INTRODUCTION |
David: Welcome to chineseclass101.com. I am David. |
Echo: Hi, 大家好, 我是 (Dàjiā hǎo, wǒ shì) Echo. |
David: And we are here today with upper intermediate, season 1, Lesson 18. A Tough Chinese Choice. |
Echo: 唔,很难的算择。(Wú, hěn nán de suàn zé.) |
David: Yeah. I hope I am never in this situation. Echo, what happens in our dialogue today? |
Echo: Ah, 今天的对话呢 是发生在一间办公室里, 两个同事在聊天。 (Jīntiān de duìhuà ne shì fāshēng zài yī jiàn bàngōngshì lǐ, liǎng gè tóngshì zài liáotiān.) |
David: Yes and they are talking about home life. |
Echo: 唔,对,就一些家务事。 (Wú, duì, jiù yīxiē jiāwù shì.) |
David: Yes. So this is casual Mandarin as always. Let’s go to the dialogue. |
Echo: 好! (Hǎo!) |
DIALOGUE |
A 怎么啦?愁眉苦脸的。 (A Zěnme la? Chóuméikǔliǎn de.) |
B 哎,还不是我妈和我媳妇。 (B āi, hái bù shì wǒmā hé wǒ xífu.) |
A 又吵架了? (A Yòu chǎo jià le ?) |
B 天天吵,我都快受不了了。 (B Tiāntiān chǎo, wǒ dōu kuài shòu buliǎo le.) |
A 究竟是为什么呀? (A Jiūjìng shì wèishénme ya?) |
B 一些鸡毛蒜皮的小事。就是互相看着不顺眼呗。 (B Yīxiē jīmáosuànpí de xiǎoshì. Jiùshì hùxiāng kànzhe bùshùnyǎn bei.) |
A 干脆别跟你妈住一块儿了,搬出去得了。 (A Gāncuì bié gēn nǐmā zhù yīkuàier le, bānchūqù dé le.) |
B 可谁给我们做饭呀? (B Kě shéi gěi wǒmen zuòfàn yāa) |
A 那就跟你媳妇离,省得她老和你妈吵。 (A Nà jiù gēn nǐ xífu lí, shěng de tā lǎo hé nǐmā chǎo.) |
B 那谁给我生儿子呀? (B Nà Shéigěi wǒ shēng érzi ya?) |
A: What's wrong? You look so sad. |
B: Well, it's my mother and wife again. |
A: They are fighting again? |
B: They fight everyday! I can't take it anymore. |
A: So why are they fighting anyway? |
B: Just some worthless stuff. It's just that they can't get along. |
A: Why don't you stop sharing a house with your mother and move out. |
B: But who will cook for us? |
A: Then divorce your wife and save this quarreling with your mother. |
B: Then who will give me a son? |
POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
David: This is a really Chinese dialogue. |
Echo: 对,我们中文有一句话说叫, “清官难断家务事”, 就是再厉害的大官, 也没法判断这个家里的这个事, 谁对谁错。 (Duì, wǒmen zhōngwén yǒu yījù huàshuō jiào, “qīngguān nán duàn jiāwù shì”, jiùshì zài lìhài de dà guān, yě méi fǎ pànduàn zhège jiālǐ de zhège shì, shéi duì shéi cuò.) |
David: Yeah. Anyway, I hope I am never in this situation. Our vocab today is about – it’s about trouble, it’s about frustrations and arguments and fights and stuff. So let’s get right to it. |
VOCAB LIST |
Echo: 愁眉苦脸。 (chóuméikǔliǎn.) |
David: Sad and distressed. |
Echo: 愁 眉 苦 脸, 愁眉苦脸, 吵架。 (chóu méi kǔ liǎn, chóuméikǔliǎn, chǎojià.) |
David: To quarrel. |
Echo: 吵 架, 吵架, 不顺眼。 (chǎo jià, chǎojià, bùshùnyǎn.) |
David: Not to one’s taste. |
Echo: 不 顺 眼, 不顺眼, 互相。 (bù shùn yǎn, bùshùnyǎn, hùxiāng. ) |
David: Each other. |
Echo: 互 相, 互相, 干脆。 (hù xiāng, hùxiāng, gāncuì.) |
David: Let it be clear cut. |
Echo: 干 脆, 干脆, 省的。 (gān cuì,gāncuì, shěng de.) |
David: To save trouble. |
Echo: 省 的, 省的, 孝顺。 (shěng de, shěng de, xiàoshùn.) |
David: Filial . |
Echo: 孝 顺, 孝顺, 鸡毛蒜皮。 (xiào shùn, xiàoshùn, jīmáo suànpí.) |
David: Trivial matters. |
Echo: 鸡 毛 蒜 皮, 鸡毛蒜皮。 (jī máo suàn pí, jīmáo suànpí.) |
VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
