Take a look at a get-rich scheme in contemporary China
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| INTRODUCTION |
| David: Welcome to chineseclass101. I am David. |
| Echo: 嗨！大家好，我是(Hāi! Dàjiā hǎo, wǒ shì)Echo. |
| David: And we are here with lesson 11 in our first intermediate series. |
| Echo: 第十一课。(Dì shíyī kè.) |
| David: Strongly into double digits and our lesson is called How to Get Rich Quick in China. |
| Echo: 不错，我也想知道。(Bùcuò, wǒ yě xiǎng zhīdào.) |
| David: Well, we don’t recommend you actually try this but this is how a lot of Chinese people think these days. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| David: So we’ve got a dialogue here that is between two co-workers. They are colleagues. They are talking in the office. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| David: And they are talking about investment. How to do it. |
| Echo: And they are speaking casually. |
| David: Yeah casual mandarin as always. Before we take you to the dialogue, we want to remind you, we have this new CC101 Elite level. Echo, what’s in that? |
| Echo: 我们的 (Wǒmen de) 1 on 1 lesson. |
| David: Yeah it includes customized 1 on 1 lessons from us for you. If you’ve been thinking about taking a Chinese class, give us an email at contactus@chineseclass101.com, let us know your interest and we are going to give you a free trial. |
| Echo: 没错。(Méi cuò.) |
| David: It is actually a bit less expensive than taking a class and you get 1 on 1 personal attention. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| David: You are going to make a lot of progress. With that though, let’s get to the dialogue. |
| DIALOGUE |
| 经济萧条，你说做什么可以又轻松又赚钱呢？(jīngjì xiāotiáo, nǐ shuō zuò shénme kěyǐ yòu qīngsōng yòu zhuànqián ne?) |
| 天下哪儿有免费的午餐啊？(tiānxià nǎr yǒu miǎnfèi de wǔcān a?) |
| 投资呗。(Tóuzī bei.) |
| 风险和回报是成正比的。股票债券，都是高回报，高风险。(Fēngxiǎn hé huíbào shì chéng zhèngbǐ de. Gǔpiào zhàiquàn, dōu shì gāo huíbào, gāo fēngxiǎn.) |
| 那都过时了。现在流行炒房地产。(Nà dōu guòshí le. xiànzài liúxíng chǎo fángdìchǎn.) |
| 买房子？(mǎifáng zǐ?) |
| 可不是吗，我舅舅上个月花一百万买了一栋房子，这个月就涨了一倍！(kěbushì ma, wǒ jiùjiu shàng ge yuè huā yībǎiwàn mǎi le yī dòng fángzi, zhègè yuè jiù zhǎng le yī bèi!) |
| 那你也准备买房去？(nà nǐ yě zhǔnbèi mǎi fáng qù ?) |
| 当然了！到时候，房价翻倍再翻倍，我很快就成比尔盖茨啦！(dāngrán le! dào shíhou, fángjià fānbèi zài fānbèi, wǒ hěn kuài jiù chéng Bǐ'ěr Gàicí la!) |
| David: One more time, a little bit slower. |
| 经济萧条，你说做什么可以又轻松又赚钱呢？(jīngjì xiāotiáo, nǐ shuō zuò shénme kěyǐ yòu qīngsōng yòu zhuànqián ne?) |
| 天下哪儿有免费的午餐啊？(tiānxià nǎr yǒu miǎnfèi de wǔcān a?) |
| 投资呗。(Tóuzī bei.) |
| 风险和回报是成正比的。股票债券，都是高回报，高风险。(Fēngxiǎn hé huíbào shì chéng zhèngbǐ de. Gǔpiào zhàiquàn, dōu shì gāo huíbào, gāo fēngxiǎn.) |
| 那都过时了。现在流行炒房地产。(Nà dōu guòshí le. xiànzài liúxíng chǎo fángdìchǎn.) |
| 买房子？(mǎifáng zǐ?) |
| 可不是吗，我舅舅上个月花一百万买了一栋房子，这个月就涨了一倍！(kěbushì ma, wǒ jiùjiu shàng ge yuè huā yībǎiwàn mǎi le yī dòng fángzi, zhègè yuè jiù zhǎng le yī bèi!) |
