Learn how to give directions
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| INTRODUCTION |
| David: Welcome to chineseclass101. I am David. |
| Echo: 嗨，大家好. (Hāi, dàjiā hǎo.) |
| David: And we are here with lesson 12 in our first elementary series. |
| Echo: 第十二课。(Dì shí'èr kè.) |
| David: That’s the spot. We are talking about the spot where they’ve taken their thumb and pressed it into your ribs. So we’ve got a conversation again that’s between a customer and a masseuse and if you go for massage in China, you are going to use this stuff. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| David: So let’s get you to the dialogue. Before we do it though, we want to remind you, we’ve got a lot of digital tools in our premium learning center. |
| Echo: Yes. |
| David: Including things like voice recording tools where you can record your voice and hear how you actually sound speaking Chinese. |
| Echo: Right. |
| David: This is really important for practicing the tones because a lot of the times what you think you are saying is not what you are saying. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| David: So go to the premium learning center and check that stuff out and it’s going to make your Chinese better. For now though, let’s go right into the dialogue. |
| Echo: 好。(Hǎo.) |
| DIALOGUE |
| A.您觉得哪儿疼？(nín juéde nǎr téng?) |
| B.我的脖子和肩膀不太舒服。(wǒ de bózi hé jiānbǎng bùtàishūfu.) |
| A.这儿吗？(zhèr ma?) |
| B.往左点儿，再往上点儿。(wǎng zuǒ diǎnr, zài wǎngshàng diǎnr.) |
| A.这儿吗？(zhèr ma?) |
| B.对，就是这儿。(duì, jiùshì zhèr.) |
| Once more slowly. |
| A.您觉得哪儿疼？(nín juéde nǎr téng?) |
| B.我的脖子和肩膀不太舒服。(wǒ de bózi hé jiānbǎng bùtàishūfu.) |
| A.这儿吗？(zhèr ma?) |
| B.往左点儿，再往上点儿。(wǎng zuǒ diǎnr, zài wǎngshàng diǎnr.) |
| A.这儿吗？(zhèr ma?) |
| B.对，就是这儿。(duì, jiùshì zhèr.) |
| Once more, with English translation. |
| A.您觉得哪儿疼？(nín juéde nǎr téng?) |
| A: Where do you think it hurts? |
| B.我的脖子和肩膀不太舒服。(wǒ de bózi hé jiānbǎng bùtàishūfu.) |
| B: My neck and shoulder feel uncomfortable. |
| A.这儿吗？(zhèr ma?) |
| A: Here? |
| B.往左点儿，再往上点儿。(wǎng zuǒ diǎnr, zài wǎngshàng diǎnr.) |
| B: A little to the left. Now a little higher. |
| A.这儿吗？(zhèr ma?) |
| A: Here? |
| B.对，就是这儿。(duì, jiùshì zhèr.) |
| B: Yeah, right here. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| David: So if you go for a massage, they will actually ask you this. They will say where does it hurt? |
| Echo: 对。(duì.) |
| David: And you can just say, I am just here for the massage. |
| Echo: Or 哪儿不舒服？(Nǎ'er bú shūfú?) |
| David: Give me the count？ |
| David: Right. your back can’t working sitting down. So you can use this language to tell people. |
| Echo: 对，这对我来说特别有用。(Duì, zhè duì wǒ lái shuō tèbié yǒuyòng.) |
| David: Right. And between this lesson where we are saying where to do it and the last lesson where we’ve got lighter and heavier. |
| Echo: Yeah. 轻，重。(Qīng, zhòng.) |
| David: You are going to be set to get the best massage ever. So with that, let’s go to the vocab section. And now the vocab section. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Echo: 觉得 (juéde) |
| David: To feel. |
| Echo: 不太 (bù tài) |
| David: Not very. |
| Echo: 舒服 (Shūfú) |
| David: Comfortable. |
| Echo: 往 (wǎng) |
| David: Towards. |
| Echo: 左 (zuǒ) |
| David: Left. |
| Echo: 右 (yòu) |
| David: Right. |
| Echo: 上 (shàng) |
| David: Up. |
| Echo: 下 (xià) |
| David: Down. |
| Echo: 就是 (jiùshì) |
| David: Precisely to be. |
| Echo: 就是 (jiùshì) |
| David: So our vocab in this lesson is mostly focused on giving directions. Now when you are giving directions, the first word you say is |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Echo: 往。(Wǎng.) |
| David: Which means towards. |
| Echo: Right 往。(Wǎng.) |
| David: And then we are going to follow that with our direction. |
| Echo: 你再往左点儿。(Nǐ zài wǎng zuǒ diǎn er.) |
| David: That’s turn a little bit left again. Let’s simplify that though, towards the left. |
| Echo: 往左。(Wǎng zuǒ.) |
| David: Right and then in the full sentence |
| Echo: 你再往左点儿。(Nǐ zài wǎng zuǒ diǎn er.) |
| David: You are getting a little bit to the left. And that’s our first direction for you, left. |
| Echo: 左。(Zuǒ.) |
| David: Left. |
| Echo: 左。(Zuǒ.) |
| David: And the opposite of left is of course |
| Echo: 右。(Yòu.) |
| David: Right. |
| Echo: 右。(Yòu.) |
| David: Right. So left |
