Learn some of the rules to play a favorite Chinese game called Mahjong, of which you may have played a version on the computer
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| INTRODUCTION |
| David: Hi everyone, I am David. |
| Echo: Hi! 大家好，我是 Echo. (Hi! Dàjiā hǎo, wǒ shì Echo.) |
| DAVID: And welcome to chineseclass101.com. Today we’ve got absolute beginner season 2, lesson 25 for you. |
| ECHO: Chinese Mahjong. |
| DAVID: This is about this fantastic Chinese game which is a lot like poker and it’s really great game and we’ve got a dialogue that’s all about it or it’s between two friends who are talking about what game they want to pay. |
| ECHO: Yes. |
| DAVID: And since they are friends, they are speaking casually as always. Now we’ve got this dialogue for you. We are going to take you there in a sec. Before we do Echo, there is something you wanted to say. |
| ECHO: As always, leave us comments. |
| DAVID: Yes Echo is waiting to hear from you. So if you have any questions, if you have any suggestions, you can write us at. |
| ECHO: Contact us at chineseclass101.com |
| DAVID: Or just leave us a message on the site. With that though, let’s get to the dialogue. |
| DIALOGUE |
| M: 想打麻将吗？(Xiǎng dǎ májiàng ma?) |
| F: 但是我们没有麻将。(Dàn wǒmen méiyǒu májiàng.) |
| M: 打扑克儿怎么样？ (Dǎ pūkè zěnmeyàng?) |
| F: 好吧， 我洗牌。 (Hǎo ba. Wǒ xǐpái.) |
| David: One more time, a bit slower. |
| M: 想打麻将吗？(Xiǎng dǎ májiàng ma?) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| F: 但我们没有麻将。(Dàn wǒmen méiyǒu májiàng.) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| M: 打扑克儿怎么样？(Dǎ pūkè zěnmeyàng?) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| F: 好吧， 我洗牌。(Hǎo ba. Wǒ xǐpái.) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| David: And now with the English. |
| ECHO: 想打麻将吗？(Xiǎng dǎ májiàng ma?) |
| David: Do you feel like playing Mahjong? |
| ECHO:但我们没有麻将。(Dàn wǒmen méiyǒu májiàng.) |
| David: But we don’t have Mahjong. |
| ECHO:打扑克儿怎么样？ (Dǎ pūkè zěnmeyàng?) |
| David: How about playing Poker. |
| ECHO:好吧， 我洗牌。(Hǎo ba. Wǒ xǐpái.) |
| David: Okay, I will shuffle of the cards. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| David: So before we started this podcast, we learned something shocking about Echo. She does not know how to play Mahjong. |
| ECHO: That’s true. |
| DAVID: Right. |
| ECHO: But I don’t feel 不好意思 (Bù hǎoyìsi) about it. None of my families can play Mahjong. |
| DAVID: Yeah but it is a really popular game here in China. |
| ECHO: Yes. |
| DAVID: Especially down south and maybe especially, especially in 四川。(Sìchuān.) |
| ECHO: Yes. |
| DAVID: So if you come here and get a chance to play it, you are going to have tons of chances to talk with people and have fun and our vocab today is of course all about different kinds of games. |
| ECHO: Yeah so if you are like me, you can play Mahjong. There are tons of other games that you can play with. |
| DAVID: Yeah. Let’s get to the vocab section now. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| David: And now the vocab section. |
| ECHO: 扑克儿。(Pūkè er.) [natural native speed] |
| DAVID: Poker. |
| ECHO: 扑克儿。(Pūkè er.) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| ECHO: 扑克儿。(Pūkè er.) [natural native speed] |
| ECHO: 麻将。[natural native speed] |
| DAVID: Mahjong. |
| ECHO: 麻将。(Májiàng.) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| ECHO: 麻将。(Májiàng.) [natural native speed] |
| ECHO: 游戏。(Májiàng.) [natural native speed] |
| DAVID: Game. |
| ECHO: 游戏。(Yóuxì.) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| ECHO: 游戏。(Yóuxì.) [natural native speed] |
| ECHO: 电脑游戏。(Yóuxì.) [natural native speed] |
| DAVID: Computer game. |
