Learn how to get yourself past Chinese airport security without being arrested
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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 intermediate series, season 1, Lesson 12. Chinese Airport Security. |
| Echo: 很严格。(Hěn yángé.) |
| David: Yes it’s very serious. |
| Echo: 但没有美国那么严格。(Dàn méiyǒu měiguó nàme yángé.) |
| David: True. I’ve got a story about that later but for now, we’ve got a dialogue for you. It takes place in an airport and it’s between a security guard and the passenger who is going through the security check. |
| Echo: 对，跟你的故事差不多吧。(Duì, gēn nǐ de gùshì chàbùduō ba.) |
| David: It’s close anyway. Before we listen to that though, in case you still do not have a free lifetime account at chineseclass101.com |
| Echo: 我真不能相信 (Wǒ zhēn bùnéng xiāngxìn) You still don’t have one. |
| David: Right. It only takes 7 seconds. So take care of that. For now though, let’s go to the dialogue. |
| Echo: 好。(Hǎo) |
| DIALOGUE |
| 先生，打火机不能带上飞机。(xiānsheng, dǎhuǒjī bù néng dài shàng fēijī.) |
| 为什么？不过是个打火机罢了。(wèishénme? bùguò shì ge dǎhuǒjī bà le.) |
| 这个也不行。(zhège yě bù xíng.) |
| 菜刀也不行？(càidāo yě bù xíng?) |
| 还有这是什么？菠萝吗？(hái yǒu zhè shì shénme? bōluó ma?) |
| 土制炸弹罢了。(tǔzhì zhàdàn bà le) |
| 看来我们需要到警察局一趟。(kànlái wǒmen xūyào dào jǐngchájú yī tàng) |
| 我不要去！(wǒ bù yào qù!) |
| 怕什么？不过是聊聊罢了。(pà shénme? bùguò shì liáoliao bà le.) |
| David: One more time, a little bit slower. |
| 先生，打火机不能带上飞机。(xiānsheng, dǎhuǒjī bù néng dài shàng fēijī.) |
| 为什么？不过是个打火机罢了。(wèishénme? bùguò shì ge dǎhuǒjī bà le.) |
| 这个也不行。(zhège yě bù xíng.) |
| 菜刀也不行？(càidāo yě bù xíng?) |
| 还有这是什么？菠萝吗？(hái yǒu zhè shì shénme? bōluó ma?) |
| 土制炸弹罢了。(tǔzhì zhàdàn bà le) |
| 看来我们需要到警察局一趟。(kànlái wǒmen xūyào dào jǐngchájú yī tàng) |
| 我不要去！(wǒ bù yào qù!) |
| 怕什么？不过是聊聊罢了。(pà shénme? bùguò shì liáoliao bà le.) |
| David: And now with the English translation. |
| 先生，打火机不能带上飞机。(xiānsheng, dǎhuǒjī bù néng dài shàng fēijī.) |
| Sir, you can't take lighters onto the plane. |
| 为什么？不过是个打火机罢了。(wèishénme? bùguò shì ge dǎhuǒjī bà le.) |
| Why? It's only a lighter. |
| 这个也不行。(zhège yě bù xíng.) |
| This is also unacceptable. |
| 菜刀也不行？(càidāo yě bù xíng?) |
| Kitchen knives aren't okay? |
| 还有这是什么？菠萝吗？(hái yǒu zhè shì shénme? bōluó ma?) |
| And what's this? A pineapple? |
| 土制炸弹罢了。(tǔzhì zhàdàn bà le) |
| Just a homemade bomb. |
| 看来我们需要到警察局一趟。(kànlái wǒmen xūyào dào jǐngchájú yī tàng) |
| It seems we need to go see the police. |
| 我不要去！(wǒ bù yào qù!) |
| I don't want to go! |
| 怕什么？不过是聊聊罢了。(pà shénme? bùguò shì liáoliao bà le.) |
| What are you afraid of? It's just a chat, that's all. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| David: Airport story for you. I needed to take a server from Beijing to Shanghai and it’s this big metal case with these yellow and red wires you know wrapped around inside. |
