Learn what it's really like to ride a bike in China
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Brendan: Hi. And welcome to Chineseclass101.com. I’m Brendan. |
| Echo: 嗨，大家好，我是Echo. (Hāi, dàjiā hǎo, wǒ shì Echo.) |
| Brendan: And we’re coming t you today with Lower Intermediate Series, Season 1, Lesson 3 – “Bike theft in Beijing”. In this lesson you’re going to learn what it’s really like to ride a bike in China. |
| Echo: Right. This conversation takes place in a bike parking lot. |
| Brendan: It’s between a security guard and the cyclist. We met them last lesson. |
| Echo: Right. And the speakers are speaking casual mandarin, as always. |
| Brendan: Now, we’re going to take you to the dialogue, but before we do that, a reminder. We have a full transcript of this dialogue and everything else in our premium PDF. |
| Echo: 没错。 (Méi cuò.) |
| Brendan: It is highly, highly recommended. |
| DIALOGUE |
| A:保安！ (Bǎoān!) |
| B:是你啊，你的自行车呢？ (Shì nǐā, nǐde zìxíngchēne?) |
| A:你说呢。丢了！被偷了！ (Nǐshuōne. Diūle ! Bèi tōu le!) |
| B:不可能，我刚把它挪那儿。 (Bù kěnéng, wǒgāng bǎtānuó nàr.) |
| A:在哪儿呢？ (Zài nǎr ne?) |
| B:我发誓，它刚还……我猜它被偷了。 (Wǒfāshì, tāgāng huán... Wǒcāi tābèi tōu le.) |
| Brendan: Once more, slowly. |
| A:保安！ (Bǎoān!) |
| B:是你啊，你的自行车呢？ (Shì nǐā, nǐde zìxíngchēne?) |
| A:你说呢。丢了！被偷了！ (Nǐshuōne. Diūle ! Bèi tōu le!) |
| B:不可能，我刚把它挪那儿。 (Bù kěnéng, wǒgāng bǎtānuó nàr.) |
| A:在哪儿呢？ (Zài nǎr ne?) |
| B:我发誓，它刚还……我猜它被偷了。 (Wǒfāshì, tāgāng huán... Wǒcāi tābèi tōu le.) |
| Brendan: And now, with English translation. |
| A:保安！ (Bǎoān!) |
| A: Hey Security Guard! |
| B:是你啊，你的自行车呢？ (Shì nǐā, nǐde zìxíngchēne?) |
| B: Oh, you. Where's your bike? |
| A:你说呢。丢了！被偷了！ (Nǐshuōne. Diūle ! Bèi tōu le!) |
| A: You tell me, it's missing. It's been stolen! |
| B:不可能，我刚把它挪那儿。 (Bù kěnéng, wǒgāng bǎtānuó nàr.) |
| B: That’s impossible. I just moved it over there. |
| A:在哪儿呢？ (Zài nǎr ne?) |
| A: Where? |
| B:我发誓，它刚还……我猜它被偷了。 (Wǒfāshì, tāgāng huán... Wǒcāi tābèi tōu le.) |
| B: I couldn’t swore...I guess it was stolen. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Echo: 每个人都丢过车。 (Měi gèrén dōu diūguò chē.) |
| Brendan: Yes, everybody’s had a bike stolen here. I actually, I know people who’ve had their bike stolen at home. |
| Echo: 谁呀？ (Shéi ya?) |
| Brendan: Jim, The police actually came by on their off hours and started stealing bikes and its compound. |
| Echo: 我的天呐！ (Wǒ de tiān nà!) |
| Brendan: Yes. It does, it makes a difference what type of lock you have though. The U locks are harder to drill than the ones most people have. |
| Echo: Yes, it seems to be. |
| Brendan: Anyway, our vocabulary for this lesson is all about security and loss. Let’s start taking a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Echo: 保安 (bǎoān) |
| Brendan: “Security guard” |
| Echo: 制服 (zhìfú) |
| Brendan: “Uniform” |
| Echo: 偷 (tōu) |
| Brendan: “To steal” |
| Echo: 相信 (xiāngxìn) |
| Brendan: “To trust” |
| Echo: 停车位 (tíngchē wèi) |
| Brendan: “Parking space” |
| Echo: 值班 (zhíbān) |
| Brendan: “To be on duty” |
| Echo: 丢 (diū) |
| Brendan: “To lose” |
| Echo: 挪 (nuó) |
