Learn how to ask for help
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| Hi guys, today we are talking about emergencies and emergency situations. Sally was 24 years old. She was walking around the streets of Beijing and suddenly she felt a hand on her back. She turned around and a man was taking her wallet. What should she do? So guys, China is not the safest place. It’s safe. You almost certainly will not experience any sort of violent crime but you may end up in a situation where you need help and you need help quick especially if that help involves your wallet. So what do you say in those kind of situations. Today we are going to go over phrases having to do with the police and emergencies. The first one we are going to do is a version of help me, 救命啊(Jiùmìng a!) The tones on this are fourth tone, falling tone 救(jiù), fourth tone again falling tone, 命(mìng) and then first tone, the flat tone 啊(a). 救命啊(Jiùmìng a!) Literally this means save life. Save my life literally but it can be used in an emergency situation to bring attention to yourself to ask for help. So what it really means is help me but it’s only for emergency situations. If you are lost or something like that, don’t use this. It would be totally inappropriate and it would seem very awkward. So the phrase is , 救(jiù) means to save, 命(mìng) means life and 啊(a) just emphasizes the urgency of this phrase, 救命啊(Jiùmìng a!). 救命啊(Jiùmìng a!) can be used in any kind of emergency situation where you need help. It is not just for situations where you are threatened. Any time there is an emergency situation, a situation where someone is in danger, you can yell 救命啊(Jiùmìng a!) to get people’s attention, to bring in the police. Even if you see something and it’s not you, your friend, someone you don’t even know, you can yell this and you hopefully you can get help. So if you may find and this is unlikely but very possible and it’s happened to me that you are walking down the street or you are in a crowded bus and you start to feel somebody’s fingers prying into your back pocket. Truthfully if you want to be really safe, you should carry some sort of pouch with your wallet and your passport inside it or at least you should carry things in your front pocket but even I don’t do that. I like carrying my stuff in my back pocket and I just depend on my ability to sense people to save myself but if you are in the situation where you are getting things stolen from you, you can yell as loud as you can 救命啊(Jiùmìng a!) and then after that, you can say 小偷(Xiǎo tōu!), that means thief, 小偷(Xiǎo tōu!) The tones for this are third tone 小(xiǎo) and then first tone 偷(tōu), the flat tone 偷(tōu), 小偷(xiǎo tōu). Literally 小(xiǎo) means small and 偷(tōu) means to steal but used together, they mean a burglar or a small time thief, 小偷(xiǎo tōu) You wouldn’t use this for a murderer or some other kind of criminal but for someone who is a pickpocket this is just right, 小偷(xiǎo tōu). And one last useful phrase if you are threatened, you can yell police. The word for police is 警察(jǐng chá). The tones for this are third tone, falling rising tone 警(jǐng) and second tone, the rising tone 察(chá), 警察(jǐng chá). So you can use these phrases together. If you are in danger, you can yell 警察(Jǐng chá!) 警察(Jǐng chá!) 救命啊(Jiùmìng a!) 救命啊(Jiùmìng a!) Using them together, police, police, help me, help me. Makes sense, doesn’t it? Now if you are in an emergency situation and you need help, another useful phrase might be, please dial the police, please call the police. The way you say this is 请打110(Qǐng dǎ yāo yāo líng.) This means literally, please dial 110. In China, 110 is a number you call, the emergency number for the police. All right, so the phrase is 请打110(Qǐng dǎ yāo yāo líng.). The tones for this are, third tone and then third tone again. So the first one becomes second tone, the rising tone, 请(qǐng) and then third tone 打(dǎ) and then first tone 1(yāo), first tone again 1(yāo) and then second tone, the rising tone 0(líng). So altogether it’s 请打110(Qǐng dǎ yāo yāo líng.) Broken down by component, this means, 请(qǐng) please, 请(qǐng). 打(dǎ) to hit but in this case, it also means to dial, 打(dǎ). 110(yāo yāo líng) means 110. 1 is usually 一(yī) but when you are saying numbers like the number of a bus or a telephone number, you use 1(yāo) instead of 一(yī). The reason for this is 一(yī) and 七(qī) which is the word for 7 sound very similar. So to distinguish them in places where you might be saying a lot of numbers together, you say 1(yāo) for 1, 110(yāo yāo líng), this also works for giving your phone number, for getting a phone number of course too and for the numbers for buses or for trains. So the phrase is 请打110(Qǐng dǎ yāo yāo líng.) But hopefully you won’t ever have to use any of these. |
| 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!) Help me in an emergency! 救命啊(Jiùmìng a!) Thief! 小偷(Xiǎo tōu!) Police! 警察(Jǐng chá!) Please dial 110, 请打110(Qǐng dǎ yāo yāo líng.) |
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