Learn how to say, "Does this bus go to Beijing?"
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| Hey guys, today’s lesson is for the adventuresome AK the cheap travelers, all right? In China, the bus is a really important means of transportation. It’s how most people get where they want to go. Unfortunately it’s really hard if you don’t speak Chinese. Most foreigners will just opt to take taxis all the time and in comparison to almost any other country, taxis are very cheap in China but if you want a real Chinese experience, the bus is a way to go and I lived in Beijing for a long, long time and I never once had a bus map. I’ve seen bus maps but they are indecipherable. There are just a lot of 1 mm wide lines traveling in just sort of random directions over a map that doesn’t look anything like any other map you’ve ever seen before. Don’t look for a bus map, don’t expect to find a bus map. They are just – as far as you are concerned, bus maps don’t exist. Don’t worry about it and the way most people do it is, when you get to a bus station, there is a sign and on the sign for the bus, every bus has a number. Maybe this is bus 711 or bus 45 or bus 328. On the sign for us 328 will be a list of the stops that bus 328 goes to and a little marker showing which stop you are at now, all right. So what you have to do is you have to go down the list of the stops, look for the stop you are looking for and then know you want to go there. The problem is, if you don’t know the name of the stop near your destination, well sorry, tough luck. A lot of times what I used to do is I would take a taxi to a destination I was going to and once I got there, I would see what the closest bus station was called and look and see what buses went there and try and get back by bus. That way I would know how to get there for next time, but I wouldn’t waste hours trying to figure it out on my own. One of the big problems with these bus signs though is that on these little bus signs, there is no English, absolutely none. This might be different in other bigger cities like Shanghai, but in Beijing, none. No English anywhere on the bus sign. For the actual bus stop, the stop you are at, there will be a bigger sign that says, this stop is bali bali bla~ Underneath the Chinese characters, there will be pinion, the Romanized Chinese but other than that, there is no way to know how to pronounce the Chinese unless you actually know how to pronounce it. So it becomes very important for you to have a little bit of basic Chinese for riding the bus, maybe you have a friend or a guide or somebody tell you which bus to take but you have to be sure where this bus is going to go. You want to make sure you don’t ride the bus in the wrong direction of course. So before you get on the bus, you can say, will this bus go to – just shout it in your loudest voice right at the bus driver and he will turn and shout back to you, yes or no. So the way you say, does this bus go to is 到(dào) whatever place you want to go to, ma, all right. So if I want to go to Beijing station, 北京站(Běijīng zhàn) third tone, first tone, fourth tone 北京站(Běijīng zhàn) I say 到北京站吗(Dào Běijīng zhàn ma?) Now usually because 吗(ma) makes it a question and because we are asking a question, we rise a little bit at the end of the question but ma signifies a question and so if you forget to change your intonation, it won’t matter very much. So let’s go over the tones really quickly. 到(dào) is fourth tone, the falling tone 到(dào) and 吗(ma) has no tone but maybe you make it rise a little bit because it’s the end of a question. So one more time, does this bus go to Beijing station? 到北京站吗(Dào Běijīng zhàn ma?) One more time 到北京站吗(Dào Běijīng zhàn ma?) One more time and the bus driver in response will say either 到(dào) which means yes it goes there or 不到(bú dào) which means, no it does not go there. Remember 到(dào) is fourth tone and it means to go somewhere 到(dào) or he says 不到(bú dào), 不(bù) means no and 到(dào) means go to. So 不到(bú dào). Now 不(bù) is normally fourth tone, the falling tone. However when 不(bù) comes before another fourth tone 到(dào) being fourth tone, then 不(bù) changes to 不(bú) second tone rising tone, 不到(bú dào). So you say 到北京站吗(Dào Běijīng zhàn ma?) and he says 不到(bú dào) and then you are totally confused because the bus you are told to take does not go to Beijing 站(zhàn). At that point, you wave down a taxi. Now literally 到(dào) means to arrive but in this situation, it’s used as to go. Literally I guess the question would be, does this bus arrive at Beijing 站(zhàn) Beijing station. So again 到(dào) means to arrive literally but it is often used in questions of, will this go to or are we going to but we often translate it as going to as in will this bus go to. Now you don’t need to ask the bus driver himself if you are worried about time, if you are worried there is going to be a big rush to get on and you are going to be caught, you might ask other people at the bus station, all right. Now with the bus driver, it’s quite obvious which bus you are asking about. With other people, there are probably going to be many buses at this one station and so you need to specify a certain bus. Just stand by the sign for that bus. So the sign for bus 328, point at the sign and say 这个车到北京站吗(Zhège chē dào Běijīng zhàn ma?) 这个车(zhè ge chē) means this bus. Literally it means this car but we understand in this case that it’s not a car we are talking about, it’s a bus. 这个车到北京站吗(Zhège chē dào Běijīng zhàn ma?) 这(zhè) is fourth tone, 个(ge) has no tone, it’s a measure word and 车(chē) is first tone, the flat tone. So one more time 这个车到北京站吗(Zhège chē dào Běijīng zhàn ma?) |
| 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!) Will this bus go to Beijing station 到北京站吗(Dào Běijīng zhàn ma?). Yes it will go there, 到(dào). No it won’t go there, 不到(bú dào). Is this bus going to Beijing station, remember, this is used when asking other people at the bus station. 这个车到北京站吗(Zhège chē dào Běijīng zhàn ma?) |
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