Learn how to take a subway
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| All right guys, it’s still a developing form of transport in China but the subway is coming to China. Beijing right now has three subway lines and Shanghai has a few too. In addition, Shanghai has the only Maglev train in service in the entire world. It might be nice to know a phrase or two to help you get around on the trains. The first thing you want to know is, how to buy a ticket. Beijing is in the midst of revolutionizing its subway system. So it’s going to be outdated by the time you get there but I will give you what I know. You come down to the train station and there will be a booth where there are people selling tickets. Get in line with all the Chinese people and the Beijing people do now stand in line. For a long time, there was always problems with people standing in line but in the last couple of years, they’ve been trying really hard and now there is a pretty orderly line. Once you get up to the front of the line, you will need to tell them which subway ticket you want. In Beijing, there are three different kinds of subway tickets and they are differentiated by price. There is the 3 quay subway ticket, the 4 quay subway ticket and the 5 quay subway ticket. These have to do with whether you are transferring between lines. So you come up to the person selling the ticket and you tell them you want one of whichever kind of ticket you want. You say 一张三块的票(Yìzhāng sānkuài de piào.) All right, this is complex Chinese grammar. I am going to try and break it down real simple. So 一张(yìzhāng)，一(yī) means 1 and 张(zhāng) is the measure word for tickets, all right. So 一张(yìzhāng), you could also use 个(gè) if you really wanted to but I will tell you the right way to say it now, 一张(yìzhāng). And then you say what kind of ticket you want. So 三块的(sān kuài de), so 三(sān) is three. Quay is the casual word for the UN, the kind of money they have in China and 的(de) is the possessive particle. So you are modifying the kind of ticket 三块的票(sānkuài de piào), 票(piào) means ticket. So let’s go over one more time 一张(yì zhāng) 1. 1 measure word for ticket, 三块的(sānkuài de) 3 quay possessive, 票(piào) ticket. So one 3 quay ticket, 一张三块的票(Yìzhāng sānkuài de piào.) All right guys, let’s try that a little bit slower 一张三块的票(Yìzhāng sānkuài de piào.) All right, let’s go over the tones. 一张(yìzhāng) is two first tones, the flat tone [Note: "一" is changed to the fourth tone "yì" when it is in front of a non-fourth tone word. So "一张" pronounces "yì zhāng"], 一张(yì zhāng), 三块的(sānkuài de) is first tone, fourth tone, the falling tone and then 的(de) has no tone. So 三块的(sānkuài de), 票(piào) is fourth tone, the falling tone. So 一张三块的票(Yìzhāng sānkuài de piào.), got that? All right guys, if this is complicated, let’s try switching out part of it and we will try buying 4 quay tickets and 5 quay tickets, ready? 一张四块的票(Yìzhāng sìkuài de piào.), one 4 quay ticket. 一张五块的票(Yìzhāng wǔkuài de piào.), one 5 quay ticket. One more time all three in a row. 一张三块的票(Yìzhāng sānkuài de piào.) 一张四块的票(Yìzhāng sìkuài de piào.) 一张五块的票(Yìzhāng wǔkuài de piào.) Got all that? So let’s try buying two 3 quay tickets, 两张三块的票(Liǎngzhāng sānkuài de piào.) Notice how you can just change out the numbers, nothing else. The 张(zhāng), 块的(kuài de) and 票 (piào) never change. We just change the number of tickets or the amount of money we want to pay for the tickets. Good luck on those subways guys. |
| 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!) One 3 quay ticket, 一张三块的票(Yìzhāng sānkuài de piào). Two 3 quay tickets, 两张三块的票(Liǎngzhāng sānkuài de piào.). One 4 quay ticket, 一张四块的票(Yìzhāng sìkuài de piào). One 5 quay ticket, 一张五块的票(Yìzhāng wǔkuài de piào.) |
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