Learn how to use a expression to wish people all kinds of things, like happy birthday and good luck
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Canaan: Hello and welcome back to chineseclass101.com, the fastest, easiest and most enjoyable way to learn Chinese. |
| Jane: 嗨，大家好 (hài , dàjiā hǎo)! And thanks again for being here with us for this Absolute Beginner season 3, lesson 5. |
| Canaan: Have a Happy Birthday in China. |
| Jane: In today’s lesson, not only you will learn how to say happy birthday to Chinese friends. |
| Canaan: You will also learn a lot of other expressions people commonly use during special occasions. |
| Jane: And today’s conversation takes place during a birthday party between the birthday girl and her not so kind friend. |
| Canaan: Maybe we should say, her honest friend. Of course, since they are friends, they will be speaking in informal Chinese. |
| Jane: 对。(duì.) |
| Canaan: Now before we take you to the dialogue, we’d like to remind you of our voice recordings tool which is available to our premium users. |
| Jane: Just a click of the button |
| Canaan: And you will be able to record your own voice and compare it with the native pronunciation. |
| Jane: And this is a great way to improve your Chinese. |
| Canaan: Absolutely. So make sure to check it out at chineseclass101.com, now let’s go to the dialogue. |
| DIALOGUE |
| 祝你生日快乐。(Zhù nǐ shēngrì kuàilè.) |
| 谢谢。(Xièxie.) |
| 你几岁了？(Nǐ jǐ suì le?) |
| 三十了。(Sānshí le.) |
| 你老了。(Nǐ lǎo le.) |
| Canaan: And now with the English translation. |
| 祝你生日快乐。(Zhù nǐ shēngrì kuàilè.) |
| Happy birthday to you. |
| 谢谢。(Xièxie.) |
| Thank you. |
| 你几岁了？(Nǐ jǐ suì le?) |
| How old are you? |
| 三十了。(Sānshí le.) |
| Thirty. |
| 你老了。(Nǐ lǎo le.) |
| You are old. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Canaan: Yeah I hear that originally Chinese people didn’t use to celebrate their birthdays until they hit 60. |
| Jane: Umm but not the case anymore. |
| Canaan: Yeah I know. Now Chinese kids celebrate their birthdays every year just the way we do in the west. |
| Jane: Yeah. The common practice is to have a big dinner with all your friends and then go to the karaoke afterward. |
| Canaan: Right but I also hear that in China when you have your birthday dinner, you are the one who is supposed to pay. |
| Jane: And all your friends are supposed to give your expensive birthday present. |
| Canaan: Right and we will learn how to talk about those in Chinese using today’s vocabulary. |
| Jane: Let’s take a look at them now. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Jane: 祝你 (zhù nǐ) |
| Canaan: To wish you. |
| Jane: 祝你 祝你 (zhù nǐ) |
| Jane: 生日 (shēngrì) |
| Canaan: Birthday |
| Jane: 生日 生日 (shēngrì) |
| Jane: 快乐 (kuàilè) |
| Canaan: Happy. |
| Jane: 快乐 快乐 (kuàilè) |
| Jane: 多大 (duō dà) |
| Canaan: How old |
| Jane: 多大 多大 (duō dà) |
| Jane: 老 (lǎo) |
| Canaan: Old. |
| Jane: 老 老 (lǎo) |
| Jane: 年轻 (niánqīng) |
| Canaan: Young. |
| Jane: 年轻 年轻 (niánqīng) |
| Jane: 生日礼物 (shēngrì lǐwù) |
| Canaan: Birthday present. |
| Jane: 生日礼物 生日礼物 (shēngrì lǐwù) |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Canaan: All right. Let’s take a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| Jane: And the first word is |
| Canaan: To wish you |
| Jane: 祝你 (zhù nǐ) |
| Canaan: To wish you. Notice that’s fourth tone |
| Jane: 祝 (zhù) |
| Canaan: And third tone |
| Jane: 你 (nǐ) |
| Canaan: This is very useful phrase because almost all fixed expressions of blessing used on special occasions start with this. For instance |
| Jane: 祝你新年快乐。(Zhù nǐ Xīnnián kuàilè.) |
| Canaan: Wish you a Happy New Year. |
| Jane: 祝你新年快乐。(Zhù nǐ Xīnnián kuàilè.) |
| Canaan: Wish you a Happy New Year. This sounds very similar to what we heard in our dialogue. |
