Learn how to congratulate people and wish them well on various occasions
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Chris: Hi everyone. Welcome to chineseclass101.com. I am Chris. |
| Echo: Hi, 大家好, 我是(Dàjiā hǎo, wǒ shì)Echo。 |
| Chris: And this is lower beginner, season 1, Lesson 3. |
| Echo: Having a Happy Birthday in China. |
| Chris: Okay and this dialogue is between three friends, one of them has a problem that we all have, getting older and older and older… |
| Echo: Well just celebrating her birthday. |
| Chris: Okay. |
| Echo: Yeah and of course because they are friends, so they are speaking casual Mandarin as always. |
| Chris: Exactly. So let’s listen to the dialogue. |
| DIALOGUE |
| A: 王姐，生日快乐！(Wáng Jiě, shēngrì kuàilè!) |
| B: 祝你生日快乐！(Zhù nǐ shēngrì kuàilè!) |
| A: 谢谢你们。(Xièxiè nǐmen..) |
| B: 祝你新的一年身体健康。(Zhù nǐ xīn de yì nián shēntǐ jiànkāng.) |
| A: 还有一切顺利！(Hái yǒu yíqiè shùnlì!) |
| B: 谢谢，我们切蛋糕吧。(Xièxie, wǒmen qiē dàngāo ba.) |
| Chris: One more time a bit slower. |
| A: 王姐，生日快乐！(Wáng Jiě, shēngrì kuàilè!) |
| B: 祝你生日快乐！(Zhù nǐ shēngrì kuàilè!) |
| A: 谢谢你们。(Xièxiè nǐmen..) |
| B: 祝你新的一年身体健康。(Zhù nǐ xīn de yì nián shēntǐ jiànkāng.) |
| A: 还有一切顺利！(Hái yǒu yíqiè shùnlì!) |
| B: 谢谢，我们切蛋糕吧。(Xièxie, wǒmen qiē dàngāo ba.) |
| Chris: Now with the English translation. |
| Echo: 王姐，生日快乐！(Wáng Jiě, shēngrì kuàilè!) |
| Chris: Sister Wong, happy birthday. |
| Echo: 祝你生日快乐！(Zhù nǐ shēngrì kuàilè!) |
| Chris: Wishing you a happy birthday. |
| Echo: 谢谢你们。(Xièxiè nǐmen..) |
| Chris: Thanks everybody. |
| Echo: 祝你新的一年身体健康。(Zhù nǐ xīn de yì nián shēntǐ jiànkāng.) |
| Chris: I wish you a year filled with good health. |
| Echo: 还有一切顺利！(Hái yǒu yíqiè shùnlì!) |
| Chris: And everything goes smoothly. |
| Echo: 谢谢，我们切蛋糕吧。(Xièxie, wǒmen qiē dàngāo ba.) |
| Chris: Thanks. Let’s cut the cake. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Chris: So Echo, when I first came to China, someone told me that Chinese people sometimes celebrate two birthdays. |
| Echo: You mean the Chinese calendars? |
| Chris: Yeah the Lunar calendar, yeah. Yeah and said, there are two different calendars. |
| Echo: Yes well but usually people celebrate the normal one, the common one. |
| Chris: Okay so they just told me that of course they want some more presents. |
| Echo: They want more presents. Okay anyway, let’s go to our vocab now. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Echo: 王姐。(Wáng Jiě.) |
| Chris: Sister Wong. |
| Echo: 王姐,王姐,生日快乐。(Wáng Jiě,Wáng Jiě,shēngrì kuàilè.) |
| Chris: Happy birthday. |
| Echo: 生日快乐,生日快乐,祝。(shēngrì kuàilè,shēngrì kuàilè,zhù.) |
| Chris: Wishing. |
| Echo: 祝,祝,新。(zhù,zhù,xīn.) |
| Chris: New |
| Echo: 新,新,一年。 (xīn,xīn,yì nián.) |
| Chris: Year. |
| Echo: 一年,一年, 身体健康。(yì nián,yì nián,shēntǐ jiànkāng.) |
| Chris: Good health. |
| Echo: 身体健康, 身体健康, 一切顺利。(shēntǐ jiànkāng, shēntǐ jiànkāng, yíqiè shùnlì.) |
| Chris: Everything goes smoothly. |
| Echo: 一切顺利, 一切顺利。(yíqiè shùnlì, yíqiè shùnlì.) |
