěn jiǎndān, nǐ kàn.) |
| A: 这么简单？谢谢！(Zhème jiǎndān? Xièxie!) |
| B: 不客气。(Bú kèqì.) |
| David: And now, with the English translation. |
| A: 这个怎么用？(Zhègè zěnme yòng?) |
| A: How do you use this? |
| B: 很简单， 你看。(Hěn jiǎndān, nǐ kàn.) |
| B: It's very simple, watch. |
| A: 这么简单？谢谢！(Zhème jiǎndān? Xièxie!) |
| A: So simple? Thanks. |
| B: 不客气。(Bú kèqì.) |
| B: Don't mention it. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Echo: So how simple is our vocab section today? |
| Echo: It’s very simple. |
| David: Right it’s so simple, it’s not going to feel like work. |
| Echo: No because at chineseclass101, we make our lessons fun and informative. |
| David: Right so you learn more but really this one is pretty easy. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| David: So let’s get on to our vocab section and we’ve got a bunch of adjectives in here to describe difficulty levels. |
| Echo: 没错儿。(Méi cuò ér.) |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Echo: 简单。(Jiǎndān.)[natural native speed] |
| David: Simple. |
| Echo: 简单。(Jiǎndān.)[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Echo: 简单。(Jiǎndān.)[natural native speed] |
| Echo: 容易。(Róngyì.)[natural native speed] |
| David: Easy. |
| Echo: 容易。(Róngyì.)[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Echo: 容易。(Róngyì.)[natural native speed] |
| F:难。(Nán.)[natural native speed] |
| David: Difficult. |
| F:难。(Nán.)[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| F:难。(Nán.)[natural native speed] |
| Echo: 方便。(Fāngbiàn.)[natural native speed] |
| David: Convenient. |
| Echo: 方便。(Fāngbiàn.)[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Echo: 方便。(Fāngbiàn.)[natural native speed] |
| Echo: 麻烦。(Máfan.)[natural native speed] |
| David: Troublesome. |
| Echo: 麻烦。(Máfan.)[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Echo: 麻烦。(Máfan.)[natural native speed] |
| Echo: 不客气。(Bù kèqì.)[natural native speed] |
| David: Don’t be polite. |
| Echo: 不客气。(Bù kèqì.)[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Echo: 不客气。(Bù kèqì.)[natural native speed] |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| David: Let’s have a closer look at the usage for some of these words and phrases. Our first phrase is the most important. |
| Echo: 简单。(Jiǎndān.) |
| David: Simple. |
| Echo: 简单。(Jiǎndān.) |
| David: And as you know by now, studying Chinese is really simple. |
| Echo: 学中文很简单。(Xué zhōngwén hěn jiǎndān.) |
| David: Let’s hear that again. Learning Chinese is really simple. |
| Echo: 学中文很简单。(Xué zhōngwén hěn jiǎndān.) |
| David: So that’s an adjective and we are putting it after. |
| Echo: 很。(Hěn.) |
| David: We could also say it’s really simple. |
| Echo: 真简单。(Zhēn jiǎndān.) |
| David: Or extremely simple. |
| Echo: 非常简单。(Fēicháng jiǎndān.) |
| David: Learning Chinese is extremely simple. |
| Echo: 学中文非常简单。(Xué zhōngwén fēicháng jiǎndān.) |
| David: There is another adjective we can swap in there that means easy. |
| Echo: 容易。(Róngyì.) |
| David: Easy. |
| Echo: 容易。(Róngyì.) |
| David: So that second tone rising and then fourth tone coming down. |
| Echo: 容易。(Róngyì.) |
| David: This problem isn’t easy. |
| Echo: 这个问题不容易。(Zhège wèntí bù róngyì.) |
| David: This problem isn’t easy. |
| Echo: 这个问题不容易。(Zhège wèntí bù róngyì.) |
| David: We could also stick this adjective in our previous sentence. Learning Chinese is extremely easy. |
| Echo: 学中文非常容易。(Xué zhōngwén fēicháng róngyì.) |
| David: And with CC101, learning Chinese is also convenient. |
| Echo: 方便。(Fāngbiàn.) |
| David: Convenient. |
| Echo: 方便。(Fāngbiàn.) |
| David: One of the most popular and cheapest things people can eat in China are |
| Echo: 方便面。(Fāngbiànmiàn.) |
| David: Ramen or convenient noodles. So you could say, instant noodles are very convenient. |
| Echo: 方便面很方便。(Fāngbiànmiàn hěn fāngbiàn.) That’s why they are called 方便面。(Fāngbiànmiàn.) |
| David: Right. Instant noodles are very convenient. |
| Echo: 方便面很方便。(Fāngbiànmiàn hěn fāngbiàn.) |
