Learn how to give other people directions
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| David: Welcome to ChineseClass101. I’m David. |
| Echo: Hi! Da jia hao! 我是(Wǒ shì)Echo. |
| David: Echo, we’re here with beginning Lesson 48. |
| Echo: 没错。第四十八课(Méi cuò. Dì sìshíbā kè) in our series one. |
| David: Yes. This is actually pretty close to last week because we are in the same cab with the same driver and the same female passenger. |
| Echo: Although she actually made some progress. |
| David: She’s made some progress in Chinese. However, as far as the driver goes, he hasn’t made much progress. Getting those directions hasn’t done much for him. So she’s got to tell him exactly where he needs to go. |
| Echo: 没错儿。(Méi cuò ér.) |
| David: Right. So this is our lesson. We’re going to teach you how to say turn left, turn right, and always importantly, stop the car. |
| Echo: 对。(Duì.) |
| David: We’ve got a dialogue for you. We’re going to take you there in a sec. Before we do, Echo, there’s something you wanted to talk about. |
| Echo: Please go to our premium learning center. |
| David: Right. We’ve got a lot of great stuff in there, such as our voice recording tool. This is for premium subscribers. It’s going to help you get your tones down perfectly. |
| Echo: Right. |
| David: Okay. With that though, let’s go on to the dialogue. |
| 甲: 现在怎么走？(JIǍ: Xiànzài zěnme zǒu?) |
| 乙: 直走就行了。(YǏ: Zhí zǒu jiù xíng le.) |
| 甲: 还有多远？(JIǍ: Hái yǒu duō yuǎn?) |
| 乙: 过两个红绿灯。(YǏ: Guò liǎng ge hónglǜdēng.) |
| 甲: 好。(JIǍ: Hǎo.) |
| 乙: 到了。谢谢。(YǏ: Dào le. Xièxie.) |
| David: One more time, a bit slower. |
| 甲: 现在怎么走？(JIǍ: Xiànzài zěnme zǒu?) |
| 乙: 直走就行了。(YǏ: Zhí zǒu jiù xíng le.) |
| 甲: 还有多远？(JIǍ: Hái yǒu duō yuǎn?) |
| 乙: 过两个红绿灯。(YǏ: Guò liǎng ge hónglǜdēng.) |
| 甲: 好。(JIǍ: Hǎo.) |
| 乙: 到了。谢谢。(YǏ: Dào le. Xièxie.) |
| 甲: 现在怎么走？(JIǍ: Xiànzài zěnme zǒu?) |
| David: How do we go now? |
| 乙: 直走就行了。(YǏ: Zhí zǒu jiù xíng le.) |
| David: Go straight then that’s okay. |
| 甲: 还有多远？(JIǍ: Hái yǒu duō yuǎn?) |
| David: How much distance is left? |
| 乙: 过两个红绿灯。(YǏ: Guò liǎng ge hónglǜdēng.) |
| David: Pass two street lights. |
| 甲: 好。(JIǍ: Hǎo.) |
| David: Okay. |
| 乙: 到了。谢谢。(YǏ: Dào le. Xièxie.) |
| David: Hey, we’ve arrived. We’ve arrived. Thanks! |
| David: I’ve had this conversation before. |
| Echo: Yeah. You didn’t scream? |
| David: I did scream actually. I screamed the last line. “Stop the car! Stop the car! We’ve arrived.” The driver has… |
| Echo: So almost gave the cab driver a heart attack. |
| David: No. The cab driver was like, “Huh, we’re already here? Why didn’t you tell me?” To which the answer is, “We did tell you.” We’re going to take you to the vocab now and all of our vocab for this lesson is stuff you’re going to find useful when you’re telling directions. |
| Echo: 对。(Duì.) |
| David: Echo, take us away. |
| Male: Now, the vocab section. |
| Echo: 怎麼走(zěnme zǒu) [natural native speed]. |
| David: How to go. |
| Echo: 怎麼走(zěnme zǒu) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 怎麼走(zěnme zǒu) [natural native speed]. |
| Echo: 近(jìn) [natural native speed]. |
| David: Near. |
| Echo: 近(jìn) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 近(jìn) [natural native speed]. |
| Echo: 遠(yuǎn) [natural native speed]. |
| David: Far. |
| Echo: 遠(yuǎn) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 遠(yuǎn) [natural native speed]. |
| Echo: 直走(zhízǒu) [natural native speed]. |
| David: Go straight. |
| Echo: 直走(zhízǒu) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 直走 (zhízǒu)[natural native speed]. |
| Echo: 左轉(zuǒzhuǎn) [natural native speed]. |
| David: Turn left. |
| Echo: 左轉(zuǒzhuǎn) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 左轉(zuǒzhuǎn) [natural native speed]. |
| Echo: 右轉(yòuzhuǎn) [natural native speed]. |
| David: Turn right. |
| Echo: 右轉(yòuzhuǎn) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 右轉(yòuzhuǎn) [natural native speed]. |
| Echo: 紅綠燈(hónglǜdēng) [natural native speed]. |
| David: Stop light. |
| Echo: 紅綠燈(hónglǜdēng) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 紅綠燈(hónglǜdēng) [natural native speed]. |