| Echo: 对，我们的听众朋友们看不见你刚才做了一个什么动作。我可以给大家解释一下。David刚才做了一个动作，就把他的两只手打开，然后差不多有两米宽。(Duì, wǒmen de tīngzhòng péngyǒumen kàn bùjiàn nǐ gāngcái zuòle yīgè shénme dòngzuò. Wǒ kěyǐ gěi dàjiā jiěshì yīxià.David gāngcái zuòle yīgè dòngzuò, jiù bǎ tā de liǎng zhī shǒu dǎkāi, ránhòu chàbùduō yǒu liǎng mǐ kuān.) |
| David: It was huge. |
| Echo: 然后差不多有两米宽。(Ránhòu chàbùduō yǒu liǎng mǐ kuān.) |
| David: Oh well, it was at least a meter and a half and I was taking this onboard luggage and the security guys just looked at me and said, what is that and I said, it’s a 服务器 (Fúwùqì) and they are like, oh okay and that was it. |
| Echo: Go! |
| David: So airport security in China is maybe not as 严格 (Yángé) as you may be expecting. |
| Echo: 对。 (Duì.) |
| David: But you can bring all kinds of stuff on. So… |
| Echo: 呃... 如果你们带不进去，就打电话给David。(È... Rúguǒ nǐmen dài bù jìnqù, jiù dǎ diànhuà gěi David.) |
| David: Okay. Anyway, we’ve got a great vocab section for you today. So let’s get to that now. And now, the vocab section. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Echo: 安检 (ānjiǎn) |
| David: Security check. |
| Echo: 安检，安检。带 (Ānjiǎn, ānjiǎn. Dài) |
| David: To carry. |
| Echo: 带，带。不过 (Dài, dài. Bùguò) |
| David: Only. |
| Echo: 不过，不过。罢了(Bùguò, bùguò. Bàle) |
| David: That’s all. |
| Echo: 罢了，罢了。土制 (Bàle, bàle. Tǔ zhì) |
| David: Locally made. |
| Echo: 土制，土制。炸弹 (Tǔ zhì, tǔ zhì. Zhàdàn) |
| David: Bomb. |
| Echo: 炸弹，炸弹。看来 (Zhàdàn, zhàdàn. Kàn lái) |
| David: It seems. |
| Echo: 看来，看来。趟 (Kàn lái, kàn lái. Tàng) |
| David: Measure word for a round trip. |
| Echo: 趟，趟。 (Tàng, tàng.) |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| David: So if he is going for a 趟 (Tàng) to the police station, he is coming back. |
| Echo: 不好说。(Bù hǎoshuō.) |
| David: No, okay. |
| Echo: Who knows! |
| David: Anyway, we do have a bunch of words that we want to focus on. The first one you actually are going to run into a lot, it is |
| Echo: 安检 (Ānjiǎn) |
| David: They have these in the subways now in Beijing. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| David: It’s ridiculous. |
| Echo: Yeah 如果我们分开看，这个「安检」它的意思其实就是「安全检查」. (Rúguǒ wǒmen fēnkāi kàn, zhège `ānjiǎn'tā de yìsi qíshí jiùshì `ānquán jiǎnchá'.) |
| David: Right. It’s a security check. So you’ve got a sentence for us. |
| Echo: 九一一以后，机场的安检政策越来越严格了。 (Jiǔyāoyāo yǐhòu, jīchǎng de ānjiǎn zhèngcè yuè lái yuè yángéle.) |
| David: After 9/11, airport security check policy became more and more strict. |
| Echo: 九一一以后，机场的安检政策越来越严格了。(Jiǔyāoyāo yǐhòu, jīchǎng de ānjiǎn zhèngcè yuè lái yuè yángéle.) |
| David: Umm another word we’ve got is the word to carry. |
| Echo: 带 (Dài) |
| David: We’ve run into this before. We just want to remind you of it. |
| Echo: 危险易燃物品都不能带上飞机或者火车。(Wéixiǎn yì rán wùpǐn dōu bùnéng dài shàng fēijī huòzhě huǒchē.) |
| David: And that would be, you can’t take dangerous or flammable products on to planes or trains and you actually see that in restaurants. For instance, the restaurant might say, you are not allowed to take in your own food. |
