Learn how to say hello on the telephone and ask to speak to someone
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Frank: Hey, everyone! |
| Echo: Da jia hao! |
| Frank: Welcome back to ChineseClass101.com, Season 1, Lesson 21. |
| Echo: 二十一课。(Èrshíyī kè.) |
| Frank: In our Beginner series. I’m your host, Frank Fradella, and I’m joined in the studio as always by my lovely co-host, Echo. |
| Echo: 大家好(Dàjiā hǎo)，我是(Wǒ shì)Echo. Today’s dialogue is between Zhang Fei and Li Fang, which is Ma Li’s friend. |
| Frank: They’re talking on the phone. Let’s get on to the dialogue. |
| Echo: But before we do… |
| Frank: But before we do, we want to remind you to head up to ChineseClass101.com and check out that voice recording tool. |
| Echo: Yes. |
| Frank: Practice those tones. Get them right because honestly you can’t point at stuff when you’re on the phone. Let’s get on to the dialogue now. |
Lesson conversation |
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| 张飞:喂，马丽在吗？(ZHĀNG FĒI: Wéi, Mǎ Lì zài ma?) |
| 李芳:喂？ 听不见。喂？(LǏ FĀNG: Wéi? Tīngbújiàn. Wèi?) |
| 张飞:我说，马丽在吗？(ZHĀNG FĒI: Wǒ shuō, Mǎ Lì zài ma?) |
| 李芳:哦，她在，请稍等。(LǏ FĀNG: O, tā zài, qǐng shāoděng.) |
| Frank: One more time, just a bit slower. |
| 张飞:喂，马丽在吗？(ZHĀNG FĒI: Wéi, Mǎ Lì zài ma?) |
| 李芳:喂？ 听不见。喂？(LǏ FĀNG: Wéi? Tīngbújiàn. Wèi?) |
| 张飞:我说，马丽在吗？(ZHĀNG FĒI: Wǒ shuō, Mǎ Lì zài ma?) |
| 李芳:哦，她在，请稍等。(LǏ FĀNG: O, tā zài, qǐng shāoděng.) |
| Frank: All right. Echo, I think Zhang Fei is really trying to patch things up here. |
| Echo: Maybe. |
| Frank: Do you think he’s being suitably apologetic after his behavior the other night or… |
| Echo: I don’t know. I still don’t like him. |
| Frank: I know. |
| Echo: As always. |
| Frank: Let’s do this line-by-line. |
| 张飞:喂，马丽在吗？(ZHĀNG FĒI: Wéi, Mǎ Lì zài ma?) |
| Frank: Hello, is Ma Li there? |
| 李芳:喂？ 听不见。喂？(LǏ FĀNG: Wéi? Tīngbújiàn. Wèi?) |
| Frank: Hello? I can't hear you. Hello? |
| 张飞:我说，马丽在吗？(ZHĀNG FĒI: Wǒ shuō, Mǎ Lì zài ma?) |
| Frank: I said, is Ma Li there? |
| 李芳:哦，她在，请稍等。(LǏ FĀNG: O, tā zài, qǐng shāoděng.) |
| Frank: Oh, she's here. Wait just a minute. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Frank: Okay. Now this is our first lesson the phone so there’s a lot of great vocab you can use when you want to give someone a telephone call, or when someone wants to give you a telephone call. |
| Echo: Exactly. |
| Frank: Let’s go ahead and go through the vocab now. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Male: Now the vocab section. |
| Echo: 喂(wéi)[natural native speed] |
| Frank: Hello. |
| Echo: 喂 (wéi) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 喂(wéi) [natural native speed]. |
| Echo: 听不见(tīngbùjiàn) [natural native speed]. |
| Frank: Didn’t hear. |
| Echo: 听不见(tīngbùjiàn) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 听不见(tīngbùjiàn) [natural native speed]. |
| Echo: 说(shuō) |
| Frank: To speak. |
| Echo: 说(shuō) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 说(shuō) [natural native speed].。 |
| Echo: 稍等(shāoděng) [natural native speed]. |
| Frank: To wait a moment. |
| Echo: 稍等(shāoděng) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 稍等(shāoděng) [natural native speed]. |
| KEY VOCABULARY AND PHRASES |
| Frank: Just a second ago on the vocab, we told you that the word for “hello” on the phone. |
| Echo: 喂(wéi) |
| Frank: If you’re listening very closely and you’re paying attention to tones, it sounds like second tone. |
| Echo: Yes. |
| Frank: However, if you check a dictionary… |
| Echo: 喂(wéi) |
| Frank: Fourth tone. |
| Echo: Some people would say 喂(wéi) fourth tone in China, but they are okay. |
| Frank: Oh. Good point. What’s something else you might answer the phone with? |
| Echo: 是谁(shì shéi) [natural native speed]. |
| Frank: “Who is it?” So now you know how to say hello on the phone. |
| Echo: 喂(wéi)，是谁？(shì shéi?) |
| Frank: But there’s a lot of other phone-related vocabulary that you’re going to need, so let’s give it to you now. Let’s start with the word for “telephone”. |
| Echo: 電話(diànhuà) [natural native speed]. |
| Frank: This specifically refers to a fixed line telephone. The mobile phone would be… |
| Echo: 手機(shǒujī) [natural native speed]. |
| Frank: Most mobile phones in China are re-chargeable. So you actually have to buy a card to recharge the minutes. |
| Echo: Right. |
| Frank: What’s the name of that? |
| Echo: 充值卡(chōngzhíkǎ) [natural native speed]. |