| Echo: 路口(lùkǒu) [natural native speed]. |
| David: Intersection. |
| Echo: 路口(lùkǒu) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 路口(lùkǒu) [natural native speed]. |
| Echo: 停車(tíngchē) [natural native speed]. |
| David: Stop the car. |
| Echo: 停車(tíngchē) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 停車(tíngchē) [natural native speed]. |
| David: Okay. A lot of really useful vocab for telling directions. The first phrase that springs to mind is, of course, the first word we gave you. |
| Echo: 怎么走。(zěnme zǒu.) |
| David: This is literally two words. It’s the word for “how”… |
| Echo: 怎么。(Zěnme) |
| David: …and “to go”. |
| Echo: 走。(Zǒu.) |
| David: In the dialogue, we hear it in a stand-alone sentence. |
| Echo: 现在怎么走。(Xiànzài zěnme zǒu.) |
| David: Right now, how do you want me to go? |
| Echo: Right. |
| David: Something interesting about this phrase is the way it’s used is different than how you might use it in English. |
| Echo: 对。(Duì.) |
| David: In English, we’d say, “How do I go to the hospital?” In Chinese, that’s… |
| Echo: 医院怎么走？(Yīyuàn zěnme zǒu?) |
| David: Let’s hear that again. |
| Echo: 医院怎么走？(Yīyuàn zěnme zǒu?) |
| David: Note the way we put the destination word right upfront there. |
| Echo: 对。(Duì.) |
| David: So you could say, “How do I get to the office?” |
| Echo: 办公室怎么走？(Bàngōngshì zěnme zǒu?) |
| David: How do I get to the police station? |
| Echo: 派出所怎么走？(Pàichūsuǒ zěnme zǒu?) |
| David: Right. Our next words for you are adjectives. The adjectives near… |
| Echo: 近。(jìn.) |
| David: And far. |
| Echo: 远。(yuǎn.) |
| David: You’re going to hear this a lot or you’re going to need to use them a lot to tell people, “It’s not very far.” |
| Echo: 不太远。(Bù tài yuǎn.) |
| David: Or it’s very near. |
| Echo: 很近。(Hěn jìn.) |
| David: Right. Because this is a distance, when people asked you, they’re going to say, “How near is it?” |
| Echo: 有多近？(Yǒu duō jìn?) |
| David: Yeah. To have “how much near”. The rest of the words are words you can use giving directions. We’ve got, “Go straight.” |
| Echo: 直走。(Zhí zǒu.) |
| David: We’ve got, “Turn left.” |
| Echo: 左转。(zuǒzhuǎn.) |
| David: Turn right. |
| Echo: 右转。(yòuzhuǎn.) |
| David: At the bottom, we’ve got, “Stop the car”. |
| Echo: 停车。(Tíngchē) |
| David: Of these, I think the hardest ones are “turn left” and “turn right”. |
| Echo: 为什么？(Wèishéme?) |
| David: Because it’s easy for people to get them mixed up. |
| Echo: So remember left is 左(Zuǒ), right is 右.(Yòu.) |
| David: That’s easy to say, but it is occasionally hard to remember. |
| Echo: Well, you can write it down on your hands. |
| David: Yeah. Maybe you should write it down on your hands. I used to get this mixed up all time. Anyway, try to bear those in mind. Once again, we’ve got, “Go straight.” |
| Echo: 直走。(Zhí zǒu.) |
| David: Turn left. |
| Echo: 左转。(zuǒzhuǎn.) |
| David: Turn right. |
| Echo: 右转。(yòuzhuǎn.) |
| David: And “stop the car”. |
| Echo: 停车。(tíngchē.) |
| David: Last but not least, we’ve got two words you’re going to use all the time. There is “stop light”. |
| Echo: 红绿灯。(hónglǜdēng.) |
| David: Which is literally a red… |
| Echo: 红。(Hóng.) |
| David: …and green… |
| Echo: 绿。(Lǜ.) |
| David: Light. |
| Echo: 灯。(Dēng) |
| David: Stop light. |
| Echo: 红绿灯。(hónglǜdēng.) |
| David: Then finally, we’ve got intersection. |
| Echo: 路口。(lùkǒu.) |
| David: Which is road and then mouth, and that means where the roads meet. |
| Echo: Right. |
| David: So if you’re going to ask someone for directions, you can ask them, “At what intersection is that?” |
| Echo: 在哪个路口？(Zài nǎge lùkǒu?) |
| David: Right. So before we head to grammar, we’re going to play a bit of a quick game. Echo, I need to give you directions and I want you to translate them into Chinese. |
| Echo: Okay. |
| David: Okay? You guys, see if you can keep up with us. Okay? |
| Echo: 好。(Hǎo.) |
| David: First, go straight ahead. |
| Echo: 直走。(zhízǒu.) |
| David: Then turn left. |
| Echo: 再左转。(Zài zuǒ zhuǎn.) |
| David: Then turn right. |
| Echo: 再右转。(Zài yòu zhuǎn.) |
| David: Then turn left again. |
| Echo: 再左转。(Zài zuǒ zhuǎn.) |
| David: “Then you’re there.” Note the use of the word… |
