Learn how to figure out your career path based on your natural abilities
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| INTRODUCTION |
| David: Hi everyone, I am David. |
| Echo: 嗨！大家好，我是Echo. (Hāi! Dàjiā hǎo, wǒ shì Echo.) |
| David: And welcome back to chineseclass101.com, the fastest, easiest and most fun way to learn Chinese. Today, we’ve got intermediate series, season 1, Lesson 14 for you. Tough Career Choices. |
| Echo: 特别是在中国。(Tèbié shì zài zhōngguó. ) |
| David: Yes, tough career choices in China. This actually brings back memories for me of being in junior school and you’ve got the student and you’ve got the guidance counselor to tell you what job you are going to get when you grow up. |
| Echo: 所以这个对话发生在学校里。(Suǒyǐ zhège duìhuà fāshēng zài xuéxiào lǐ.) |
| David: Right. It takes place in the school and the speakers are speaking casual Mandarin as always. So we are going to get you to the dialogue now. Before we do though, we want to remind you. Listening along is not the best way to learn Chinese. If you want to make the most progress, make sure to grab the PDF transcripts for all of our lessons from chineseclass101.com. This is going to help you remember the vocab and help that grammar point stick. For now though, let’s go to the dialogue. |
| DIALOGUE |
| 我们来规划一下你的职业吧。(wǒmen lái guīhuà yīxià nǐ de zhíyè ba.) |
| 我不知道我要做什么。我很迷茫。(wǒ bù zhīdào wǒ yào zuò shénme. wǒ hěn mímáng.) |
| 你爱好是什么？(nǐ àihào shì shénme?) |
| 集邮。(jíyóu.) |
| 你体力如何？(nǐ tǐlì rúhé?) |
| 我跑得很快，视力五点零。(wǒ pǎo de hěn kuài, shìlì wǔ diǎn líng.) |
| 那你最擅长的事情是什么？(nà nǐ zuì shàncháng de shìqing shì shénme?) |
| 不要面子，脸皮厚。(bù yào miànzi, liǎnpí hòu.) |
| 综合来说，最适合你的职业是捡破烂。(zōnghé láishuō, zuì shìhé nǐ de zhíyè shì jiǎn pòlàn.) |
| David: One more time, a little bit slower. |
| 我们来规划一下你的职业吧。(wǒmen lái guīhuà yīxià nǐ de zhíyè ba.) |
| 我不知道我要做什么。我很迷茫。(wǒ bù zhīdào wǒ yào zuò shénme. wǒ hěn mímáng.) |
| 你爱好是什么？(nǐ àihào shì shénme?) |
| 集邮。(jíyóu.) |
| 你体力如何？(nǐ tǐlì rúhé?) |
| 我跑得很快，视力五点零。(wǒ pǎo de hěn kuài, shìlì wǔ diǎn líng.) |
| 那你最擅长的事情是什么？(nà nǐ zuì shàncháng de shìqing shì shénme?) |
| 不要面子，脸皮厚。(bù yào miànzi, liǎnpí hòu.) |
| 综合来说，最适合你的职业是捡破烂。(zōnghé láishuō, zuì shìhé nǐ de zhíyè shì jiǎn pòlàn.) |
| David: And now with the English translation. |
| 我们来规划一下你的职业吧。(wǒmen lái guīhuà yīxià nǐ de zhíyè ba.) |
| Let's spend a bit of time planning your career. |
| 我不知道我要做什么。我很迷茫。(wǒ bù zhīdào wǒ yào zuò shénme. wǒ hěn mímáng.) |
| I don't know what I want to do. I feel so confused. |
| 你爱好是什么？(nǐ àihào shì shénme?) |
| What do you like doing? |
| 集邮。(jíyóu.) |
| Collecting stamps. |
| 你体力如何？(nǐ tǐlì rúhé?) |
| How's your physical condition? |
| 我跑得很快，视力五点零。(wǒ pǎo de hěn kuài, shìlì wǔ diǎn líng.) |
| I can run quickly and have 20/20 eyesight. |
| 那你最擅长的事情是什么？(nà nǐ zuì shàncháng de shìqing shì shénme?) |
| So what are you best at doing? |
| 不要面子，脸皮厚。(bù yào miànzi, liǎnpí hòu.) |
| I don't worry about face much and have thick skin. |
| 综合来说，最适合你的职业是捡破烂。(zōnghé láishuō, zuì shìhé nǐ de zhíyè shì jiǎn pòlàn.) |