| Echo: Yeah 不能自带食品。(Bùnéng zì dài shípǐn.) |
| David: Yeah 自带 (Zì dài) yourself to carry in food products. Another word we want to focus on is a word for bomb. |
| Echo: 炸弹 (Zhàdàn) |
| David: Which is different than the word to explode. |
| Echo: 爆炸 (Bàozhà) |
| David: A lot of people mix these up. So we’ve got bomb |
| Echo: 炸弹 (Zhàdàn) |
| David: And explode |
| Echo: 爆炸 (Bàozhà) |
| David: Just remember the sentence the bomb exploded. |
| Echo: 炸弹爆炸 (Zhàdàn bàozhà) |
| David: Hmm. You’ve got a more difficult one too. |
| Echo: 对。有人警告，在飞机场里放置了一枚定时炸弹。(Duì. Yǒurén jǐnggào, zài fēijī chǎng lǐ fàngzhìle yī méi dìngshí zhàdàn.) |
| David: Someone reported, there is a timed bomb in the airport, right? |
| Echo: 对。所以可能他是恐怖分子。(Duì. Suǒyǐ kěnéng tā shì kǒngbù fèn zi.) |
| David: Yeah. That’s an interesting measure word too. |
| Echo: 一枚 (yī méi ) |
| David: 一枚炸弹 (Yī méi zhàdàn) |
| Echo: 你也可以说「一个炸弹」，但呢样太不专业了。如果你是专业的恐怖分子，应该说「枚」。(Nǐ yě kěyǐ shuō `yīgè zhàdàn', dàn ne yàng tài bù zhuānyèle. Rúguǒ nǐ shì zhuānyè de kǒngbù fèn zi, yīnggāi shuō `méi'.) |
| David: What else do we use 枚 (méi) with, it‘s bombs and… |
| Echo: 一枚硬币。(Yī méi yìngbì.) |
| David: Oh a coin, really. Okay, so coins, bombs, what else? |
| Echo: 还有比如说水果，有的时候可以说「一枚水果」。(Hái yǒu bǐrú shuō shuǐguǒ, yǒu de shíhòu kěyǐ shuō `yī méi shuǐguǒ'.) |
| David: Like an apple or pear, or just… |
| Echo: 对，那个圆的那样的. (Duì, nàgè yuán de nàyàng de.) |
| David: So coins, bombs and some kind of fruit. |
| Echo: Some fruit. |
| David: Right. Round one as Echo said. |
| Echo: Umm small ones. |
| David: Right. Our next word is of course another measure word. |
| Echo: 趟 (Tàng) |
| David: Which we say is used for roundtrips, Echo says maybe not in this case. |
| Echo: 其实这个还是叫 one way trip. 所以可能这去,然后就不让回来了. (Qíshí zhège háishì jiào one way trip. Suǒyǐ kěnéng zhè qù, ránhòu jiù bù ràng huíláile.) |
| David: So it’s to be polite, but we have a sentence here for you. |
| Echo: 明天我需要去一趟上海。你说是坐火车好，还是坐飞机好？(Míngtiān wǒ xūyào qù yī tàng shànghǎi. Nǐ shuō shì zuò huǒchē hǎo, háishì zuò fēijī hǎo?) |
| David: I need to go to Shanghai tomorrow. Do you think I should take the train or the plane. So that’s the core vocab. We’ve got two more words we want to focus on in our grammar section. |
| Echo: 没错。(Méi cuò.) |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| David: Echo, I think people saw this grammar point coming. |
| Echo: 不过...罢了。(Bùguò... Bàle.) |
| David: Right because we had it twice in the dialogue. |
| Echo: Well actually three times. |
| David: We had it three times in the dialogue. What were those three sentences? |
| Echo: 不过是个打火机罢了。 (Bùguò shìgè dǎhuǒjī bàle.) |
| David: It’s only a lighter, that’s all. |
| Echo: 不过是聊聊罢了。(Bùguò shì liáo liáo bàle.) |
| David: It’s only a chat, that’s all. |
| Echo: 最后这个有点 tricky. (Zuìhòu zhège yǒudiǎn tricky.) |
| David: What is the third one? |
