Review Chinese prepositional phrases and also tell you what you should do upon arriving in China
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Anthony: Welcome to chineseclass101, the fastest, easiest and most fun way to learn Chinese. And this is our 19th lesson in our second season of our beginner series. |
| Echo: And today, we are signing up for classes. |
| Anthony: Yes Chinese classes at a traditional school and there is paperwork to fill out and fees to be paid. |
| Echo: Right. Today’s dialogue takes place in an office. |
| Anthony: Yeah we are going to have some excellent vocabulary having to deal with paperwork. |
| Echo: Yes. If you are in China, you definitely have to fill out a lot of paperwork. |
| Anthony: Yes, there is a considerable amount. So everyone should at least know how to write their Chinese name. |
| Echo: Right and if you do have a Chinese name and you do know how to write it, why don’t you come to chineseclass101.com and leave us a comment. |
| Anthony: Yeah sounds good. So let’s go to the dialogue. |
| DIALOGUE |
| 我要注册。(Wǒ yào zhùcè.) |
| 好，在这儿签字。(Hǎo, zài zhèr qiānzì.) |
| 哪儿？(Nǎr?) |
| 这儿。(Zhèr.) |
| 好，现在呢？(Hǎo, xiànzài ne?) |
| 交费。500块钱。(Jiāofèi. Wǔbǎi kuài qián.) |
| Anthony: One more time, a little bit slower. |
| 我要注册。(Wǒ yào zhùcè.) |
| 好，在这儿签字。(Hǎo, zài zhèr qiānzì.) |
| 哪儿？(Nǎr?) |
| 这儿。(Zhèr.) |
| 好，现在呢？(Hǎo, xiànzài ne?) |
| 交费。500块钱。(Jiāofèi. Wǔbǎi kuài qián.) |
| Anthony: One more time a little bit slower. |
| Echo: 我要注册。(Wǒ yào zhùcè.) |
| Anthony: I want to register. |
| Echo: 好，在这儿签字。(Hǎo, zài zhèr qiānzì.) |
| Anthony: Okay. Sign your name here. |
| Echo: 哪儿？(Nǎr?) |
| Anthony: Where? |
| Echo: 这儿。(Zhèr.) |
| Anthony: Here. |
| Echo: 好，现在呢？(Hǎo, xiànzài ne?) |
| Anthony: Okay now what? |
| Echo: 交费。500块钱。 |
| Anthony: Pay the fee, 500 Renminbi. (Jiāofèi. Wǔbǎi kuài qián.) |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Anthony: Okay so that process seemed fairly painless. |
| Echo: Yeah it’s very easy. |
| Anthony: So when you come to China. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| Anthony: Everyone is required to register with the Public Security Bureau. |
| Echo: Yeah this is like a local police station. |
| Anthony: Yeah usually the registration is fairly easy. You bring the new passport and sometimes at least to your apartment where you are staying at. |
| Echo: Right. Actually not just foreigners, but Chinese people like who come from the other provinces, they have to register at the Public Security Bureau too. |
| Anthony: That’s right. So today’s vocab is absolutely essential. Knowing what the secretary is saying to you and knowing what you want to say back is going to make the process a lot easier and it’s going to save you time and energy. |
| Echo: Right. So let’s go to the vocab section now. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Anthony: All right and now the vocab section. |
| Echo: 注册 (Zhùcè) |
| Anthony: To register. |
| Echo: 注册, 注册. 签字 (Zhùcè, Zhùcè. qiānzì) |
| Anthony: To sign. |
| Echo: 签字, 签字. 交费 (qiānzì, qiānzì. Jiāo fèi) |
| Anthony: To pay a fee. |
| Echo: 交费, 交费. 填单子 (Jiāo fèi, Jiāo fèi. Tián dānzi) |
| Anthony: To fill out a form. |
| Echo: 填单子, 填单子. 在这儿 (Tián dānzi, Tián dānzi. Zài zhè'er) |
| Anthony: Here. |
| Echo: 在这儿, 在这儿. 在那儿 (Zài zhè'er, Zài zhè'er. Zài nà'er) |
| Anthony: There. |
| Echo: 在那儿, 在那儿. 在哪儿 (Zài nà'er, Zài nà'er. Zài nǎ'er) |
| Anthony: Where. |
| Echo: 在哪儿, 在哪儿. 在上面 (Zài nǎ'er, Zài nǎ'er. Zài shàngmiàn) |
| Anthony: On top. |
| Echo: 在上面, 在上面. 在下面 (Zài shàngmiàn, Zài shàngmiàn. Zài xiàmiàn) |
| Anthony: Underneath. |
| Echo: 在下面, 在下面 (Zài xiàmiàn, Zài xiàmiàn) |
| Anthony: Okay Echo, why don’t you introduce us to our first vocabulary word. |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Echo: Okay it’s 注册 (Zhùcè) |
| Anthony: To register. |
| Echo: 注册 (Zhùcè) |
| Anthony: Both fourth tones. |
