Learn a useful Chinese auxiliary word that might help you on your Chinese subway adventures
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| INTRODUCTION |
| David: Welcome to chineseclass101.com. I am David. |
| Echo: 嗨(Hāi)，大家好(Dàjiā hǎo)，我是(Wǒ shì)Echo。 |
| David: And welcome to intermediate series, season 1, Lesson 22. |
| Echo: Chinese Subway Battle. |
| David: Right. This lesson shows you the seedy underbelly of the Beijing subway system. |
| Echo: 对。(Duì.) |
| David: It’s a fight between two strangers that we actually witnessed on the subway. So we’ve got a dialogue that’s all about that. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| David: It takes place on the subway between two strangers. They are still speaking casual Mandarin. |
| Echo: Right. |
| David: Actually, they are speaking really colloquial Mandarin and we are going to get you to the dialogue in a sec. Before we do that, we want to remind you. |
| Echo: Comments, comments, comments. |
| David: Right. If you have comments, if you have questions, you can leave them on the site or send us an email. |
| Echo: At contactus@chineseclass101.com |
| David: And we look forward to hearing from you. For now though, let’s go to the dialogue. |
| DIALOGUE |
| 这是谁的包？(Zhè shì shéi de bāo?) |
| 我的。我朋友马上就过来。(Wǒ de. Wǒ péngyǒu mǎshàng jiù guòlái.) |
| 真新鲜！这年头儿没听说还有占座的。(Zhēn xīnxiān! Zhè niántóu er méi tīng shuō hái yǒu zhàn zuò de.) |
| 哎，你干吗，坐到我包上了。你讲不讲理？(Āi, nǐ gànma, zuò dào wǒ bāo shàngle. Nǐ jiǎng bù jiǎnglǐ?) |
| 你讲不讲理，这座位上又没写着你的名字。(Nǐ jiǎng bù jiǎnglǐ, zhè zuòwèi shàng yòu méi xiězhe nǐ de míngzì.) |
| 你有没有素质？(Nǐ yǒu méiyǒu sùzhì?) |
| 你推我？你敢动手？(Nǐ tuī wǒ? Nǐ gǎn dòngshǒu?) |
| 谁推你了。是你挡着我的手了。(Shéi tuī nǐle. Shì nǐ dǎngzhe wǒ de shǒule.) |
| 报警！我要报警！(Bàojǐng! Wǒ yào bàojǐng!) |
| David: One more time, a little bit slower. |
| 这是谁的包？(Zhè shì shéi de bāo?) |
| 我的。我朋友马上就过来。(Wǒ de. Wǒ péngyǒu mǎshàng jiù guòlái.) |
| 真新鲜！这年头儿没听说还有占座的。(Zhēn xīnxiān! Zhè niántóu er méi tīng shuō hái yǒu zhàn zuò de.) |
| 哎，你干吗，坐到我包上了。你讲不讲理？(Āi, nǐ gànma, zuò dào wǒ bāo shàngle. Nǐ jiǎng bù jiǎnglǐ?) |
| 你讲不讲理，这座位上又没写着你的名字。(Nǐ jiǎng bù jiǎnglǐ, zhè zuòwèi shàng yòu méi xiězhe nǐ de míngzì.) |
| 你有没有素质？(Nǐ yǒu méiyǒu sùzhì?) |
| 你推我？你敢动手？(Nǐ tuī wǒ? Nǐ gǎn dòngshǒu?) |
| 谁推你了。是你挡着我的手了。(Shéi tuī nǐle. Shì nǐ dǎngzhe wǒ de shǒule.) |
| 报警！我要报警！(Bàojǐng! Wǒ yào bàojǐng!) |
| David: And now with the English translation. |
| 这是谁的包？(Zhè shì shéi de bāo?) |
| Whose bag is this? |
| 我的。我朋友马上就过来。(Wǒ de. Wǒ péngyǒu mǎshàng jiù guòlái.) |
| It's mine. My friend will be over in a second. |
| 真新鲜！这年头儿没听说还有占座的。(Zhēn xīnxiān! Zhè niántóu er méi tīng shuō hái yǒu zhàn zuò de.) |
| That's really fresh. I didn't know you could seize seats these days. |
| 哎，你干吗，坐到我包上了。你讲不讲理？(Āi, nǐ gànma, zuò dào wǒ bāo shàngle. Nǐ jiǎng bù jiǎnglǐ?) |
| Hey, what are you doing sitting on my bag? Can't you be reasonable? |
| 你讲不讲理，这座位上又没写着你的名字。(Nǐ jiǎng bù jiǎnglǐ, zhè zuòwèi shàng yòu méi xiězhe nǐ de míngzì.) |
| You be reasonable. There's no-one's name written on this seat. |
| 你有没有素质？(Nǐ yǒu méiyǒu sùzhì?) |
| Can't you be civilized? |
| 你推我？你敢动手？(Nǐ tuī wǒ? Nǐ gǎn dòngshǒu?) |
