Learn about the various pressures Chinese parents often put on their children to succeed, and also about ways Chinese children fight back
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| INTRODUCTION |
| David: Hi everyone and welcome to chineseclass101.com, the fastest, easiest and most fun way to learn Chinese. Welcome to chineseclass101.com. I am David. |
| Echo: 嗨！大家好，我是Echo. (Hāi! Dàjiā hǎo, wǒ shì Echo.) |
| David: And with us, you will learn to speak Chinese with fun and effective lessons. |
| Echo: 没错。(Méi cuò.) |
| David: So we are here today with intermediate series, season 1, lesson 16. |
| Echo: Presidential Aspirations. |
| David: Yes, Presidential aspirations. So in this lesson, we are going to learn how to aim high. We’ve got a conversation that takes place at home between a father and a son. |
| Echo: Right and as usual, they are speaking casual Mandarin. |
| David: Right. Now we are going to take you to the dialogue in a sec. Before we do, we want to remind you, one of the best ways to remember new words is to use the flashcard systems we’ve got at chineseclass101.com |
| Echo: 没错。我们的生词卡。(Méi cuò. Wǒmen de shēngcí kǎ.) |
| David: Right. Go to the premium learning center and you can be studying the vocab for this lesson in literally seconds. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| David: Okay, with that, let’s get to the dialogue. |
| DIALOGUE |
| 你为什么又撒谎？我真是白养你了。(nǐ wèishénme yòu sāhuǎng? wǒ zhēnshì bái yǎng nǐ le.) |
| 爸爸，对不起... (bàba, duìbuqǐ ...) |
| 三字经都白背了，书都白念了。(Sān zì jīng dōu bái bèi le, shū dōu bái niànle.) |
| 我知道错了...(wǒ zhīdào cuò le ...) |
| 你知不知道林肯在你这岁数有多诚实？啊？(nǐ zhībùzhīdào Línkěn zài nǐ zhè suìshu yǒu duō chéngshí? á?) |
| 不知道...我只知道林肯在您这岁数，都已经当总统了。(bù zhīdào ...wǒ zhǐ zhīdào Línkěn zài nín zhè suìshu, dōu yǐjīng dāng zǒngtǒng le.) |
| David: One more time, a little bit slower. |
| 你为什么又撒谎？我真是白养你了。(nǐ wèishénme yòu sāhuǎng? wǒ zhēnshì bái yǎng nǐ le.) |
| 爸爸，对不起... (bàba, duìbuqǐ ...) |
| 三字经都白背了，书都白念了。 (Sān zì jīng dōu bái bèi le, shū dōu bái niànle.) |
| 我知道错了...(wǒ zhīdào cuò le ...) |
| 你知不知道林肯在你这岁数有多诚实？啊？(nǐ zhībùzhīdào Línkěn zài nǐ zhè suìshu yǒu duō chéngshí? á?) |
| 不知道...我只知道林肯在您这岁数，都已经当总统了。 (bù zhīdào ...wǒ zhǐ zhīdào Línkěn zài nín zhè suìshu, dōu yǐjīng dāng zǒngtǒng le.) |
| David: And now with the English translation. |
| 你为什么又撒谎？我真是白养你了。(nǐ wèishénme yòu sāhuǎng? wǒ zhēnshì bái yǎng nǐ le.) |
| Why are you lying again? I really raised you for nothing. |
| 爸爸，对不起... (bàba, duìbuqǐ ...) |
| Father, I'm sorry. |
| 三字经都白背了，书都白念了。 (Sān zì jīng dōu bái bèi le, shū dōu bái niànle.) |
| It's all been wasted, memorizing the classics and reading all those books. |
| 我知道错了...(wǒ zhīdào cuò le ...) |
| I know I've been wrong. |
| 你知不知道林肯在你这岁数有多诚实？啊？(nǐ zhībùzhīdào Línkěn zài nǐ zhè suìshu yǒu duō chéngshí? á?) |
| Do you know how honest Lincoln was at your age? |
| 不知道...我只知道林肯在您这岁数，都已经当总统了。 (bù zhīdào ...wǒ zhǐ zhīdào Línkěn zài nín zhè suìshu, dōu yǐjīng dāng zǒngtǒng le.) |
| No…I only know that when Lincoln was your age he was already a president. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| David: So Echo, do you get this kind of pressure from parents? |