| ECHO: 电脑游戏。(Diànnǎo yóuxì.) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| ECHO: 电脑游戏。(Diànnǎo yóuxì.) [natural native speed] |
| ECHO: 牌。(Pái.) [natural native speed] |
| DAVID: Cards. |
| ECHO: 牌。(Pái.) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| ECHO: 牌。(Pái.) [natural native speed] |
| ECHO: 赌博。(dǔbó) [natural native speed] |
| DAVID: To gamble. |
| ECHO: 赌博。(dǔbó) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| ECHO: 赌博。(dǔbó) [natural native speed] |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| DAVID: So our vocab section today is all about games in China. Let’s take a look at that first word. Game. |
| ECHO: 游戏。(Yóuxì.) |
| DAVID: Game. |
| ECHO: 游戏。(Yóuxì.) |
| DAVID: As in the sentence, he likes to play games. |
| ECHO: 他喜欢玩儿游戏。(Tā xǐhuān wán er yóuxì.) |
| DAVID: He likes to play games. |
| ECHO: 他喜欢玩儿游戏。(Tā xǐhuān wán er yóuxì.) |
| DAVID: And we ran into this word in another compound word. Computer games. |
| ECHO: 电脑游戏。(Diànnǎo yóuxì.) |
| DAVID: Computer games. |
| ECHO: 电脑游戏。(Diànnǎo yóuxì.) |
| DAVID: He likes to play computer games. |
| ECHO: 他喜欢玩儿电脑游戏。(Tā xǐhuān wán er diànnǎo yóuxì.) |
| DAVID: Right, and computer games are huge in China especially strange ones. If you go to any internet café, you will see tons of kids playing them. |
| ECHO: Yeah but I don’t like 电脑游戏 (diànnǎo yóuxì) that much easier. |
| DAVID: A lot of people – older people will also just play offline games and off those, the two big ones are of course Mahjong. |
| ECHO: 麻将。(Májiàng.) |
| DAVID: And cards. |
| ECHO: 扑克儿。(Pūkè er.) |
| DAVID: And technically that’s supposed to be poker. |
| ECHO: 扑克儿。(Pūkè er.) |
| DAVID: And pay attention to that 儿 in there on 克。 |
| ECHO: Yeah 扑克儿。(Pūkè er.) |
| DAVID: But it’s not really poker, it’s just really any kind of card game. |
| ECHO: Yeah. |
| DAVID: So if you want to play cards, you can tell people how about we play cards. |
| ECHO: 我们打扑克儿吧。(Wǒmen dǎ pūkè er ba.) |
| DAVID: How about we play cards? |
| ECHO: 我们打扑克儿吧。(Wǒmen dǎ pūkè er ba.) |
| DAVID: Now to play cards, of course, you are going to need cards. |
| ECHO: 牌。(Pái.) |
| DAVID: So another word for saying to play poker, to play cards is |
| ECHO: 玩儿牌。(Wán er pái.) |
| DAVID: Or |
| ECHO: 打牌。(Dǎpái.) |
| DAVID: As in the sentence |
| ECHO: 你会打牌吗 (Nǐ huì dǎpái ma?) and notice here, 打牌 (Dǎpái) is like more south. |
| DAVID: Yeah. |
| ECHO: But in the north, we will say 玩儿牌。(Wán er pái.) |
| DAVID: Right. |
| ECHO: 你会打牌吗？(Nǐ huì dǎpái ma?) |
| DAVID: Can you play cards. |
| ECHO: Or 你会玩儿牌吗？(Nǐ huì wán er pái ma?) |
| DAVID: Can you play cards. So depending on where you are in China, you are going to hear one or the other. |
| ECHO: Yes. |
| DAVID: And our last word for you is gambling. |
| ECHO: 赌博。(Dǔbó.) |
| DAVID: Gambling. |
| ECHO: 赌博。(Dǔbó.) |
| DAVID: And this is illegal in most of China. |
| ECHO: Yes. |
| DAVID: Except for Macau. |
| ECHO: In the mainland yes. |
| DAVID: So if you want to go gambling, Macau is trying to turn itself into Vegas of the Orient. |
| ECHO: Yeah but 赌博不好。(Dǔbó bù hǎo.) |
| DAVID: Gambling is not good. |
| ECHO: 赌博不好。(Dǔbó bù hǎo.) |
| DAVID: Right. That’s our ChineseClass101 opinion. That being said, if you like it, you want to go to Macau and check it out. And with that, that’s our vocab section. So let’s head on to the grammar section where we are closing our series with a good one. |
| ECHO: Yeah. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| David: Our focus this lesson is a couple of different ways to say but in Chinese. |
| ECHO: Right they are 但，但是，可，可是。(Dàn, dànshì, kě, kěshì.) |
| DAVID: So there are four different ways we are going to cover in this lesson. Once again |