| Then...your most suitable job is picking up the trash. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| David: We have a lot of really useful words here actually. So let’s get right to the vocab section. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Echo: 规划 (guīhuà) |
| David: Plan. |
| Echo: 规划，规划。职业 (Guīhuà, guīhuà. Zhíyè) |
| David: Occupation. |
| Echo: 职业，职业。迷茫 (Zhíyè, zhíyè. Mímáng) |
| David: Bewildered. |
| Echo: 迷茫，迷茫。集邮 (Mímáng, mímáng. Jíyóu) |
| David: Stamp collecting. |
| Echo: 集邮，集邮。体力 (Jíyóu, jíyóu. Tǐlì) |
| David: Physical condition. |
| Echo: 体力，体力。视力 (Tǐlì, tǐlì. Shìlì) |
| David: Eyesight. |
| Echo: 视力，视力。擅长 (Shìlì, shìlì. Shàncháng) |
| David: To excel at. |
| Echo: 擅长，擅长。面子 (Shàncháng, shàncháng. Miànzi) |
| David: Face. |
| Echo: 面子，面子。综合 (Miànzi, miànzi. Zònghé) |
| David: General. |
| Echo: 综合，综合。捡破烂 (Zònghé, zònghé. Jiǎn pòlàn) |
| David: To pick up the trash. |
| Echo: 捡破烂，捡破烂。 (Jiǎn pòlàn, jiǎn pòlàn.) |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| David: Okay. Let’s have a closer look at the usage for some of these words and phrases. Our first word is |
| Echo: 规划 (Guīhuà) |
| David: Which means a plan or to plan. |
| Echo: 规划 (Guīhuà) |
| David: Right. To plan. |
| Echo: 规划。对，这可以是一个动词，也可以是一个名词。比如说:你需要一个规划，或者 你需要规划什么什么事情。 (Guīhuà. Duì, zhè kěyǐ shì yīgè dòngcí, yě kěyǐ shì yīgè míngcí. Bǐrú shuō: Nǐ xūyào yīgè guīhuà, huòzhě nǐ xūyào guīhuà shénme shénme shìqíng.) |
| David: Yeah. It’s either a verb or a noun. |
| Echo: 规划 (Guīhuà) |
| David: Right. Now, the second word is a bit more difficult. It’s an adjective. |
| Echo: 迷茫 (Mímáng) |
| David: Let’s hear that again. |
| Echo: 迷茫 (Mímáng) |
| David: So what does this mean? |
| Echo: 就是说，不太清楚，不知道自己要做什么。(Jiùshì shuō, bù tài qīngchǔ, bù zhīdào zìjǐ yào zuò shénme.) |
| David: Yeah. It means kind of hazy or bewildering or confusing. |
| Echo: 没错。(Méi cuò.) |
| David: Right. So in the dialogue, they said, I feel very 迷茫。(Mímáng.) |
| Echo: 我很迷茫。(Wǒ hěn mímáng.) |
| David: In what kind of situations should people use this? |
| Echo: 比如说，他刚掉了工作，很迷茫。或者说，你失恋了吗？这么迷茫。(Bǐrú shuō, tā gāng diàole gōngzuò, hěn mímáng. Huòzhě shuō, nǐ shīliànle ma? Zhème mímáng.) |
| David: If you break up with someone, then you feel – you feel disconnected maybe. |
| Echo: 对，迷茫。(Duì, mímáng.) |
| David: So bewildered, disconnected, confused, hazy. Can we use this to describe anything but people? |
| Echo: 迷茫更多的是人的感觉，所以不能用在别的地方。只能说，这个人，或者他感觉很迷茫。(Mímáng gèng duō de shì rén de gǎnjué, suǒyǐ bùnéng yòng zài bié dì dìfāng. Zhǐ néng shuō, zhège rén, huòzhě tā gǎnjué hěn mímáng.) |
| David: And most of the time it’s us. |
| Echo: 我们都很迷茫。(Wǒmen dōu hěn mímáng.) |
| David: Umm okay. Moving on, our next word is a word you guys should be familiar with. It means physical condition. |
| Echo: 体力 (Tǐlì) |
| David: Right. So physical condition. |
| Echo: 体力 (Tǐlì) |
| David: That’s literally body strength and you know those words. You probably haven’t run into the word for eyesight though. |
| Echo: 视力 (Shìlì) |
| David: Which is literally vision strength. |
| Echo: 视力 (Shìlì) |
| David: Now in our dialogue, we learned that our student has a |
| Echo: 视力 of 五点零。(Shìlì of wǔ diǎn líng.) |
| David: Right which raises the question for anyone who is not Chinese, is this good or bad. |
