Learn how to ask plenty of Chinese questions and learn what to expect if you are at all interested in teaching English in China
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Anthony: Welcome to chineseclass101, the fastest, easiest and most fun way to learn Chinese. |
| Echo: 嗨，大家好，我是Echo。(Hāi, dàjiā hǎo, wǒ shì Echo.) |
| Anthony: And I am Anthony and this is our 22nd lesson in our second season of our beginner series. |
| Echo: And the title for this lesson is the Chinese professional. |
| Anthony: Yes today’s lesson focuses on work and different types of jobs. |
| Echo: Yeah here in China, it is very common for strangers to ask you what you do. |
| Anthony: And how much you make? |
| Echo: Yeah but don’t be offended if they asked you about your salary because that is Chinese culture. |
| Anthony: Yeah and you can always say that you are unemployed. That may stop the questions. |
| Echo: One easy answer is to say, you are a teacher. |
| Anthony: So in our lesson today, we are going to go over a couple of cultural differences when it comes to talking about work. On the website, we have a cultural insight that is embedded in our PDFs. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| Anthony: Echo, how much does it cost to sign up with the basic subscription. |
| Echo: Very petty… |
| Anthony: Yes. |
| Echo: Only $4 |
| Anthony: Yes $4 and you can get your hands on these PDFs and you are going to be studying faster and better. Okay with that said, let’s go into the dialogue. |
| DIALOGUE |
| 你做什么工作？(Nǐ zuò shénme gōngzuò?) |
| 我是老师 (Wǒ shì lǎoshī.) |
| 你教什么？(Nǐ jiāo shénme?) |
| 我教数学和体育。(Wǒ jiāo shùxué hé tǐyù.) |
| Anthony: One more time, a little bit slower. |
| 你做什么工作？(Nǐ zuò shénme gōngzuò?) |
| 我是老师 (Wǒ shì lǎoshī.) |
| 你教什么？(Nǐ jiāo shénme?) |
| 我教数学和体育。(Wǒ jiāo shùxué hé tǐyù.) |
| Anthony: One more time with English. |
| Echo: 你做什么工作？(Nǐ zuò shénme gōngzuò?) |
| Anthony: What job do you do? |
| Echo: 我是老师 (Wǒ shì lǎoshī.) |
| Anthony: I am a teacher. |
| Echo: 你教什么？(Nǐ jiāo shénme?) |
| Anthony: What do you teach? |
| Echo: 我教数学和体育。(Wǒ jiāo shùxué hé tǐyù.) |
| Anthony: I teach math and gym. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Anthony: Okay so for foreigners living in China, being a teacher is a pretty common profession. |
| Echo: Yes it is very easy to find a job as an English teacher here in China. |
| Anthony: Yes the supply doesn’t quite meet the demand since basically every Chinese child is required to learn English in some form or another. |
| Echo: Yeah that’s very true and China has a lot of kids. |
| Anthony: Yeah lot of kids. Okay so you know Echo, when I first came to China right after I graduated college, I found a teaching job. |
| Echo: How did you like it? |
| Anthony: It was an interesting and challenging experience but a good one, but a good one. |
| Echo: So you will be using this vocabulary very frequently. |
| Anthony: That’s right. Talking about what you do, job, stuff like that. |
| Echo: Uh-huh. |
| Anthony: So we are going to take you through these vocabulary words one at a time and then we are going to give you a sample sentence and a little bit of cultural insight. |
| Echo: Right. So on to the vocab section now. |
| Anthony: Okay. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Anthony: And now the vocab section. |
| Echo: 做 (zuò) |
| Anthony: To do. |
| Echo: 做, 做. 工作 (zuò, zuò. gōngzuò) |
| Anthony: Job. |
| Echo: 工作, 工作. 老师 (gōngzuò, gōngzuò. lǎoshī) |
| Anthony: Teacher. |
| Echo: 老师, 老师. 教 (lǎoshī, lǎoshī. jiāo) |
| Anthony: To teach. |
| Echo: 教, 教. 数学 (jiāo, jiāo. shùxué) |
| Anthony: Mathematics. |
| Echo: 数学, 数学. 体育 (shùxué, shùxué. tǐyù) |
| Anthony: Athletics. |
| Echo: 体育, 体育. 工程师 (tǐyù, tǐyù. gōngchéngshī) |
| Anthony: Engineer. |
| Echo: 工程师, 工程师. 经理 (gōngchéngshī, gōngchéngshī. jīnglǐ) |
| Anthony: Manager. |
| Echo: 经理, 经理. (jīnglǐ, jīnglǐ.) |
