Learn how to ask, "Where is the bathroom?"
Now Playing: Lesson Audio
Get a breakdown of the dialogue and translations instantly with the Premium line-by-line Audio. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Get this lesson’s key vocab, their translations and pronunciations. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Unlock Lesson Notes and Transcripts for every single lesson. Sign Up for a Free Lifetime Account and Get 7 Days of Premium Access.
| Start speaking Chinese in minutes and grasp the language, culture and customs in just minutes more with Chinese survival phrases, a completely new way to master the basics of Chinese. To get more Chinese lessons and for free, go to chineseclass101.com and sign up for your free lifetime account. Signing up takes less than a minute and you will find more great lessons just like this one. To get more free Chinese lessons, go to chineseclass101.com |
| Michael: Okay guys, today we are going to cover a phrase which will probably not be your most common phrase or at least I hope not but it might be the most important one. Where is the bathroom? In Chinese, where is the bathroom is 洗手间在哪(Xǐshǒujiān zài nǎ)?, one more time 洗手间在哪(Xǐshǒujiān zài nǎ)?. All right, let’s break it down syllable by syllable. First we have two third tones and then a first tone and remember, two third tones together means the first third tone becomes a second tone, a rising tone. So it’s rising tone, falling rising tone and then flat tone 洗手间(xí shǒu jiān), this means bathroom. Literally it means wash hand room but that can mean the washroom or the bathroom, 洗手间(xí shǒu jiān). The second half is 在哪(zài nǎ), this is fourth tone and then third tone, falling tone, then falling rising tone, 在哪(zài nǎ), 在(zài) means at and 哪(nǎ) means where. So at where 在哪(zài nǎ), 洗手间在哪(Xǐshǒujiān zài nǎ), bathroom at where, 洗手间在哪(Xǐshǒujiān zài nǎ). Now a real easy way to say bathroom if you can’t remember the Chinese is just WC. For some reason everybody in China knows the word WC. I have no idea where this word came from. I thought it was British English but I’ve had British friends tell me they don’t know where it comes from. Maybe it’s an outdated phrase. I hear it stands for water closet and I knew that before but I don’t know where anybody uses this word water closet but you can use this in China anywhere you go. You just say WC or you can say WC在哪(WC zài nǎ)? if you want to mix up the languages. Guys, obviously the word WC is not originally Chinese but at this point, it’s become a Chinese word. There are a lot of words like this in Chinese. In fact there are even characters for bye bye. All right guys, listen. Here is one last tip. If you plan on being out for a long time, just steal yourself for the bathroom experiences you are going to have. It might be a good idea to just take care of your business whenever you see a bathroom that you think is going to be okay because a lot of times, there will be a bathroom, but you might not want to use it. All right to close our today’s lesson, we’d like you to practice what we’ve just learned. I will provide you with the English equivalent of a phrase and you are responsible for shouting it out loud. You will have a few seconds before I give you the answer. So 加油(Jiā yóu)! Okay here we go. Where is the bathroom? 洗手间在哪(Xǐshǒujiān zài nǎ)？All right, my boss says I am just supposed to read the script but I am going to give you one last hint if you want to make your Chinese really sound Chinese. You add 啊(a) to the end of this question which gives it more of an interrogative flavor. You say 洗手间在哪啊(Xǐshǒujiān zài nǎ a)? This is how Chinese people say. They go 哪啊(nǎ a)? and it gives you more of this sort of questioning tone to your voice. Hey, 洗手间在哪啊(Xǐshǒujiān zài nǎ a)？ |
| Remember to go to chineseclass101.com and sign up for your free lifetime account. Signing up takes less than 1 minute and you will find more great lessons just like this one. Chinese survival phrases will have you speaking with proper pronunciation and arm you with cultural insights and other information to utterly shock and amaze your friends, teachers, colleagues and the people you meet along the way. |
Comments
Hide