| 那你也准备买房去？(nà nǐ yě zhǔnbèi mǎi fáng qù ?) |
| 当然了！到时候，房价翻倍再翻倍，我很快就成比尔盖茨啦！(dāngrán le! dào shíhou, fángjià fānbèi zài fānbèi, wǒ hěn kuài jiù chéng Bǐ'ěr Gàicí la!) |
| David: And now with the English translation. |
| 经济萧条，你说做什么可以又轻松又赚钱呢？(jīngjì xiāotiáo, nǐ shuō zuò shénme kěyǐ yòu qīngsōng yòu zhuànqián ne?) |
| With the economy like this, you know what you can do that's profitable and not too taxing? |
| 天下哪儿有免费的午餐啊？(tiānxià nǎr yǒu miǎnfèi de wǔcān a?) |
| There's no such thing as a free lunch. |
| 投资呗。(tóuzī bei.) |
| Invest! |
| 风险和回报是成正比的。股票债券，都是高回报，高风险。(fēngxiǎn hé huíbào shì chéng zhèngbǐ de. gǔpiàozhàiquàn, dōu shì gāo huíbào, gāo fēngxiǎn.) |
| Risk and return are related. Stocks and bonds are both high-risk, high return investments. |
| 那都过时了。现在流行炒房地产。(Nà dōu guòshí le. xiànzài liúxíng chǎo fángdìchǎn.) |
| That's old-fashioned. Speculating with real estate is what's popular now. |
| 买房子？(mǎifáng zǐ?) |
| buying house? |
| 可不是吗，我舅舅上个月花一百万买了一栋房子，这个月就涨了一倍！(kěbushì ma, wǒ jiùjiu shàng ge yuè huā yībǎiwàn mǎi le yī dòng fángzi, zhègè yuè jiù zhǎng le yī bèi!) |
| Isn't that the truth. My uncle spent a million last month buying a house. It's already doubled in value this month. |
| 那你也准备买房去？(nà nǐ yě zhǔnbèi mǎi fáng qù ?) |
| So you're getting ready to buy housing? |
| 当然了！到时候，房价翻倍再翻倍，我很快就成比尔盖茨啦！(dāngrán le! dào shíhou, fángjià fānbèi zài fānbèi, wǒ hěn kuài jiù chéng Bǐ'ěr Gàicí la!) |
| Of course! After the price doubles a few times, I'll quickly get richer than Bill Gates. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| David: A lot of people think like this. |
| Echo: 房地产的比尔盖茨。(Fángdìchǎn de bǐ'ěr gài cí.) |
| David: Yeah. There are tons of people who own multiple houses. If you are renting, you are going to run into a lot of them. They own two or three houses. It’s crazy. |
| Echo: 对，北京的房价其实是这样，我觉得很多大城市都是这样，在中国。(Duì, běijīng de fángjià qíshí shì zhèyàng, wǒ juédé hěnduō dà chéngshì dōu shì zhèyàng, zài zhōngguó.) |
| David: Really crazy but it looks like it’s going through a correction now. So some people are having trouble. |
| Echo: 谁知道。(Shéi zhīdào.) |
| David: Yeah. We will see. Anyway, we’ve got a lot of vocab today which is about investment and the economy. |
| Echo: 对。(Duì.) |
| David: So intermediate lesson, intermediate vocab. Let’s get to the vocab section now. And now, the vocab section. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Echo: 经济 (jīngjì) |
| David: Economy. |
| Echo: 经济，经济。萧条 (Jīngjì, jīngjì. Xiāotiáo) |
| David: Recession. |
| Echo: 萧条，萧条。投资 (Xiāotiáo, xiāotiáo. Tóuzī) |
| David: To invest. |
| Echo: 投资，投资。风险 (Tóuzī, tóuzī. Fēngxiǎn) |
| David: Risk. |
| Echo: 风险，风险。回报 (Fēngxiǎn, fēngxiǎn. Huíbào) |
| David: Return on investment. |
| Echo: 回报，回报。炒 (Huíbào, huíbào. Chǎo) |
| David: To speculate. |
| Echo: 炒，炒。房地产 (Chǎo, chǎo. Fángdìchǎn) |
| David: Real estate. |
| Echo: 房地产，房地产。涨 (Fángdìchǎn, fángdìchǎn. Zhǎng) |
| David: To appreciate. |
| Echo: 涨，涨。翻倍 (Zhǎng, zhǎng. Fān bèi) |