| Echo: 當总统的压力？沒有。(Dāng zǒngtǒng de yālì? Méiyǒu.) |
| David: Or they ever said, oh, we’ve raised you for nothing. |
| Echo: 没有，因为我是很好的，很乖的。 (Méiyǒu, yīnwèi wǒ shì hěn hǎo de, hěn guāi de.) |
| David: This is a pretty Chinese thing for people to say though. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| David: You hear a lot of parents, yeah, we raised you for nothing. |
| Echo: 没错，白养你了。 (Méi cuò, bái yǎng nǐle.) |
| David: Yeah. Anyway our vocab section today is a mix of things but we’ve got a lot about holding public office. |
| Echo: 没错。(Méi cuò.) |
| David: So why don’t we get to the vocab section now. |
| Echo: 好的。(Hǎo de.) |
| David: And now, the vocab section. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Echo: 撒谎 (Sāhuǎng) |
| David: To lie. |
| Echo: 撒谎，撒谎。白 (Sāhuǎng, sāhuǎng. Bái) |
| David: In vain. |
| Echo: 白，白。三字经 (Bái, bái. Sānzìjīng) |
| David: Three character classic. |
| Echo: 三字经，三字经。养 (Sānzìjīng, sānzìjīng. Yǎng) |
| David: To raise. |
| Echo: 养，养。岁数 (Yǎng, yǎng. Suìshu) |
| David: Age in years. |
| Echo: 岁数，岁数。背 (Suìshu, suìshu. Bèi) |
| David: To memorize. |
| Echo: 背，背。念 (Bèi, bèi. Niàn) |
| David: To recite. |
| Echo: 念，念。诚实 (Niàn, niàn. Chéngshí) |
| David: Honest. |
| Echo: 诚实，诚实。当 (Chéngshí, chéngshí. Dāng) |
| David: To hold a position. |
| Echo: 当，当。总统 (Dāng, dāng. Zǒngtǒng) |
| David: President. |
| Echo: 总统，总统。 (Zǒngtǒng, zǒngtǒng.) |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| David: Perfect. Let’s have a closer look at the usage of some of these words and phrases. |
| Echo: 我们的第一个词是:总统 (Wǒmen de dì yī gè cí shì: Zǒngtǒng) |
| David: President. |
| Echo: 总统 (Zǒngtǒng) |
| David: President. As in the US president. |
| Echo: 美国总统。奥巴马是美国的现任总统。(Měiguó zǒngtǒng. Àobāmǎ shì měiguó de xiànrèn zǒngtǒng.) |
| David: The current US president is Obama. |
| Echo: 对，名字是奥巴马 Chinese name.(Duì, míngzì shì àobāmǎ Chinese name.) |
| David: Right. Let’s hear that whole sentence again, Obama is the current US president. |
| Echo: 奥巴马是美国的现任总统。 (Àobāmǎ shì měiguó de xiànrèn zǒngtǒng.) |
| David: It sounds like European sports car in Chinese like Audi, yeah, anyway… |
| Echo: 你小心哦。 (Nǐ xiǎoxīn ó.) |
| David: So that’s president. Not all countries have presidents though. China has a Chairman. |
| Echo: 主席 (Zhǔxí) |
| David: Chairman. |
| Echo: 主席。胡锦涛是中国的现任主席。 (Zhǔxí. Hújǐntāo shì zhōngguó de xiànrèn zhǔxí.) |
| David: Hu Jintao is the current Chairman of China. |
| Echo: 胡锦涛是中国的现任主席。 (Hújǐntāo shì zhōngguó de xiànrèn zhǔxí.) |
| David: So we’ve got president |
| Echo: 总统 (Zǒngtǒng) |
| David: And Chairman |
| Echo: 主席 (Zhǔxí) |
| David: In parliamentary countries, the leader is typically known as the prime minister or premier. |
| Echo: 总理 (Zǒnglǐ) |
| David: That’s premier. |
| Echo: 总理 (Zǒnglǐ) |
| David: Or prime minister. |
| Echo: 总理。英国，加拿大，跟澳大利亚都有总理。 (Zǒnglǐ. Yīngguó, jiānádà, gēn àodàlìyǎ dōu yǒu zǒnglǐ.) |
| David: Britain, Canada and Australia all have prime ministers. |
| Echo: 英国，加拿大，跟澳大利亚都有总理。 (Yīngguó, jiānádà, gēn àodàlìyǎ dōu yǒu zǒnglǐ.) |
| David: Right. So three really useful words. First, president. |
| Echo: 总统 (Zǒngtǒng) |
