Learn key Chinese vocabulary for talking about getting work done
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.
| INTRODUCTION |
| David: Welcome to chineseclass101. I am David. |
| Echo: 嗨，大家好，我是Echo. (Hāi, dàjiā hǎo, wǒ shì Echo.) |
| David: And Echo, we are here with lesson 47 at the elementary level. |
| Echo: 对，第四十七课。(Duì, dì sìshíqī kè.) |
| David: And it took us ages to get this done because Echo was procrastinating. |
| Echo: No it was you 拖拖拉拉的。(Tuō tuōlā lā de.) |
| David: She was playing Farmville for hours. |
| Echo: No I never play that game. |
| David: Okay well never. |
| Echo: Well… |
| David: Sometimes. |
| Echo: Ten years ago. |
| David: Anyway, we do have a dialogue that’s all about procrastination. It’s taking place in the house as the day wears on and someone’s got something to do. Okay. |
| Echo: 但是他不做。(Dànshì tā bù zuò.) |
| David: Yes he is not doing it. He is doing everything but doing. So we are going to take you to the dialogue in a sec. Before we do though, for those of you folks who are listening to us on iTunes, if you haven’t come to chineseclass101.com yet and you have not signed up for your free lifetime account, you don’t know what you are missing. Lots of free tools, free resources. It’s a wonderful thing. So get yourself to chineseclass101.com and sign up. |
| Echo: 没错。 (Méi cuò.) |
| David: Echo, how long does it take? |
| Echo: Less than seven seconds. |
| David: Yes less than seven seconds. The internet gets faster. Anyway, let’s go on to the dialogue now. |
| DIALOGUE |
| A:你怎么在看电视？你不是要写报告吗？(Nǐ zěnme zài kàn diànshì? Nǐ bù shì yào xiě bàogào ma?) |
| B:我休息一下，晚饭以后接着写。(Wǒ xiūxi yīxià, wǎnfàn yǐhòu jiēzhe xiě.) |
| A:晚饭以后？你还剩多少？(Wǎnfàn yǐhòu? Nǐ hái shèng duōshao?) |
| B:不多了，就一万字吧(Bù duō le, jiù yī wàn zì ba.) |
| A:一万字？你不是明天要交吗？你写得完吗？(Yī wàn zì ? Nǐ bù shì míngtiān yào jiāo ma? Nǐ xiědewán ma?) |
| B:没事，我今天开夜车，一定能写完。(Méishì, wǒ jīntiān kāiyèchē, yī dìng néng xiěwán.) |
| David: One more time just a bit slower. |
| A:你怎么在看电视？你不是要写报告吗？(Nǐ zěnme zài kàn diànshì? Nǐ bù shì yào xiě bàogào ma?) |
| B:我休息一下，晚饭以后接着写。(Wǒ xiūxi yīxià, wǎnfàn yǐhòu jiēzhe xiě.) |
| A:晚饭以后？你还剩多少？(Wǎnfàn yǐhòu? Nǐ hái shèng duōshao?) |
| B:不多了，就一万字吧(Bù duō le, jiù yī wàn zì ba.) |
| A:一万字？你不是明天要交吗？你写得完吗？(Yī wàn zì ? Nǐ bù shì míngtiān yào jiāo ma? Nǐ xiědewán ma?) |
| B:没事，我今天开夜车，一定能写完。(Méishì, wǒ jīntiān kāiyèchē, yī dìng néng xiěwán.) |
| Echo: 你怎么在看电视？(Nǐ zěnme zài kàn diànshì?) |
| David: What are you doing watching television? |
| Echo: 你不是要写报告吗？(Nǐ bù shì yào xiě bàogào ma?) |
| David: Don’t you need to write a report? |
| Echo: 我休息一下。(Wǒ xiūxi yīxià.) |
| David: I am resting for a bit. |
| Echo: 晚饭以后接着写。(wǎnfàn yǐhòu jiēzhe xiě.) |
| David: I will keep writing after dinner. |
| Echo: 晚饭以后？你还剩多少？(Wǎnfàn yǐhòu? Nǐ hái shèng duōshao?) |
| David: After dinner? How much do you have left? |
| Echo: 不多了，就一万字吧(Bù duō le, jiù yī wàn zì ba.) |
| David: Not that much. Just 10,000 characters I think. |
| Echo: 一万字？你不是明天要交吗？(Yī wàn zì ? Nǐ bù shì míngtiān yào jiāo ma?) |
| David: 10,000 characters, don’t you need to hand this in tomorrow. |
| Echo: 你写得完吗？ (Nǐ xiědewán ma?) |
| David: Can you finish writing this? |
| Echo: 没事，我今天开夜车。(Méishì, wǒ jīntiān kāiyèchē.) |
| David: No problem. I will work all night. |
| Echo: 一定能写完。 (yī dìng néng xiěwán.) |
| David: I can definitely finish writing this. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Echo: Huh he’s pretty confident. |
| David: Right. So secrets from Echo’s university days. Did you ever do this? Did you ever 开夜车。(kāiyèchē.) |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| David: I do that all the time. |
