Learn another use of the character 才
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| INTRODUCTION |
| David: Welcome to chineseclass101.com. I am David. |
| Echo: Hi, 大家好(Dàjiā hǎo), 我是(Wǒ shì)Echo。 |
| David: And we are here with lower beginner, season 1, Lesson 10. |
| Echo: Getting Excited About Your Birthday in China. |
| David: Right. Echo’s birthday comes once a year and so once a year, we have a birthday lesson. |
| Echo: Well although it’s not about my birthday this time. |
| David: Yeah. It’s set in November. The dialogue is November. So it’s not Echo’s birthday. |
| Echo: Yes David’s birthday. |
| David: We’ve got a dialogue between two friends right and they are talking about one of their birthdays. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| David: Casual Mandarin as always. Let’s get to this show. |
| DIALOGUE |
| A:我快过生日了。(Wǒ kuài guò shēngrì le.) |
| B: 什么时候？(Shénme shíhòu ?) |
| A:11月5号。(Shíyī yuè wǔ hào .) |
| B: 哦，知道了。(O, zhīdao le .) |
| A:没有别的了？(Méiyǒu biéde le ?) |
| B: 别的什么？(Biéde shénme ?) |
| A:什么时候送我礼物？(Shénme shíhòu sòng wǒ lǐwù ?) |
| B: 礼物？现在才2月!(Lǐwù ? Xiànzài cái èr yuè !) |
| David: Once more a bit slower. |
| A:我快过生日了。(Wǒ kuài guò shēngrì le.) |
| B: 什么时候？(Shénme shíhòu ?) |
| A:11月5号。(Shíyī yuè wǔ hào .) |
| B: 哦，知道了。(O, zhīdao le .) |
| A:没有别的了？(Méiyǒu biéde le ?) |
| B: 别的什么？(Biéde shénme ?) |
| A:什么时候送我礼物？(Shénme shíhòu sòng wǒ lǐwù ?) |
| B: 礼物？现在才2月!(Lǐwù ? Xiànzài cái èr yuè !) |
| David: And now with an English translation. |
| Echo: 我快过生日了。(Wǒ kuài guò shēngrì le.) |
| David: It’s going to be my birthday soon. |
| Echo: 什么时候？(Shénme shíhòu ?) |
| David: When is it? |
| Echo: 11月5号。(Shíyī yuè wǔ hào .) |
| David: November 5th. |
| Echo: 哦，知道了。(O, zhīdao le .) |
| David: Oh okay. |
| Echo: 没有别的了？(Méiyǒu biéde le ?) |
| David: That’s it. |
| Echo: 别的什么？(Biéde shénme ?) |
| David: What do you mean? |
| Echo: 什么时候送我礼物？(Shénme shíhòu sòng wǒ lǐwù ?) |
| David: When will you give me a birthday present? |
| Echo: 礼物？现在才2月!(Lǐwù ? Xiànzài cái èr yuè !) |
| David: Present? It’s only February. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| David: Echo gets very excited about her birthday even though this is not Echo’s birthday. Send your greetings early. Anyway, our vocab today Echo, what’s it about? |
| Echo: It’s about birthday. |
| David: Okay. Let’s get to the vocab section. |
| Echo: Okay. 快。(kuài.) |
| VOCAB LIST |
| David: Soon. |
| Echo: 快, 快, 过生日。(kuài, kuài, guò shēngrì.) |
| David: To have a birthday. |
| Echo: 过生日, 过生日, 时候。(guò shēngrì, guò shēngrì, shíhòu.) |
| David: Time. |
| Echo: 时候, 时候, 别的。(shíhòu, shíhòu, biéde.) |
| David: Something else. |
| Echo: 别的, 别的, 送。(biéde, biéde, sòng.) |
| David: To give. |
| Echo: 送, 送, 礼物。(sòng, sòng, lǐwù.) |
| David: Present. |
| Echo: 礼物, 礼物, 现在。(lǐwù, lǐwù, xiànzài.) |
| David: Right now. |
| Echo: 现在, 现在, 才。(xiànzài, xiànzài, cái.) |
| David: Only now. |
| Echo: 才, 才。(cái, cái.) |
| David: I think the most counterintuitive thing. |
| Echo: 过生日。(guò shēngrì.) |
| David: No that’s easy. |
| Echo: Come on! |
| David: Okay well maybe… |
| Echo: It’s always good about having birthday. |
| David: The verb there is a bit tricky. |
| Echo: 过。(guò.) |
| David: To pass. |
| Echo: 过。(guò.) |
| David: Right. This is the same 过(guò) that we know. You know it literally means to go past something. |
| Echo: Yeah like 过年。(Guònián.) |
| David: Yeah to pass the New Year. |
| Echo: Or 过节。(Guòjié.) |
| David: That’s any holiday. Right, you can stick any holiday after this. |
| Echo: Yeah like 过圣诞节。(Guò shèngdàn jié.) |