| David: Chairman. |
| Echo: 主席 (Zhǔxí) |
| David: And then prime minister. |
| Echo: 总理 (Zǒnglǐ) |
| David: In our example sentences, we kept using a word that means to currently have a job. |
| Echo: 现任。现任总统 (Xiànrèn. Xiànrèn zǒngtǒng) |
| David: Right. The current president. |
| Echo: 现任主席 (Xiànrèn zhǔxí) |
| David: The current chairman. |
| Echo: 现任总理 (Xiànrèn zǒnglǐ) |
| David: The current prime minister. |
| Echo: 中国也有总理，你们猜猜他是谁。(Zhōngguó yěyǒu zǒnglǐ, nǐmen cāi cāi tā shì shéi.) |
| David: I know who he is. |
| Echo: 是我们非常喜欢的，他是我们的宝贝。 (Shì wǒmen fēicháng xǐhuān de, tā shì wǒmen de bǎobèi.) |
| David: Oh he’s got fans online. He is 温家宝。 (Wēnjiābǎo.) |
| Echo: 对，他真的是我们的宝贝。So 温家宝是中国的现任总理。(Duì, tā zhēn de shì wǒmen de bǎobèi.So wēnjiābǎo shì zhōngguó de xiànrèn zǒnglǐ.) |
| David: He is a really grandfatherly figure. |
| Echo: 没错。 (Méi cuò.) |
| David: It’s his image. Anyway, we have a couple more words we want to look at that aren’t political at all. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| David: First of all, what is this? |
| Echo: 三字经。 (Sānzìjīng.) |
| David: Right. |
| Echo: 三字经。 (Sānzìjīng.) |
| David: What is the 三字经？(Sānzìjīng.) |
| Echo: 你可以把它翻译成 (Nǐ kěyǐ bǎ tā fānyì chéng) three character classic. |
| David: Yeah. |
| Echo: 但是呢... (Dànshì ne...) |
| David: It’s a book. |
| Echo: 是一个很宝的书，我们说叫”小书“。(Shì yīgè hěn bǎo de shū, wǒmen shuō jiào” xiǎo shū “.) |
| David: It’s a book for kids. |
| Echo: 没错。(Méi cuò.) |
| David: And it’s special because all of its lines are three characters long. |
| Echo: 对，但是也是古文的，也是有古文的，有点难。(Duì, dànshì yěshì gǔwén de, yěshì yǒu gǔwén de, yǒudiǎn nán.) |
| David: Yeah. |
| Echo: 我记得我小时候有一本是有插图的，上面是图，下面是句话。(Wǒ jìdé wǒ xiǎoshíhòu yǒuyī běn shì yǒu chātú de, shàngmiàn shì tú, xiàmiàn shì jù huà.) |
| David: Yeah. So you got the illustrated edition. |
| Echo: 没错。(Méi cuò.) |
| David: I should get that from you. Anyway, that’s why we’ve translated it as the three character classic. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| David: A lot of these – this 经 (Jīng) character, it means a classic. |
| Echo: 没错。 (Méi cuò.) |
| David: Or a spiritual text of some kind. |
| Echo: 对，因为“经”是从宗教来的，比如说:佛经。 (Duì, yīnwèi “jīng” shì cóng zōngjiào lái de, bǐrú shuō: Fójīng.) |
| David: Yeah. So we’ve actually – there are a bunch of these. You’ve heard of a couple of them. We hope, there is |
| Echo: 易经 (Yì jīng) |
| David: Which is the Yijing. |
| Echo: 道德经 (Dàodé jīng) |
| David: Which is the Daodejing. |
| Echo: 就是老子的。 (Jiùshì lǎozi de.) |
| David: Yeah. |
| Echo: 三字经 (Sānzìjīng) |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| David: And with that, that’s our vocab section. Let’s get on to the grammar section. It’s grammar time. |
| Echo: 白 (Bái) |
| David: It’s an adverb meaning in vain. |
| Echo: 白 (Bái) |
| David: To do something for nothing. |
| Echo: Hmm. In the dialogue, we heard this 你为什么又撒谎？我真是白养你了。(Nǐ wèishéme yòu sāhuǎng? Wǒ zhēnshi bái yǎng nǐle.) |
| David: Why are you lying again? I really raised you in vain. |
| Echo: 我真是白养你了。 (Wǒ zhēnshi bái yǎng nǐle.) |