| Echo: Well so it’s not just Chinese students. |
| David: No it’s not that. I think everyone does this sometimes although you know you hear this certain point in the evening where you’ve got to make the decision, am I going to bed or am I staying up all night. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| David: But I think it’s worst for you guys because you couldn’t actually do the work in your dorms. So you’d have to go to the library or go to a coffee shop or something. |
| Echo: What do you mean by we can’t do it in the dorms. |
| David: Well, don’t they shut off the power at 11 o’ clock? |
| Echo: Not in the first two years. |
| David: Uh so they crack down on you when you are three. |
| Echo: Right. |
| David: Too many people are procrastinating. |
| Echo: But we still got lights in the public classroom or public rooms. |
| David: Okay. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| David: So it was uncomfortable for procrastinators. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| David: Anyway, we’ve got some great vocab for you. So what’s the waiting for. Let’s get right to it. And now the vocab section. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Echo: 看电视 (kàndiànshì) |
| David: To watch television. |
| Echo: 写报告 (xiě bàogào) |
| David: To write a report. |
| Echo: 晚饭 (wǎnfàn) |
| David: Dinner. |
| Echo: 接着 (jiēzhe) |
| David: To continue. |
| Echo: 剩 (shèng) |
| David: To be left over. |
| Echo: 万 (wàn) |
| David: 10,000 |
| Echo: 字 (zì) |
| David: Characters. |
| Echo: 交 (jiāo) |
| David: To turn in. |
| Echo: 写得完 (xiědewán) |
| David: To be able to finish writing. |
| Echo: 开夜车 (kāiyèchē) |
| David: To drive the night truck. |
| Echo: Truck? |
| David: Just kidding, it means to work all night. |
| Echo: 开夜车，一定 (Kāiyèchē, yīdìng) |
| David: Certainly. |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| David: I love that word. Drive the night truck. |
| Echo: 开夜车。 (Kāi yè chē.) |
| David: They’ve also got one which is |
| Echo: 熬夜。 (Áoyè.) |
| David: Yeah which is literally to like stew the night. Right? |
| Echo: 对对对，很痛苦的一个词。 (Duì duì duì, hěn tòngkǔ de yīgè cí.) |
| David: Yeah that’s an HSK one. A lot of people don’t know that, drive the night truck. |
| Echo: 开夜车也属于HSK的词。 (Kāiyè chē yě shǔyú HSK de cí.) |
| David: Yeah, yeah, yeah. They are both HSK words. Anyway, we’ve got a lot of exciting vocab for you and our vocab focus today is going to be on things that you can do to procrastinate. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| David: In the dialogue, we had one big one. |
| Echo: 看电视。(Kàn diànshì.) |
| David: Watching television. And you might say, don’t bother me, I am watching television. |
| Echo: 别烦我，我在看电视。(Bié fán wǒ, wǒ zài kàn diànshì.) |
| David: Right but of course there are tons of ways to procrastinate. In addition to watching television, we have my favorite which is sleeping. |
| Echo: Umm this is my favorite too 别烦我，我在睡觉。 (Bié fán wǒ, wǒ zài shuìjiào.) |
| David: Don’t bother me. I am sleeping. |
| Echo: You are a sleepy head. |
| David: And if they tell you you’ve got work to do…. |
| Echo: Everybody in the office knows that, David is sleepy head. |
| David: Echo is much more of a sleepy head than I am but the beautiful thing about sleeping is if they tell you that you’ve got work to do, you can say that you are taking care of your health. |
| Echo: 我在注意身体。(Wǒ zài zhùyì shēntǐ.) |
| David: We also have a lot of more modern past times of which I think one of our favorites is the 开心 (Kāixīn) Farm. |
| Echo: I have never played that 开心农场。(Kāixīn nóngchǎng.) |