| Chris: Okay great. So let’s take a closer look at some of the words and phrases in today’s dialogue. And the first word is |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Echo: 王姐。(Wáng Jiě.) |
| Chris: Sister Wong. |
| Echo: 王姐。(Wáng Jiě.) |
| Chris: Sister Wong. |
| Echo: Actually the speaker is not 王姐(Wáng Jiě) sister yeah but he just say that, it’s because you know, Chinese people like to sound closer to each other. |
| Chris: Yeah, yeah. |
| Echo: Yeah so maybe they are just co-workers or they are just friends. Yeah but they say 王姐(Wáng Jiě) |
| Chris: When I first came to China, someone advised me, they said that I should use big brother when I am talking to people older than me. |
| Echo: Right 大哥(Dàgē) yeah or if you know like the person’s family name, you can call him like 黄大哥(Huáng dàgē)or 李大哥.(Lǐ dàgē.) That’s even closer. |
| Chris: Oh! What’s the next one? |
| Echo: Actually next we are going to have a couple of four character words all about good wishes. |
| Chris: Okay what’s the first one? |
| Echo: 生日快乐！(shēngrì kuàilè!) |
| Chris: This is just happy birthday right? |
| Echo: Right. 生日快乐！(shēngrì kuàilè!) |
| Chris: Happy birthday. |
| Echo: Umm we hear that a lot. |
| Chris: Twice a year apparently. |
| Echo: Yeah literally that’s 生日。(Shēngrì.) |
| Chris: Birthday. |
| Echo: 快乐。(Kuàilè.) |
| Chris: Happy. So Chinese people don’t miss an opportunity to give someone good wishes right? |
| Echo: Yeah especially with 快乐。(Kuàilè.) |
| Chris: So if it’s Christmas day? |
| Echo: Yeah we say 圣诞快乐！(Shèngdàn kuàilè!) |
| Chris: Merry Christmas! |
| Echo: 圣诞快乐！(Shèngdàn kuàilè!) |
| Chris: Merry Christmas! |
| Echo: Or 新年快乐！(Xīnnián kuàilè!) |
| Chris: Happy New Year. |
| Echo: 新年快乐！(Xīnnián kuàilè!) |
| Chris: Happy New Year. |
| Echo: Or something like 新婚快乐！(Xīnhūn kuàilè!) |
| Chris: Ah this is one I hope I don’t hear soon. This is happy new marriage. |
| Echo: 新婚快乐！(Xīnhūn kuàilè!) |
| Chris: Okay great. So that’s about all the vocab. Let’s move on to some grammar. |
| Echo: Okay. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Chris: It’s grammar time. Our grammar point for today is |
| Echo: 祝。(zhù.) |
| Chris: And you can hear this in the dialogue. |
| Echo: 祝你 生日快乐!(Zhù nǐ shēngrì kuàilè!) |
| Chris: Wishing you a happy birthday. |
| Echo: 祝你 生日快乐!(Zhù nǐ shēngrì kuàilè) |
| Chris: Wishing you a happy birthday. |
| Echo: That’s how we Chinese people like usually make wishes, usually give wishes. |
| Chris: In a previous lesson, we learned how to congratulate someone on an achievement. The guy got a promotion and someone said |
| Echo: 祝贺你。(Zhùhè nǐ.) |
| Chris: Congratulations. |
| Echo: Right. |
| Chris: Now in this lesson, it’s the same |
| Echo: 祝。(zhù) |
| Chris: But we are using it to give good wishes to someone on a special event. |
| Echo: Right. It’s not like okay, I congratulate you on your achievement. It’s not 祝贺(zhùhè), 祝(zhù) is to give or to express your good wishes. |