| Brendan: “To move something” |
| Echo: 挪 (nuó) |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Brendan: Well, let’s take a closer look at how some of these words and phrases are used. |
| Echo: 第一个词，停车位。 (Dì yī gè cí, tíngchē wèi.) |
| Brendan: Right. “Parking space” |
| Echo: 停车位 (Tíngchē wèi) |
| Brendan: “Parking space” |
| Echo: In our first lesson, in this series, we learned 位置. (Wèizhì.) |
| Brendan: “Position” |
| Echo: 位置 (Wèizhì) |
| Brendan: That was in the lesson about the concert. But here, when we are talking about position, we mean one for your car, not one for you to sit or stand. |
| Echo: Yes. 停车。 (Tíngchē.) |
| Brendan: That’s right. It’s a place to park the car. |
| Echo: 停车位，在北京找个停车位可不容易。 (Tíngchē wèi, zài běijīng zhǎo gè tíngchē wèi kěbù róngyì.) |
| Brendan: Yes, in Beijing it is not easy to find a parking space. |
| Echo: 在北京找个停车位可不容易。 (Zài běijīng zhǎo gè tíngchē wèi kěbù róngyì.) |
| Brendan: The next word we want to point out is? |
| Echo: 保安 (Bǎo'ān) |
| Brendan: “Security guard” |
| Echo: 保安 (Bǎo'ān) |
| Brendan: “Security guard” |
| Echo: Right. 他们不是警察。 (Tāmen bùshì jǐngchá.) |
| Brendan: Yes, they dress like police, but they’re not. |
| Echo: 你来中国的时候被骗了吗？ (Nǐ lái zhōngguó de shíhòu bèi piànle ma?) |
| Brendan: No, no, because I, they’re often very young looking. They look about 14 years old and they’re too small for the uniform. |
| Echo: Yes. That’s true. |
| Brendan: But, it is confusing. I think people do get confused at the start. |
| Echo: 那很好。 (Nà hěn hǎo.) |
| Brendan: Yes. |
| Echo: 如果小偷 (Rúguǒ xiǎotōu) get confused. |
| Brendan: If only. Anyway, we’ve got one more word for you, speaking of 小偷 (Xiǎotōu) and that is? |
| Echo: 丢 (Diū) |
| Brendan: “To lose” |
| Echo: 丢 (Diū) |
| Brendan: Now, that’s to lose like, you know, “I lost my keys.”? |
| Echo: Yes. 丢钥匙 (Diū yàoshi) |
| Brendan: Right. “Lose your keys”. Now, what else can you lose? |
| Echo: 丢手表 (Diū shǒubiǎo) |
| Brendan: Right. “Lose a watch.” |
| Echo: 丢手机 (Diū shǒujī) |
| Brendan: “Lose a cell phone.” And, we know somebody who does a lot of that. |
| Echo: Yes. |
| Brendan: Now, there’s something interesting about this. 丢 (Diū) means both “to lose” and “to be lost”. |
| Echo: 对。 (Duì.) |
| Brendan: So, you can put the object, right, the thing that you lost, first. |
| Echo: 我的手机丢了。(Wǒ de shǒujī diūle.) |
| Brendan: “My cell phone has been lost.” |
| Echo: 我的手机丢了or 你的钥匙丢了吗？ (Wǒ de shǒujī diūle or nǐ de yàoshi diūle ma?) |
| Brendan: “You lost your keys?” |
| Echo: 你的钥匙丢了吗？ (Nǐ de yàoshi diūle ma?) |
| Brendan: Now, we can also have a subject in this kind of sentence. |
| Echo: Yes, like 我丢了我的钥匙。 (Wǒ diūle wǒ de yàoshi.) |
| Brendan: So, both of these sentences mean “I lost my keys.”, right? |
| Echo: Yes. 我丢了我的钥匙 and 我的钥匙丢了。 (Wǒ diūle wǒ de yàoshi and wǒ de yàoshi diūle.) |
| Brendan: Yes. Right. Now pairing that in mind, let’s go on to the grammar section. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Brendan: Our focus today is on the passive marker. |
| Echo: 被 (Bèi). In this dialogue we heard this 你说呢？丢了，被偷了。(Nǐ shuō ne? Diūle, bèi tōule.) |