| Echo: Right 注册 (Zhùcè) |
| Anthony: He wants to register and you also will find this word a lot of times on Chinese websites or something where you need to sign up or sign in, you will see this verb. |
| Echo: 注册 (Zhùcè) |
| Anthony: So learn these characters. Our next vocabulary word is |
| Echo: 签字 (Qiānzì) |
| Anthony: To sign. |
| Echo: 签字。请您签字。(Qiānzì. Qǐng nín qiānzì.) |
| Anthony: Please sign. |
| Echo: 请您签字。(Qǐng nín qiānzì.) |
| Anthony: And you usually hear this word after maybe using your credit card to pay for something. |
| Echo: 没错。(Méi cuò.) |
| Anthony: They will have you sign your name on the receipt. |
| Echo: 请您签字。(Qǐng nín qiānzì.) |
| Anthony: Okay. |
| Echo: 交费 (Jiāo fèi) |
| Anthony: To pay a fee. |
| Echo: 交费 (Jiāo fèi) Yeah this actually can be any kind of fee. |
| Anthony: Yeah I remember I had a service person come to my apartment to like fix the plumbing or something and it was 10 kuai. So he was asking me 交费, 交费 (Jiāo fèi, jiāo fèi) or to pay. |
| Echo: Yeah 交费 (Jiāo fèi) |
| Anthony: Like what does that mean? |
| Echo: So if you are not sure if you should pay the fee, you can ask 需要交费吗？(Xūyào jiāo fèi ma?) |
| Anthony: Do I need to pay a fee? |
| Echo: 需要交费吗？(Xūyào jiāo fèi ma?) |
| Anthony: Our next word. |
| Echo: 填单子 (Tián dānzi) |
| Anthony: To fill out a form. |
| Echo: 填单子。(Tián dānzi.) Yeah this is a colloquial way to say it like if you are in Beijing, if you are in China and sometimes you need to fill a form, so the server will always say this 填单子。(Tián dānzi.) |
| Anthony: Yeah and especially at hotpot, sometimes they will give you a menu and it has all the different things that they offer. Is that also considered to filling out a form? |
| Echo: Ah you can say 填单子 (Tián dānzi) too. |
| Anthony: Okay. |
| Echo: But usually 填单子 (Tián dānzi) it’s like a serious form. |
| Anthony: Ah okay. |
| Echo: So 你去填单子吧。(Nǐ qù tián dānzi ba.) |
| Anthony: How about you go and fill out the form? |
| Echo: 你去填单子吧。(Nǐ qù tián dānzi ba.) |
| Anthony: So you could use this at maybe a hospital. |
| Echo: Hospital or like bank or like get your registration. |
| Anthony: Yeah at the Public Security Bureau. |
| Echo: Yes. |
| Anthony: Excellent. Okay so the next couple of words that we are going to be going over are prepositions. |
| Echo: Yes. |
| Anthony: And we’ve learned them before but we are going to review them again here. |
| Echo: 在这儿 (Zài zhè'er) |
| Anthony: Here. |
| Echo: 在这儿。在这儿。在这儿注册。(Zài zhè'er. Zài zhè'er. Zài zhè'er zhùcè.) |
| Anthony: Register here. |
| Echo: 在这儿注册。在那儿 (Zài zhè'er zhùcè. Zài nà'er) |
| Anthony: There. |
| Echo: 在那儿。在那儿。在那儿交费。(Zài nà'er. Zài nà'er. Zài nà'er jiāo fèi.) |
| Anthony: Pay the fee over there. |
| Echo: 在那儿交费。在哪儿？(Zài nà'er jiāo fèi. Zài nǎ'er?) |
| Anthony: Where? |
| Echo: 在哪儿？在哪儿签字？(Zài nǎ'er? Zài nǎ'er qiānzì?) |
| Anthony: Where do I sign? |
| Echo: 在哪儿签字？(Zài nǎ'er qiānzì?) |
| Anthony: Okay now we just said two words that sound very similar. |
| Echo: 在那儿 (Zài nà'er) |
| Anthony: Okay that is, there. |
| Echo: Yeah it’s a fourth tone. And the other one is 在哪儿？(Zài nǎ'er?) |
| Anthony: Where? |
| Echo: Third tone. |
| Anthony: Yes. |
| Echo: 在哪儿？(Zài nǎ'er?) |
| Anthony: Okay on to the next two prepositions. |
| Echo: 在上面 (Zài shàngmiàn) |
| Anthony: On top or above. |
| Echo: 在上面。在上面写中文。(Zài shàngmiàn. Zài shàngmiàn xiě zhōngwén.) |
| Anthony: Right. Chinese on top. |
| Echo: 在上面写中文。(Zài shàngmiàn xiě zhōngwén.) |
| Anthony: And the opposite is |
| Echo: 在下面 (Zài xiàmiàn) |
| Anthony: Underneath or below. |
| Echo: 在下面。在下面签字。(Zài xiàmiàn. Zài xiàmiàn qiānzì.) |
| Anthony: Sign at the bottom. |
| Echo: 在下面签字。(Zài xiàmiàn qiānzì.) |
| Anthony: Okay great. So in review, we’ve covered some very important verbs. |
| Echo: Like “to register” 注册,(Zhùcè,)“to sign” 签字,(Qiānzì,)and 交费 (Jiāo fèi)“to pay fee”. |
| Anthony: Right and we also went over some directional phrases |
