Learn about an important revision of a Chinese adverb and also an important notice about China's water
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Brendan: Welcome to Chineseclass101.com, the fastest, easiest and funniest way to learn Chinese. I’m Brendan. |
| Echo: 嗨，大家好，我是Echo (Hāi, dàjiā hǎo, wǒ shì Echo.) |
| Brendan: And we’re here today with Lower Intermediate Series, Season 1, Lesson 10 – “Water pollution in China”. |
| Echo: That’s right. |
| Brendan: Now, besides the dialogue, besides the vocabulary, besides the grammar point, really the upshot of today’s lesson is valuable advice about water safety in Beijing. |
| Echo: Don’t drink it. |
| Brendan: Yes, never. Avoid at all costs. Like you don’t even really want to stand next to it, if you can help it. |
| Echo: Yes, consider it a house tip in casual mandarin, as always. |
| Brendan: Now, we’re going to take you to the dialogue in a moment, but before we do that, just a reminder. We’ve got a voice recording tool. It lets you record yourself speaking Chinese and play it back. This is the best way I know of to improve your pronunciation. |
| Echo: Yes. |
| Brendan: Ok. Let’s go to the dialogue. |
| DIALOGUE |
| A:我听说这儿的水不能喝。(Wǒ tīngshuō zhèr de shuǐ bù néng hē.) |
| B:嗯，我们只喝瓶装水。(En, wǒmen zhǐ hē píngzhuāngshuǐ.) |
| A:那刷牙呢？(Nà shuāyá ne?) |
| B:自来水就可以。(Zìláishuǐ jiù kěyǐ.) |
| A:那洗澡呢？(Nà xǐzǎo ne?) |
| B:也用自来水就行。就是别喝洗澡时的水。(Yě yòng zìláishuǐ jiù xíng. Jiùshì bié hē xǐzǎo shí de shuǐ.) |
| Brendan: Once more, slowly. |
| A:我听说这儿的水不能喝。(Wǒ tīngshuō zhèr de shuǐ bù néng hē.) |
| B:嗯，我们只喝瓶装水。(En, wǒmen zhǐ hē píngzhuāngshuǐ.) |
| A:那刷牙呢？(Nà shuāyá ne?) |
| B:自来水就可以。(Zìláishuǐ jiù kěyǐ.) |
| A:那洗澡呢？(Nà xǐzǎo ne?) |
| B:也用自来水就行。就是别喝洗澡时的水。(Yě yòng zìláishuǐ jiù xíng. Jiùshì bié hē xǐzǎo shí de shuǐ.) |
| Brendan: And now, with English translation. |
| A:我听说这儿的水不能喝。(Wǒ tīngshuō zhèr de shuǐ bù néng hē.) |
| A: I hear you can't drink the water here. |
| B:嗯，我们只喝瓶装水。(En, wǒmen zhǐ hē píngzhuāngshuǐ.) |
| B: Yes, we only drink bottled water. |
| A:那刷牙呢？(Nà shuāyá ne?) |
| A: What about brushing your teeth? |
| B:自来水就可以。(Zìláishuǐ jiù kěyǐ.) |
| B: You can use tap water |
| A:那洗澡呢？(Nà xǐzǎo ne?) |
| A: What about showers? |
| B:也用自来水就行。就是别喝洗澡时的水。(Yě yòng zìláishuǐ jiù xíng. Jiùshì bié hē xǐzǎo shí de shuǐ.) |
| B: Tap water is fine too. Just don't drink the water when showering. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Echo: Well, the real question is “What kind of bottled water do you drink?” |
| Brendan: You mean… |
| Echo: 农夫山泉or 康师傅。(Nóngfū shānquán or kāngshīfù.) |
| Brendan: Oh yes, really, it’s one of these thing that probably says something about you. I’m not sure what. |
| Echo: 我们这儿是喝农夫山泉的。(Wǒmen zhè'er shì hē nóngfū shānquán de.) |
| Brendan: You’re buying the expensive stuff. |
| Echo: 对，而且 (Duì, érqiě) with good quality. |
| Brendan: I guess, I don’t know. I used to drink the 康师傅 (Kāngshīfù) stuff, and the reason is that a long time ago, my Chinese name, my family name was Kong and so, I feel a certain solidarity with Master Kong. |
| Echo: 然后你觉得怎么样呢？(Ránhòu nǐ juédé zěnme yàng ne?) |
| Brendan: It’s water, I mean it’s water. Remember, a couple of years ago, they started selling this Tibetan Glacial Water… |
| Echo: 对，那叫什么来着，就是在那个火车上。(Duì, nà jiào shénme láizhe, jiùshì zài nàgè huǒchē shàng.) |
| Brendan: Yes, and you’d see it advertised in subways, too. They really were promoting… |
