Learn how to talk about yourself and other people, using a compound phrase
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Intro |
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| David: This is the lesson. It’s all about news. So we’ve got newspapers, we’ve got television and we have the internet. |
| Sylvia: Exactly. |
| David: Right. So our dialogue is about two people checking the news online. So it takes place maybe at work or maybe in a café. |
| DIALOGUE |
| A: 今天上网了吗？(Jīntiān shàngwǎng le ma?) |
| B: 没有。有新闻吗？(Méiyǒu。Yǒu xīnwén ma?) |
| A: 没有，老样子！你自己看吧。(Méiyǒu, lǎo yàngzi! Nǐ zìjǐ kàn ba。) |
| David: One more time a bit slower. |
| A: 今天上网了吗？(Jīntiān shàngwǎng le ma?) |
| B: 没有。有新闻吗？(Méiyǒu。Yǒu xīnwén ma?) |
| A: 没有，老样子！你自己看吧。(Méiyǒu, lǎo yàngzi! Nǐ zìjǐ kàn ba。) |
| David: And now with the English translation. |
| Sylvia: 今天上网了吗？(Jīntiān shàngwǎng le ma?) |
| David: Hey, have you gotten online today? |
| Sylvia: 没有。有新闻吗？(Méiyǒu。Yǒu xīnwén ma?) |
| David: No. Is there news? |
| Sylvia: 没有，老样子！你自己看吧。(Méiyǒu, lǎo yàngzi! Nǐ zìjǐ kàn ba。) |
| David: No, the same as always! Take a look yourself. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| David: So I get most of my news online these days. I’d say I get almost all of my news online these days. |
| Sylvia: Me too. |
| David: But here at Beijing, the newspaper industry is still huge. You’ve got the street side stance and they sell newspapers and magazines. So knowing how to talk about this stuff is really useful and reading these papers is a great way to get practice. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Sylvia: 今天(jīntiān) [natural native speed] |
| David: today |
| Sylvia: 今天(jīntiān) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Sylvia: 今天 (jīntiān)[natural native speed] |
| Sylvia: 上网 (shàngwǎng) [natural native speed] |
| David: to go online |
| Sylvia: 上网 (shàngwǎng)[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Sylvia: 上网 (shàngwǎng)[natural native speed] |
| Sylvia: 新闻 (xīnwén) [natural native speed] |
| David: news |
| Sylvia: 新闻 (xīnwén)[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Sylvia: 新闻 (xīnwén)[natural native speed] |
| Sylvia: 老样子 (lǎo yàngzi) [natural native speed] |
| David: the same old |
| Sylvia: 老样子 (lǎo yàngzi)[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Sylvia: 老样子 (lǎo yàngzi)[natural native speed] |
| Sylvia: 自己 (zìjǐ)[natural native speed] |
| David: oneself |
| Sylvia: 自己 (zìjǐ)[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Sylvia: 自己 (zìjǐ)[natural native speed] |
| Sylvia: 网络 (wǎngluò) [natural native speed] |
| David: Internet |
| Sylvia: 网络 (wǎngluò)[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Sylvia: 网络 (wǎngluò)[natural native speed] |
| Sylvia: 报纸 (bàozhǐ) [natural native speed] |
| David: newspaper |
| Sylvia: 报纸 (bàozhǐ)[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Sylvia: 报纸 (bàozhǐ)[natural native speed] |
| Sylvia: 电视 (diànshì)[natural native speed] |
| David: television |
| Sylvia: 电视 (diànshì)[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Sylvia: 电视 (diànshì)[natural native speed] |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| David: Our vocab focus today is on news 新闻(Xīnwén) And that’s the generic word for news. |
| Sylvia: 新闻.(Xīnwén.) |
| David: as in today’s news... |
| Sylvia: 今天的新闻.(Jīntiān de xīnwén.) |
| David: or yesterday’s news [*]. |