| Did you push me? You dare hit me? |
| 谁推你了。是你挡着我的手了。(Shéi tuī nǐle. Shì nǐ dǎngzhe wǒ de shǒule.) |
| No-one hit you. You bumped into my arm. |
| 报警！我要报警！(Bàojǐng! Wǒ yào bàojǐng!) |
| Police! I want to call the police! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| David: So a real subway battle. |
| Echo: 每天早上都会在北京的地铁里发生。(Měitiān zǎoshang dūhuì zài běijīng dì dìtiě lǐ fāshēng.) |
| David: I think it’s actually pretty rare. |
| Echo: 占座其实并不太多；有，还是有。(Zhàn zuò qíshí bìng bù tài duō; yǒu, háishì yǒu.) |
| David: Yeah, yeah but it’s pretty rare to see people actually get into a fight over it. |
| Echo: 有时候。你一周坐几次地铁呀？(Yǒu shíhòu. Nǐ yīzhōu zuò jǐ cì dìtiě ya?) |
| David: Anyway, we’ve got a lot of vocab that is very colloquial. Hopefully you won’t need to use it in the fight but let’s get to it. And now, the vocab section. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Echo: 新鲜(Xīnxiān) |
| David: Fresh. |
| Echo: 新鲜，新鲜。占座(Xīnxiān, xīnxiān. Zhàn zuò) |
| David: To occupy a seat. |
| Echo: 占座，占座。讲理(Zhàn zuò, zhàn zuò. Jiǎnglǐ) |
| David: To reason with someone. |
| Echo: 讲理，讲理。素质(Jiǎnglǐ, jiǎnglǐ. Sùzhì) |
| David: Quality. |
| Echo: 素质，素质。动手(Sùzhì, sùzhì. Dòngshǒu) |
| David: Proactively. |
| Echo: 动手，动手。挡(Dòngshǒu, dòngshǒu. Dǎng) |
| David: To block. |
| Echo: 挡，挡。报警(Dǎng, dǎng. Bàojǐng) |
| David: To report to the police. |
| Echo: 报警，报警。暴力(Bàojǐng, bàojǐng. Bàolì) |
| David: Violent. |
| Echo: 暴力，暴力。(Bàolì, bàolì.) |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| David: Let’s take a closer look at the usage for some of these words and phrases. The first word we want to focus on is |
| Echo: 新鲜(Xīnxiān) |
| David: Fresh. |
| Echo: 新鲜(Xīnxiān) |
| David: This literally means fresh. |
| Echo: 对，比如说，这个，吃的很新鲜。(Duì, bǐrú shuō, zhège, chī de hěn xīnxiān.) |
| David: Well, that’s what you eat. |
| Echo: 对，若或者说，一般我们中国人喜欢说，蔬菜或者是海鲜，比较新鲜。比如说:这条鱼很新鲜。(Duì, ruò huòzhě shuō, yībān wǒmen zhōngguó rén xǐhuān shuō, shūcài huòzhě shì hǎixiān, bǐjiào xīnxiān. Bǐrú shuō: Zhè tiáo yú hěn xīnxiān.) |
| David: Right, right. |
| Echo: 对。(Duì.) |
| David: Right. So the fish can be fresh or the seafood can be fresh but here it’s actually being used in the second sentence that we see in English too meaning something that’s one rare. |
| Echo: 对，比如说，这么新鲜的事儿我还是头一回听说。(Duì, bǐrú shuō, zhème xīnxiān de shì er wǒ háishì tóu yī huí tīng shuō.) |
| David: Something that’s rare. It’s the first time I’ve heard of it. |
| Echo: 没错。(Méi cuò.) |
| David: But also something that’s kind of against norms. |
| Echo: 对，没错。这个，一般来说，有点不是很好的意思，有点讽刺的意思。(Duì, méi cuò. Zhège, yībān lái shuō, yǒudiǎn bùshì hěn hǎo de yìsi, yǒudiǎn fèngcì de yìsi.) |
| David: Yeah and we see this same meaning in English. This is just at tip of the hat, you can do this in Chinese too. |
| Echo: 没错。(Méi cuò.) |
| David: Okay. Our second word is related. It’s the word for quality. |
| Echo: 素质(Sùzhì) |
| David: Quality. |
| Echo: 素质(Sùzhì) |
| David: And really we are talking about personal quality. |