| Echo: 再。(Zài.) |
| David: …in that sentence. .It means, “And then.” Same as in goodbye. Speaking of goodbye, we’re done the vocab section and we’re going to head to the grammar section. |
| Echo: So goodbye vocab section. |
| David: Goodbye vocab. |
| Male: It’s grammar time. |
| David: Okay. Our grammar section is pretty simple. |
| Echo: It’s about 在 but it’s another zai. |
| David: Yeah. It’s the zai that we use as a preposition and as a verb. |
| Echo: 没错。 |
| David: It means “at” or “to be at”. We’ve run into this before in simple sentences. |
| Echo: Yeah, as a verb. |
| David: We’ve seen it in sentences like, “The food is on the table.” |
| Echo: 饭在桌子上。(Fàn zài zhuōzi shàng.) |
| David: Or, “The pen is in my bag.” |
| Echo: 笔在书包里。(Bǐ zài shūbāo lǐ.) |
| David: Right. Now, in these sentences… |
| Echo: 在。(Zài.) |
| David: It’s acting as the main verb. In sentences that tell directions, we’re going to be using it a bit differently. |
| Echo: Right. |
| David: We’re going to be using it primarily as what’s known as a preposition or co-verb in Chinese. Now, don’t let these grammar words scare you. The important thing to pay attention to is just it’s not actually the main verb in the sentence. Because it’s a preposition, we’ve got to put it before the main verb in our sentence. |
| Echo: Right. To point it out, the direction or… |
| David: Right. Now the reason we’re doing this is because if you’re in the cab, you’re not always going to be able to say, “To left, to right” because if you say that, it means right now, right? You want to be able to say, “At the stop light, turn left” or “At the intersection, turn right.” That’s where… |
| Echo: 在(Zài) |
| David: …is going to come in really useful. Let’s take a look at some sample sentences. |
| Echo: 好。(Hǎo.) |
| David: Turn left here. |
| Echo: 在这儿左转。(Zài zhè'er zuǒ zhuǎn.) |
| David: Note the way that… |
| Echo: 在。(Zài.) |
| David: ..takes place before the main verb. The main verb in that sentence is “turn left”. |
| Echo: 左转。(Zuǒ zhuǎn.)Actually, it’s 转.(Zhuǎn.) |
| David: Yes, it’s third tone. So we’ve got… |
| Echo: 在(Zài) |
| David: …and then the place. |
| Echo: 这儿(Zhè'er) |
| David: And then the verb. |
| Echo: 左转。(Zuǒ zhuǎn.) |
| David: At here, turn left. |
| Echo: 在这儿左转。(Zài zhè'er zuǒ zhuǎn.) |
| David: Let’s take a look at another sentence. “Turn right there”. |
| Echo: 在那儿右转。(Zài nà'er yòu zhuǎn.) |
| David: Go straight ahead at the lights. |
| Echo: 在红绿灯直走。(Zài hónglǜdēng zhí zǒu.) |
| David: Then finally, we’ve got “stop the car at the intersection.” |
| Echo: 在路口停车。(Zài lùkǒu tíngchē.) |
| Echo: 在。(Zài.) |
| David: Here is a preposition or a co-verb, depending on which textbook you are using. One of the really, really common mistakes people make is sticking it after the verb…. |
| Echo: Right. |
| David: …because it’s the way it sounds in English. |
| Echo: Yeah, yeah. |
| David: One of the hardest things to do getting used to Chinese is getting used to putting that stuff in front of the verb. |
| Echo: Yeah, put it before. Right. |
| David: Okay. When you’re giving directions, you’re going to need to do that, okay? That’s our lesson for today. Before we go, we want to remind you, all of this stuff we’re talking about – the grammar notes, the vocab, they’re in the PDFs that we’ve got on the site. Premium PDFs, they’re part of our subscription. If you’re learning Chinese, it’s a really good deal. |
| Echo: Yup. |
| David: So go check them out. If you have any questions, Echo… |
| Echo: Make sure always leave a comment on the site or write to us. |
| David: Right. We are here to answer any questions you have, so we’d love to hear it from you. From Beijing, I’m David. |
| Echo: 我是(Wǒ shì) Echo. |
| David: Thanks for listening and we’ll see you next week. |
| Echo: 我们下周见吧。(Wǒmen xià zhōu jiàn ba) |
| David: Bye-bye. |
| Echo: Bye. |
| 甲: 现在怎么走？(JIǍ: Xiànzài zěnme zǒu?) |
| 乙: 直走就行了。(YǏ: Zhí zǒu jiù xíng le.) |
| 甲: 还有多远？(JIǍ: Hái yǒu duō yuǎn?) |
| 乙: 过两个红绿灯。(YǏ: Guò liǎng ge hónglǜdēng.) |
| 甲: 好。(JIǍ: Hǎo.) |
| 乙: 到了。谢谢。(YǏ: Dào le. Xièxie.) |
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