Learn Christmas-related Chinese vocabulary
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| INTRODUCTION |
| David: Welcome to chineseclass101. I am David. |
| Echo: 嗨，大家好，我是Echo.(Hāi, dàjiā hǎo, wǒ shì Echo.) |
| David: And Echo, we have lesson 50 here. First elementary season 50. |
| Echo: 没错，第五十课。(Méi cuò, dì wǔshí kè.) |
| David: Right. This is the last lesson of the series. Our next lesson will be coming to you in two weeks and that’s going to be the first lesson of season 2. |
| Echo: 对。(Duì.) |
| David: But for now, we’ve got a special lesson for you at a special time of the year. |
| Echo: 圣诞节。(Shèngdàn jié.) |
| David: And we are getting into the holiday spirit. Our dialogue is about what happens when a man invites his girlfriend probably over and she meets the family for the first time. |
| Echo: 没错。(Méi cuò.) |
| David: And something strange is up. We are going to get you to the dialogue in a sec. Before we do, we want to remind you, this is lesson 50. |
| Echo: Right. |
| David: We’ve got 50 transcripts on the site waiting for you, a progressive course in elementary Chinese. |
| Echo: 没错。 (Méi cuò.) |
| David: If you haven’t checked them out, you are missing out. Go get them, print them out, stick them in a binder and you are going to be able to review everything we’ve done for the last half year. |
| Echo: 对。 (Duì.) |
| David: With that though, let’s get on to the dialogue. |
| DIALOGUE |
| A:圣诞快乐！(Shèngdàn kuàilè!) |
| B:圣诞快乐！(Shèngdàn kuàilè!) |
| A:哎，你爸爸是圣诞老人吗？(Ai, nǐ bàba shì shèngdànlǎorén ma?) |
| B:哦，那就是他的工作。(O, nà jiùshì tā de gōngzuò.) |
| A:哦，那他在商店里给孩子们发礼物吗？(O, nà tā zài shāngdiàn lǐ gěi háizimen fā lǐwù ma?) |
| B:不是。(Bù shì.) |
| A:在广场上和孩子们拍照片？(Zài guǎngchǎng shàng hé háizimen pāi zhàopiàn?) |
| B:不是，他在街上给人发广告。(Bù shì, tā zài jiēshang gěi rén fā guǎnggào.) |
| David: One more time, a bit slower. |
| A:圣诞快乐！(Shèngdàn kuàilè!) |
| B:圣诞快乐！(Shèngdàn kuàilè!) |
| A:哎，你爸爸是圣诞老人吗？(Ai, nǐ bàba shì shèngdànlǎorén ma?) |
| B:哦，那就是他的工作。(O, nà jiùshì tā de gōngzuò.) |
| A:哦，那他在商店里给孩子们发礼物吗？(O, nà tā zài shāngdiàn lǐ gěi háizimen fā lǐwù ma?) |
| B:不是。(Bù shì.) |
| A:在广场上和孩子们拍照片？(Zài guǎngchǎng shàng hé háizimen pāi zhàopiàn?) |
| B:不是，他在街上给人发广告。(Bù shì, tā zài jiēshang gěi rén fā guǎnggào.) |
| Echo: 圣诞快乐！(Shèngdàn kuàilè!) |
| David: Merry Christmas! |
| Echo: 圣诞快乐！(Shèngdàn kuàilè!) |
| David: Merry Christmas! |
| Echo: 哎，你爸爸是圣诞老人吗？(Ai, nǐ bàba shì shèngdànlǎorén ma?) |
| David: Ey your father is Santa Claus? |
| Echo: 哦，那就是他的工作。(O, nà jiùshì tā de gōngzuò.) |
| David: Oh that’s just his job. |
| Echo: 哦，那他在商店里给孩子们发礼物吗？(O, nà tā zài shāngdiàn lǐ gěi háizimen fā lǐwù ma?) |
| David: Oh so he gives children presents in shopping malls. |
| Echo: 不是。(Bù shì.) |
| David: No. |
| Echo: 在广场上和孩子们拍照片？(Zài guǎngchǎng shàng hé háizimen pāi zhàopiàn?) |
| David: He takes photos with kids in public squares. |
| Echo: 不是，他在街上给人发广告。(Bù shì, tā zài jiēshang gěi rén fā guǎnggào.) |
| David: No he hands out fliers on the street. Poor Christmas! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| David: I like that first one though. Your father is Santa Claus? High expectations crushed unfortunately. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| David: Anyway, we’ve got a lot of seasonal vocab here and we’d stuck it on to one big festive Merry Christmas word list. So Echo, why don’t you get us started on that? |
| Echo: Okay. |
| David: And now the vocab section. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Echo: 圣诞快乐! (Shèngdàn kuàilè!) |
| David: Merry Christmas! |
| Echo: 新年快乐！ (Xīnnián kuàilè!) |
| David: Happy New Year. |
| Echo: 圣诞老人 (Shèngdàn Lǎorén) |
| David: Santa Claus. |
| Echo: 圣诞树 (Shèngdànshù) |
| David: Christmas tree. |
| Echo: 圣诞礼物 (Shèngdàn lǐwù) |
| David: Christmas present. |
| Echo: 圣诞节 (Shèngdàn Jié) |
| David: Christmas holiday. |
| Echo: 圣诞夜 (Shèngdànyè) |
| David: Christmas Eve. |
| Echo: 除夕 (Chúxī) |
| David: Chinese New Year’s Eve. |
