Learn a particle that we use intentionally
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Canaan: Hello again and welcome back to chineseclass101.com, the fastest, easiest and most enjoyable way to learn Chinese. This is Canaan again and I am joined in the studio by... |
| Jane: 嗨，大家好，我是Jane。(Hāi, dàjiā hǎo, wǒ shì Jane.) |
| Canaan: And we are coming at you today with the Absolute Beginner series, season 3, lesson 25. |
| Jane: Get the party started in China. |
| Canaan: That’s right. So if you’ve been with us since lesson 1, it’s finally party time. |
| Jane: Yes, congratulations! And this is the last lesson for this series and we really hope that you’ve enjoyed our lessons. |
| Canaan: Umm so why don’t we start in this party Jane? |
| Jane: Well, maybe not quite yet but certainly you will learn in this lesson about a few words that you would be able to use when you go off to a party later. |
| Canaan: Yep, and this conversation takes place at a party between a host and a guest. |
| Jane: And since they are friends, they are speaking in casual Mandarin as always. |
| Canaan: Right. Now before we get the party started, once again we would like to remind you of our voice recording tool available to our premium learners. |
| Jane: 是的。(Shì de.) Just a click of button. You will be able to record your own voice and play it back. |
| Canaan: Right and by comparing your own voice to the voices in the dialogue, you will be able to pick out any mistakes you may have been making. |
| Jane: A great tool to improve your pronunciation. |
| Canaan: Absolutely. Now let’s go to the dialogue. |
| DIALOGUE |
| 派对真热闹！(Pàiduì zhēn rènao!) |
| 喝饮料吗？(Hē yǐnliào ma?) |
| 有鸡尾酒吗？(Yǒu jīwěijiǔ ma?) |
| 没有。来杯葡萄酒吧。(Méiyǒu. Lái bēi pútáojiǔ ba.) |
| Canaan: One more time, a little more slowly. |
| 派对真热闹！(Pàiduì zhēn rènao!) |
| 喝饮料吗？(Hē yǐnliào ma?) |
| 有鸡尾酒吗？(Yǒu jīwěijiǔ ma?) |
| 没有。来杯葡萄酒吧。(Méiyǒu. Lái bēi pútáojiǔ ba.) |
| Canaan: And now with the English translation. |
| 派对真热闹！ |
| The party is so lively. |
| 喝饮料吗？ |
| Like a drink? |
| 有鸡尾酒吗？ |
| Got any cocktails? |
| 没有。来杯葡萄酒吧。 |
| No. How about a glass of wine? |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Canaan: Yeah you know Jane, I have been in China for a couple of years now and it seems to me that over the years, a lot of the younger generations of Chinese have become more and more like western young people in terms of where they drink and how much they drink. |
| Jane: I know and they’ve certainly surpassed my generation. |
| Canaan: Yeah and that’s facilitated by the ease with which one can buy drinks in China. There are no regulations imposed on legal drinking age and there is no license check when you buy and sell alcohol. |
| Jane: 是的。(Shì de.) I suppose even there were, people would just sell it anyway. |
| Canaan: Yeah it’s kind of a shame. I hope that the government or other social organizations will start taking this issue a little more seriously before it gets little too late. |
| Jane: But on the other side, having a couple of drinks at a party is perfectly all right. |
| Canaan: Of course. Today’s lesson, we’ve put together some vocabulary that’s related to the party scene and that will help you enjoy your time in China all the much more. |
| Jane: 那我们看一下吧。(Nà wǒmen kàn yīxià ba.) |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Jane: 热闹 (rènao) |
| Canaan: Lively. |
| Jane: 热闹，热闹。派对 (pàiduì) |
| Canaan: Party. |
| Jane: 派对，派对。饮料 (yǐnliào) |
| Canaan: Drink. |