| Frank: That’s the word you’d use for the re-chargeable card with the minutes on it. |
| Echo: Right, 充值卡(chōngzhíkǎ) [natural native speed]. |
| Frank: You can buy these rechargeable minute cards at any convenient store. They usually come in denominations of 50 or 100. |
| Echo: Right. |
| Frank: What’s the word for phone number? |
| Echo: 电话号码(diànhuà hàomǎ) [natural native speed]. |
| Frank: So if you meet a beautiful girl, you can say, “give me your phone number”. |
| Echo: 美女(Měinǚ)，给我你的电话吧。(Gěi wǒ nǐ de diànhuà ba.) |
| Frank: Now, in the States, it’d be a little rude to just say, “Give me your phone number”. But what makes this a little softer? |
| Echo: 吧(Ba)，美女(Měinǚ)，给我你的电话号码吧。(Gěi wǒ nǐ de diànhuà hàomǎ ba.) |
| Frank: That particle at the end actually softens the phrase to make it less rude. |
| Echo: Right. |
| Frank: What’s the word for text message or SMS message? |
| Echo: 短信(duǎnxìn) [natural native speed]. |
| Frank: Awesome. In today’s dialogue, we heard someone say they couldn’t hear. |
| Echo: 听不见。(Tīng bùjiàn.) |
| Frank: Now if they didn’t understand, it would sound like this: |
| Echo: 听不懂(tīngbùdǒng) [natural native speed]. |
| Frank: If the signal was just lousy and they couldn’t hear clearly, they would say… |
| Echo: 听不清楚(tīngbùqīngchu) [natural native speed]. |
| Frank: Last vocab word for the day was, “please wait a moment”. |
| Echo: 喂(wéi) [natural native speed]. |
| Frank: That’s it. Now that we’re done with the vocab, we’re going to head on to the grammar section. |
| Echo: Yes, my favorite part. |
Lesson focus |
| Male: It’s grammar time. |
| Frank: Today is actually a review lesson for us. |
| Echo: Yeah. Right. |
| Frank: You guys are doing so great. We’re moving ahead really quickly on this stuff. So this podcast, we’re going to focus on reviewing some of the grammar we learned in previous lessons. |
| Echo: Yes. |
| Frank: Our focus for this review is question words, “what?” |
| Echo: 什么(shénme) |
| Frank: Who? |
| Echo: 谁(shéi) |
| Frank: Why? |
| Echo: 为什么(wèishénme) |
| Frank: As in, “who is it?” |
| Echo: 是谁(shì shéi) |
| Frank: What did he say? |
| Echo: 他说什么？(Tā shuō shénme?) |
| Frank: Why is he calling me? |
| Echo: 他为什么给我打电话？(Tā wèishéme gěi wǒ dǎ diànhuà?) |
| Frank: Now remember, “why”… |
| Echo: 为什么(wèishénme) |
| Frank: …goes right after the subject, as in “why weren’t you there?” |
| Echo: 你为什么不在？(Nǐ wèishéme bùzài?) |
| Frank: The other question words, “what”… |
| Echo: 什么(Shénme) |
| Frank: …and “who”… |
| Echo: 谁(Shéi) |
| Frank: …follow the verb, as in “Who are you? You’re so handsome.” |
| Echo: 你是谁？你很帅。(Nǐ shì shéi? Nǐ hěn shuài.) |
| Frank: What is this? |
| Echo: 这是谁？(Zhè shì shéi?) |
| Frank: Okay. We’re going to play a little game with you right now. Game time. I’m going to say a sentence in English. I’m going to give you a second to see if you guys can get it on your own, and then Echo is going to come in with the translation. |
| Echo: Okay. |
| Frank: Let’s do this. “What is your phone number?” |
| Echo: 你的电话号码是多少？(Nǐ de diànhuà hàomǎ shì duōshǎo?) |
| Frank: Oh, trick question. This is crazy but true. In Chinese, people actually say “how much is your phone number?” |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| Frank: They don’t want to buy it from you, they just want to be able to call you. |
| Echo: 你的电话号码是多少？(Nǐ de diànhuà hàomǎ shì duōshǎo?) |
| Frank: That’s our fourth question word for review. |
| Echo: 多少？(Duōshǎo?) |
| Frank: Which means “how much” or “how many”. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| Frank: Let’s have two examples of this. “How much is this?” |
| Echo: 这个多少钱？(Zhège duōshǎo qián?) |
| Frank: What’s your phone number? |
| Echo: 你的电话号码是多少？(Nǐ de diànhuà hàomǎ shì duōshǎo?) |
| Frank: Okay, this was a great review lesson. Listen, guys, we know we’re moving really fast. You’ve acquired a lot of new vocabulary over the last 21 lessons. There’s no better way to review that vocabulary than to become a premium subscriber up at ChineseClass101. All the tests and quizzes are there for you; the PDF transcripts, all bunch of great tools. The voice recording tool will be yours, too. |
| Echo: Right. |
| Frank: But for right now, we’ve got to get going. So from Beijing, I’m Frank Fradella… |
| Echo: 我是(Wǒ shì) Echo. |
| Frank: …and we’ll see you next time. 再见。(Zàijiàn.) |
| Echo: 下次见。(Xià cì jiàn.) |
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