| Jane: 祝你生日快乐。(Zhù nǐ shēngrì kuàilè.) |
| Canaan: Happy Birthday to you. Now I think our listeners have already worked it out now that |
| Jane: 快乐 (kuàilè) |
| Canaan: Means happy and this is often used in the aforementioned expressions of blessing but in daily conversation, Chinese tend to use another word for feeling happy namely |
| Jane: 高兴 (gāoxìng) |
| Canaan: That’s a first tone. |
| Jane: 高 (gāo) |
| Canaan: And a fourth tone. |
| Jane: 兴 (xìng) |
| Canaan: Right. Now our next vocabulary item is |
| Jane: 几岁 (jǐ suì) |
| Canaan: How old |
| Jane: 几岁 (jǐ suì) |
| Canaan: Right. How old and then we are talking as an age with |
| Jane: 几 (jǐ) |
| Canaan: Being the question word how many or how much. And then we know usually that this is used only for asking about numbers that are under 10. |
| Jane: 是的。(shì de.) |
| Canaan: And the word for age. |
| Jane: 岁 (suì) |
| Canaan: Once again |
| Jane: 岁 (suì) |
| Canaan: In classical Chinese, this used to mean year, literally year. So put together with 几 (jǐ) means how many years. |
| Jane: So the simplest way to ask someone how old is 你几岁了？(nǐ jǐ suì le ?) |
| Canaan: How old are you. |
| Jane: 你几岁了？(nǐ jǐ suì le ?) |
| Canaan: Right. Now we know that this is usually only directed towards younger children, usually no one above teenage age. Another version of the same question that can be used for both children and adults is |
| Jane: 你多大了？(nǐ duō dà le ?) |
| Canaan: How old are you? It literally means how big are you. |
| Jane: 你多大了？(nǐ duō dà le ?) |
| Canaan: Right. One thing that we want to pay attention to is, this is good for asking children or adults how old they are, but once you are into, say, 60, then things change even more. Now we are not going to get into that in this lesson. If you want to figure that out, you are going to have to keep listening. |
| Jane: 是的。(shì de.) |
| Canaan: So when you are invited to a birthday party, what do you usually bring with you? |
| Jane: 生日礼物 (shēngrì lǐwù) |
| Canaan: Birthday present. A word that’s literally split into birthday |
| Jane: 生日 (shēngrì) |
| Canaan: And gift. |
| Jane: 礼物 (lǐwù) |
| Canaan: Put together, it is |
| Jane: 生日礼物 (shēngrì lǐwù) In a sentence, 这是你的生日礼物 (zhè shì nǐ de shēngrì lǐwù) |
| Canaan: This is your birthday present. |
| Jane: 这是你的生日礼物 (zhè shì nǐ de shēngrì lǐwù) |
| Canaan: Right. Now I know these days for many Chinese people, the |
| Jane: 生日礼物 (shēngrì lǐwù) |
| Canaan: It is actually a |
| Jane: 红包 (hóngbāo) |
| Canaan: Red bag. |
| Jane: 红包 (hóngbāo) |
| Canaan: You know, this little red bag, it’s actually a red envelope. Usually it has |
| Jane: 钱 (qián) |
| Canaan: Money. |
| Jane: 是的。(shì de.) |
| Canaan: Yeah. In our next two words really we’ve got a pair of antonyms here, adjectives. The first one is |
| Jane: 老 (lǎo) |
| Canaan: Old. |
| Jane: 老 (lǎo) |
| Canaan: Old. And we are talking about age here and its antonym. |
| Jane: 年轻 (niánqīng) |
| Canaan: Young. |
| Jane: 年轻 (niánqīng) |
| Canaan: Right. Now Jane, can the word 老 (lǎo) be used in other context apart from describing human age? |
| Jane: 可以 (kěyǐ) such as 老电影 (lǎo diànyǐng) |
| Canaan: Oh old movies particularly those old black and white ones yeah. |
| Jane: 是的。(shì de.) |
| Canaan: I like to watch old movies. |
| Jane: 我喜欢看老电影。(Wǒ xǐhuān kàn lǎo diànyǐng) |
| Canaan: Really? |
| Jane: Umm sometimes maybe before I go to sleep. |
| Canaan: Oh nice. So how about our word for young? |
| Jane: 年轻 (niánqīng) is usually confined to the context of human age being young. |
| Canaan: Oh okay people being young. |
| Jane: 是的。(shì de.) |
| Canaan: So it’s similar to English in that sense. |
| Jane: 是的。(shì de.) For example 他很年轻。(tā hěn niánqīng.) |
| Canaan: He is very young. |
| Jane: 他很年轻。(tā hěn niánqīng.) |