| David: To double. |
| Echo: 翻倍，翻倍 (Fān bèi, fān bèi) |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| David: Let’s have a closer look at the usage for some of these words and phrases. Our first phrase is |
| Echo: 萧条 (Xiāotiáo) |
| David: Which means a recession. |
| Echo: 萧条 (Xiāotiáo) |
| David: Or in some cases, it can be an economic recession or an economic depression even. |
| Echo: 经济萧条 (Jīngjì xiāotiáo) |
| David: Right. People will often refer to the great depression this way. |
| Echo: 大萧条 (Dà xiāotiáo) |
| David: The big 萧条 (Xiāotiáo), right, the big recession. |
| Echo: 对。 (Duì.) |
| David: So… |
| Echo: 我们看一个例子吧。(Wǒmen kàn yīgè lìzi ba.) |
| David: Okay. |
| Echo: 现在是市场的萧条时期，生意都不好说。(Xiànzài shì shìchǎng de xiāotiáo shíqí, shēngyì dōu bù hǎoshuō.) |
| David: Right now is a depressed time in the market. It’s not that easy to do business. |
| Echo: 现在是市场的萧条时期，生意都不好说。 (Xiànzài shì shìchǎng de xiāotiáo shíqí, shēngyì dōu bù hǎoshuō.) |
| David: Right. So in this sentence, we didn’t actually have 经济 (Jīngjì) before 萧条(Xiāotiáo). So you don’t need it but it can help make it more clear. Okay in the previous lesson, we’ve covered investment related vocab that we see again here. |
| Echo: 比如说，「投资」和「风险」。(Bǐrú shuō,`tóuzī'hé `fēngxiǎn'.) |
| David: Right. The first word there |
| Echo: 投资 (Tóuzī) |
| David: Means to invest. |
| Echo: 风险 (Fēngxiǎn) |
| David: The second word is |
| Echo: 风险 (Fēngxiǎn) |
| David: And that means risk. Combining the two actually gives us the word for venture capital. |
| Echo: 风险投资 (Fēngxiǎn tóuzī) |
| David: Right. That's venture capital or risk capital. |
| Echo: 风险投资。毕业以后，他找了一份做风险投资的工作。(Fēngxiǎn tóuzī. Bìyè yǐhòu, tā zhǎole yī fèn zuò fēngxiǎn tóuzī de gōngzuò.) |
| David: After he graduated, he got a job in venture capital. |
| Echo: 毕业以后，他找了一份做风险投资的工作。(Bìyè yǐhòu, tā zhǎole yī fèn zuò fēngxiǎn tóuzī de gōngzuò.) |
| David: Right. Our next vocab word is |
| Echo: 回报 (Huíbào) |
| David: Which means a return. |
| Echo: 回报 (Huíbào) |
| David: As in a return on investment. |
| Echo: 投资回报 (Tóuzī huíbào) |
| David: Right and we understand this word by word. 回 (Kai) obviously means to come back and 报 (Bào) is a report. |
| Echo: 回报。(Huíbào) |
| David: Right. |
| Echo: 一千五百万美金的投资，并没有得到回报。(Yīqiān wǔbǎi wàn měijīn de tóuzī, bìng méiyǒu dédào huíbào.) |
| David: There is no return on the USD15 million investment. |
| Echo: 一千五百万美金的投资，并没有得到回报。(Yīqiān wǔbǎi wàn měijīn de tóuzī, bìng méiyǒu dédào huíbào.) |
| David: Yeah right. There is no return on the investment that totaled USD15 million. Ouch! Anyway, moving on, while we are not suggesting you do it, one of the common ways people get a return on investment in China these days is actually by speculating. |
| Echo: 炒 (Chǎo) |
| David: Now we’ve heard this word before at earlier levels. There it means “to fry”. |
| Echo: 对，譬如说「炒面」。(Duì, bǐrú shuō `chǎomiàn'.) |
