Learn not only about a high degree adverb but the computer trends in China
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| INTRODUCTION |
| David: Hi and welcome to chineseclass101.com where we study modern Chinese in a fun and educational format. I am David. |
| Echo: Hi! 大家好，我是(Dàjiā hǎo, wǒ shì)Echo. |
| David: And join us to brush up on the Chinese you started learning a long time ago or start learning from scratch today. Today we’ve got absolute beginner season 2, lesson 21. |
| Echo: Buy Brand China. |
| David: Echo is very patriotic about this. Even if they have got awful names like Gome or Gomei. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| David: Yeah any way, we’ve got a dialogue here that’s about buying computer products in China. |
| Echo: And this conversation takes place inside an electronic store in Beijing. |
| David: Yes it may be 百脑汇。(Bǎi nǎo huì.) |
| Echo: Or 中关村。(Zhōngguāncūn.) |
| David: Yes in the computer districts here in Beijing. So our speakers are classmates and they are speaking casually. |
| Echo: Right. |
| David: Now we are going to get you to the dialogue in a sec. Before we do, we want to remind you about the voice recording tool. |
| Echo: This will help you a lot with pronunciation. |
| David: It’s going to let you listen to a native speaker say something and then you can record your own voice. |
| Echo: Right then you can compare. |
| David: Yeah and you are going to hear where you write and you are going to hear where you need to do some work. For now though, let’s go to the dialogue. |
| DIALOGUE |
| M: 你的电脑好轻啊。(Nǐ de diànnǎo hǎo qīng ā.) |
| F: 这是新款。(Zhè shì xīnkuǎn.) |
| M: 很贵吗？(Hěn guì ma?) |
| F: 不贵，是国产的。(Bù guì, shì guóchǎn de.) |
| David: One more time, a bit slower. |
| M: 你的电脑好轻啊。(Nǐ de diànnǎo hǎo qīng ā.)[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| F: 这是新款。(Zhè shì xīnkuǎn.)[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| M: 很贵吗？(Hěn guì ma?)[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| F: 不贵，是国产的。(Bù guì, shì guóchǎn de.)[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| David: And now with the English. |
| Echo: 你的电脑好轻啊。(Nǐ de diànnǎo hǎo qīng ā.) |
| David: Your computer is really light. |
| Echo: 这是新款。(Zhè shì xīnkuǎn.) |
| David: This is a new model. |
| Echo: 很贵吗？(Hěn guì ma?) |
| David: Is it expensive? |
| Echo: 不贵，是国产的。(Bù guì, shì guóchǎn de.) |
| David: No, it’s Chinese brand. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| David: The price of computers in China is actually more or less the same as it is broad. |
| Echo: Yeah actually sometimes it’s even higher. |
| David: Yeah because they have taxes on electronics that come into China. So buying Apple computers, buy them outside China. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| David: But Chinese stuff is actually maybe a bit cheaper. So in this dialogue, they are buying a computer. |
| Echo: Right. |
| David: And someone wants to buy a computer. Now when you go to these big markets, you are going to be surrounded with all sorts of crazy stuff. It’s you know big bazaars, tons of stores. So it’s important you know what to ask for. |
| Echo: 没错儿。(Méi cuò ér.) |
| David: And that’s what we are going to talk about in our vocab section today. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| David: And now the vocab section. |
| Echo: 键盘。(Jiànpán.)[natural native speed] |
| David: Keyboard. |
| Echo: 键盘。(Jiànpán.)[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Echo: 键盘。(Jiànpán.)[natural native speed] |
| Echo: 屏幕。(Píngmù.)[natural native speed] |
| David: Screen. |
| Echo: 屏幕。(Píngmù.)[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Echo: 屏幕。(Píngmù.)[natural native speed] |
| Echo: 鼠标。(Shǔbiāo.)[natural native speed] |
| David: Mouse |
| Echo: 鼠标。(Shǔbiāo.)[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Echo: 鼠标。(Shǔbiāo.)[natural native speed] |
| Echo: 硬盘。(Yìngpán.)[natural native speed] |
| David: Hard drive. |
| Echo: 硬盘。(Yìngpán.)[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Echo: 硬盘。(Yìngpán.)[natural native speed] |
| Echo: 耳机。(Ěrjī.)[natural native speed] |
| David: Headphones. |
| Echo: 耳机。(Ěrjī.)[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Echo: 耳机。(Ěrjī.)[natural native speed] |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| David: So all of this stuff comes with a computer. I mean you need the keyboard, you need a mouse or a trackpad and you definitely need a hard drive. So that’s our vocab. Let’s just touch on the stuff a bit in depth. First we have the word keyboard. |
| Echo: 键盘。(Jiànpán.) |
| David: Keyboard. |
| Echo: 键盘。(Jiànpán.) |
| David: Notice this is fourth tone, second tone. |
| Echo: 键盘。(Jiànpán.)[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Echo: 我的键盘不好用了。(Wǒ de jiànpán bù hǎo yòngle.) |
| David: My keyboard doesn’t work well. |
| Echo: 我的键盘不好用。(Wǒ de jiànpán bù hǎo yòng.) |
| David: My keyboard doesn’t work well. Our next piece of hardware is |
| Echo: 屏幕。(Píngmù.) |
| David: The screen. |
| Echo: 屏幕。(Píngmù.)[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| David: The screen. Now if you are buying a laptop, you are going to want to ask, how big is the screen? |