| Echo: 这个是好的。但现在我们一般不说五点零，我们也可以说一点五。我觉得好像是，我不太确定，应该一点五和五点零是一样的。就是在这个中文里，我们有一个视力表。(Zhège shì hǎo de. Dàn xiànzài wǒmen yībān bù shuō wǔ diǎn líng, wǒmen yě kěyǐ shuō yī diǎn wǔ. Wǒ juédé hǎoxiàng shì, wǒ bù tài quèdìng, yīnggāi yī diǎn wǔ hé wǔ diǎn líng shì yīyàng de. Jiùshì zài zhège zhōngwén lǐ, wǒmen yǒu yīgè shìlì biǎo.) |
| David: Okay. Well, so we are reliably informed that 5 is good. |
| Echo: 对。(Duì.) |
| David: And 1.5 is also good. |
| Echo: 对，就是两个不同的标准。但因为我已经很久没有去查视力了，所以记不太清楚。(Duì, jiùshì liǎng gè bùtóng de biāozhǔn. Dàn yīnwèi wǒ yǐjīng hěnjiǔ méiyǒu qù chá shìlìle, suǒyǐ jì bù tài qīngchǔ.) |
| David: So if someone goes into an optometrist and they tell your optometrist that they’ve got 20/20 vision. |
| Echo: 呢个什么东西？(Ne gè shénme dōngxī?) |
| David: the optometrist will be totally confused then. |
| Echo: 我已经觉得很迷茫了。(Wǒ yǐjīng juédé hěn mímángle.) |
| David: Okay. So just take the test. Our final word is |
| Echo: 擅长 (Shàncháng) |
| David: Which means to excel at something. |
| Echo: 在对话里，我们听到这个人，他擅长...捡破烂。 (Zài duìhuà li, wǒmen tīng dào zhège rén, tā shàncháng... Jiǎn pòlàn.) |
| David: Yeah. |
| Echo: 或者说是他的呢个顾问认为他擅长捡破烂。(Huòzhě shuō shì tā de ne gè gùwèn rènwéi tā shàncháng jiǎn pòlàn.) |
| David: Yeah. It means they would excel at picking up trash. You can excel at anything though, so… |
| Echo: 对，比如说 擅长英文，擅长数学，擅长学习什么，或者比如说擅长做一件事情，擅长游泳，擅长做饭 都可以 (Duì, bǐrú shuō shàncháng yīngwén, shàncháng shùxué, shàncháng xuéxí shénme, huòzhě bǐrú shuō shàncháng zuò yī jiàn shìqíng, shàncháng yóuyǒng, shàncháng zuò fàn dōu kěyǐ) |
| David: Yeah, it’s something where you’ve got some kind of 天赋 (Tiānfù) or natural gift or natural ability to it. |
| Echo: 没错。(Méi cuò.) |
| David: Okay so that’s our vocab section, Lot of really useful words in this dialogue. With that though, we are going to move on to the grammar section where we’ve got something that’s going to make you sound really educated. |
| Echo: 好的。(Hǎo de.) |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| David: This grammar point is going to make you sound incredibly smart. Echo, what? You don’t agree. |
| Echo: 我们看吧。(Wǒmen kàn ba.) |
| David: Okay what is it Echo? |
| Echo: 如何 (Rúhé) |
| David: Right. This is a question word. |
| Echo: 如何 (Rúhé) |
| David: It’s like |
| Echo: 怎么样 (Zěnme yàng) |
| David: Right. We are going to put it at the end of sentences. In the dialogue, we see this in the following sentence. |
| Echo: 你体力如何？ (Nǐ tǐlì rúhé?) |
| David: How is your physical condition? Pay attention to the word order. |
| Echo: 你体力如何？ (Nǐ tǐlì rúhé?) |
| David: Your body, how is it? |
| Echo: 或者你也可以说，你视力如何？ (Huòzhě nǐ yě kěyǐ shuō, nǐ shìlì rúhé?) |
| David: Right. How is your eyesight? |
| Echo: 你视力如何？ (Nǐ tǐlì rúhé?) |
| David: Your eyesight, how is it? |
| Echo: 或者也可以是，作为一个 Suggestion 。比如说:我们明天去逛街，如何？ (Huòzhě yě kěyǐ shì, zuòwéi yīgè Suggestion. Bǐrú shuō: Wǒmen míngtiān qù guàngjiē, rúhé?) |
| David: Right. Shall we go window-shopping tomorrow? |
| Echo: Umm… |
| David: Right. So the important thing here is the word order. It’s much different than in English. So our question word is coming at the end. |
| Echo: 如何 (Rúhé) |