| ECHO: 但，但是，可，可是。(Dàn, dànshì, kě, kěshì.) |
| DAVID: All of these are conjunctions that mean but and all of them can be used in spoken Chinese. |
| ECHO: Yeah. |
| DAVID: Let’s have some examples. You want to go but I don’t want to go. |
| ECHO: 你想去，但我不想去。(Nǐ xiǎng qù, dàn wǒ bùxiǎng qù.) |
| DAVID: Another example. |
| ECHO: 你想去，但是我不想去。(Nǐ xiǎng qù, dàn wǒ bùxiǎng qù.) |
| DAVID: We can also say |
| ECHO: 你想去，可我不想去。(Nǐ xiǎng qù, kě wǒ bùxiǎng qù.) |
| DAVID: And finally |
| ECHO: 你想去，可是我不想去。(Nǐ xiǎng qù, kě wǒ bùxiǎng qù.) |
| DAVID: So we’ve got these four examples, the questions. What’s the difference between them? |
| ECHO: The most informal one is 可。(Kě.) |
| DAVID: Right without the 是。(Shì.) |
| ECHO: Yes. |
| DAVID: And the most formal one is |
| ECHO: 但是 (Dànshì) and 但 (Dàn) and 可是 (Kěshì) are more or less the same but 可是 (Kěshì) is a little bit informal than 但。(Dàn.) |
| DAVID: Okay so let’s roll it back and list them from the most formal to the most informal. So the most formal way to say but is |
| ECHO: 但是。(Dànshì.) |
| DAVID: You want to go but I don’t want to go. |
| ECHO: 你想去，但是我不想去。(Nǐ xiǎng qù, dànshì wǒ bùxiǎng qù.) It’s more like however. |
| DAVID: Yeah in the middle, we’ve got |
| ECHO: 但。(Dàn.) |
| DAVID: And then |
| ECHO: 可是。(Kěshì.) |
| DAVID: And these are both almost formal but somewhat more casual |
| ECHO: Yeah. |
| DAVID: You want to go but I don’t want to go. |
| ECHO: 你想去，但我不想去。(Nǐ xiǎng qù, dàn wǒ bùxiǎng qù.) |
| DAVID: Or you like this one but I like that one. |
| ECHO: 你喜欢这个，可是我喜欢那个。(Nǐ xǐhuān zhège, kěshì wǒ xǐhuān nàgè.) |
| DAVID: So you are going to hear these in speech pretty much all the time. I think 可是 (Kěshì) is a bit more common than 但。(Dàn.) |
| ECHO: Yes it is. |
| DAVID: And then finally we have the most colloquial which is |
| ECHO: 可。(Kě.) |
| DAVID: As in the sentence, this one is very cheap but not attractive. |
| ECHO: 这个很便宜，可不好看。(Zhège hěn piányí, kěbù hǎokàn.) |
| DAVID: Since we are just starting off, we are going to give you a recommendation which is most of the time try to use 可是.(Kěshì.) It’s the easiest for people to understand. |
| ECHO: Yeah. |
| DAVID: And it’s useful in most situations. |
| ECHO: Because 可 (Kě) has another meaning. |
| DAVID: Every now and then, it’s used to provide emphasis in a way that we are going to cover in most advanced lessons. |
| ECHO: Yes. |
| DAVID: So if you are just asking yourself what should you use, most of the time, use |
| ECHO: 可是。(Kěshì.) |
Outro |
| David: That being said, you should be aware of these four different ways of saying but because you are going to hear them all the time. So that’s our lesson for today. Before we go, we want to remind you, head to our lesson section and grab that PDF. It’s going to be really useful for remembering this. End of course. This marks the end of season 2, part 1. |
| ECHO: Yeah. |
| DAVID: So we’ve already learned a lot of Chinese by now. If you are looking for the next step, we encourage you to give a shot at that elementary level. You are going to find the materials are a bit trickier but you should be able to handle them by now. And if you are still not able to, don’t worry. We are going to be following up with more absolute beginner materials in a short time. For now though 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。 Bye bye.(Wǎngshàng jiàn. Bye bye.) |
Comments
HideFor more information on Mahjong, make sure to check out the cultural insight for this lesson. Download it in the premium learning center under lesson notes.
Hello Marie,
Thank you for your comment. Yes, 打牌 in Mandarin can also be used to refer to playing Mahjong.