| Echo: 屏幕多大？(Píngmù duōdà?) |
| David: How big is the screen? |
| Echo: 屏幕多大？(Píngmù duōdà?) |
| David: And they are usually going to give you a number. Right, it’s 13 inches. |
| Echo: 13寸。(13 Cùn.) |
| David: It is 15 inches. |
| Echo: 15寸。(15 Cùn.) |
| David: So review our numbers lesson for that stuff. For now, just remember the word screen. |
| Echo: 屏幕。(Píngmù.) |
| David: Next is a mouse. |
| Echo: 鼠标。(Shǔbiāo.) |
| David: Mouse |
| Echo: 鼠标。(Shǔbiāo.) |
| David: That’s the mouse you see outside to computers. What if it’s a laptop and it’s got what we call track pad? |
| Echo: Is 鼠标(Shǔbiāo)，too. |
| David: Yeah so trackpads and mice in Chinese are both |
| Echo: 鼠标。(Shǔbiāo.) |
| David: If you are buying a laptop, you are going to want to ask about the size of the hard drive. |
| Echo: 硬盘。(Yìngpán.) |
| David: Hard drive. |
| Echo: 硬盘。(Yìngpán.) |
| David: Remember how we asked how big is the screen. |
| Echo: 屏幕多大？(Píngmù duōdà?) |
| David: So how do we ask how big is the hard drive. |
| Echo: 硬盘多大？(Yìngpán duōdà?) |
| David: How big is the hard drive. |
| Echo: 硬盘多大？(Yìngpán duōdà?) |
| David: Our last word is the word for earphones. |
| Echo: 耳机。(Ěrjī.) |
| David: Let’s hear that really slowly. |
| Echo: 耳机。(Ěrjī.)[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| David: Earphones. |
| Echo: 耳机。(Ěrjī.) |
| David: That literally means ear machine. |
| Echo: 对，差不多。(Duì, chàbùduō.) |
| David: Yes. If you buy an iPod or an iPad or an iMac, you are going to get your phones and if they don’t work and they break, you are going to want to ask for new ones. So you might need to go to the store and say I need new earphones. |
| Echo: 我需要新耳机。(Wǒ xūyào xīn ěrjī.) |
| David: Or maybe I want new earphones. |
| Echo: 我要新耳机。(Wǒ yào xīn ěrjī.) |
| David: Our vocab section today, it’s been a bit difficult. These are technical terms but if you are buying a computer or in these electronic markets, you are going to hear them all the time. With that, let’s go on to our grammar point. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| David: Okay, if our vocab section was a bit tough, our grammar section today is easy and fun. It’s all about this character. |
| Echo: 好。(Hǎo.) |
| David: Good. |
| Echo: 好。(Hǎo.) |
| David: And that’s good if it’s an adjective. |
| Echo: 对。(Duì.) |
| David: As in very good. |
| Echo: 很好。(Hěn hǎo.) |
| David: Or really good. |
| Echo: 真好。(Zhēn hǎo.) |
| David: In our dialogue though, it wasn’t an adjective. |
| Echo: It’s an adverb meaning very. |
| David: Yes. It’s an adverb. So we had it before another adjective. In the dialogue, we heard it in this sentence. |
| Echo: 你的电脑好轻啊。(Nǐ de diànnǎo hǎo qīng a.) |
| David: Your computer is very light. |
| Echo: 你的电脑好轻啊。(Nǐ de diànnǎo hǎo qīng a.) |
| David: This is a really colloquial expression and it comes from Southern China. |
| Echo: Right. |
| David: And that’s why if you use it, you want to add this |
| Echo: 啊 or 呀(A or ya) |
| David: Yeah okay. So if you use 好 as an adverb, put a 啊 or 呀(A or ya) on the end of your sentence. For example. |
| Echo: 他好年轻啊。(Tā hǎo niánqīng a.) |
| David: He is really young. |
| Echo: 他好年轻呀。(Tā hǎo niánqīng ya.) |
| David: He is really young. So in this sentence 好(Hǎo), it’s a Chinese adverb of degree. It’s just like 很 or 真.(Hěn or zhēn.) |
| Echo: Right and it’s more colloquial and emotional. |
| David: Yeah it’s really emotional like wow, he is really, really young. |
| Echo: 对。(Duì.) And girls use this a lot too. |
| David: So if you are a guy, you may not want to use it all the time. It will make you sound maybe a bit feminine. |
| Echo: Yeah but if you are talking to a girl and you are saying, 你好漂亮呀。(Nǐ hǎo piàoliang ya.) |
| David: And they are going to love you. |
| Echo: Right. |
| David: You look very pretty. |
| Echo: 你好漂亮呀。(Nǐ hǎo piàoliang ya.) |
| David: And you can also use it when you are speaking not seriously like if you see a puppy, you might say oh my gosh, that puppy is so cute. |
| Echo: 小狗好可爱啊。(Xiǎo gǒu hǎo kě'ài a.) |
| David: Let’s slow that down a bit. That was fast. |
| Echo: 小狗好可爱啊。(Xiǎo gǒu hǎo kě'ài a.)[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| David: Really cute. |
| Echo: 好可爱。(Hǎo kě'ài.) |
| David: So in review, we’ve got a new adverb of degree for you. |
| Echo: 好。(Hǎo.) |
| David: It’s when you already know, the trick is when you use it, you’ve got to add |
| Echo: 啊 or 呀(A or ya) on the end. |
Outro |
| David: Okay so that’s our lesson for today. Now Echo you’ve got an iPod. And Echo knows the most convenient way to listen to chineseclass101.com. |
| Echo: Our premium lesson feed. |
| David: You can hook this up to iTunes and it’s going to download all of our lessons automatically on to your mp3 player. So whenever you want a Chinese lesson, they are already on your iPhone or iPod. So be sure to check that out and as always if you have any questions. |
| Echo: You can write to us at contactus@chineseclass101.com |
| David: And we look forward to hearing from you. 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: Bye. |
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