| Brendan: “You tell me. It’s missing. It’s been stolen.” |
| Echo: Important thing is 被偷了。(Bèi tōule.) |
| Brendan: Right. “It’s been stolen” |
| Echo: 被偷了。 (Bèi tōule.) |
| Brendan: Now, as we’ve taught you before, 被 (Bèi)is used to create passive sentences in Chinese. |
| Echo: 比如说:自行车被他放在了路边。(Bǐrú shuō: Zìxíngchē bèi tā fàng zàile lù biān.) |
| Brendan: “The bike was put beside the road by him.” |
| Echo: 自行车被他放在了路边 or 自行车被他锁上了。(Zìxíngchē bèi tā fàng zàile lù biān or zìxíngchē bèi tā suǒ shàngle.) |
| Brendan: “The bike was locked by him.” |
| Echo: 自行车被他锁上了。 (Zìxíngchē bèi tā suǒ shàngle.) |
| Brendan: Now, what’s new today is that we’re taking a sentence like that and we’re omitting both the subject and the object. |
| Echo: Yes, we just say 被偷了。 (Bèi tōule.) |
| Brendan: Now, that means “It was stolen.”. But, we don’t know what exactly was stolen or who stole it. |
| Echo: Yes. 被偷了。 (Bèi tōule.) |
| Brendan: As long as it’s clear in context, you can do this in Chinese. |
| Echo: As long as it’s clear, you can leave out either the object or subject, actually. |
| Brendan: Right. Let’s have an example of that. |
| Echo: 小偷被抓到了。 (Xiǎotōu bèi zhuā dàole.) |
| Brendan: “The thief was caught.” |
| Echo: 小偷被抓到了。 (Xiǎotōu bèi zhuā dàole.) |
| Brendan: “The thief was caught.” Presumably by the police. |
| Echo: Yes. 应该是警察抓到的。 (Yīnggāi shì jǐngchá zhuā dào de.) |
| Brendan: Yes. Though I’ve lost enough bikes, that I might wish it was the guys with Harley motorcycles and baseball bats who caught them instead. Anyway, be aware that some passive sentences will also omit “they”. |
| Echo: Yes, that’s tricky. |
| Brendan: Lower dropping things. It’s very tricky. It’s very tricky. Now, one example of that would be “The book was thrown away.” |
| Echo: 书扔了。 (Shū rēngle.) |
| Brendan: Or “The homework is finished.” |
| Echo: 作业完成了。(Zuòyè wánchéngle.) |
| Brendan: In both of those cases, the only clue that we’re dealing with the passive voice is the context. |
| Echo: Yes. Let’s hear them again. 书扔了。(Shū rēngle.) |
| Brendan: “The book was thrown away.” |
| Echo: 作业完成了。 (Zuòyè wánchéngle.) |
| Brendan: “The homework is finished.”. Now, we know that these are passive sentences because? |
| Echo: Neither books, nor homework finish themselves. |
| Brendan: Yes, regrettably. It’s a tricky structure, and that’s why we’ve gone into a lot of detail on it in our PDF transcript for this lesson. |
| Echo: 没错。 (Méi cuò.) |
Outro |
| Brendan: Which, once again, we totally recommend to you. So, that’s it for this grammar point. It’s a tricky one. It’s complicated… |
| Echo: Yes. |
| Brendan: And, it’s the kind of thing that can be hard to get the hang of on your own. But, you don’t have to do it alone. |
| Echo: Yes. |
| Brendan: We have got one on one tutors who are just dying to hear from you. |
| Echo: 没错. 他们都是 professional. (Méi cuò. Tāmen dōu shì professional.) |
| Brendan: Yes, they’re really good, get in touch with them and they will walk you through this and any other questions you might have. |
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