| Echo: 土制炸弹罢了。(Tǔ zhì zhàdàn bàle.) |
| David: Oh! The last one is kind of bit tricky. |
| Echo: Yeah you don’t see 不过 (Bùguò) there because it’s omitted. |
| David: Okay so it’s optional putting in this 不过 (Bùguò) and to start, 不过 (Bùguò) means “only”. |
| Echo: Yes. |
| David: Or “merely” might be a better translation. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| David: Kind of like the sentence, he is only a small boy. |
| Echo: 他不过是个小孩子罢了。 (Tā bùguò shìgè xiǎo háizi bàle.) |
| David: Don’t be angry with him. |
| Echo: 别跟他生气。(Bié gēn tā shēngqì.) |
| David: Right. |
| Echo: 我们还有一些其他的例子，你们也听一下。这不过是瓶矿泉水罢了，为什么不能带上飞机？(Wǒmen hái yǒu yīxiē qítā de lìzi, nǐmen yě tīng yīxià. Zhè bùguò shì píng kuàngquán shuǐ bàle, wèishéme bùnéng dài shàng fēijī?) |
| David: Hmm it’s only a bottle of mineral water, why can’t I take it on the plane. |
| Echo: 那不过是一个小箱子罢了，为什么要付钱？(Nà bùguò shì yīgè xiǎo xiāngzi bàle, wèishéme yào fù qián?) |
| David: It’s only a small suitcase. Why do I need to pay? |
| Echo: 看你带了几个小箱子。(Kàn nǐ dàile jǐ gè xiǎo xiāngzi.) |
| David: Right. So this is really colloquial and don’t forget we can omit the 不过 (Bùguò) |
| Echo: Yeah 土制炸弹罢了 (Tǔ zhì zhàdàn bàle) it’s in our dialogue, right? |
| David: Yeah it’s only a homemade bomb. |
| Echo: dahuo |
| David: It’s only a lighter. |
| Echo: 打火机罢了。(Dǎhuǒjī bàle.) |
| David: It’s only a little chat. |
| Echo: 聊聊罢了。(Liáo liáo bàle.) |
| David: Yeah. |
| Echo: 这个非常常用，就是很casual的这种小的句子。(Zhège fēicháng chángyòng, jiùshì hěn casual de zhè zhǒng xiǎo de jùzi.) |
| David: Yeah. It’s one of these things where you don’t hear it until you know it and then you hear it all the time. |
| Echo: 而且，你也可以省略「罢了」。(Érqiě, nǐ yě kěyǐ shěnglüè `bàle'.) |
| David: You can leave them both out. |
| Echo: No. |
| David: No, you can leave out one or the other. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| David: Right. |
| Echo: 比如说，现在不过是六点。飞机七点才起飞呢。(Bǐrú shuō, xiànzài bùguò shì liù diǎn. Fēijī qī diǎn cái qǐfēi ne.) |
| David: It’s only 6 o'clock now, that’s all. The plane will be taking off at 7. Right, so a very simple grammar point. Use the conjunction. |
| Echo: 不过... (Bùguò...) |
| David: And then slap on |
| Echo: 罢了。 (Bàle.) |
| David: At the end of your sentence. It’s only da da da, that’s all. |
Outro |
| David: And with that, we are done with the lesson for today. Before we go, we want to remind you we’ve got a new Elite subscription here that includes one hour of one on one tutoring each week. If you are interested, email us at |
| Echo: Contactus@chineseclass101.com |
| David: And you can try it out at no risk. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| David: That being said, we are out of time for today. From Beijing, I am David. |
| Echo: 我是Echo。(Wǒ shì Echo.) |
| David: Thanks a lot for listening and we will see you on the site. |
| Echo: 网上见吧 Bye bye.(Wǎngshàng jiàn ba Bye bye.) |
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