| Echo: 对，没错。就是一个人的...怎么说，跟他的受教育的程度有关系。然后他是不是很礼貌，然后是不是很文明。(Duì, méi cuò. Jiùshì yīgè rén de... Zěnme shuō, gēn tā de shòu jiàoyù de chéngdù yǒu guānxì. Ránhòu tā shì bùshì hěn lǐmào, ránhòu shì bùshì hěn wénmíng.) |
| David: Yeah. Are they educated, are they polite. Do they have quality. |
| Echo: 有没有素质。(Yǒu méiyǒu sùzhì.) |
| David: For instance, you might hear this sentence. |
| Echo: 一个人的素质教育很重要。(Yīgè rén de sùzhì jiàoyù hěn zhòngyào.) |
| David: Chinese people believe someone’s moral quality education is very important. |
| Echo: 对，一个人的素质教育很重要。(Duì, yīgè rén de sùzhì jiàoyù hěn zhòngyào.) |
| David: Our next word is a verb that functions much like an adjective. |
| Echo: 动手(Dòngshǒu) |
| David: Literally this means to move the hand. |
| Echo: 对，动手。这个地方呢，我想告诉大家，就是在我们的dialogue里，这“动手”的意思就是“打”。(Duì, dòngshǒu. Zhège dìfāng ne, wǒ xiǎng gàosù dàjiā, jiùshì zài wǒmen de dialogue lǐ, zhè “dòngshǒu” de yìsi jiùshì “dǎ”.) |
| David: Right. |
| Echo: 就是“打架“这样的意思。(Jiùshì “dǎjià “zhèyàng de yìsi.) |
| David: Yeah but I mean it’s real meaning is kind of to be proactive or to do something first. |
| Echo: 对，没错。(Duì, méi cuò.) |
| David: As in the sentence, |
| Echo: 他做得再不对，你也不能动手打他。(Tā zuò dé zài bu duì, nǐ yě bùnéng dòngshǒu dǎ tā.) |
| David: What he did wasn’t right but you shouldn’t hit him off your own accord. Our last word is the verb to block. |
| Echo: 挡(Dǎng) |
| David: So you could block someone’s way. |
| Echo: 挡住别人的路(Dǎngzhù biérén de lù) |
| David: Or you could block someone’s hand. |
| Echo: 挡住别人的手。但是大家小心，这个block不是那个，我们比如说在MSN，或者在Gmail上，你可以 (Dǎngzhù biérén de shǒu. Dànshì dàjiā xiǎoxīn, zhège block bùshì nàgè, wǒmen bǐrú shuō zài MSN, huòzhě zài Gmail shàng, nǐ kěyǐ)Block someone ，不是呢个。(Bùshì ne gè.) |
| David: Yeah. This is to physically obstruct someone and physically get in their way. |
| Echo: 没错，我们中文有一句话，叫“好狗不挡路”。(Méi cuò, wǒmen zhōngwén yǒu yījù huà, jiào “hǎo gǒu bù dǎng lù”.) |
| David: Right. A good dog never gets in your way. |
| Echo: 对，然后...(Duì, ránhòu...) |
| David: Cats on the other hand. |
| Echo: 对。(Duì.) |
| David: Right. Okay so that’s our vocab section. There is lot of new stuff here but the four keywords are fresh. |
| Echo: 新鲜(Xīnxiān) |
| David: Quality. |
| Echo: 素质(Sùzhì) |
| David: To go first or be proactive. |
| Echo: 动手(Dòngshǒu) |
| David: And then to block. |
| Echo: 挡(Dǎng) |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| David: It’s grammar time. Echo, our grammar section today is review. What are we covering? |
| Echo: 今天我们见到一个老朋友 － 的。(Jīntiān wǒmen jiàn dào yīgè lǎo péngyǒu - de.) |
| David: It’s the subordinating particle 的。(De.) |
| Echo: 对。(Duì.) |
| David: And we are just going to review a couple of more advanced ways that we see it used. |
| Echo: 没错。首先我们看“的”在我们的对话里这个句子:这年头儿没听说还有占座的。(Méi cuò. Shǒuxiān wǒmen kàn “de” zài wǒmen de duìhuà li zhège jùzi: Zhè niántóu er méi tīng shuō hái yǒu zhàn zuò de.) |
| David: In these days, I haven’t heard that there is still |
| Echo: 占座的。(Zhàn zuò de.) |
| David: That means something or someone who does 占座。(Zhàn zuò.) |
| Echo: 没错。(Méi cuò.) |
| David: And kind of ceases or occupies seats. |
| Echo: Right 这年头儿没听说还有占座的。(Zhè niántóu er méi tīng shuō hái yǒu zhàn zuò de.) |
