Learn how to talk about changes of state
Now Playing: Lesson Audio
Get a breakdown of the dialogue and translations instantly with the Premium line-by-line Audio. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Get this lesson’s key vocab, their translations and pronunciations. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Unlock Lesson Notes and Transcripts for every single lesson. Sign Up for a Free Lifetime Account and Get 7 Days of Premium Access.
| INTRODUCTION |
| Frank: Hey, everyone. |
| Echo: Da jia hao! |
| Frank: Welcome back to ChineseClass101.com, Season 1, Lesson 15 in our Beginner series. |
| Echo: Yes, 15 already. |
| Frank: I’m your host, Frank Fradella and I’m joined in the studio today by my fabulous co-host, Echo. |
| Echo: 谢谢。我是(Xièxiè. Wǒ shì) Echo. |
| Frank: Today’s lesson is a great lesson. Another one in the restaurant. This one, you’re trying to get the attention of your waitress. |
| Echo: Right. Also, it’s the first real date between our two old friends, Zhang Fei and Ma Li |
| Frank: That’s absolutely right. They are speaking casually with each other. |
| Echo: For sure. |
| Frank: Let’s get on to the dialoge. |
| Echo: Frank, before we do…. |
| Frank: That’s right, Echo. Thank you for reminding me. Before we do, we want to remind you to head up to ChineseClass101.com. Check those online tests and quizzes. They really help drive this information home. |
| Echo: They’re fun. |
| Frank: They’re a lot of fun. Let’s go on to the dialogue right now. |
| Echo: Let’s go. |
Lesson conversation |
|---|
| 张飞:服务员！(ZHĀNG FĒI: Fúwùyuán!) |
| 马丽:她听不见。(MǍ LÌ: Tā tīngbùjiàn.) |
| 张飞:服务员！买单！(ZHĀNG FĒI: Fúwùyuán! Mǎidān!) |
| 马丽:啊，她来了。(MǍ LÌ: ā, tā lái le.) |
| Frank: Now one more time, just a little slower. |
| 张飞:服务员！(ZHĀNG FĒI: Fúwùyuán!) |
| 马丽:她听不见。(MǍ LÌ: Tā tīngbùjiàn.) |
| 张飞:服务员！买单！(ZHĀNG FĒI: Fúwùyuán! Mǎidān!) |
| 马丽:啊，她来了。(MǍ LÌ: ā, tā lái le.) |
| Frank: Okay. We’re back. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| Frank: You know, if you’re in a restaurant here, there’s a lot of people. |
| Echo: Yeah. They’re noisy. |
| Frank: Very, very noisy. |
| Echo: Especially in Chinese restaurant. |
| Frank: Exactly. If there’s one thing China got, it’s a lot of people. So you might have to raise your voice a little bit to be heard. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| Frank: So we’ll teach you how to do this. |
| Echo: Yeah. Let’s go through with the dialogue line-by-line. |
| 张飞:服务员！(ZHĀNG FĒI: Fúwùyuán!) |
| Frank: Waitress! |
| 马丽:她听不见。(MǍ LÌ: Tā tīngbùjiàn.) |
| Frank: She didn’t hear you. |
| 张飞:服务员！买单！(ZHĀNG FĒI: Fúwùyuán! Mǎidān!) |
| Frank: Waitress! Bill please! |
| 马丽:啊，她来了。(MǍ LÌ: ā, tā lái le.) |
| Frank: Ahh, she’s coming. |
| Frank: Just now, we translated that as waitress. |
| Echo: 服务员。(Fúwùyuán.) |
| Frank: But this can also be used for waiter. |
| Echo: 服务员。(Fúwùyuán.) |
| Frank: It’s a completely gender neutral phrase. |
| Echo: All the same. |
| Frank: Let’s get on to the vocab now. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Male: And now, the vocab section. |
| Echo: 服务员(fúwùyuán) [natural native speed]. |
| Frank: Waiter. |
