Learn how to talk about your age
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| INTRODUCTION |
| David: Welcome to chineseclass101.com. I am David. |
| Sylvia: Hi I am Sylvia. 大家好，我是妙妙。(Dàjiā hǎo, wǒ shì miào miào.) |
| David: And we are here with Absolute Beginner Season 4 Lesson 1. |
| Sylvia: Chinese Beauty Secret. |
| David: Right. This is a lesson about getting older. |
| Sylvia: But how not to look old. |
| David: Right, with ancient Chinese Beauty Secrets. I like this one. |
| Sylvia: Right. That’s our dialogue for today which takes place in a café. |
| David: Right and it’s been two strangers who have a strange sense of attraction that there might be something that’s off. |
| Sylvia: Perfect. So let’s listen. |
| DIALOGUE |
| A: 你多大了？(nǐ duō dà le?) |
| B: 我24，你呢？(Wǒ èr shí sì, nǐ ne?) |
| A: 我65。(Wǒ liù shí wǔ.) |
| B: 真的？你真年轻。(zhēn de? Nǐ zhēn nián qīng.) |
| A: 我喜欢睡觉。(Wǒ xǐ huān shuì jiào.) |
| David: One more time a bit slower. |
| A: 你多大了？(nǐ duō dà le?) |
| B: 我24，你呢？(Wǒ èr shí sì, nǐ ne?) |
| A: 我65。(Wǒ liù shí wǔ.) |
| B: 真的？你真年轻。(zhēn de? Nǐ zhēn nián qīng.) |
| A: 我喜欢睡觉。(Wǒ xǐ huān shuì jiào.) |
| David: And now with the English translation. |
| Sylvia: 你多大了？(nǐ duō dà le?) |
| David: How old are you? |
| Sylvia: 我24，你呢？(Wǒ èr shí sì, nǐ ne?) |
| David: I am 24, you? |
| Sylvia: 我65。(Wǒ liù shí wǔ.) |
| David: I am 65. |
| Sylvia: 真的？你真年轻。(zhēn de? Nǐ zhēn nián qīng.) |
| David: Really you look so young. |
| Sylvia: 我喜欢睡觉。(Wǒ xǐ huān shuì jiào.) |
| David: I like to sleep. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Sylvia: Okay. So the secret is that she sleeps a lot. |
| David: Yes which is why I try to get as much sleep as I can. |
| Sylvia: Okay. Well, our dialogue for today is about age. |
| David: Right and beauty. |
| Sylvia: Right. |
| David: And that’s our vocab section. So let’s get to it. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Sylvia: 多大 (duō dà)[natural native speed] |
| David: How old? |
| Sylvia: 多大 (duō dà)[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Sylvia: 多大 (duō dà)[natural native speed] |
| Sylvia: 几岁 (jǐ suì)[natural native speed] |
| David: How many years |
| Sylvia: 几岁 (jǐ suì)[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Sylvia: 几岁 (jǐ suì)[natural native speed] |
| Sylvia: 年龄 (niánlíng)[natural native speed] |
| David: Age |
| Sylvia: 年龄 (niánlíng)[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Sylvia: 年龄 (niánlíng)[natural native speed] |
| Sylvia: 你呢 (nǐ ne)[natural native speed] |
| David: How about you? |
| Sylvia: 你呢 (nǐ ne)[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Sylvia: 你呢 (nǐ ne)[natural native speed] |
| Sylvia: 真 (zhēn)[natural native speed] |
| David: Really |
| Sylvia: 真 (zhēn)[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Sylvia: 真 (zhēn)[natural native speed] |
| Sylvia: 年轻 (niánqīng)[natural native speed] |
| David: Young |
| Sylvia: 年轻 (niánqīng)[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Sylvia: 年轻 (niánqīng)[natural native speed] |
| Sylvia: 老 (lǎo)[natural native speed] |
| David: Old |
| Sylvia: 老 (lǎo)[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Sylvia: 老 (lǎo)[natural native speed] |
| Sylvia: 睡觉 (shuì jiào)[natural native speed] |
| David: To sleep |
| Sylvia: 睡觉 (shuì jiào)[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Sylvia: 睡觉 (shuì jiào)[natural native speed] |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| David: So most of these stuff is pretty easy. |
| Sylvia: Yep. |
| David: And we’ve covered some of this before in earlier sessions but let’s review. Our first word today is... |
| Sylvia: 多大 (Duōdà) |
| David: How big? |
| Sylvia: 多大 (Duōdà) |
| David: How old are you? |
| Sylvia: 你多大了？(Nǐ duōdàle?) |
| David: Right and that’s for adults. If you are asking a child, you should say... |
| Sylvia: 你几岁？(Nǐ jǐ suì?) |
| David: literally how many years? |
| Sylvia: 你几岁？(Nǐ jǐ suì?) |
| David: Our next word is an adjective. |
| Sylvia: 年轻(Niánqīng) |
| David: Young. |
| Sylvia: 年轻.(Niánqīng.) Like someone might say 你真年轻.(Nǐ zhēn niánqīng.) |