| Jane: 饮料，饮料。鸡尾酒 (jīwěijiǔ) |
| Canaan: Cocktail. |
| Jane: 鸡尾酒，鸡尾酒。啤酒 (píjiǔ) |
| Canaan: Beer. |
| Jane: 啤酒，啤酒。请柬 (qǐngjiǎn) |
| Canaan: Invitation. |
| Jane: 请柬，请柬。葡萄酒 (pútáojiǔ) |
| Canaan: Wine. |
| Jane: 葡萄酒，葡萄酒。小吃 (xiǎochī) |
| Canaan: Snack. |
| Jane: 小吃，小吃。 |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Canaan: All right. That’s this group of vocabulary words. Let’s find out how to use them. |
| Jane: And the first word is 派对 (pàiduì) |
| Canaan: Party. |
| Jane: 派对。 (pàiduì) |
| Canaan: Now this is actually a cognate from English, right? |
| Jane: 是的。(Shì de.) And I think most Chinese people use the English word party anyway. |
| Canaan: Yeah I only hear the English word party to be quite honest with you. Now if you are invited to 派对 (pàiduì) you usually get a |
| Jane: 请柬 (qǐngjiǎn) |
| Canaan: Invitation letter. |
| Jane: 请柬 (qǐngjiǎn) |
| Canaan: Invitation letter. |
| Jane: 你收到请柬了吗？(Nǐ shōu dào qǐngjiǎn le ma?) |
| Canaan: Did you receive an invitation letter. |
| Jane: 你收到请柬了吗？(Nǐ shōu dào qǐngjiǎnle ma?) |
| Canaan: And once you get to the 派对 (pàiduì) you will usually be offered to have something to drink right? |
| Jane: 饮料 (yǐnliào) |
| Canaan: Drink, as in soft drink. |
| Jane: 饮料 (yǐnliào) |
| Canaan: Soft drink. Now this word is usually limited to soft drinks like coke, ice tea, fruit juice that type of thing. So if you are a party host, you might ask your guests |
| Jane: 要喝饮料吗？(Yào hē yǐnliào ma?) |
| Canaan: Would you like a soft drink. |
| Jane: 要喝饮料吗？(Yào hē yǐnliào ma?) |
| Canaan: And of course, you could put out some alcohol there as well. |
| Jane: 啤酒 (píjiǔ) |
| Canaan: Beer. |
| Jane: 啤酒 (píjiǔ) |
| Canaan: Now the first character 啤 (pí) is actually borrowed over from the English because it sounds like beer and the second character 酒 (jiǔ) is an ancient general term that refers to all kinds of alcohol. |
| Jane: 是的。(Shì de.) And another popular alcoholic drink is 葡萄酒 (pútáojiǔ) |
| Canaan: Wine. |
| Jane: 葡萄酒 (pútáojiǔ) |
| Canaan: Wine. And the first two characters |
| Jane: 葡萄 (pútáo) |
| Canaan: Mean grapes and of course if you want to talk about Red wine, all you have to do is add the color in front of the word |
| Jane: 红葡萄酒 (Hóng pútáojiǔ) |
| Canaan: Yep and for white wines |
| Jane: 白葡萄酒 (Bái pútáojiǔ) |
| Canaan: Exactly. |
| Jane: 这瓶葡萄酒挺好喝的。(Zhè píng pútáojiǔ tǐng hǎo hē de.) |
| Canaan: This is a pretty good bottle of wine. |
| Jane: 这瓶葡萄酒挺好喝的。(Zhè píng pútáojiǔ tǐng hǎo hē de.) |
| Canaan: Now we have another type of alcohol. |
| Jane: 鸡尾酒 (jīwěijiǔ) |
| Canaan: Cocktails. |
| Jane: 鸡尾酒 (jīwěijiǔ) |
| Canaan: An interesting word. The three characters literally mean chicken tail alcohol. |
| Jane: Borrowed from English again. |
| Canaan: Yes again. |
| Jane: 我最喜欢喝鸡尾酒。(Wǒ zuì xǐhuān hē jīwěijiǔ.) |
| Canaan: I like drinking cocktails the best. |
| Jane: 我最喜欢喝鸡尾酒。(Wǒ zuì xǐhuān hē jīwěijiǔ.) |
| Canaan: So in your派对 apart from the 饮料 and the 酒 (jiǔ), you might also want to prepare some |
| Jane: 小吃 (xiǎochī) |
| Canaan: Snacks. |
| Jane: 小吃 (xiǎochī) |
| Canaan: Snacks or snack food, literally means small eat. |
| Jane: 派对上有很多小吃。(Pàiduì shàng yǒu hěnduō xiǎochī.) |
| Canaan: There are a lot of snacks at the party. |
| Jane: 派对上有很多小吃。(Pàiduì shàng yǒu hěnduō xiǎochī.) |
| Canaan: There are a lot of snacks at the party. So after all this preparation, you would all think your guests would enjoy their time there and one word they might use to describe a party that’s really kicking is |