| Sylvia: 昨天的新闻.(Zuótiān de xīnwén.) |
| David: So let’s say you want to buy a newspaper, Sylvia how do we ask for one at the newspaper stance? |
| Sylvia: 有报纸吗？(Yǒu bàozhǐ ma?) |
| David: Do you have a newspaper? |
| Sylvia: 有报纸吗？(Yǒu bàozhǐ ma?) |
| David: You might want to say, I want to buy a newspaper... |
| Sylvia: 我要买报纸.(Wǒ yāomǎi bàozhǐ.) |
| David: I want to buy a newspaper. |
| Sylvia: 我要买报纸.(Wǒ yāomǎi bàozhǐ.) |
| David: Of course in China, there is also television. 电视 (Diànshì) and we know the word for television 电视 (Diànshì) and we know the word for news 新闻 (Xīnwén) television news is… |
| Sylvia: 电视新闻.(Diànshì xīnwén.) |
| David: And of course these days the most popular way to get the news, it’s not the newspaper and it’s not television. |
| Sylvia: It’s 网络.(Wǎngluò.) |
| David: Right which is – it’s actually the way you say network in China 网络.(Wǎngluò.) If you want to get online, you have to 上网 (Shàngwǎng) to get online... |
| Sylvia: 上网 (Shàngwǎng) |
| David: I want to go online… |
| Sylvia: 我想上网.(Wǒ xiǎng shàngwǎng.) |
| David: I want to go online and read the news... |
| Sylvia: 我想上网看新闻.(Wǒ xiǎng shàngwǎng kàn xīnwén.) |
Lesson focus |
| Sylvia: Okay David. Today we are going to talk about self. |
| David: Yes. We are talking about the Chinese word that we use to kind of stress that you are doing it yourself or that he is doing it himself and that word again is 自己.(Zìjǐ.) Let’s hear it a bit slower |
| Sylvia: 自己.(Zìjǐ.) |
| David: In the dialogue, we heard it in this line |
| Sylvia: 你自己看吧.(Nǐ zìjǐ kàn ba.) |
| David: Is it really saying you yourself look. |
| Sylvia: 你自己看吧.(Nǐ zìjǐ kàn ba.) So what about I myself? |
| David: Right. This is one of the wonderful things with Chinese. There is no conjugation. So we already know the word I. 我 (Wǒ) So how do we say I myself? |
| Sylvia: 我自己.(Wǒ zìjǐ.) What about himself? |
| David: Right. That would be 他自己 (Tā zìjǐ) and that would be either he (他) (Tā) or she (她)(Tā) as we already know. |
| Sylvia: Yes. |
| David: One last point. Sometimes you want to emphasize the possessive. This is his… |
| Sylvia: 这是他自己的.(Zhè shì tā zìjǐ de.) |
| David: Listen one more time. |
| Sylvia: 这是他自己的.(Zhè shì tā zìjǐ de.) |
| David: and note that we can take out that oneself. |
| Sylvia: Right. It’s perfectly correct to say 这是他的.(Zhè shì tā de.) |
| David: Right. Let’s hear those two side by side. First of all, this is his 这是他的.(Zhè shì tā de.) but for emphasis, we can say... |
| Sylvia: 这是他自己的.(Zhè shì tā zìjǐ de.) |
| David: Right, it’s no one else’s, it’s really his. |
| Sylvia: 这是他自己的.(Zhè shì tā zìjǐ de.) |
| David: So you can get away without using this but often when you want to stress that someone’s doing something themselves, this is the most natural way to do it and we’ve got some really simple sentences that are going to illustrate this. Sylvia? |
| Sylvia: Yeah David. Our first one is 我自己来.(Wǒ zìjǐ lái.) |
| David: I am coming myself. |
| Sylvia: 我自己来.(Wǒ zìjǐ lái.) |
| David: Right. So maybe you are on the phone and you are telling, I am not sending anyone. I will be there to do it myself. The next would be “you do it yourself”... |
| Sylvia: 你自己做. (Nǐ zìjǐ zuò.) |
| David: Maybe you have a colleague who might give the work to someone else and you want to stress. This is your responsibility, do it yourself. |
| Sylvia: 你自己做. (Nǐ zìjǐ zuò.) |
Outro |
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