| Echo: 服务员(fúwùyuán) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 服务员(fúwùyuán) [natural native speed]. |
| Echo: 听不见(tīngbùjiàn) [natural native speed]. |
| Frank: Can’t hear. |
| Echo: 听不见(tīngbùjiàn) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 听不见(tīngbùjiàn) [natural native speed]. |
| Echo: 买单(mǎidān) [natural native speed]. |
| Frank: To pay the bill. |
| Echo: 买单(mǎidān) [slowly - broken down by syllable].买单(mǎidān) [natural native speed]. |
| Echo: 来(lái) [natural native speed]. |
| Frank: To come. |
| Echo: 来 (lái)[slowly - broken down by syllable]. 来(lái) [natural native speed]. |
| KEY VOCABULARY AND PHRASES |
| Echo: Okay. We have a lot of useful vocabulary here. |
| Frank: Lot of great stuff here. In today’s lesson, we heard the phrase “can’t hear”. |
| Echo: 听不见。(Tīng bùjiàn.) |
| Frank: We’ve heard this structure before on our lesson when we’re looking for the bathroom. |
| Echo: Right. 看不见。(Kàn bùjiàn.) |
| Frank: Means “can’t see”. |
| Echo: Right. |
| Frank: Now this phrase literally means “to listen but not hear” or “to look but not see”. |
| Echo: Right. |
| Frank: Where else do we see the structure, Echo? |
| Echo: 听不懂。(Tīng bù dǒng.) |
| Frank: To listen but not understand. |
| Echo: 看不懂。(Kàn bù dǒng.) |
| Frank: To look but not understand. |
| Echo: Right. If you were on the phone, 听不清。(Tīng bù qīng.) |
| Frank: To listen but not hear clearly. |
| Echo: Or 听不清楚(Tīng bù qīngchǔ). Same meaning. |
| Frank: Exactly. Let’s hear those again. Can’t hear. |
| Echo: 听不见。(Tīng bùjiàn.) |
| Frank: Can’t see. |
| Echo: 看不见。(Kàn bùjiàn.) |
| Frank: Can’t understand. |
| Echo: 听不懂。(Tīng bù dǒng.) |
| Frank: Can’t read. |
| Echo: 看不懂。(Kàn bù dǒng.) |
| Frank: Great. Now let’s hear some sample sentences. “I can’t hear you.” |
| Echo: 我听不见。(Wǒ tīng bùjiàn.) |
| Frank: The waitress didn’t hear you. |
| Echo: 服务员听不见。(Fúwùyuán tīng bùjiàn.) |
| Frank: Please repeat that. I didn’t hear clearly. |
| Echo: 请再说一遍。我听不清。(Qǐng zàishuō yībiàn. Wǒ tīng bù qīng.) |
| Frank: I’m sorry, I didn’t understand. |
| Echo: 对不起，我听不懂。(Duìbùqǐ, wǒ tīng bù dǒng.) |
| Frank: I can’t read Chinese. |
| Echo: 我看不懂中文。(Wǒ kàn bù dǒng zhōngwén.) |
| Frank: They come and especially hand you when you’re looking at the menus. The next vocab word we wanted to cover was the word for waiter or waitress. |
| Echo: 服务员。(Fúwùyuán.) |
| Frank: Now, as we mentioned, this is generalist. But we did tell you on the previous lesson that you can say “Miss”. |
| Echo: 小姐。(Xiǎojiě.) |
| Frank: If you’re talking to a waitress. What will we say to a waiter? |
| Echo: You could also say 师傅。(shīfu.) |
| Frank: It’s a very cool phrase. It’s a sign of respect. |
| Echo: Right. Actually, you can use 师傅(shīfu) in many different kind of situations. |
| Frank: Like when I’m in a cab. |
| Echo: Right. Exactly. 师傅。(shīfu.) |
| Frank: This is a great phrase. If you started the martial arts, it’s actually what you would call your instructor. |
| Echo: 师傅。(shīfu.) |
| Frank: Next word we wanted to cover was “to pay the bill”. |
| Echo: 买单。(mǎidān.) |
| Frank: Here’s some sample sentences. “Waitress, the bill.” |
| Echo: 服务员，买单。(Fúwùyuán, mǎidān.) |