| David: To spend Christmas. So Chinese New Year’s you could ask someone how are you spending Chinese New Year’s. |
| Echo: 你怎么过春节?(Nǐ zěnmeguò chūnjié?) |
| David: Or how are you spending Valentine’s Day. |
| Echo: 你怎么过情人节?(Nǐ zěnmeguò qíngrén jié?) |
| David: Right. So this is the verb to pass. |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Echo: 过。(guò.) |
| David: Now another thing that confuses people is this to give. |
| Echo: 送。(sòng.) |
| David: To give. |
| Echo: 送。(sòng.) |
| David: And in this situation, it’s almost exactly the same as |
| Echo: 给。(Gěi.) |
| David: In fact, I go so far to say, it is exactly the same. |
| Echo: Yeah in this situation, yeah. |
| David: Yeah because it means to give someone the present. |
| Echo: Yes exactly. You can say 给你礼物(Gěi nǐ lǐwù) or 送你礼物.(Sòng nǐ lǐwù.) |
| David: So why do people say 送.(sòng.) |
| Echo: Well 送(sòng) sounds more polite and it sounds more like I give it to you for free and as a gift. |
| David: Yeah it sounds like more of a big deal. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| David: It makes the…. |
| Echo: Meanwhile you can say that. |
| David: The person who is giving it to you, it’s a bigger deal for them. |
| Echo: Yeah well. |
| David: Right and here is a really useful thing most textbooks don’t cover. When someone comes over to your house or your company and you leave or they leave, you know how everyone is walking you to the door. |
| Echo: Yeah 不送(Bù sòng), 不送(Bù sòng) you can say that. |
| David: Yes. You can say, don’t send, don’t send. It means you don’t need to show me to the door. I can take care of myself. |
| Echo: Yeah. Or you can say, 别送了。(Bié sòngle.) |
| David: Yeah you don’t need to send me off. |
| Echo: Yeah but you do need to send them off, yeah. In China, it’s very important…. |
| David: Yeah even if you say that, Chinese people will still send you off but if you insist, you can’t leave without the resistance. They may not walk you downstairs anyway. |
| Echo: They won’t. |
| David: Anyway moving on, one more word that we wanted to highlight. |
| Echo: 别的。(Bié de.) |
| David: Something else. |
| Echo: 别的, 你还有别的吗?(Bié de, nǐ hái yǒu bié de ma?) |
| David: Do you want something else. |
| Echo: 你还有别的吗?(Nǐ hái yǒu bié de ma?) |
| David: Right. Do you want something else and if someone asks you that, you can say, well what else do you have? |
| Echo: 还有什么? 你还有别的吗? (Hái yǒu shé me? Nǐ hái yǒu bié de ma?) |
| David: Do you have anything else? |
| Echo: 你还有别的吗? (Nǐ hái yǒu bié de ma?) |
| David: Yeah. This is really colloquial. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| David: So you are going to run into this all the time. For now though, that’s the key vocab we wanted to highlight. Our grammar point, we are going to continue to talk about something. |
| Echo: Unexpectedly. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| David: It’s grammar time. This is a bit unexpected. |
| Echo: Yeah because we just taught you last time. |
| David: Yeah we want to continue to talk about 才(Cái) with a usage that doesn’t make any sense Echo. It doesn’t make any sense. |
| Echo: Yeah but it does exist. |
| David: In our last lesson, we talked about how 才(Cái) is used to communicate the idea that something is happening late. For instance |
| Echo: 你怎么现在才来?(Nǐ zěnme xiànzài cái lái?) |
| David: Why are you showing up now? |
| Echo: Too late. |
| David: Yes. |
| Echo: 你怎么现在才来?(Nǐ zěnme xiànzài cái lái?) |
| David: Or |
| Echo: 他们十点才上班。(Tāmen shí diǎn cái shàngbān.) |