David: Okay. We are going to start looking at our vocab backwards starting from trivial matters. |
Echo: 鸡毛蒜皮, 我们可以直解来看,就是鸡的毛和蒜的皮。 (Jīmáosuànpí, wǒmen kěyǐ zhí jiě lái kàn, jiùshì jī de máo hé suàn de pí.) |
David: Yes it’s garlic skin and chicken feathers. |
Echo: 对, 鸡毛蒜皮。 (Duì, jīmáosuànpí.) |
David: And these are little – little things that people fight over. |
Echo: 对,就是很小的事。 (Duì, jiùshì hěn xiǎo de shì.) |
David: Yeah. No one ever says, oh great. We have so many of these little things. |
Echo: 哈哈哈!对,一般都是 唉!鸡毛蒜皮的事。 (Hāhā hā! Duì, yībān dōu shì āi! Jīmáosuànpí de shì.) |
David: Yeah. It’s always… |
Echo: 不值得吵架。 (Bù zhídé chǎojià.) |
David: Yeah it’s negative. We’ve got of course the words for quarreling here. |
Echo: 吵架。 (Chǎojià.) |
David: And we’ve got another powerful four character phrase that opens our dialogue. |
Echo: 愁眉苦脸。 (Chóuméikǔliǎn.) |
David: Sad and distressed. |
Echo: 对,就是你的眉毛看起来都很发愁,你的脸看起来就很痛苦。 (Duì, jiùshì nǐ de méimáo kàn qǐlái dōu hěn fāchóu, nǐ de liǎn kàn qǐlái jiù hěn tòngkǔ.) |
David: Right. So it’s sort of like you are crying and distressed and your eyebrows are all scrunched up too. |
Echo: 对, 愁眉苦脸, 比如说他家里天天吵架,他自然看起来就愁眉苦脸了。 (Duì, chóuméikǔliǎn, bǐrú shuō tā jiālǐ tiāntiān chǎojià, tā zìrán kàn qǐlái jiù chóuméikǔliǎnle.) |
David: Right. The next word we want to take a look at is a verb. |
Echo: 省得。 (Shěng de.) |
David: Which is really a verb phrase. |
Echo: 对。 (Duì.) |
David: It means saving ourselves the trouble of what follows. |
Echo: 没错, 省的, 比如说 让你媳妇孝顺一点儿, 省得你妈妈生气。 (Méi cuò, shěng de, bǐrú shuō ràng nǐ xífù xiàoshùn yīdiǎn er, shěngdé nǐ māmā shēngqì.) |
David: Right. Ask your wife to be a bit more filial to save your mother from getting angry. |
Echo: 对, 让你媳妇孝顺一点儿, 省得你妈妈生气。 (Duì, ràng nǐ xífù xiàoshùn yīdiǎn er, shěngdé nǐ māmā shēngqì.) |
David: Now you said the word for filial there. |
Echo: 唔, 孝顺。 (Wú, xiàoshùn.) |
David: Right. So this applies for women as well as men. |
Echo: 对,都一样的,这个词非常中国我觉得。 (Duì, dōu yīyàng de, zhège cí fēicháng zhōngguó wǒ juédé.) |
David: Yeah. Well, I mean filial, it’s a western word as well but it applies mostly to men and sons. So in Chinese, it’s both men and women. |
Echo: 都可以, 孝顺, 但是一般你只能说孩子孝顺父母。 (Dōu kěyǐ, xiàoshùn, dànshì yībān nǐ zhǐ néng shuō háizi xiàoshùn fùmǔ.) |
David: Yeah. |
Echo: 其他情况下都不可以。 (Qítā qíngkuàng xià dōu bù kěyǐ.) |
David: Right. The last word we want to highlight for you is, when something is not your taste. |
Echo: 唔, 不顺眼。 (Wú, bù shùnyǎn.) |
David: Echo, can you give us an example of this being used in context. |
Echo: 没问题,比如说 新来的同事看我总不顺眼, 所以我们终于吵架了。 (Méi wèntí, bǐrú shuō xīn lái de tóngshì kàn wǒ zǒng bù shùnyǎn, suǒyǐ wǒmen zhōngyú chǎojiàle.) |
David: Your new colleague always treated you poorly. |
Echo: 对,他总是看你很别扭。 (Duì, tā zǒng shì kàn nǐ hěn bièniu.) |
David: Right. Literally he looks at you and it’s not smooth. |
Echo: 对 (Duì), not smoothy eyes. |
David: Right. So it’s a euphemism. There is some tension there. |
Echo: 对, 新来的同事总是看我不顺眼, 所以我们终于吵架了。 (Duì, xīn lái de tóngshì zǒng shì kàn wǒ bù shùnyǎn, suǒyǐ wǒmen zhōngyú chǎojiàle.) |
David: Yeah. What it really means is to look out with dislike. |