| David: We’ve run into this in previous lessons. We want to highlight it here because it’s still something that a lot of people will get mixed up about at the intermediate level. |
| Echo: 没错。对，我们以前学过一个“是的”结构，但是呢，这个我们之前提到过，这个情况“是的”(Méi cuò. Duì, wǒmen yǐqián xuéguò yīgè “shì de” jiégòu, dànshì ne, zhège wǒmen zhīqián tí dàoguò, zhège qíngkuàng “shì de”)structure差不多是唯一一种情况你可以在一个句子的最后看到“的”。(Chàbùduō shì wéi yīyī zhǒng qíngkuàng nǐ kěyǐ zài yīgè jùzi de zuìhòu kàn dào “de”.) |
| David: What she is saying is there are really two situations in which you are going to get 的(De) at the end of the sentence. The first is with the |
| Echo: 是的(Shì de) structure. |
| David: Right where for example, |
| Echo: 这道菜是新鲜的。(Zhè dào cài shì xīnxiān de.) |
| David: This dish is fresh. Right and so we’ve got the 是(Shì) adjective or 是(Shì) something 的。(De.) |
| Echo: 对。(Duì.) |
| David: This is the second case and actually what’s happening here is omission. |
| Echo: 对，我看不见这个占座的(Duì, wǒ kàn bùjiàn zhège zhàn zuò de) someone. |
| David: Yes it’s the thing that is being subordinate to the action of ceasing the seat and in this case, it’s a person. |
| Echo: 对。占座的人。(Duì. Zhàn zuò de rén.) |
| David: But because it’s obvious, we don’t need to include that. We’ve got a couple of sentences for you that are sample sentences. While you listen to them, see if you can figure out what the omitted object is. |
| Echo: 教法语的是个新来的。(Jiào fǎyǔ de shìgè xīn lái de.) |
| David: That’s got double usage. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| David: One more time. |
| Echo: Tricky. 教法语的是个新来的。(Jiào fǎyǔ de shìgè xīn lái de.) |
| David: The omitted word is teacher and then person again. |
| Echo: 没错。(Méi cuò.) |
| David: The person who is teaching French is new. |
| Echo: 对，应该是“教法语的人是个新来的老师”。(Duì, yīnggāi shì “jiào fǎyǔ de rén shìgè xīn lái de lǎoshī”.) |
| David: Right. |
| Echo: 今晚酒吧里来了很多学跳舞的。(Jīn wǎn jiǔbā lǐ láile hěnduō xué tiàowǔ de.) |
| David: This evening, there are many people who came to the bar to study dancing and again it’s people. |
| Echo: 对。今晚酒吧里来了很多学跳舞的人。我不喜欢太吵的狗，你们店里有没有不爱叫的？(Duì. Jīn wǎn jiǔbā lǐ láile hěnduō xué tiàowǔ de rén. Wǒ bù xǐhuān tài chǎo de gǒu, nǐmen diàn li yǒu méiyǒu bù ài jiào de?) |
| David: I don’t like dogs that are too noisy. Do you have one that doesn’t yell? Right, so that’s the context there. We know we are talking about dogs. |
| Echo: 对。(Duì.) |
Outro |
| David: Okay. So that’s our lesson for today. As always, we encourage you to grab the premium PDF. Before we leave you, we want to remind you about a way to improve your pronunciation drastically. |
| Echo: The voice recording tool, right. Record and listen, then. |
| David: Compare your voice to the native speakers and this is going to help you figure out where your accent is good and where it needs work. |
| Echo: 没错。(Méi cuò.) |
| David: That being said, we are done for the day. From the heart of downtown Beijing, I am David. |
| Echo: 我是(Wǒ shì)Echo。 |
| David: Thanks a lot for listening and we will see you on the site. |
| Echo: 网上见(Wǎngshàng jiàn) Bye bye. |
| David: Bye. |
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