| Echo: 左。(Zuǒ.) |
| David: Right |
| Echo: 右。(Yòu.) |
| David: Sometimes you will be in a taxi and the taxi driver will ask you, do you want to turn left or turn right? |
| Echo: 往左还是往右？(Wǎng zuǒ háishì wǎng yòu?) |
| David: He is really saying towards the left or towards the right? |
| Echo: 往左还是往右？(Wǎng zuǒ háishì wǎng yòu?) |
| David: So you can reply, towards the left. |
| Echo: 往左。(Wǎng zuǒ.) |
| David: Or move a bit to the left. |
| Echo: 往左点儿。(Wǎng zuǒ diǎn er.) |
| David: Or towards the right. |
| Echo: 往右。(Wǎng yòu.) |
| David: A bit right. |
| Echo: 往右点儿。(Wǎng yòu diǎn er.) |
| David: And you could do this in the massage parlor as well. So towards your left |
| Echo: 往左。(Wǎng zuǒ.) |
| David: Towards your right. |
| Echo: 往右。(Wǎng yòu.) |
| David: And when they are getting really close, you want to add that |
| Echo: 往左点儿。(Wǎng zuǒ diǎn er.) |
| David: Right. Just add that |
| Echo: 点儿。(Diǎn er.) |
| David: Little bit. Our next two directions are of course up |
| Echo: 上。(Shàng.) |
| David: And down |
| Echo: 下。(Xià.) |
| David: Let’s hear them again. |
| Echo: 上。(Shàng.) |
| David: Fourth tone and it means up. |
| Echo: 下。(Xià.) |
| David: Also fourth tone and it means down. |
| Echo: 上，下。(Shàng, xià.) |
| David: So you can say towards the top. |
| Echo: 往上。(Wǎng shàng.) |
| David: Or towards the bottom. |
| Echo: 往下。(Wǎng xià.) |
| David: And you can also say a little bit |
| Echo: 往上点儿。(Wǎng shàng diǎn er.) |
| David: A bit higher. |
| Echo: 往下点儿。(Wǎng xià diǎn er.) |
| David: A bit lower. So if you are in a massage parlor, you might actually say this. |
| Echo: 往上点儿，哎呦， 往下点儿。(Wǎng shàng diǎn er, āi yōu, wǎng xià diǎn er.) |
| David: Move a bit higher up, a little bit lower. |
| Echo: 往上点儿，哎呦， 往下点儿。(Wǎng shàng diǎn er, āi yōu, wǎng xià diǎn er.) |
| David: Right. A little bit higher ah and they just cracked his spine, a little bit lower. |
| Echo: Good. |
| David: So to recap, we’ve just given you four directions. We’ve learned left. |
| Echo: 左。(Zuǒ.) |
| David: Right. |
| Echo: 右。(Yòu.) |
| David: Up |
| Echo: 上。(Shàng.) |
| David: Down |
| Echo: 下。(Xià.) |
| David: Switching gears for a moment, we also have a psychological verb in this lesson. |
| Echo: 觉得。(Juédé.) |
| David: This is second tone and then neutral tone. |
| Echo: 觉得。(Juédé.) |
| David: Right. This means to think or to feel. |
| Echo: 觉得。(Juédé.) |
| David: We use this mostly with emotions, feelings or opinions. |
| Echo: 比如说。我觉得她很漂亮。(Bǐrú shuō. Wǒ juédé tā hěn piàoliang.) |
| David: I think she is really pretty. |
| Echo:我觉得她很漂亮。(Wǒ juédé tā hěn piàoliang.) |
| David: Right. And here we see 很 (Hěn) which is very. What if we want to say she is not too pretty. |
| Echo: 不太 (Bù tài) We use this word. 我觉得她不太漂亮。(Wǒ juédé tā bù tài piàoliang.) |
| David: I don’t think she is too pretty. |
| Echo: 我觉得她不太漂亮。(Wǒ juédé tā bù tài piàoliang.) |
| David: Right. Our last word in the vocab section is another adverb which we covered in the last lesson’s grammar point. |
| Echo: 就，就是。(Jiù, jiùshì.) |
| David: And this means to be exactly. |
| Echo: 就是。(Jiùshì.) |
| David: As in |
| Echo: 就是这儿，很舒服。(Jiùshì zhè'er, hěn shūfú.) |
| David: It’s exactly here, oh that’s comfortable. |
| Echo: 就是这儿，很舒服。(Jiùshì zhè'er, hěn shūfú.) |
| David: Right. So our vocab section was not as painful as our dialogue. Lots of great words. |
| Echo: 很舒服。(Hěn shūfú.) |
| David: Yeah use them in the massage parlor, use them in the taxi. Use them getting directions on the street. |
| Echo: 没错。(Méi cuò.) |
| David: We’ve got a grammar point today that’s all about how we give directions though. Let’s get to that now. It’s grammar time. Okay so we promised you grammar point about giving directions. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| David: So there are few directions we want to go over. We’ve already done the first four in the vocab section. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| David: What are they Echo? |
| Echo: They are 上。(Shàng.) |
| David: That means up. |
| Echo: 下。(Xià.) |
| David: Down. |
| Echo: 下。(Xià.) |
| David: You can also use these when you are getting into and out of vehicles. For instance |
| Echo: 上车。(Shàng chē.) |
| David: To get into a car. |
| Echo: Or 下车。(Xià chē.) |
| David: Right. To get out of a car or maybe the subway. Our next two words, we’ve also covered. They are left |