| Frank: How about we get the bill? |
| Echo: 我们买单怎么样？(Wǒmen mǎidān zěnme yàng?) |
| Frank: Echo, how about we just move on to the grammar section? |
| Echo: Great. My favorite part! |
| Frank: I know. Let’s go ahead and do it. |
| Echo: Let’s go. |
Lesson focus |
| Male: It’s grammar time. |
| Frank: You’ve already heard us talked about the verb “to go”. |
| Echo: Right, 去.(Qù.) |
| Frank: Today you learn the verb “to come”. |
| Echo: 来。(Lái.) |
| Frank: Here’s some examples of those in action. “He wants to come to China”. |
| Echo: 他要来中国。(Tā yào lái zhōngguó.) |
| Frank: She wants to go to America. |
| Echo: 她要去美国。(Tā yào qù měiguó.) |
| Frank: He wants to come to China to work. |
| Echo: 他要来中国工作。(Tā yào lái zhōngguó gōngzuò.) |
| Frank: She wants to go to America to study English. |
| Echo: 她要去美国学习英文。(Tā yào qù měiguó xuéxí yīngwén.) |
| Frank: How about we go to Hong Kong? |
| Echo: 我们去香港怎么样？(Wǒmen qù xiānggǎng zěnme yàng?) |
| Frank: Now there’s an extra sound at the end of our sentence in that dialogue. |
| Echo: 她来了！(tā lái le!) |
| Frank: Let’s listen to it one more time. |
| Echo: 她来了。(tā lái le.) |
| Frank: We also heard this before in a sentence like this. “It’s already 9:00 o’clock.” |
| Echo: 已经九点了。(Yǐjīng jiǔ diǎnle.) |
| Frank: 了 Is a complex particle but it has two major uses. |
| Echo: Exactly. |
| Frank: The first is to put the sentence into the past tense. For example, “I ate”. |
| Echo: 我吃了。(Wǒ chīle.) |
| Frank: I bought. |
| Echo: 我买了。(Wǒ mǎile.) |
| Frank: Did you go? |
| Echo: 你去了吗？ 了(Nǐ qùle ma? Le) is also used to indicate a change of state. |
| Frank: Right, something has changed, like in our dialogue. |
| Echo: 她来了。(tā lái le.) |
| Frank: We translated this as “she is coming”. |
| Echo: Right. |
| Frank: But really, the sentence is kind of ambiguous. Either the waitress has also come… |
| Echo: …or she’s coming now. |
| Frank: Exactly. She is on her way. Let’s have some more examples of this. “I’m hungry”. |
| Echo: 我饿了。(Wǒ èle.) |
| Frank: She is tired. |
| Echo: 她累了。(Tā lèile.) |
| Frank: He is sleeping. |
| Echo: 他睡了.(Tā shuìle.) 了(Le) is a complex part of the Chinese language. |
| Frank: But it’s also one of the most common. |
| Echo: Exactly. |
| Frank: Sometimes, it’s difficult to know if it’s being used for the past tense or to signal that something has changed. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| Frank: The more you listen to ChineseClass101.com, the better you’ll get at learning how to use it. |
| Echo: Right. |
| Frank: Now if you have any questions about this, you know what we want you to do. |
| Echo: Come on down the site. |
| Frank: That’s right. We want you to head up to ChineseClass101.com, leave us a comment with your questions. Anything that you want to know, we’re here to help you. |
| Echo: Yes. |
| Frank: We will see you there. For now though, from Beijing, I’m Frank Fradella… |
| Echo: 我是(Wǒ shì) Echo. |
| Frank: …and we’ll see you next time. 再见。(Zàijiàn.) |
| Echo: 再见。(Zàijiàn.) |
Easily master this lesson’s grammar points with in-depth explanations and examples. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Comments
Hide