| David: Right. And Chinese parents do say this. It’s actually an awkward translation. It’s in vain. In English, we’d say you know for nothing. Right, I raised you for nothing or you are no good. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| David: The key point here is that we can put this in front of…. |
| Echo: Almost any verb. |
| David: Right. |
| Echo: 比如说在对话里还有其他的句子也用了”白“。 (Bǐrú shuō zài duìhuà li hái yǒu qítā de jùzi yě yòngle” bái “.) |
| David: Yeah. |
| Echo: 三字经都白背了，书都白念了。(Sānzìjīng dōu bái bèile, shū dōu bái niànle.) |
| David: And our translation there is, it’s all been wasted. Memorizing the classics and reading those books. |
| Echo: 对。白背了。(Duì. Bái bèile.) |
| David: Which is to memorize for nothing. |
| Echo: 白念了。(Bái niànle.) |
| David: To recite or study for nothing. |
| Echo: 对，其实很简单。(Duì, qíshí hěn jiǎndān.) |
| David: Yeah and it’s very powerful because as you said, you can use this with almost any verb. You can say |
| Echo: 白去 (Bái qù) |
| David: To mean to go for nothing. |
| Echo: 白来 (Bái lái) |
| David: To come for no reason. |
| Echo: Yeah and if you can’t convince someone or something, you can say 白说了 (Bái shuōle) |
| David: Right. He spoke in vain. |
| Echo: And don’t forget. For extra emphasis, we can use 都 (Dōu) too |
| David: Right. We will say 都 (Dōu) and then |
| Echo: 白 (Bái), and then verb. Yeah. 中国的总理和美国的总统都白去了，谈判没有成功。(Zhōngguó de zǒnglǐ hé měiguó de zǒngtǒng dōu bái qùle, tánpàn méiyǒu chénggōng.) |
| David: The US president and the Chinese premier both went for nothing because the talks didn’t succeed. |
| Echo: 都白去了 (Dōu bái qùle) |
| David: Right. |
| Echo: 中国的总理和美国的总统都白去了，谈判没有成功。(Zhōngguó de zǒnglǐ hé měiguó de zǒngtǒng dōu bái qùle, tánpàn méiyǒu chénggōng.) |
| David: That 都 (Dōu) there, in that sentence, there are two people but it’s really emphasis. |
| Echo: 没错。 (Méi cuò.) |
| David: So even if you are subject to the single object or person, you can use this. |
| Echo: Yeah 我都白去了。 (Wǒ dū bái qùle.) |
| David: Yeah. I went in vain. Okay, so that’s our grammar point for today. Before we let you leave, we want to remind you. We’ve got a premium RSS feed as part of chineseclass101.com |
| Echo: 没错。(Méi cuò.) |
| David: If you’ve got iTunes, if you use Google Reader, you can use this to automatically get all of the lessons on to your Mp3 player. |
| Echo: Yes, it’s very, very convenient. |
| David: And the PDF transcripts will automatically download to your computer too. It’s a lot easier than going through the site and clicking to manually download the stuff. |
| Echo: 对。 (Duì.) |
| David: Okay. So give it a shot and if you have any questions |
| Echo: 你们可以随时写信到 contactus@chineseclass101.com 或者在我们网站上给我们留言。(Nǐmen kěyǐ suíshí xiě xìn dào contactus@chineseclass101.Com huòzhě zài wǒmen wǎngzhàn shàng gěi wǒmen liúyán.) |
Outro |
| David: Right. We look forward to hearing from you. From our studios in the heart of Beijing, I am David. |
| Echo: 我是Echo。(Wǒ shì Echo.) |
| David: Thanks a lot for listening and we will see you on the site. |
| Echo: 网上见吧 Bye bye. (Wǎngshàng jiàn ba Bye bye.) |
Comments
HideAustralia has already had one with Kevin Rudd. How long do you think it will be until the United States has a Chief Executive who speaks mandarin?