| David: They got to work as late as 10 o’ clock. |
| Echo: 他们十点才上班。(Tāmen shí diǎn cái shàngbān.) |
| David: In our last lesson, we taught you this can also mean unexpectedly or surprisingly to the listener. |
| Echo: That’s right. |
| David: Right. |
| Echo: Like 黑咖啡才香呢!(Hēi kāfēi cái xiāng ne!) |
| David: Yeah they don’t think so but you are insisting on it. You may not believe me but black coffee, that’s what’s fragrant. |
| Echo: Right. 黑咖啡才香呢!(Hēi kāfēi cái xiāng ne!) |
| David: In this lesson, something new and unexpected happens too. |
| Echo: 现在才2月!(Xiànzài cái 2 yuè!) |
| David: Let’s hear that again. |
| Echo: 现在才2月!(Xiànzài cái 2 yuè!) |
| David: What’s going on? |
| Echo: What do you think of me? |
| David: He is saying, now it’s only February. |
| Echo: That’s right. |
| David: Right so it’s much sooner than we are expecting. This is the opposite of what we taught you and it’s a very special usage. |
| Echo: That’s right. |
| David: We only run into this when we have a time immediately after 才(Cái) |
| Echo: 才…(Cái...) |
| David: Right? |
| Echo: That’s right. |
| David: So it’s not coming in front of a verb, it’s coming in front of a time. Echo, we’ve got some examples for people. |
| Echo: Yeah 现在才六点, 你再睡一会。(Xiànzài cái liù diǎn, nǐ zài shuì yī huǐ.) |
| David: It’s only 6 o’ clock, sleep for a little bit more. |
| Echo: 现在才六点, 你再睡一会。(Xiànzài cái liù diǎn, nǐ zài shuì yī huǐ.) |
| David: It’s only 6 o’ clock; you can sleep a little longer. |
| Echo: 我们来得太早了, 才七点。(Wǒmen láidé tài zǎole, cái qī diǎn.) |
| David: We showed up too early, it’s only 7 o’ clock. |
| Echo: 我们来得太早了, 才七点。(Wǒmen láidé tài zǎole, cái qī diǎn.) |
| David: We showed up too early, it’s only 7. |
| Echo: 今天才星期一, 离周末还有很久。(Jīntiān cái xīngqí yī, lí zhōumò hái yǒu hěnjiǔ.) |
| David: It’s only Monday, it’s so far from the weekend. |
| Echo: 今天才星期一, 离周末还有很久。(Jīntiān cái xīngqí yī, lí zhōumò hái yǒu hěnjiǔ.) |
| David: Today is only Monday; we’ve got a long way to go until the weekend. So this is counterintuitive. The thing to notice is that we are not putting this in front of a verb. |
| Echo: No. |
| David: It’s coming in front of a noun. |
| Echo: Right. |
| David: Right. And that noun is a time phrase. |
| Echo: That’s right and be careful. Sometimes when the time moves in front of 才(Cái) it means too late. |
| David: Yes it’s tricky when the time jumps around. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| David: But that’s why this is lower beginner and not absolute beginner for you guys. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| David: So yeah so remember, there is this extra meaning of 才(Cái) which it can trick you if you are not alert to it sometimes. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
Outro |
| David: Okay for now though, that’s all the time we have today. |
| Echo: And before we go, David has something to say. |
| David: Yes. I want to remind you, we have a voice recording tool in the premium learning center. You can record your voice, you can play it back. |
| Echo: It’s very, very useful. |
| David: It’s a really useful way to make sure you are getting the tones right. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| David: Right because what you are hearing in your head may not be what everyone else is hearing. Okay, with that though, we are done. From Beijing, I am David. |
| Echo: 我是(Wǒ shì) Echo。 |
| David: Thanks for listening and let us know what you think in the comments. |
| Echo: Okay see you online. |
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