| Chris: So we can say on somebody’s birthday |
| Echo: 祝你 生日快乐！(Zhù nǐ shēngrì kuàilè!) |
| Chris: Or if it’s Christmas day, we can say |
| Echo: 祝你 圣诞快乐！(Zhù nǐ Shèngdàn kuàilè!) |
| Chris: Wish you a merry Christmas. |
| Echo: 祝你 圣诞快乐！(Zhù nǐ Shèngdàn kuàilè!) |
| Chris: So you can see, the structure here is |
| Echo: 祝(zhù) plus 你(Nǐ)or whoever and plus our magic four character words like 生日快乐！(shēngrì kuàilè!) or 圣诞快乐！(Shèngdàn kuàilè!) |
| Chris: Okay good. Shall we look at some more examples? |
| Echo: Of course. |
| Chris: How did we say happy new marriage? A lot of my friends are getting married. |
| Echo: Usually it’s 祝你们 新婚快乐！(Zhù nǐmen xīnhūn kuàilè!) |
| Chris: Wishing you a happy new marriage. |
| Echo: 祝你们 新婚快乐！ or 祝你 新年快乐！(Zhù nǐmen xīnhūn kuàilè! or Zhù nǐ xīnnián kuàilè!) |
| Chris: Wishing you a happy new year. |
| Echo: 祝你 新年快乐！(Zhù nǐ xīnnián kuàilè!) |
| Chris: Wishing you a happy new year. |
| Echo: Yeah or something without 快乐.(Kuàilè.) You can say 祝你 身体健康。(Zhù nǐ shēntǐ jiànkāng.) |
| Chris: Wishing you good health. |
| Echo: 祝你 身体健康。(Zhù nǐ shēntǐ jiànkāng.) |
| Chris: Wishing you good health. |
| Echo: Right. You can always use it to like older people. Yeah, if you don’t know what to say, you can say 祝你 一切顺利！(Zhù nǐ yīqiè shùnlì!) |
| Chris: Wishing that everything works out smoothly. |
| Echo: Right. 祝你 一切顺利!(Zhù nǐ yīqiè shùnlì!) |
| Chris: It’s something I say it all the time in Beijing. |
| Echo: Yeah that’s super useful. You know, you don’t know what to say, then just say well, 一切顺利!(Yīqiè shùnlì!) |
| Chris: It’s just a general kind of – I hope you don’t have any troubles today. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| Chris: Okay so to recap, we have the grammar point. |
| Echo: 祝。(zhù.) |
| Chris: So Echo, who can we use this with? Can I use this with my boss? |
| Echo: Yeah you can use this with anyone. |
| Chris: My sister. |
| Echo: Yes. |
| Chris: My parents? |
| Echo: Yes. |
Outro |
| Chris: Okay right, good. Before we go, you’ve got one last tip for us. |
| Echo: That’s right. You don’t always have to say 祝你(Zhù nǐ) or 祝你们(Zhù nǐmen), you can just drop it, you can just keep this magic four-character words like 生日快乐！(shēngrì kuàilè!)or 身体健康!(shēntǐ jiànkāng!) or 一切顺利！(yíqiè shùnlì)or 新婚快乐！(Xīnhūn kuàilè!). Just keep them and drop the 祝你(Zhù nǐ) part. It works as good. |
| Chris: Okay great. So that’s all we got time for and if it’s your birthday, Echo is going to sing happy birthday for you I think. |
| Echo: What, I don’t know about that. |
| Chris: Oh I hear you went in the meeting, okay. Okay and remember that if we went too fast in the podcast, you can always… |
| Echo: Yeah find our PDFs, transcripts in our premium learning center. |
| Chris: Thanks for listening. That’s all we’ve got for you today. |
| Echo: From Beijing, 我是(Wǒ shì)Echo. |
| Chris: And I am Chris. |
| Echo: 下次见。(Xià cì jiàn.) |
| Chris: Bye bye. |
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