Hello robert groulx,
Thank you for your comment, we hope you enjoyed the lesson!
Let us know if you have any questions.
Ngai Lam
Team ChineseClass101.com
thanks for the lesson
my favorite phrase is 三字经都白背了，书都白念了
robert
Hello Leah,
Thank you for your comment. 在这个句子里面，“都已经...了” 表示事情已经发生了, something has already happened, it also expresses the speaker's attitude towards the event.
e.g. 现在都已经十二点了，你还不起床？
Let us know if you have any questions.
Ngai Lam
Team ChineseClass101.com
在对话里面有这个句子“林肯在您这岁数都已经当总统了。” 在这里，“都” 是 emphasis 吗？“都” 常常可以这样用吗？
Hi Kotto,
Thank you for posting.
With [My Feed], Premium subscribers can tailor their podcast feed to receive only the content they want. To get started, please check out: https://www.chineseclass101.com/learningcenter/account/myfeed
In case of any questions, please feel free to contact us.
Sincerely,
Cristiane
Team ChineseClass101.com
I cannot find the RSS feed talked about at end of this lesson. Where on the site do I find this? Thanks.
Hi, TARIK,
Sorry for the late reply.
The PINYIN of 行 in this sentence is not correct.
It should be "háng ".
nǐ néng niàn yíxià zhè háng zì ma , Wǒ kànbùqīng chǔ.
你能念一下这行字吗，我看不清楚。
Cho
Team ChineseClass101.com
HI,
I MEAN , IT IS PINYIN-ED AS "XING". IS THAT CORRECT?nǐ néng niàn yīxià zhè xíng zì ma, wǒ kàn bu qīng chǔ
Hi, TARIK,
Good work!
The pinyin of 行 in this sentence is háng.
nǐ néng niàn yíxià zhè háng zì ma , Wǒ kànbùqīng chǔ.
Bye the way, 一下= yíxià
一 pronounce different according to the tone of the next character.
single 一, pronounce as "yī".
yí + 4th tone: 一个(yí gè, one) 一下(yíxià, one time)
yì + 1st tone, 2nd tone, 3rd tone: 一只(yì zhī, one), 一年(yì nián, one year ), 一点点(yì diǎndiǎn, a little)
Cheers,
Cho
Team ChineseClass101.com
HI,
xíng or hang in:
你能念一下这行字吗，我看不清楚
nǐ néng niàn yīxià zhè xíng zì ma, wǒ kàn bu qīng chǔ
Thanks
Hi Kord,
Both correct :)
Echo
Team ChineseClass101.com
Hi, just a quick question: Shouldn't the classical character for "nian" in the meaning "to recite" have a mouth radical?
- Kord
@careyxxx,
對，我說了“乖”，意思是很聽話，不做讓別人不高興的事情。
“怪”有“責備、埋怨”的意思，如果孩子不乖，父母可以怪孩子不聽話。
--Echo
是不是這課 Echo 說她乖?
當我在台灣學習中文的時候我跟我的老師有很多問題.我們得用生子造句子.
我的老師不喜歡我造的句子. 一位老師問我我有沒有心理問題; 問我我父母怪不怪我?
Echo 說的是 "乖" 還是 "怪"? 我的老師說的是 "乖" 還是 "怪"?
如果孩子不聽父母，父母有沒有責任或權利怪孩子?
Hi Magnus,
Did I get his name wrong? Dammit. Definitely unintentional if so.
--dave
I tweeted this lesson: Great lesson on Prez Aspirations. Thought of 3 comics from this 1 lesson. 外国人说英文“奥巴马”说错了！太搞笑了！故意吗?