| David: Liar, liar. |
| Echo: No… |
| David: What’s the name of the game? |
| Echo: 开心农场。 (Kāixīn nóngchǎng.) |
| David: Yeah 开心 (Kāixīn) is from 开心网. (Kāixīn wǎng.) |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| David: It’s a social network in China, one of the first ones. |
| Echo: It’s also happy. |
| David: And it’s happy and what is the second word there? |
| Echo: 农场。(Nóngchǎng.) |
| David: Which means Farm. So this is how you would say Farmville in Chinese. |
| Echo: 开心农场。 (Kāixīn nóngchǎng.) |
| David: Yeah. So you could say, don’t bother me, I am playing Farmville. |
| Echo: 别烦我，我在玩开心农场。 or 别烦我，我在偷菜呢。(Bié fán wǒ, wǒ zài wán kāixīn nóngchǎng. Or bié fán wǒ, wǒ zài tōu cài ne.) |
| David: Yeah don’t bother me. I am stealing 菜 (Cài) I am stealing vegetables. |
| Echo: Yeah 偷菜。(Tōu cài.) |
| David: Question. Last but not least, what is the Chinese word for to procrastinate? |
| Echo: 拖拖拉拉的 (Tuō tuōlā lā de) We can say that. |
| David: 拖拖拉拉 (Tuō tuōlā lā) Kind of like a tractor, pulls things around. |
| Echo: Like 别拖拖拉拉的。(Bié tuō tuōlā lā de.) |
| David: So how can you tell someone, don’t procrastinate. |
| Echo: 别拖拖拉拉的。(Bié tuō tuōlā lā de.) |
| David: You’ve got work to do. |
| Echo: 你还有工作呢 ，赶紧工作，我有一个小故事，就是在我们小的时候，也是现在所有的学生，就是小孩的时候 (Nǐ hái yǒu gōngzuò ne, gǎnjǐn gōngzuò, wǒ yǒu yīgè xiǎo gùshì, jiùshì zài wǒmen xiǎo de shíhòu, yěshì xiànzài suǒyǒu de xuéshēng, jiùshì xiǎohái de shíhòu) Like in the primary school or middle school 我们都要考试的时候，都要写作文。 (Wǒmen dōu yào kǎoshì de shíhòu, dōu yào xiě zuòwén.) |
| David: So you got to be writing your essays when you are a little kid. |
| Echo: 然后一般就是600字，1000字。(Ránhòu yībān jiùshì 600 zì,1000 zì.) |
| David: So 600, A thousand, that’s a lot for a little kid. |
| Echo: 对呀，然后我们就是一边写一边数，一边写一边数，特别可怜。就是“几个字啦？“。哦，我在这写一个句号。(Duì ya, ránhòu wǒmen jiùshì yībiān xiě yībiàn shǔ, yībiān xiě yībiàn shǔ, tèbié kělián. Jiùshì “jǐ gè zì la?“. Ó, wǒ zài zhè xiě yīgè jùhào.) |
| David: Oh let's write a period, that counts as one. Poor, poor Echo. |
| It’s grammar time. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| David: Okay this grammar section, it’s not the most exciting grammar section we’ve ever done like it’s a really useful one and this is one that a lot of people are going to get wrong but you are not going to get it wrong. Echo, what is it? |
| Echo: It’s continuing. |
| David: Yeah it’s different ways of describing that something is continuing. Now in our dialogue, we had this line. |
| Echo: 接着。晚饭以后接着写。(Jiēzhe. Wǎnfàn yǐhòu jiēzhe xiě.) |
| David: After dinner, I will continue writing it. We actually had an earlier version of this dialogue which was slightly different. |
| Echo: 晚饭以后再写。(Wǎnfàn yǐhòu zài xiě.) |
| David: Right. So we’ve got two ways of saying that something is continuing there. The first |
| Echo: 接着。(Jiēzhe.) |
| David: Is a verb and we stick it in front of another verb. So to continue writing. |
| Echo: 接着写。(Jiēzhe xiě.) |
| David: And that literally means to kind of pick up where you were doing it before and continue from there. The second way |
| Echo: 再。(Zài.) |
| David: Also means to continue. |
| Echo: 再写。 (Zài xiě.) |
| David: Right. Slight difference here. You can actually cheat. |
| Echo: 对 (Duì) Because when we use 再 (Zài) it could also mean I didn’t. |
| David: It’s starting for the first time. |
| Echo: Yeah I didn’t write that beforehand. |
| David: Right. So if you are a chronic procrastinator and you haven’t done any work yet, you want to be using 再 (Zài) |
| Echo: 再 (Zài) right. |
| David: Not 接着。 (Jiēzhe.) |
| Echo: Like 我明天再写。(Wǒ míngtiān zài xiě.) |