| Echo: China. |
| Brendan: Yes, I guess. But, it was, it’s really expensive water. |
| Echo: Yes. |
| Brendan: And it, I thought it felt weird in the mouth, so, go figure… Anyway, our vocabulary today is everything you need… |
| Echo: To have fun with water. |
| Brendan: Yes. Let’s take a look at the vocab for this lesson. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| C: And now, the vocab section. |
| Echo: 瓶装水 (píngzhuāngshuǐ) |
| Brendan: “Bottled water” |
| Echo: 自来水 (zìláishuǐ) |
| Brendan: “Tap water” |
| Echo: 污染 (wūrǎn) |
| Brendan: “Pollution” |
| Echo: 河 (hé) |
| Brendan: “River” |
| Echo: 湖 (hú) |
| Brendan: “Lake” |
| Echo: 资源 (zīyuán) |
| Brendan: “Resource” |
| Echo: 有毒 (yǒudú) |
| Brendan: “Toxic” |
| Echo: 刷牙 (shuāyá) |
| Brendan: “To brush the teeth” |
| Echo: 洗澡 (xǐzǎo) |
| Brendan: “To shower” |
| Echo: 洗澡 (Xǐzǎo) |
| Brendan: Yes, now in China, you’ll often see signs saying: |
| Echo: 瓶装水 (Píngzhuāng shuǐ) |
| Brendan: “Bottled Water” And, sometimes people will tell you: |
| Echo: 瓶装水，你这儿只能喝瓶装水。(Píngzhuāng shuǐ, nǐ zhè'er zhǐ néng hē píngzhuāng shuǐ.) |
| Brendan: “You can only drink bottled water here.” |
| Echo: 你这儿只能喝瓶装水。(Nǐ zhè'er zhǐ néng hē píngzhuāng shuǐ.) This is mostly true. “Don’t drink the tap water here.” |
| Brendan: Yes, and that’s another word we learned in this lesson. |
| Echo: 自来水 (Zìláishuǐ) |
| Brendan: “Tap water” |
| Echo: 自来水 (Zìláishuǐ) |
| Brendan: All right. So, literally, this is just water that comes by itself. |
| Echo: Yes, but, what we mean here is “tap water”. |
| Brendan: Right. |
| Echo: In China if you want to drink自来水，you want to boil it first. |
| Brendan: Yes, you really, really do. And, if you’re feeling too lazy to boil it, I mean you can ask people: |
| Echo: 自来水干净吗？(Zìláishuǐ gānjìng ma?) |
| Brendan: “Is the tap water clean?” |
| Echo: 自来水干净吗？(Zìláishuǐ gānjìng ma?) |
| Brendan: Now, remember, if you look up the word for “tap”, it’s something else. |
| Echo: Yes, 水龙头。(Shuǐlóngtóu.) |
| Brendan: But, if you ask about that or if you mention that, actually people will get confused, because that’s not how you say “tap water” in Chinese. |
| Echo: Yes. We just say 自来水。(Zìláishuǐ.) |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Brendan: Right. Now, in our vocabulary for this lesson we also covered a lot of things you can do with water. |
| Echo: Like 洗澡。(Xǐzǎo.) |
| Brendan: “To bath” |
| Echo: 刷牙 (Shuāyá) |
| Brendan: “To brush your teeth” |
| Echo: 喝 (Hē) |
| Brendan: Now, that one we know, right? “To drink” |
| Echo: Yes, 没错。(Méi cuò.) |
| Brendan: And we’ve got a few sample sentences for this vocab, right? |
| Echo: 第一个，水是非常宝贵的资源。(Dì yī gè, shuǐ shì fēicháng bǎoguì de zīyuán.) |
| Brendan: “Water is an extremely precious resource.” |
| Echo: 水是非常宝贵的资源。(Shuǐ shì fēicháng bǎoguì de zīyuán.) |
| Brendan: “Water is an extremely precious resource.” |
| Echo: 这里的水是有毒的，不能刷牙。(Zhèlǐ de shuǐ shì yǒudú dí, bùnéng shuāyá.) |
| Brendan: “The water here is toxic. You can’t brush your teeth.” |
| Echo: 这里的水是有毒的，不能刷牙。(Zhèlǐ de shuǐ shì yǒudú dí, bùnéng shuāyá.) |
| Brendan: Yes, and that’s a useful and sadly common adjective right there. |
| Echo: Yes, 有毒。(Yǒudú.) |
| Brendan: Right. And literally, “to have poison”. Anyway, that’s our vocabulary. Now, let’s go on to the grammar section. |