| David: Right. So either we have the object and then 如何？(Rúhé?) or we have a suggestion and then 如何？(Rúhé?) |
| Echo: 对。(Duì.) |
| David: Right. |
| Echo: 这“如何”就是“怎么样”，所以他们很多时候都是 interchangeable. (Zhè “rúhé” jiùshì “zěnme yàng”, suǒyǐ tāmen hěnduō shíhòu dōu shì interchangeable.) |
| David: Right and this is why, it’s going to make you sound a lot more educated because 怎么样 (Zěnme yàng) is really the really colloquial way of saying this. |
| Echo: 对，但“如何”是很正式的说法。(Duì, dàn “rúhé” shì hěn zhèngshì de shuōfǎ.) |
| David: Yeah it’s very formal. So, |
| Echo: 但你也要小心，不能平时在生活中和朋友聊天，经常有事没事就说”如何“，”如何“ (Dàn nǐ yě yào xiǎoxīn, bùnéng píngshí zài shēnghuó zhōng hé péngyǒu liáotiān, jīngcháng yǒushì méishì jiù shuō” rúhé “,” rúhé “) |
| David: Yeah. |
| Echo: 听起来有点奇怪。(Tīng qǐlái yǒudiǎn qíguài.) |
| David: It’s going to sound a bit strange if you use it in very casual conversations. |
| Echo: 对，不过比如说发短信呀，写信的时候你可以用一下，也没有关系。(Duì, bùguò bǐrú shuō fā duǎnxìn ya, xiě xìn de shíhòu nǐ kěyǐ yòng yīxià, yě méiyǒu guānxì.) |
| David: Yeah and you are going to hear it in more formal situations or where there is some kind of authority gap such as in our dialogue between a student and the teacher. |
| Echo: 对。(Duì.) |
| David: Okay great, let’s have a few more examples of this. |
| Echo: 我们来规划一下你未来的生活如何？ (Wǒmen lái guīhuà yīxià nǐ wèilái de shēnghuó rúhé?) |
| David: Why don’t we plan out your future life? |
| Echo: 我们来规划一下你未来的生活如何？我儿子的视力如何？ (Wǒmen lái guīhuà yīxià nǐ wèilái de shēnghuó rúhé? Wǒ érzi de shìlì rúhé?) |
| David: How is my son’s eyesight? |
| Echo: 我儿子的视力如何？(Wǒ érzi de shìlì rúhé?) |
| David: My son’s eyesight how is it? The answer is probably 5. |
| Echo: 或者是4.8. (Huòzhě shì 4.8.) |
| David: Yeah anyway, it’s not going to be 20/20. |
| Echo: 你不好好学习，长大去捡破烂，如何？(Nǐ bù hǎo hào xuéxí, zhǎng dà qù jiǎn pòlàn, rúhé?) |
| David: If you don’t study well when you grow up, you are going to be a trash collector. |
| Echo: 如何？ (Rúhé?) |
| David: 如何？(Rúhé?) How about that? |
| Echo: 你不好好学习，长大去捡破烂，如何？(Nǐ bù hǎo hào xuéxí, zhǎng dà qù jiǎn pòlàn, rúhé?) |
Outro |
| David: If you don’t study well, when you grow up, you are going to be a trash collector, how about that? So that just about does it for today. We’ve learned a lot of useful vocab especially for career planning. |
| Echo: 没错。(Méi cuò.) |
| David: And talking about your eyesight and we’ve learned a grammar point that is going to make you sound very smart. |
| Echo: 而且非常正式。(Érqiě fēicháng zhèngshì.) |
| David: Yeah. So don’t overuse it though. Before we go, we want to remind you. We’ve got a review track on chineseclass101.com for this lesson. And it has all of the vocab for this lesson. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| David: So you can listen to it and practice speaking along with us. |
| Echo: 没错。(Méi cuò.) |
| David: This is going to help your pronunciation get a lot better. |
| Echo: 或者说，变成完美的。(Huòzhě shuō, biàn chéng wánměi de.) |
| David: Or become perfect. So how about that? |
| Echo: 如何？(Rúhé?) |
| David: Right. From Beijing though for today, 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: 我们网上见吧。(Wǒmen wǎngshàng jiàn ba.) |
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