| David: Right, fried noodles or chow-mein as we will often hear. Once again, to speculate |
| Echo: 炒 (Chǎo) |
| David: In our dialogue, people are speculating in real estate. |
| Echo: 他们在炒房地产。(Tāmen zài chǎo fángdìchǎn.) |
| David: Which is another one of our words. Our final word for you is |
| Echo: 翻倍 (Fān bèi) |
| David: Which literally means to double. It means to turn over the total amount. |
| Echo: 对，翻倍。(Duì, fān bèi.) |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| David: We are going to talk a bit more about this in the grammar section. So let’s get there now. Our grammar section today is all about doubles and multiples of things. |
| Echo: 在对话里我们听到了这个句子「我舅舅上个月花一百万买了一栋房子，这个月就涨了一倍！」(Zài duìhuà li wǒmen tīng dàole zhège jùzi `wǒ jiùjiu shàng gè yuè huā yībǎi wàn mǎile yī dòng fángzi, zhège yuè jiù zhǎngle yī bèi!') |
| David: Right. My uncle bought a $1 million house last year and |
| Echo: 这个月就涨了一倍！(Zhège yuè jiù zhǎngle yī bèi!) |
| David: This month, it doubled in value. |
| Echo: 不错。(Bùcuò) |
| David: Let’s hear that again. This month, it doubled in value. |
| Echo: 这个月就涨了一倍！(Zhège yuè jiù zhǎngle yī bèi!) |
| David: Right and we’ve got the 就 (Jiù) in there to emphasize how quickly it’s happened. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| David: The Chinese property market is crazy but it isn’t actually that crazy. So don’t run out and invest because you’ve heard this podcast. |
| Echo: 反正我买不起。(Fǎnzhèng wǒ mǎi bù qǐ.) |
| David: Yeah. Anyway, we want to focus on this part. |
| Echo: 涨了一倍 (Zhǎngle yī bèi) |
| David: Because this is really confusing. That means to appreciate by |
| Echo: 一倍 (Yī bèi) |
| David: Right. Now 倍 (Bèi) means an amount equal to the total amount. |
| Echo: 对，没错 (Duì, méi cuò) |
| David: Right. So if you’ve got a $100, 一倍 (Yī bèi) is then |
| Echo: Another $100. |
| David: Right. So here we are talking about adding on 一倍 (Yī bèi) |
| Echo: 对，涨了一倍。 (Duì, zhǎngle yī bèi.) |
| David: Right. So from a 100, we’ve gone to 200. Now we hear this 一倍 (Yī bèi) in a lot of compounds. |
| Echo: 比如说，涨一倍。(Bǐrú shuō, zhǎng yī bèi.) |
| David: To increase – to increase a 100% |
| Echo: 加一倍。(Jiā yī bèi.) |
| David: To add on 100% |
| Echo: 翻一倍。 (Fān yī bèi.) |
| David: To double. Now the last one is literally to turnover one 倍 (Bèi), which is double. |
| Echo: 对。(Duì.) |
| David: So in all of these cases because we are dealing with one 倍(Bèi),, it’s pretty clear that we are doubling the amount. Where things get tricky is we are often going to change this number. |
| Echo: 对，比如说，涨了两倍。(Duì, bǐrú shuō, zhǎngle liǎng bèi.) |
| David: To increase by two times. |
| Echo: 加了三倍。(Jiāle sān bèi.) |
| David: To add on three times. |
| Echo: 翻了几倍。(Fānle jǐ bèi.) |
| David: To double several times, to double several times. |
| Echo: 比如说:从1990年到现在，北京的房价翻了几倍。 (Bǐrú shuō: Cóng 1990 nián dào xiànzài, běijīng de fángjià fānle jǐ bèi.) |
| David: Right, this is actually true. Since 1990, the price of housing in Beijing has doubled several times over. |