Echo: 对, 没错。 (Duì, méi cuò.) |
David: Okay. With that, we’re done our vocab for today. We are going to move on to a grammar point that is fantastic. |
Lesson focus
|
Echo: 对。 (Duì.) |
David: It’s grammar time. |
Echo: 今天的语法点我们要给大家介绍一个非常口语, 非常地道, 只有真正的这个中国人才会经常用的一个词。 (Jīntiān de yǔfǎ diǎn wǒmen yào gěi dàjiā jièshào yīgè fēicháng kǒuyǔ, fēicháng dìdào, zhǐyǒu zhēnzhèng de zhège zhōngguó réncái huì jīngcháng yòng de yīgè cí.) |
David: Yes. If you start using this, you are going to sound so native. |
Echo: 没错。 (Méi cuò.) |
David: That people may just throw themselves down on the ground and worship your Chinese. |
Echo: 对,因为它其实更多的不是一个语法,它是一种语感。 (Duì, yīnwèi tā qíshí gèng duō de bùshì yīgè yǔfǎ, tā shì yī zhǒng yǔgǎn.) |
David: Right. It’s less a grammar point, it’s more kind of emotional tone but we are getting up here. |
Echo: 对,这个 ……. (Duì, zhège…….) |
David: Right. Upper intermediate, you’ve got to be able to use the emotions. |
Echo: 没错, 这个词就是 “呗”。我们看一下这个课文里的句子, “就是互相看着不顺眼呗。” (Méi cuò, zhège cí jiùshì “bei”. Wǒmen kàn yīxià zhège kèwén lǐ de jùzi, “jiùshì hùxiāng kànzhe bù shùnyǎn bei.”) |
David: It’s just that. |
Echo: 呗。 (Bei.) |
David: Yes. |
Echo: 它的意思是表示 什么事?很容易理解或者看起来很明显。 (Tā de yìsi shì biǎoshì shénme shì? Hěn róngyì lǐjiě huòzhě kàn qǐlái hěn míngxiǎn.) |
David: Right. It’s obvious, it’s easy to understand. |
Echo: 对,所以他的同事问他, 你的媳妇和妈妈为什么经常吵架, 他说就是互相看着不顺眼呗。 (Duì, suǒyǐ tā de tóngshì wèn tā, nǐ de xífù hé māmā wèishéme jīngcháng chǎojià, tā shuō jiùshì hùxiāng kànzhe bù shùnyǎn bei.) |
David: Right. It’s obvious that they just don’t like each other. |
Echo: 对。 (Duì.) |
David: Okay. So it’s really about the tone that this gives the sentence. |
Echo: 对。 (Duì.) |
David: And Echo, you’ve got some examples for us to help make this even clearer. |
Echo: 比如说 你怎么每天都愁眉苦脸的?因为没人喜欢我呗。 (Bǐrú shuō nǐ zěnme měitiān dū chóuméikǔliǎn de? Yīnwèi méi rén xǐhuān wǒ bei.) |
David: Ah! It’s so obvious. |
Echo: 对。 (Duì.) |
David: Because I am alone, nobody likes me. |
Echo: 对, 难怪我每天都愁眉苦脸的。 (Duì, nánguài wǒ měitiān dū chóuméikǔliǎn de.) |
David: Echo, can we use this in more upbeat sentences as well? |
Echo: 没问题,比如说他们怎么每天都在一起吃午饭?因为他们相爱呗。 (Méi wèntí, bǐrú shuō tāmen zěnme měitiān dū zài yīqǐ chī wǔfàn? Yīnwèi tāmen xiāng'ài bei.) |
David: Why are they eating together, it’s obvious, they are in love. |
Echo: 对, 因为他们相爱呗。 (Duì, yīnwèi tāmen xiāng'ài bei.) |
David: Right. |
Echo: 所以道理很明白,什么东西很容易懂。 (Suǒyǐ dàolǐ hěn míngbái, shénme dōngxī hěn róngyì dǒng.) |
David: Right. So this is particle you add at the end of sentences. |
Echo: 呗。 (Bei.) |
David: And it means, what’s come before, it’s obvious. |
Echo: 道理很明显,很容易懂。 (Dàolǐ hěn míngxiǎn, hěn róngyì dǒng.) |
Outro
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David: Right. With that though, we are done our lesson for today. |
Echo: 对。 (Duì.) |
David: From Beijing, I am David. |
Echo: 我是 (Wǒ shì) Echo. |
David: Thanks for listening and we will see you on the site. |
Echo: 我们网上见吧! (Wǒmen wǎngshàng jiàn ba!) Bye bye. |
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