| David: Yes I will continue writing it tomorrow. We’ve got one more word for you. |
| Echo: 继续。(Jìxù.) |
| David: This also means to continue. It’s three of our ______ (0:12:17) word for talking about the continuous. |
| Echo: 没错。(Méi cuò.) |
| David: It’s part 3 of our ______ (0:12:23) word of words for talking about continuing things. |
| Echo: 继续 (Jìxù) Actually it’s more like 接着。(Jiēzhe.). It’s just more formal. |
| David: Yeah. So which is the most colloquial? |
| Echo: 接着。(Jiēzhe.) |
| David: And then which is the most formal? |
| Echo: 继续。(Jìxù.) |
| David: And then 再 (Zài) is kind of just in the middle. |
| Echo: Because 再 (Zài) has those two meanings. |
| David: Okay so avoid 再 (Zài) unless you really want to give the impression that maybe you haven’t done anything yet. Okay we’ve got some sample sentences for you as always. Echo, why don’t you take us away. |
| Echo: 好。我一会接着吃。(Hǎo. Wǒ yī huǐ jiēzhe chī.) |
| David: I am going to continue eating in a while. |
| Echo: So keep my 筷子 (Kuàizi) on the table. |
| David: Yeah don’t take that plate away. |
| Echo: 他明天继续做。(Tā míngtiān jìxù zuò.) |
| David: He will continue to do it tomorrow. |
| Echo: 他明天继续做。他以后再看。(Tā míngtiān jìxù zuò. Tā yǐhòu zài kàn.) |
| David: He will continue to look in a bit. |
| Echo: Or |
| David: Or he will look for the first time after a bit. |
| Echo: 他以后再看。(Tā yǐhòu zài kàn.) |
| David: And actually that’s not after a bit, it’s afterwards. So after he is doing something like watching television. |
| Echo: Yeah 看电视。(Kàn diànshì.) |
| David: Playing Farmville. |
| Echo: 玩儿开心农场。(Wán er kāixīn nóngchǎng.) |
| David: Right |
| Echo: 偷菜。(Tōu cài.) |
| David: Yeah. He will do it after he’s stolen the vegetables. This is important. |
| Echo: Hold on a second. I need to 偷菜 (Tōu cài) right now. |
| David: And speaking of Farmville, before we close, we’ve got to say, a lot of people, they say that the Chinese internet is filled with people imitating western sites. Well I think Farmville is a case, it’s a Chinese invention, isn’t it? |
| Echo: 是吗？(Shì ma?) |
| David: It was on 开心(Kāixīn). I think it was on the Chinese internet first. |
| Echo:所以那个是第一个。(Suǒyǐ nàgè shì dì yī gè.) |
| David: Right so China is a trendsetter in flash games of stealing vegetables online. |
| Echo: 这是一个不错的发明。(Zhè shì yīgè bùcuò de fǎ míng.) |
| David: And that means that China is at the forefront of procrastination at work. |
| Echo: 就是菜农的基地。(Jiùshì càinóng de jīdì.) |
Outro |
| David: Yeah anyway, that’s our podcast for today. In review, we’ve given you a bunch of vocab to do with procrastination. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| David: Great words including driving the night truck. |
| Echo: 开业车。(Kāiyè chē.) |
| David: And stewing the night. |
| Echo: 熬夜。(Áoyè.) |
| David: We’ve given you a grammar section with three different words you can use to say that something is continuing. |
| Echo: Right they are 接着，继续，再。(Jiēzhe, jìxù, zài.) |
| David: Just put them in front of the verb. And with that, that’s our podcast for today. Before we let you go, as always, we want to remind you, we’ve got premium PDFs on the site waiting for you. |
| Echo: Right. |
| David: They have all of this grammar stuff written down, all of this vocab written down and it makes it super easy to review things. |
| Echo: Right. |
| David: Print it out or take a look at it the day after you listen to a podcast and you will note your improvement. From Beijing, I am David. |
| Echo: 我是Echo.(Wǒ shì Echo.) |
| David: Thanks a lot for listening and we will see you guys next week. |
| Echo: Bye bye. |
| David: Bye. |
Comments
Hide