| Echo: 左。(Zuǒ.) |
| David: And right |
| Echo: 右。(Yòu.) |
| David: Sometimes especially in taxis, you are going to hear people say the left side. |
| Echo: 左边。(Zuǒbiān.) |
| David: Or the right side. |
| Echo: 右边。(Yòubiān.) |
| David: Great. When we want to give people directions, there is a special word we want to put right at the front. |
| Echo: 往。(Wǎng.) |
| David: Let’s hear that one more time. |
| Echo: 往。(Wǎng.) |
| David: So that’s third one and it means towards. So we say towards |
| Echo: 往。(Wǎng.) |
| David: And then the direction we want to move in. |
| Echo: 比如说，往左。(Bǐrú shuō, wǎng zuǒ.) |
| David: Towards the left. |
| Echo: 往右。(Wǎng yòu.) |
| David: Towards the right. Now when we have a verb for instance to go left or to go right, the word order in Chinese is different from English. Specifically we put our verb after the direction. |
| Echo: 没错 (Méi cuò) Like 往左走。(Wǎng zuǒ zǒu.) |
| David: Go left. |
| Echo: 往右走。(Wǎng yòu zǒu.) |
| David: Go right. When you are in a cab, you are often going to hear people say this. |
| Echo: 往左转。(Wǎng zuǒ zhuǎn.) |
| David: Turn left. |
| Echo: 往右转。(Wǎng yòu zhuǎn.) |
| David: Turn right. |
| Echo: Yeah notice that we will use the verb 转。(Zhuǎn.) |
| David: Right which means to turn. And another thing to notice is that we are putting our preposition 往 in front of the verb. |
| Echo: Yeah. In front of everything. |
| David: Right. So this is Chinese word order. It’s not special for this. We have the preposition, direction, and then our verb. |
| Echo: 往左转。(Wǎng zuǒ zhuǎn.) |
| David: Towards the left, to turn. |
| Echo: Yeah let’s get an example 在红绿灯往右转。(Zài hónglǜdēng wǎng yòu zhuǎn.) |
| David: At the red light, turn right. |
| Echo: 在红绿灯往右转。(Zài hónglǜdēng wǎng yòu zhuǎn.) |
| David: At the stoplight, make a right turn. Now this is really tricky actually because we’ve got two prepositional phrases. First we’ve got at the stoplight |
| Echo: 在红绿灯。(Zài hónglǜdēng.) |
| David: Then we’ve got a second prepositional phrase, towards the right. |
| Echo: 往右转。(Wǎng yòu zhuǎn.) |
| David: And then the verb at the end, to turn. This is really tricky for a lot of people. |
| Echo: Yeah just remember to put preposition of place. |
| David: Yeah. |
| Echo: Before everything, before the sentence. |
| David: And practice, practice, practice. Speak to yourself. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| David: So our next example. |
| Echo: 往上点儿。往下点儿。(Wǎng shàng diǎn er. Wǎng xià diǎn er.) |
| David: Move up a little, move down a little. |
| Echo: 往上点儿。往下点儿。(Wǎng shàng diǎn er. Wǎng xià diǎn er.) |
| David: And this is close to what we had in our dialogue. One thing to pay attention to here is the verb is omitted. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| David: Right. So we are leaving out the verb because it’s clear what we are talking about. You know, give me a massage there, move your hands or go in that direction. |
| Echo: 对。(Duì.) |
| David: So if people know what you are talking about, you don’t need the verb. If they don’t, you can always add it on at the end. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| David: And that’s our grammar point for you. |
| Echo: 很简单。(Hěn jiǎndān.) |
| David: Right. So to all of our listeners, we are going to give you a direction now. |
| Echo: Go straight towards chineseclass101.com |
| David: Right and sign up for that premium subscription if you haven’t yet. You are going to get all of these study tools in the premium learning section. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| David: Flashcards, study aids… |
| Echo: Voice recording tool. |
| David: Yeah as well as these great PDFs and we’ve taken our grammar points and notes and we’ve stuck them all in there. So it’s really good. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
Outro |
| David: It’s better than any textbook you are going to find. So that’s our podcast for today. We hope you enjoyed it. As always, if you have any questions, email us at |
| Echo: Contact us at chineseclass101.com |
| David: We would love to hear from you. From Beijing, I am David. |
| Echo: 我是 (Wǒ shì) Echo. |
| David: Thanks a lot for listening and we will see you on the site. |
| Echo: 网上见吧 (Wǎngshàng jiàn ba) Bye bye. |
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