| Echo: 好的。(Hǎo de.) |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| C: It’s grammar time. |
| Brendan: Now, on our grammar point for today, we’re back to something that looks pretty basic. |
| Echo: Yes. 没错。(Méi cuò.) |
| Brendan: It’s a grammar point about the word: |
| Echo: 也 (Yě) |
| Brendan: “Also” |
| Echo: 也 (Yě) |
| Brendan: Now, you know this by now. We know you know this by now. |
| Echo: At least simple sentences. |
| Brendan: Yes. We’re kicking it up and knock. When we introduced this before, we focused on really simple sentences. |
| Echo: Like 他很高兴，我也很高兴。(Tāhěngāoxìng, wǒ yě hěn gāoxìng.) |
| Brendan: “He is happy. I also am happy.” |
| Echo: Or 他在北京，我也在北京。(Tā zài běijīng, wǒ yě zài běijīng.) |
| Brendan: “He is in Beijing. I also am in Beijing.” |
| Echo: Yes. And the important point is… |
| Brendan: We’ve got two subjects, but the action is the same. |
| Echo: Right. 他在北京，我也在北京。(Tā zài běijīng, wǒ yě zài běijīng.) |
| Brendan: “He is in Beijing. I also am in Beijing.” |
| Echo: In this lesson, things are a bit confusing. |
| Brendan: Yes, now, where did we see 也 (Yě) in this dialogue? |
| Echo: 也用自来水就行。(Yě yòng zìláishuǐ jiùxíng.) |
| Brendan: “Using tap water is fine for that, too.” |
| Echo: 也用自来水就行。(Yě yòng zìláishuǐ jiùxíng.) |
| Brendan: And that’s it. There’s no subject in that sentence. |
| Echo: Right. |
| Brendan: A lot of people get this wrong. It’s slightly, you know, it’s really tricky. Sometimes people will see this sentence and they’ll translate it as “Also using tap water is ok.”. |
| Echo: Yes, but that’s wrong. |
| Brendan: Yes. We’ve still got a subject here. It’s just, it’s hidden. |
| Echo: Right. The subject is 洗澡。(Xǐzǎo.) |
| Brendan: So, we take what we heard in the dialogue: |
| Echo: 对，也用自来水就行。(Duì, yě yòng zìláishuǐ jiùxíng.) |
| Brendan: And our clue about the subject here comes from the context. |
| Echo: 那洗澡呢？也用自来水就行。(Nà xǐzǎo ne? Yě yòng zìláishuǐ jiùxíng.) |
| Brendan: Yes, this is really common in spoken Chinese, because you know, time is money. Sometimes you don’t have the time to say what the subject of a verb is. |
| Echo: Right. And also we answer the question, you don’t have to repeat the subject. |
| Brendan: Right, it’s very natural sounding, actually, to have the subject always, it’s not wrong, but it’s not idiomatic, it doesn’t really feel natural. |
| Echo: 嗯，没错。(Ń, méi cuò.) |
| Brendan: So, this is really common is spoken Chinese. And now that you’re getting to a more advanced level, you’re going to start noticing this a lot. |
| Echo: It can be tricky if you don’t know about it. |
| Brendan: So, just watch out for it. Remember, sometimes 也 (Yě) will be used with an implied subject. |
| Echo: Right. 小心。(Xiǎoxīn.) |
Outro |
| Brendan: Yes. Keep your head about you, you will be fine. So, that’s about it for today. Remember, if you have any comments about this, if you have any questions about this, if you’ve seen this grammar point in the wild… |
| Echo: Right. You can leave us a comment on the site or write to us at contactus@Chineseclass101.com |
| Brendan: Yes, it’s very, very easy to do, to leave a comment. Just stop by Chineseclass101.com… |
| Echo: Click on comments… |
| Brendan: Enter your name, your e-mail address, your comment… |
| Echo: And that’s it. |
| Brendan: Yes. So, no excuses. We really want to hear… |
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