| Anthony: So today’s vocabulary section focuses on work. |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Echo: And different types of jobs. |
| Anthony: Okay so Echo, introduce us to our first word. |
| Echo: 做 (Zuò) |
| Anthony: And this is the verb for to do. |
| Echo: 做 (Zuò) |
| Anthony: And this also means to work. |
| Echo: Right. |
| Anthony: Working and living in China, people are always curious as to what your job is. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| Anthony: So you are going to hear this next one very often. |
| Echo: 你做什么工作？(Nǐ zuò shénme gōngzuò?) |
| Anthony: What job do you do? |
| Echo: 你做什么工作？(Nǐ zuò shénme gōngzuò?) |
| Anthony: Okay and at the end of that sentence, we heard this word. |
| Echo: 工作 (Gōngzuò) |
| Anthony: Job. |
| Echo: 工作。我的工作很忙。(Gōngzuò. Wǒ de gōngzuò hěn máng.) |
| Anthony: My work is very busy, my job is very busy. |
| Echo: Yeah 我的工作很忙。(Wǒ de gōngzuò hěn máng.) |
| Anthony: So lot of people that come to China have this profession. |
| Echo: As we mentioned before 老师 (Lǎoshī) |
| Anthony: Teacher |
| Echo: 老师。我是英语老師。(Lǎoshī. Wǒ shì yīngyǔ lǎoshī.) |
| Anthony: I am an English teacher. |
| Echo: 我是英语老師。(Wǒ shì yīngyǔ lǎoshī.) |
| Anthony: Okay and our next word |
| Echo: 教 (Jiào) |
| Anthony: To teach |
| Echo: 教 (Jiào) |
| Anthony: That’s first tone. |
| Echo: 你教中文嗎？(Nǐ jiào zhōngwén ma?) |
| Anthony: Do you teach Chinese? |
| Echo: 你教中文嗎？(Nǐ jiào zhōngwén ma?) |
| Anthony: Yeah this is a good one to know if you need a personal Chinese tutor. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| Anthony: The great thing about living in China is anybody on the streets can be your Chinese teacher. |
| Echo: 数学 (Shùxué) |
| Anthony: Mathematics. |
| Echo: 数学 (Shùxué) |
| Anthony: That’s fourth tone, second tone. |
| Echo: 他是数学教授。(Tā shì shùxué jiàoshòu.) |
| Anthony: He is a math professor. |
| Echo: And the word 教授 (Jiàoshòu) means professor. 他是数学教授。(Tā shì shùxué jiàoshòu.) |
| Anthony: Okay and our next word. |
| Echo: 体育 (Tǐyù) |
| Anthony: Athletics or sports. |
| Echo: Yeah 体育 (Tǐyù) |
| Anthony: That’s third tone and fourth tone. |
| Echo: 我是体育老師。(Wǒ shì tǐyù lǎoshī.) |
| Anthony: I am the sports teacher or I am the gym coach. |
| Echo: 我是体育老師。(Wǒ shì tǐyù lǎoshī.) |
| Anthony: Okay so Echo, one interesting thing to note about this word for athletics is we are located right down the street from the workers stadium here in Beijing. |
| Echo: Yeah 公园体育场 (Gōngyuán tǐyùchǎng) |
| Anthony: Okay this is the place in Beijing where you can catch soccer games, concerts and they have a really good night life area right around the stadium. So if any of our listeners are visiting Beijing, we definitely recommend coming to this place. |
| Echo: 公园体育场 (Gōngyuán tǐyùchǎng) |
| Anthony: Okay now on to our next word. |
| Echo: 工程师。(Gōngchéngshī.) |
| Anthony: Engineer. |
| Echo: 工程师。我男朋友是工程师。(Gōngchéngshī. Wǒ nán péngyǒu shì gōngchéngshī.) |
| Anthony: My boyfriend is an engineer. |
| Echo: 我男朋友是工程师。 (Wǒ nán péngyǒu shì gōngchéngshī.) |
| Anthony: Echo, I have a question. Here in China, do women aspire to marry an engineer? |
| Echo: Not particularly. |
| Anthony: Okay but it does have a stable income. |
| Echo: Yes it does. |
| Anthony: And that’s important right? |
| Echo: Yes. |
| Anthony: Okay great. Another job that has a stable income. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| Anthony: With a little bit of prestige is this. |
| Echo: 经理 (Jīnglǐ) |
| Anthony: Manager. |
| Echo: 经理。他是我的经理。(Jīnglǐ. Tā shì wǒ de jīnglǐ.) |
| Anthony: Yes he is my manager. |
| Echo: 他是我的经理。(Tā shì wǒ de jīnglǐ.) |
| Anthony: Okay so we’ve gone over a lot of words for talking about work such as |
| Echo: 工作 (Gōngzuò) |
| Anthony: Job |
| Echo: 老師 (Lǎoshī) |
| Anthony: Teacher |
| Echo: And the verb 做 (Zuò) |
| Anthony: To do. All right, great that does it for our vocab section. Now on to the grammar. It’s grammar time. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Echo: Today’s grammar point focuses on a verb plus 什么。(Shénme.) |