| Canaan: So much of today’s vocabulary has had to do with topics relating to birthday, aging, being young, being old. |
| Jane: 是的。(shì de.) |
| Canaan: And we hope that it will come in handy, it should come in handy in your everyday interactions with your Chinese friends. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Canaan: Now today’s grammar lesson is designed to help you if you ever want to come live in China to understand a lot of the cultural concepts that present themselves in the Chinese language. |
| Jane: Or try to make friends with Chinese people. |
| Canaan: Yeah because that’s the point in learning language, isn’t it? Now let’s take a look at the grammar. |
| Jane: 好的。(hǎo de.) |
| Canaan: Now today in our grammar section, we are going to look at a couple of common expressions and phrases that Chinese people use on – during special occasions and I can tell you what, there are a lot of those occasions. |
| Jane: Yeah we like to be nice to our friends. |
| Canaan: And we’ve picked a few of the most commonly used. |
| Jane: So what’s the first one? |
| Canaan: Well this one is when you often hear between friends, one of whom is leaving on a long trip. |
| Jane: 祝你一路平安。(Zhù nǐ yílùpíngān.) |
| Canaan: Have a safe trip. |
| Jane: 祝你一路平安。(Zhù nǐ yílùpíngān.) |
| Canaan: Have a safe trip. Now we notice the first two characters |
| Jane: 祝你 (Zhù nǐ) |
| Canaan: And we studied earlier in the vocabulary meaning to wish you. Now often if you want to omit the first two characters, you can just say the remaining four characters and that will work too. |
| Jane: 一路平安 (yílùpíngān) |
| Canaan: A safe trip. |
| Jane: 一路平安 (yílùpíngān) |
| Canaan: Now our next expression is used during the Christmas holiday. |
| Jane: 祝你圣诞快乐。(Zhù nǐ Shèngdàn kuàilè.) |
| Canaan: Wish you a Merry Christmas. Once again, you can take those first two characters and omit them if you want to be direct about it and just say |
| Jane: 圣诞快乐 (Shèngdàn kuàilè) |
| Canaan: Merry Christmas and of course the two characters meaning Christmas are |
| Jane: 圣诞 (Shèngdàn) |
| Canaan: Christmas |
| Jane: 圣诞 (Shèngdàn) |
| Canaan: Now the next few phrases we are going to introduce you to are not quite so commonly heard and spoken conversation but they are very common in written correspondence such as on cards or in letters. |
| Jane: 没错儿。 (méicuòr) |
| Canaan: The first one is |
| Jane: 祝你身体健康。(Zhù nǐ shēntǐ jiànkāng.) |
| Canaan: I wish you good health. |
| Jane: 祝你身体健康。(Zhù nǐ shēntǐ jiànkāng.) |
| Canaan: I wish you good health. Stay healthy. |
| Jane: And the next one is 祝你工作顺利。(Zhù nǐ gōngzuò shùnlì.) |
| Canaan: Now this one is a little bit more specific since it mentions work. |
| Jane: 工作 (gōngzuò) |
| Canaan: And hopes that everything goes smoothly at work. |
| Jane: 工作顺利 (gōngzuò shùnlì .) |
| Canaan: Now what’s our last one? |
| Jane: 祝你梦想成真。(Zhù nǐ mèngxiǎng chéngzhēn.) |
| Canaan: May your dreams come true. |
| Jane: 祝你梦想成真。(Zhù nǐ mèngxiǎng chéngzhēn.) |
| Canaan: May your dreams come true and to all our listeners out there, we wish you all |
| Jane &Canaan: 万事如意，工作顺利。(wàn shì rúyì , gōngzuò shùnlì.) |
Outro |
| Canaan: And that’s the end of our lesson for today. As always, if you have any questions or comments or even just to say hello |
| Jane: Just write to us at contactus@chineseclass101.com |
| Canaan: Reading your comments is one of the biggest pleasures of my job. |
| Jane: 没错儿 (méicuòr) |
| Canaan: For now though, we are going to have to leave you here in Beijing studio. Signing off, this is Canaan. |
| Jane: And Jane. |
| Canaan: We wish you a great day. |
| Jane: 祝你快乐。(Zhù nǐ kuàilè.) |
| Canaan: See you next time. |
| Jane: 回见！(huí jiàn !) |
Comments
HideHave you been to a Chinese friend's birthday party? How does it differ from the birthday parties in your country?