| Echo: 除夕 (Chúxī) |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| David: Okay. One word in there you guys heard an awful lot is the word for Christmas. |
| Echo: 圣诞节。(Shèngdàn Jié) |
| David: And in shortened form, we see this as |
| Echo: 圣诞。(Shèngdàn.) |
| David: Right as in Merry Christmas. |
| Echo: 圣诞快乐。(Shèngdàn kuàilè.) |
| David: Or Santa Claus. |
| Echo: 圣诞老人。(Shèngdàn Lǎorén) |
| David: Which Echo, I’ve got to say is an absolutely wonderful way of phrasing it. |
| Echo: Why? |
| David: What’s the literal translation? It’s 圣诞 (Shèngdàn) which would be kind of like the holy birth. All of the words we gave you, a lot of them were Christmas words. So really easy to put together, Christmas tree. |
| Echo: 圣诞树(Shèngdànshù)。 |
| David: Is literally holy birth tree, Christmas present. |
| Echo: 圣诞礼物 (Shèngdàn lǐwù)。 |
| David: Is literally holy birth present or Christmas present. |
| Echo: 没错(Méi cuò)。 |
| David: We did tuck on something tricky at the end though. What was that word? It was out of place. |
| Echo: 除夕(Chúxì)。 |
| David: Right. A lot of people when they are translating will get this wrong. It’s supposed to be New Year’s. It’s Chinese New Year’s; it’s not the western New Year’s. It’s for the New Year calendar. |
| Echo: Yeah and also it’s New Year’s Eve. |
| David: Yeah okay. We have two additional words we wanted to give you. The first is going to be useful. If you are at a family gathering and you need to give a present |
| Echo: 发礼物(fālǐwù)。 |
| David: Right. That’s to give out presents. |
| Echo: 发礼物(fālǐwù)。 |
| David: Notice the verb there is |
| Echo: 发(Fā)。 |
| David: It’s not to give or so it’s 送(Sòng)。 |
| Echo: Right. |
| David: Okay and the second of course is to give out advertisements. |
| Echo: 发广告(Fā guǎnggào)。 |
| David: Which you guys should understand intuitively by now. Okay, so that’s our vocab section. We held on to something really good for our 50th lesson. So it’s going to be our Christmas gift to you guys. |
| Echo: Right 我们的圣诞礼物(Wǒmen de shèngdàn lǐwù)。 |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| David: It’s grammar time. You know, one of the things that strikes me about this dialogue. We’ve got a lot of long sentences. |
| Echo: Right longer sentences. |
| David: It just goes on and on. |
| Echo: And also a lot of people made mistakes here. |
| David: Yes a ton of people will make mistakes here. One of the things, one of the principles of our elementary lesson is to keep the sentences shorter. Now as we get up to the tail end of it though, you can kind of see more of the way people are going to speak naturally. |
| Echo: Right. |
| David: Longer sentences filled with lots of small pauses. |
| Echo: Right and especially the words order or the phrases order. |
| David: Yeah. What we see here is we see really sophisticated use of prepositional clauses. If you remember from our earlier lessons, we told you that prepositions in English go after the main verb. I ate with him. |
| Echo: Right. |
| David: I gave it to her but in Chinese. |
| Echo: It’s opposite. |
| David: Yeah we put them before the verb. So we ate together is |
| Echo: 我和他吃饭 (Wǒ hé tā chīfàn)。 |
| David: Right. I work in Beijing is |
| Echo: 我在北京工作 (Wǒ zài běijīng gōngzuò)。 |
| David: Right. What we see in this lesson is we see what happens when you have multiple prepositions. |
| Echo: Right. |
| David: Okay. We’ve got two sentences in the dialogue that are particularly stunning. Echo. |
| Echo: 他在商店里给孩子们发礼物吗？(Tā zài shāngdiàn lǐ gěi háizimen fā lǐwù ma?) |
| David: So our verb here is to give presents. |
| Echo: 发礼物(Fā lǐwù)。 |
| David: And we’ve got two prepositional constructs and the first is in a shopping mall. |
| Echo: 在商店里(Zài shāngdiàn lǐ)。 |
| David: And the second is, to give to children. |
| Echo: 给孩子们(Gěi háizimen)。 |
| David: The second example in our dialogue is slightly different. |
| Echo: 他在街上给人发广告。(Tā zài jiē shàng jǐ rén fà guǎnggào.) |
| David: He gives people ads on the street. Let’s listen to that one more time. |
| Echo: 他在街上给人发广告。(Tā zài jiē shàng jǐ rén fà guǎnggào.) |