| Echo: 没错。从1990年到现在，北京的房价翻了几倍。(Méi cuò. Cóng 1990 nián dào xiànzài, běijīng de fángjià fānle jǐ bèi.) |
| David: Right, it used to cost a couple of thousand Renminbi per square meter. Now, in the 2nd Ring Road, it’s up to about 40,000. Really expensive. Moving past that though, the tricky thing about this is when we deal with numbers greater than 1, it’s not really clear what the total amount you end up with is. |
| Echo: 没错。(Méi cuò.) |
| David: This isn’t the language issue. Chinese people get this mixed up all the time too. Right. For instance, |
| Echo: 翻两倍。(Fān liǎng bèi.) |
| David: It’s not clear if this is three times or four times the original amount. |
| Echo: 对。(Duì.) |
| David: You go from 100 to 200 right? |
| Echo: 个人有自己的理解。(Gèrén yǒu zìjǐ de lǐjiě.) |
| David: You know, are you multiplying that amount by a 100% or the original amount. |
| Echo: 噢，晕了！ (Ō, yūnle!) |
| David: Yeah it’s confusing and you will run into Chinese people who use this differently all the time. So our advice is, when you hear someone run into this, get them to give you the numbers, yeah. We’ve got some sample sentences for you where we’ve tried to make it as clear as possible though. Echo, |
| Echo: 我的同事生病了，结果我的工作量增加了一倍。(Wǒ de tóngshì shēngbìngle, jiéguǒ wǒ de gōngzuò liàng zēngjiāle yī bèi.) |
| David: My colleague fell sick and as a result, my workload increased 100%. |
| Echo: 我的同事生病了，结果我的工作量增加了一倍。(Wǒ de tóngshì shēngbìngle, jiéguǒ wǒ de gōngzuò liàng zēngjiāle yī bèi.) |
| David: And this has happened to me. My colleague fell sick and my workload doubled. Let’s have another one. |
| Echo: 能源短缺，使石油价格又翻了几倍。(Néngyuán duǎnquē, shǐ shíyóu jiàgé yòu fānle jǐ bèi.) |
| David: Scarcity of natural resources, the energy scarcity has caused the price of oil to double several times. The energy scarcity has caused the price of oil to double several times. So where we see this, people aren’t really being that specific with the numbers. It’s just – it’s increased a lot. |
| Echo: 对。(Duì.) |
| David: And soon, we will all be richer than Bill Gates. |
Outro |
| David: Anyway, that’s our lesson for today. As usual, we’ve got the PDFs and if you are a premium subscriber, go to the site and check that out. If you are not, you should seriously think about this new cc101 elite package we’ve got. |
| Echo: 对，我们的 (Duì, wǒmen de) 1 on 1 lesson. |
| David: Yeah it is $83 a month and you are going to get a ton of premium materials, a ton of customized attention and 60 minutes of 1 on 1 tutoring a week. |
| Echo: Uh-huh. |
| David: This is better than any class you are going to find out there and this is going to help you make a lot of progress really quickly. For now though, from Beijing, I am David. |
| Echo: 我是 (Wǒ shì) Echo。 |
| David: Thanks a lot for listening and we will see you on the site. |
| Echo: 好的，(Hǎo de,) Bye bye. |
| David: Bye. |
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