| Jane: 热闹 (rènao) |
| Canaan: Lively |
| Jane: 热闹 (rènao) |
| Canaan: Usually refers to an atmosphere in which there are a lot of people, there is a lot of noise, a lot of stuff going on just like the speaker in our dialogue said |
| Jane: 派对真热闹。(Pàiduì zhēn rènao!) |
| Canaan: The party is so lovely. |
| Jane: 派对真热闹。(Pàiduì zhēn rènao!) |
| Canaan: So I think this has been a vocabulary party so far but it’s not over quite yet. |
| Jane: 是的。(Shì de.) |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Jane: In our grammar section, we will talk about how to give suggestions with the help of a single particle word. |
| Canaan: All right, let’s take a look. |
| Jane: 吧 (ba) |
| Canaan: I think most of our listeners have met this word already if they haven’t formally introduced. Now this word appears at the end of the sentence when the speaker is trying to give suggestions or advice. Let’s take a look at a sentence from our dialogue first. |
| Jane: 来杯葡萄酒吧。(Lái bēi pútáojiǔ ba.) |
| Canaan: How about a glass of wine? |
| Jane: 来杯葡萄酒吧。(Lái bēi pútáojiǔ ba.) |
| Canaan: So this is a suggestion coming from the host to the guest. So in Chinese, there are quite a few sentence patterns that you can use to make suggestions， but adding 吧 (ba) at the end of the sentence is one of the easiest. |
| Jane: 你吃吧。(Nǐ chī ba.) |
| Canaan: Go ahead and eat. |
| Jane: 你吃吧。(Nǐ chī ba.) |
| Canaan: And if you still remember the lesson where we talked about using the word 那 (nà) as a logical beginning to start a suggestion |
| Jane: We’d mentioned that 那 (nà) with 吧 (ba) at the end of the sentence forming a pattern in this case such as 那我们看一下吧。(Nà wǒmen kàn yīxià ba.) |
| Canaan: Let’s take a look then. I believe Jane has said this a few times in the past. |
| Jane: 那我们看一下吧。(Nà wǒmen kàn yīxià ba.) |
| Canaan: Let’s take a look then. Now sometimes 吧 (ba) can also be used in a question sentence but compared to the 吗 (ma) type question sentences where the speaker usually has no idea what the answer is going to be, a question ending in 吧 (ba) shows that the speaker is more or less clear about what the answer will be and is really looking for agreement or confirmation. |
| Jane: For example, 你应该认识他吧。(Nǐ yīnggāi rènshí tā ba.) |
| Canaan: You should know them, don’t you? |
| Jane: 你应该认识他吧。(Nǐ yīnggāi rènshí tā ba.) |
| Canaan: You should know them, don’t you? |
| Jane: 电影院里人挺多的吧。(Diànyǐngyuàn lǐ rén tǐng duō de ba.) |
| Canaan: There are a lot of people in the cinema, right? |
| Jane: 电影院里人挺多的吧。(Diànyǐngyuàn lǐ rén tǐng duō de ba.) |
| Canaan: So here, our speaker is guessing that there are a lot of people in the cinema maybe because it’s Friday or it’s during the holiday or she is standing right in front of the cinema and there is a massive line. |
| Jane: 没错。(Méicuò.) |
| Canaan: All right. We are finally at the end of this series. |
| Jane: Congratulations once again to you and to us as well. |
| Canaan: Yeah. Here in the studio, we are patting ourselves in the back. Anyway, we really hope you’ve enjoyed your lesson so far and thank you very much for listening. |
| Jane: And we are going to take a couple of weeks off and then we will be back for more absolute beginner lessons. |
| Canaan: Or if you want more challenge, you can always check out lessons from the other series but for now |
| Jane: This is Jane. |
| Canaan: And I am Canaan 在北京 (zài běijīng)。 |
| Jane: Take care! 再见 (zàijiàn)。 |
| Canaan: Bye bye. |
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