| David: And what’s our main grammar point here Echo? |
| Echo: It’s two prepositions. |
| David: Yes but it’s the word order of those prepositions. |
| Echo: Yes. |
| David: It’s when you are talking about the place and the location, you are going to put that first. |
| Echo: Right usually. |
| David: Okay. So that’s the best way of doing it. You say the location and then you add on the other stuff. Let’s hear those two again. Pay attention to this. |
| Echo: 他在商店里给还孩子们发礼物吗？(Tā zài shāngdiàn lǐ gěi hái háizimen fā lǐwù ma?) |
| David: So he gives children presents in shopping malls. |
| Echo: 他在街上给人发广告。(Tā zài jiē shàng jǐ rén fà guǎnggào.) |
| David: He hands out fliers on the street. Let’s hear some more examples of this. |
| Echo: 我在中国给他买圣诞礼物。(Wǒ zài zhōngguó gěi tā mǎi shèngdàn lǐwù.) |
| David: I bought him a Christmas present in China. |
| Echo: 老师在网上给我上课。(Lǎoshī zài wǎngshàng gěi wǒ shàngkè.) |
| David: The teacher gave me a class on the internet. Okay so the place whether that’s in China. |
| Echo: 在中国。(Zài zhōngguó.) |
| David: Or whether that’s on the internet. |
| Echo: 在网上。(Zài wǎngshàng.) |
| David: Comes at the head of our sentence. |
| Echo: 没错。(Méi cuò.) |
| David: Right after the subject. Okay so it’s a pretty simple grammar point when you are aware of it. Most people aren’t. They just – a lot of people will just get confused and most textbooks don’t actually cover this kind of thing. They are just happy if you can use one but you guys are better. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| David: So we are giving this to you. Before we leave though, there is one exception to this. |
| Echo: Right. |
| David: Or two exceptions. Echo, what are they? |
| Echo: When there is 和 (Hé) or 跟 (Gēn) in the sentence |
| David: Right and that’s the preposition we use to say you are doing something with someone. Let’s hear those two again. |
| Echo: 和(Hé)，跟 (Gēn)。 |
| David: And in this case, you can play around with the order and do whatever you want. Okay so let’s hear some examples of this. Echo? |
| Echo: 他在广场上和孩子们拍照片。(Tā zài guǎngchǎng shàng hé háizimen pāi zhàopiàn.) |
| David: That was in our dialogue and that’s, he is taking photos with children in the square. That can also be |
| Echo: 他和孩子们在广场上拍照片。(Tā hé háizimen zài guǎngchǎng shàng pāi zhàopiàn.) |
| David: Right. So the order of the prepositional phrases can be anything because we are using with. |
| Echo: But no matter how, you have to put the preposition before the verb. |
| David: Right of course. We’ve got another example. Let’s get right to it too. |
| Echo: 他在美国和家人过圣诞节。(Tā zài měiguó hé jiārénguò shèngdàn jié.) |
| David: He passed Christmas with his family in the States and we have the place 在 before 和 in that sentence. We could reverse that. |
| Echo: 他和家人在美国过圣诞节。(Tā hé jiārén zài měiguóguò shèngdàn jié.) |
| David: Right. So a relatively simple grammar point when you realize it, it’s one that most people actually just don’t remember or are never taught. So word order, sometimes there are rules about what you are going to want to do. |
| Echo: 没错。(Méi cuò.) |
Outro |
| David: Okay and with that, that’s the end of lesson 50. It’s the end of our series. |
| Echo: Right. |
| David: We hope that you guys have enjoyed it. We hope that if you have any questions or comments, you will come to chineseclass101.com |
| Echo: And write to us or leave us a comment on the site. |
| David: Right. We love to hear from you and your feedback goes right into the lessons that we are making for next year. So we will see you in January with the start of season 2. |
| Echo: Right 圣诞快乐。(Shèngdàn kuàilè.) |
| David: Right and after that, season 3, season 4 but for now, as Echo says, Merry Christmas. |
| Echo: And 新年快乐。(Xīnnián kuàilè.) |
| David: And happy New Year. From Beijing, I am David. |
| Echo: 我是Echo.(Wǒ shì Echo.) |
| David: Thanks for listening and we will see you in the New Year. |
| Echo: Yeah see you next year. |
| David: Bye. |
| Echo: Bye bye. |
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