| Echo: Like 在下面 (Zài xiàmiàn) |
| Anthony: Underneath |
| Echo: Or 在上面。(Zài shàngmiàn.) |
| Anthony: On top. Okay really useful stuff. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Anthony: Now on to the grammar point. As mentioned earlier, in today’s grammar point, we are going to be reviewing prepositional phrases and the technical definition of a preposition is, a word that can be put before noun or pronoun to indicate time, place or direction. |
| Echo: Exactly and preposition in this lesson is 在 (Zài) |
| Anthony: Meaning to be at somewhere. |
| Echo: Yeah 在 (Zài) indicates the time or place of an action or situation. |
| Anthony: Right. Now there are two important points that we are going to look at. The first one is the formula for preposition. |
| Echo: Yes the formula is 在 (Zài) plus the location. |
| Anthony: Right. So for example |
| Echo: 在这儿。(Zài zhè'er.) |
| Anthony: At here. |
| Echo: 在那儿。(Zài nà'er.) |
| Anthony: At there. |
| Echo: 在哪儿？(Zài nǎ'er?) |
| Anthony: At where? |
| Echo: 在上面 (Zài shàngmiàn) |
| Anthony: To be on top. |
| Echo: 在下面 (Zài xiàmiàn) |
| Anthony: To be underneath. So we saw these words in the vocabulary section. Now we are going to put these directional prepositions into sample sentences. |
| Echo: 在这儿写名字。(Zài zhè'er xiě míngzì.) |
| Anthony: Write your name here. |
| Echo: 在这儿写名字。(Zài zhè'er xiě míngzì.) |
| Anthony: Okay great. Now we are going to introduce our second point. |
| Echo: Prepositional phrases are put at the beginning of the sentence. |
| Anthony: This is different from English where we put the prepositional phrase at the end of the sentence. |
| Echo: 在那儿填单子。(Zài nà'er tián dānzi.) |
| Anthony: Fill out the form there. |
| Echo: 在那儿填单子。在上面写英文。(Zài nà'er tián dānzi. Zài shàngmiàn xiě yīngwén.) |
| Anthony: Write English at the top. |
| Echo: 在上面写英文。在下面写中文。(Zài shàngmiàn xiě yīngwén. Zài xiàmiàn xiě zhōngwén.) |
| Anthony: Write Chinese at the bottom. |
| Echo: 在下面写中文。在哪儿交费？(Zài xiàmiàn xiě zhōngwén. Zài nǎ'er jiāo fèi?) |
| Anthony: Where do I pay the fee? |
| Echo: 在哪儿交费？在哪儿交费？(Zài nǎ'er jiāo fèi? Zài nǎ'er jiāo fèi?) |
| Anthony: Where do I pay the fee? Okay now, it is important to note, if the sentence has a subject, the preposition goes after it. |
| Echo: Right. |
| Anthony: So now we are going to take a look at a couple of sentences where we include a subject. |
| Echo: 你在这儿签字。(Nǐ zài zhè'er qiānzì.) |
| Anthony: You can sign your name here. |
| Echo: 你在这儿签字。(Nǐ zài zhè'er qiānzì.) |
| Anthony: And notice that the subject |
| Echo: 你 (Nǐ) |
| Anthony: Goes before the preposition. |
| Echo: 没错。他在那儿填单子。(Méi cuò. Tā zài nà'er tián dānzi.) |
| Anthony: He filled out the form there. |
| Echo: 他在那儿填单子。我在上面写英文。(Tā zài nà'er tián dānzi. Wǒ zài shàngmiàn xiě yīngwén.) |
| Anthony: I wrote English at the top. |
| Echo: 我在上面写英文。她在下面写中文。(Wǒ zài shàngmiàn xiě yīngwén. Tā zài xiàmiàn xiě zhōngwén.) |
| Anthony: She wrote Chinese at the bottom. |
| Echo: 她在下面写中文。(Tā zài xiàmiàn xiě zhōngwén.) |
| Anthony: Okay and our last sample sentence Echo, what is it? |
| Echo: 我在哪儿注册？(Wǒ zài nǎ'er zhùcè?) |
| Anthony: Where do I register? |
| Echo: Yes 我在哪儿注册？(Wǒ zài nǎ'er zhùcè?) |
| Anthony: And if you are wondering where you can register for the best way to learn Chinese, Echo where should you go? |
| Echo: You can go register for a premium subscription at chineseclass101.com |
| Anthony: Right and for a small monthly fee, |
| Echo: 一点钱 (Yīdiǎn qián) |
| Anthony: You can access a huge archive of lessons. |
| Echo: Along with great tools for learning Chinese. |
Outro |
| Anthony: That’s right. The best tools for learning Chinese. So with that, from Beijing, I am Anthony. |
| Echo: 我是Echo.(Wǒ shì Echo.) |
| Anthony: Thank you for listening and we will see you next time. |
| Echo: 下次见 (Xià cì jiàn) Bye bye. |
| Anthony: Bye bye. |
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