| Anthony: And we use this when we want to know information about an action that has already been done, it is still going on or that will happen in the future. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| Anthony: Now we heard this sentence in the dialogue. |
| Echo: 你教什么？(Nǐ jiào shénme?) |
| Anthony: What do you teach? |
| Echo: 你教什么？(Nǐ jiào shénme?) |
| Anthony: And literally this is, you to teach what. |
| Echo: Right. We have some more examples I remember, they always follow the same pattern. Verb plus 什么。你吃什么？(Shénme. Nǐ chī shénme?) |
| Anthony: What do you want to eat? |
| Echo: 你吃什么？(Nǐ chī shénme?) |
| Anthony: Okay our next one. |
| Echo: 她要什么？(Tā yào shénme?) |
| Anthony: What does she want? |
| Echo: 她要什么？你说什么？(Tā yào shénme? Nǐ shuō shénme?) |
| Anthony: What did you say? |
| Echo: 你说什么？(Nǐ shuō shénme?) |
| Anthony: Okay so we’ve just done some simple samples. Now let’s take it one step further. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| Anthony: And add an object to the end of the sentence. |
| Echo: If you wanted to put 什么 (Shénme) together with a verb phrase, we should put 什么 (Shénme) in between the verb and its object. |
| Anthony: Right. So the pattern for this is |
| Echo: A verb plus 什么 (Shénme) plus the object. |
| Anthony: So Echo, take us through some sample sentences where we put an object to the end of the sentence. |
| Echo: Okay. First of all, in the dialogue, we heard this 你做什么工作？(Nǐ zuò shénme gōngzuò?) |
| Anthony: Yes what job do you do? |
| Echo: 你做什么工作？(Nǐ zuò shénme gōngzuò?) Here 做工作 (Zuò gōngzuò) is a verb phrase and object at the end is 工作。(Gōngzuò.) |
| Anthony: Yep the word for job. |
| Echo: 你听什么音乐？(Nǐ tīng shénme yīnyuè?) |
| Anthony: What music do you listen to? |
| Echo: 你听什么音乐？(Nǐ tīng shénme yīnyuè?) And 听音乐 (Tīng yīnyuè) is a verb object phrase. |
| Anthony: Right. So our next example. |
| Echo: 他看了什么电影？(Tā kànle shénme diànyǐng?) |
| Anthony: What movie did he watch? |
| Echo: 他看了什么电影？(Tā kànle shénme diànyǐng?) And notice it is past tense here because we put a 了 (Le) after 看。(Kàn.) |
| Anthony: So Echo, I am really curious about this next question. |
| Echo: 中国人唱什么歌？(Zhōngguó rén chàng shénme gē?) |
| Anthony: Yes Chinese people sing what song, what do Chinese people sing? |
| Echo: Yeah 中国人唱什么歌？(Zhōngguó rén chàng shénme gē?) |
| Anthony: So Echo, what do Chinese people sing? |
| Echo: I guess 周杰伦 (Zhōujiélún) |
| Anthony: Yeah Jay Chou yeah it’s pretty popular. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| Anthony: But lately, he’s been doing a lot of ads for potato chips and cell phones and such. |
| Echo: Yeah and also that like... |
| Anthony: You know another person who is pretty famous and who is also singer as Jackie Chan. |
| Echo: Yes. |
| Anthony: And he is not that good of a singer but that’s okay, his Chinese Kung Fu makes up for it. Yes and Chinese people do love the singing. |
| Echo: Yes. |
| Anthony: Okay so in review, we went over asking about actions. |
| Echo: Yes you can create a simple sentence by using a verb plus 什么 (Shénme) |
| Anthony: Right, right and you can also create a verb phrase by using this pattern. |
| Echo: A verb plus 什么 (Shénme) plus an object. |
| Anthony: Right. So our final sample sentence for today is |
| Echo: 你学什么？(Nǐ xué shénme?) |
| Anthony: Yes what do you study? |
| Echo: 我学中文。(Wǒ xué zhōngwén.) |
| Anthony: I study Chinese. And the best way to study Chinese Echo is what? |
| Echo: It’s chineseclass101.com |
| Anthony: All right. So if you want to learn Chinese, come to chineseclass101.com, sign up for your free lifetime account. All it takes is your email address. |
| Echo: Right. |
Outro |
| Anthony: Okay so from Beijing, I am Anthony. |
| Echo: 我是Echo。(Wǒ shì Echo.) |
| Anthony: Thanks for listening and we will see you next time. |
| Echo: 下次见，(Xià cì jiàn,) Bye bye. |
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