| David: We’ve already covered positive adjectives. So let’s deal with a couple of difficult ones. The first is difficult. |
| Echo: 难。(Nán.) |
| David: Difficult. |
| Echo: 难。(Nán.) |
| David: So you could ask, is it difficult? |
| Echo: 很难吗？(Hěn nán ma?) |
| David: Is it difficult? |
| Echo: 很难吗？(Hěn nán ma?) |
| David: And if you are talking about Chinese, the answer is going to be studying Chinese is not difficult. |
| Echo: 学中文不难。(Xué zhōngwén bù nán.) |
| David: Learning Chinese is not difficult. |
| Echo: 学中文不难。(Xué zhōngwén bù nán.) |
| David: The last word we want to highlight for you is |
| Echo: 麻烦。(Máfan.) |
| David: Which really means troublesome. |
| Echo: 麻烦。(Máfan.) |
| David: But it can also mean inconvenient. |
| Echo: 这些事情很麻烦。(Zhèxiē shìqíng hěn máfan.) |
| David: These matters are very troublesome. |
| Echo: 这些事情很麻烦。(Zhèxiē shìqíng hěn máfan.) |
| David: Right. These things are troublesome or they are bothersome or they are inconvenient. So in this sense, troublesome |
| Echo: 麻烦。(Máfan.) |
| David: Means the opposite of convenient. |
| Echo: 方便。(Fāngbiàn.) |
| David: Now that we have covered these adjectives, let’s get to our grammar section where we’ve got a great point for you. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Echo: Our grammar focus this lesson is on the adverb. |
| Echo: 这么。(Zhème.) |
| David: This means so, such or like this. |
| Echo: 这么。(Zhème.) |
| David: We put this in front of the verb or adjective to indicate high degree of something. |
| Echo: Yeah we heard it in the dialogue in this sentence 这么简单。(Zhème jiǎndān.) |
| David: This simple. |
| Echo: 这么简单。(Zhème jiǎndān.) |
| David: This simple. Really this is pretty colloquial. They are really saying wow! It’s so simple. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| David: Right. So in the dialogue, we put it before the adjective. |
| Echo: 简单。(Jiǎndān.) |
| David: Right now, we are just going to go through a lot of other examples so you get a better sense of how to use it. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| David: For instance. |
| Echo: 这么早。(Zhème zǎo.) |
| David: Oh it’s so early. |
| Echo: 这么早。这么难。(Zhème zǎo. Zhème nán.) |
| David: Oh it’s so difficult. |
| Echo: 这么难。(Zhème nán.) |
| David: Oh it’s so difficult. |
| Echo: 这么容易。(Zhème róngyì.) |
| David: Yeah you might say that if you took a test and you are surprised at how easy it is. |
| Echo: Yeah 这么容易。(Zhème róngyì.) |
| David: It’s so easy. |
| Echo: 可以说[*]这么容易。(Kěyǐ shuō [*] zhème róngyì.) |
| David: Yeah I wasn’t expecting it to be this easy. |
| Echo: 或者说:他怎么这么麻烦。(Huòzhě shuō: Tā zěnme zhème máfan.) |
| David: How is he so troublesome? |
| Echo: 她怎么这么麻烦。(Tā zěnme zhème máfan.) |
| David: This is a really colloquial way of speaking and the main point is that you are really emphasizing something by using it. |
| Echo: Yeah emphasize adjective. |
| David: Oh how can it be so troublesome? |
| Echo: 他怎么这么麻烦。(Tā zěnme zhème máfan.) |
| David: Or when you wake up oh how can it be so early? |
| Echo: 怎么这么早。(Zěnme zhème zǎo.) |
| David: And as you know if you studied with us for a while, 这么(Zhème) is the opposite of |
| Echo: 那么。(Nàme.) |
| David: Which also means so |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| David: Right as in that early, that difficult. Okay so two things spin on mind. You are not going to run into this in a lot of written Chinese but you are going to hear it a lot. |
| Echo: 没错儿。(Méi cuò ér.) |
Outro |
| David: And with that, that’s our lesson for today. As always, we want to remind you, make sure you go to chineseclass101.com and download our premium PDF for this lesson. We’ve got the dialogues all written out, we’ve got the grammar point written out. It’s a great way to review what we’ve covered today. |
| Echo: Yes. |
| David: That’s our podcast 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: Bye bye. |
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