| David: You are really young. |
| Sylvia: Or 你看起来很年轻.(Nǐ kàn qǐlái hěn niánqīng.) |
| David: And that’s what I think they meant in the dialogue. You know, you look really young. |
| Sylvia: That’s what they are saying. |
| David: Yeah and in our dialogue, the reason that she looks so young. |
| Sylvia: Is because she sleeps a lot 她喜欢睡觉.(Tā xǐhuān shuìjiào.) |
| David: She likes to sleep. |
| Sylvia: 她喜欢睡觉.(Tā xǐhuān shuìjiào.) |
| David: Which is the word for sleep. For instance, you might say, I am tired. I want to sleep. |
| Sylvia: 我累了，我想睡觉.(Wǒ lèile, wǒ xiǎng shuìjiào.) |
| David: If she didn’t sleep, she’d presumably look a lot older. |
| Sylvia: And that’s the opposite of 年轻.(Niánqīng.) It’s 老.(Lǎo.) |
| David: Which means old. |
| Sylvia: 老.(Lǎo.) |
| David: Third tone, old. |
| Sylvia: But hopefully people will say 你看起来很年轻 (Nǐ kàn qǐlái hěn niánqīng) and no one will say 你看起来真老.(Nǐ kàn qǐlái zhēn lǎo.) |
| David: Right and that’s our key vocab for today. We have… |
| Sylvia: 多大，几岁，年轻，老，and 睡觉.(Duōdà, jǐ suì, niánqīng, lǎo,and shuìjiào.) |
| David: right and with that, let’s go to our grammar section. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| David: Our grammar point today is new. Yes, we are on Season 4 and this is the first time that we’ve talked about this. It’s the particle. |
| Sylvia: 呢 (Ne) which we hear in this sentence. 我24，你呢？(Wǒ 24, nǐ ne?) |
| David: I am 24. How about you? |
| Sylvia: 你呢？(Nǐ ne?) |
| David: How about you? So what is happening with this 呢 (Ne) sound? |
| Sylvia: Well it’s a sound we add to the end of sentences. |
| David: Right and it just changes the tone of the sentence. |
| Sylvia: Yes. It makes it sound questioning. |
| David: Or inquisitive. In our dialogue, our first speaker asked, how old someone was. |
| Sylvia: 你多大了？(Nǐ duōdàle?) |
| David: Then they gave the answer and said, how about you? |
| Sylvia:你呢？(Nǐ ne?) |
| David: Right. So that’s not really a yes/no question. They are just expressing curiosity. |
| Sylvia: Right. That’s true. Here are some other examples. Let’s see if we can figure them out 你在哪呢？(Nǐ zài nǎ ne?) |
| David: Where are you? |
| Sylvia: 你在哪呢？(Nǐ zài nǎ ne?) |
| David: Right which is strange because we’ve got the question. |
| Sylvia: 你在哪...(Nǐ zài nǎ...) |
| David: And then we are just adding this at the end. |
| Sylvia: 呢.(Ne.) So let’s have another example. Let’s say a friend goes out for coffee. |
| David: And he asks you if you want some and you say yes and you give him 10 bucks. |
| Sylvia: Then 20 minutes later he comes back and he has a coffee. |
| David: For himself and not for you. So you might say. |
| Sylvia: 我的咖啡呢？(Wǒ de kāfēi ne?) |
| David: What about my coffee? |
| Sylvia: 我的咖啡呢？(Wǒ de kāfēi ne?) |
| David: And literally that’s my coffee. |
| Sylvia: 我的咖啡...(Wǒ de kāfēi...) |
| David: What about it? |
| Sylvia: 呢？(Ne?) |
| David: My coffee. |
| Sylvia: 我的咖啡...(Wǒ de kāfēi...) |
| David: What about it? |
| Sylvia: 呢？(Ne?) |
| David: What about my coffee. |
| Sylvia: 我的咖啡呢？(Wǒ de kāfēi ne?) |
| David: Right. So it’s not really a question but it is. |
| Sylvia: Here is another example you might hear while shopping. 你不喜欢这个，那个呢？(Nǐ bù xǐhuān zhège, nàgè ne?) |
| David: You don’t like this one. How about that one? |
| Sylvia: 你不喜欢这个，那个呢？(Nǐ bù xǐhuān zhège, nàgè ne?) |
| David: You don’t like this one. |
| Sylvia: 那个呢？(Nàgè ne?) |
| David: What about that one? |
| Sylvia: 那个呢？(Nàgè ne?) |
| David: Right. So in all of these cases, it’s not technically a question but by adding the sound. |
| Sylvia: 呢 (Ne) |
| David: At the end of the sentence, we give it an inquisitive tone. And that’s our grammar point for today. As always if you have any questions, we encourage you to come to our site. |
| Sylvia: And leave message for us. |
| David: Right. It is ChineseClass101.com. From Beijing, I am David. |
| Sylvia: I am Sylvia. |
| David: And we look forward to hearing from you. Bye, bye. |
| Sylvia: Bye, bye. |
Outro |
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