If you have any questions, please let us know.
Ngai
Team ChineseClass101.com
In Cantonese a common way to say “play mahjong” is da pai. In Mandarin is da pai ever used this way?
Hello again Cody,
Welcome back! 😄
You can say something like:
我喜欢学工一你。=> 我喜欢跟你们一起学习。
As always, let us know if you have any questions.
Ngai
Team ChineseClass101.com
我喜欢学工一你。
To say I like learning this work with you. 😄
我喜欢工学一个你？
Thanks always! Just returned from a short break as we wrapped up this season.
I'm back at it now, I appreciate the correction! 👍
Hello Cody,
Thank you for your comment!
You can say:
你好人们 => 大家好 (hello everybody)
不好意思我的中文 => 不好意思我的中文不太好
我二个月学生了=> 我学中文两个月了
我喜欢学工一你 => What does this sentence mean?
Keep going! Let us know if you have any questions.
Ngai
Team ChineseClass101.com
你好人们！我喜欢学工一你。不好意思我的中文。我二个月学生了。(●'◡'●)
Hello Cheehuat Chong,
Thank you for your comment, we're glad to hear that! 😉
Thank you for learning with us, let us know if you have any questions.
Ngai Lam
Team ChineseClass101.com
like the lessons so far. David and Echo hen hao👍
你好 robert groulx！
不用谢。(Bú yòng xiè.) = No need for thanks. You're welcome. 😇
谢谢 (Xièxie) for studying with us, it's great to have you here!
Let us know if you have any questions.
Kind regards,
雷文特 (Levente)
Team ChineseClass101.com
thank you for the lesson transcript
favorite phrase is 这个很便宜，可不好看。
robert
Hi Miguel,
玩＝玩儿，
People from southern China use 玩，and those from northern China use 玩儿.
typing: waner
玩人 means play with someone's feeling, with negative meaning.
Cho
Team ChineseClass101.com
Great lesson!. I got a doub . in the following two phrases 他喜欢玩游戏。 and 你会玩儿麻将吗？ both sentences are using the verb to play "wanr" , but they use wán and wánr. when shall we use wán and when wárn, 玩儿 , 玩? is funny but I try to tipe several tipes warn on my keyboard and I got 玩人 instead of 玩儿 , are they te same ?
Thanks ! Miguel
Hi Michael,
Absolute Beginner season 3 covers what we missed in the season 1 and 2, but if you'd like to improve your Chinese a bit faster, jumping into the Beginer should be no problem.
If you are worried about missing some mateirlas from the season 3, I'd like to recommend you to check the lesson notes of the Absolute Beginner season 3 after listening to the beginner lessons. Then you can check the audio of the lessons from the season 3 that introduces the grammar that you haven't learned. That way, you'll be able to save your time and improve your Chinese faster.
Thank you,
Jae
Team ChineseClass101.com
So you guys recommend that from here we go to Beginner instead of going to Absolute beginner season 3? If I skip absolute beginner season 3, will I not be missing out on important material?
Hi Alexis 亚历克西,
That's great!
Let us know if you find the series challenging :wink:
Olivia
Team ChineseClass101.com
谢谢！(hao de, mingtian wo xue) 好的， 明天 我 学 Absolute beginner Season 3!
Hi Alexis 亚历克西,
The fact is, we did not expect the lessons to be so popular, so the Absolute Beginner Series season 3 and 4 were added at a later date, what David said was outdated, oops!:sweat_smile:
That's very smart of you! Yes we would suggest you to finish all 4 seasons of Absolute Beginner levels before going to the Elementary series. Keep up the good work!
但 (dàn) and 可是 (kěshì) are added to the vocabulary list as requested :wink:
Olivia Team ChineseClass101.com
Olivia,
If I could get some advice. At the end of this podcast, David suggested jumping up to the elementary level. That seems like a big jump. I've already downloaded in my premium feed Season 3 Absolute Beginner and thought to simply go through it and the next series until I've completed the whole level. Any suggestions?
On another matter, I don't want to forget the grammar point about ways to say but. Could you put dan and keshi into the vocabulary?
谢谢！
@Irene
Thank you for pointing that out, the translation is fixed now :sweat_smile:
@Jane and Renny
That's right, there are many websites teaching Mahjong, have you found any good ones?
Olivia
Team ChineseClass101.com
2nd line translation has the word table but the sentence in chinese have no word for table.