你好 拜伦，
Thank you for your comment. 生日快乐 is a set phrase, we don't switch the word order.
If you have any questions, please let us know.
Ngai
Team ChineseClass101.com
It's my understanding that when an adjective is disyllabic, it's necessary to put the particle 的 between the adjective and noun. Why isn't it 祝你快乐的生日? Thanks.
Hello Marian,
Thank you for your comment.
万事如意 wànshì rúyì means "everything is as one wishes", "everything goes well".
工作顺利 gōngzuò shùnlì means "everything goes well with work".
If you have any questions, please let us know.
Ngai Lam
Team ChineseClass101.com
What is the meaning of this phrase, wàn shì rúyì , gōngzuò shùnlì.
你好 samia！
谢谢 (Xièxie) for your kind feedback. It's great to have you here! 😇❤️️
Let us know if you have any questions.
Kind regards,
雷文特 (Levente)
Team ChineseClass101.com
I find the expressions to wish somebody something very useful. Thanks for this lesson. It was useful and enjoyable, as usual.
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 祝你身体健康。
robert
Hi Alexis 亚历克西,
:grin::thumbsup:
Feel free to ask if you have any other questions!
Olivia
Team ChineseClass101.com
不客气！
I really appreciate knowing what the word for Christmas means literally! 我是很感谢！
The clues are great additions as well! :thumbsup:
再见！
Hi Alexis 亚历克西,
Thanks again for another great comment!
We have added a clue next to the questions regarding the questions 你几岁了？and 你多大了？ :wink:
The word for "Christmas" 圣诞 (shèngdàn) literally means "Christ's birth".
圣 (shèng) means "saint; holy; sacred" :innocent:
诞 (dàn) means "birth"
Olivia
Team ChineseClass101.com
Really neat lesson! 谢谢。 Canaan and Jane are so clear about the points they make. 你们很好老师！
With respect to Jori's comment, I suspect he is referring to the flash cards and that it might be good if the how old flash card could be something like how old are you? (young children) 你几岁了？ and how old are you (sixty and under) 你多大了？
Some of those wishes in the grammar section are really nice, it would be great if some could be included in the vocab section. Generally speaking, I think that's a good idea.
Finally, is Christmas a Western import like birthdays. What exactly (character for character) does 圣诞 shengdan, the word for Christmas mean?
Hi May,
礼物 is used more in spoken language, while 礼品 is often used in written language.
Yinru
Team ChineseClass101.com
what is the difference between 礼物 and 礼品？
Hi Jori,
Glad to hear from you. However, I'm not quite sure about what you mean by "vocabulary questions". Can you make it more clear? Thanks!
Echo
Team ChineseClass101.com
The greetings in this lesson are really useful, and so are the commentaries of Canaan and Jane :smile:
In the Vocabulary questions, there are 2 "how old" questions but with different answers. To avoid confusion, I suggest to put a clue in these questions, or to allow more than one correct answer.
Thanks and keep up the great content!
Hi Will,
Exactly :mrgreen:
Echo
Team ChineseClass101.com
This was a really interesting lesson. Finally I understand the difference between 快乐 and 高兴! So, the word,“年轻”when translated literally,means "light in years", right? :smile: