Learn how to tell a taxi driver where to go
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Yinru: Hi everyone, I’m Yinru. |
| Brandon: And I’m Brandon. Welcome back to ChineseClass101.com. This is lower intermediate, season 2 lesson 11 - Taking a Taxi in China, Part 1. In this lesson, you’ll learn how to use the conditional clause |
| Yinru: 的话. (Dehuà.) The conversation takes place in a taxi. |
| Brandon: It’s between a taxi driver and Tom. They will be using formal Chinese. |
| Yinru: Okay. Now listen to the conversation. |
Lesson conversation |
|---|
| 司机 (SĪJĪ): 你好。去哪里？ (nǐhǎo. qù nǎlǐ?) |
| Tom: 去和平饭店，谢谢。 (qù hépíng fàndiàn, xièxie.) |
| 司机 (SĪJĪ): 知道了。 (zhīdao le.) |
| Tom: 师傅，请问不堵车的话要多久？ (shīfu, qǐngwèn bù dǔchē dehuà yào duōjiǔ?) |
| 司机 (SĪJĪ): 一般来说，二十分钟就够了。 (yìbānláishuō, èr shí fēnzhōng jiù gòule.) |
| Tom: 十二点前能到吗？ (shíèr diǎn qián néng dào ma?) |
| 司机 (SĪJĪ): 肯定能。 (kěndìng néng.) |
| Brandon: Let’s hear the conversation one time slowly. |
| 司机 (SĪJĪ): 你好。去哪里？ (nǐhǎo. qù nǎlǐ?) |
| Tom: 去和平饭店，谢谢。 (qù hépíng fàndiàn, xièxie.) |
| 司机 (SĪJĪ): 知道了。 (zhīdao le.) |
| Tom: 师傅，请问不堵车的话要多久？ (shīfu, qǐngwèn bù dǔchē dehuà yào duōjiǔ?) |
| 司机 (SĪJĪ): 一般来说，二十分钟就够了。 (yìbānláishuō, èr shí fēnzhōng jiù gòule.) |
| Tom: 十二点前能到吗？ (shíèr diǎn qián néng dào ma?) |
| 司机 (SĪJĪ): 肯定能。 (kěndìng néng.) |
| Brandon: Now let’s hear it with the English translation. |
| 司机 (SĪJĪ): 你好。去哪里？ (nǐhǎo. qù nǎlǐ?) |
| Brandon: Hello. Where to? |
| Tom: 去和平饭店，谢谢。 (qù hépíng fàndiàn, xièxie.) |
| Brandon: Peace Hotel, please. |
| 司机 (SĪJĪ): 知道了。 (zhīdao le.) |
| Brandon: Got it. |
| Tom: 师傅，请问不堵车的话要多久？ (shīfu, qǐngwèn bù dǔchē dehuà yào duōjiǔ?) |
| Brandon: Excuse me, how long will it take if there's no traffic jam? |
| 司机 (SĪJĪ): 一般来说，二十分钟就够了。 (yìbānláishuō, èr shí fēnzhōng jiù gòule.) |
| Brandon: Generally speaking, twenty minutes is enough. |
| Tom: 十二点前能到吗？ (shíèr diǎn qián néng dào ma?) |
| Brandon: Can we be there before twelve o'clock? |
| 司机 (SĪJĪ): 肯定能。 (kěndìng néng.) |
| Brandon: Definitely. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Yinru: Brandon, have you ever been to Shanghai? |
| Brandon: Oh yes, I love Shanghai. It’s a very international city. Also I visited the Bund. |
| Yinru: In Chinese, that’s 外滩. (Wàitān.) And there’s one place that I go everytime I visit 外滩. (Wàitān.) |
| Brandon: Oh really, where’s in the Bund do you go? Is there a traditional place in the area? |
| Yinru: Not really. I’m talking about the Jazz bar at the Peace Hotel. 和平饭店. (Hépíng fàndiàn.) |
| Brandon: What’s so special about the Jazz Bar? |
| Yinru: There’s one special jazz band with musicians in their 80s. They are all Chinese. But the music they play is mostly western, popular jazz from the 1930’s and 40’s. |
| Brandon: Wow, that sounds really cool. And listening to jazz in the center of Shanghai must be a wonderful experience. |
| Yinru: If you love jazz and Shanghai, I would definitely recommend seeing the Old Jazz Band at the Peace Hotel. |
| Brandon: Check it out if you have the chance, listeners! Okay, now onto the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Brandon: Let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| The first word we shall see is: |
| Yinru: 和平 (hépíng) [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: peace |
| Yinru: 和平 (hépíng) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Yinru: 和平 (hépíng) [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Yinru: 饭店 (fàndiàn) [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: hotel; restaurant |
| Yinru: 饭店 (fàndiàn) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Yinru: 饭店 (fàndiàn) [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Yinru: 师傅 (shīfu) [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: skilled worker |
| Yinru: 师傅 (shīfu) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Yinru: 师傅 (shīfu) [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Yinru: 请问 (qǐngwèn) [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: excuse me |
| Yinru: 请问 (qǐngwèn) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Yinru: 请问 (qǐngwèn) [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Yinru: 堵车 (dǔchē) [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: traffic jam |
| Yinru: 堵车 (dǔchē) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Yinru: 堵车 (dǔchē) [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Yinru: 一般来说 (yìbānláishuō) [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: generally speaking |
| Yinru: 一般来说 (yìbānláishuō) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Yinru: 一般来说 (yìbānláishuō) [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Yinru: 够了 (gòule) [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: enough |
| Yinru: 够了 (gòule) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Yinru: 够了 (gòule) [natural native speed] |
| And Last: |
| Yinru: 肯定 (kěndìng) [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: to be certain; for sure |
| Yinru: 肯定 (kěndìng) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Yinru: 肯定 (kěndìng) [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Brandon Let’s take a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| Yinru: The first word is 师傅 (Shīfù) |
| Brandon: meaning “skilled worker.” Wait a minute... I thought this meant “master”... |
| Yinru: I think you may have heard this word in the Cantonese accent from Hong Kong movies or Hollywood animation. |
| Brandon: That’s right. It was something like Sifu. |
| Yinru: As it often means “master”, you can use it when you need a polite term to address people who have skills and specialized knowledge, whether they're male or female. This means ‘skilled worker’, but you can use it anytime when you need to address someone politely just like ‘Sir’ or ‘Ma’am’ in english. |
| Brandon: Can you give us some examples? |
| Yinru: Sure. 师傅, 这个手机能修吗? (shīfu, zhège shǒujī néng xiū ma?) |
| Brandon: “Sir, can this phone be fixed?” |
| Yinru: 李师傅, 您炒菜的手艺太好了! (Lǐ shīfu, nín chǎocài de shǒuyì tài hǎole !) |
| Brandon: “Chef Li, your cooking is awesome!” |
| Yinru: Here, I put the word 师傅 (shīfu) after the family name 李. 李师傅, (Lǐ. Lǐ shīfù,) I did this to address the person specifically. Don’t put someone’s first name here, though, unless you know them well. |
| Brandon: Okay. What’s the next word? |
| Yinru: Next, we have 请问. (Qǐngwèn.) |
| Brandon: meaning “May I ask..” or “Excuse me..” It's a polite phrase to say before you ask a question. |
| Yinru: I would recommend that you start all your questions with 请问 (Qǐngwèn) when you ask a stranger something. |
| Brandon: Can you give us some examples? |
| Yinru: 请问这个相机多少钱? (qǐngwèn zhège xiàngjī duō shǎo qián?) |
| Brandon: “Excuse me, how much is this camera?” |
| Yinru: Like in this sentence, you can use the word 请问 (Qǐngwèn) at the beginning of a sentence. And the next example is.. 打扰一下, 请问这个汉字是什么意思? (dǎrǎo yíxià , qǐngwèn zhège hànzì shì shénme yìsi ?) |
| Brandon: meaning, “Sorry to interrupt, may I ask what this Chinese character means?” |
| Yinru: Like in this sentence, you can use both 打扰一下 (Dǎrǎo yīxià) and 请问 (Qǐngwèn) next to each other. |
| Brandon: Can you give one more example? |
| Yinru: Sure. 请问有谁还需要订机票? (qǐngwèn yǒu shéi hái xūyào dìng jīpiào?) |
| Brandon: “Excuse me, who else needs to book a plane ticket?” Okay, now onto the grammar. |
Lesson focus |
| Brandon: In this lesson, you’ll learn about the conditional clause... |
| Yinru: 的话. (Dehuà.) It means something like “in the condition of...” |
| Brandon: But please note that this sentence structure is usually used as informal language. Since there’s no subjunctive mood in Chinese, this structure could be translated as a sentence in the subjunctive mood. Let’s listen to some sample sentences. |
| Yinru: 天气好的话, 周末可以开车去郊外. (tiānqì hǎo de huà, zhōumò kěyǐ kāi chē qù jiāowài.) |
| Brandon: “If the weather is good, we can drive to the suburb on the weekend.” |
| Yinru: 你不好好保护牙齿的话, 老了会有很多问题. (nǐ bù hǎohao bǎohù yáchǐ de huà, lǎole huì yǒu hěn duō wèntí .) |
| Brandon: If you don’t take care of your teeth, you’ll have many problems when you get old. (“If you don’t protect your teeth well, you'll have many problems when you get old.”) |
| Yinru: Often ...的话 (... Dehuà) comes with other words like 如果...的话 (Rúguǒ... Dehuà) or 要是...的话 (Yàoshi... Dehuà) |
| Brandon: Which all mean “if...” or “on the condition of...” Let's have some examples. |
| Yinru: 如果你不想要这份工作的话, 那就尽快辞职吧. (rúguǒ nǐ bù xiǎng yào zhè fèn gōngzuò de huà, nà jiù jǐnkuài cízhí ba.) |
| Brandon: "If you don’t want this job, quit as soon as possible." |
| Yinru: 如果我是你的话, 我肯定不会接受这个要求. (rúguǒ wǒ shì nǐ de huà, wǒ kěndìng búhuì jiēshòu zhège yāoqiú .) |
| Brandon:“If I were you, I certainly wouldn’t accept this request.” |
| Yinru: 要是运气好的话, 我能在电梯里碰见那个大明星. (yàoshi yùnqi hǎo de huà, wǒ néng zài diàntī lǐ pèngjiàn nà ge dà míngxīng.) |
| Brandon: “If I’m lucky, I will run into that superstar in the elevator.” |
| Yinru: In our conversation, Tom is worried about whether he can get to the Peace Hotel on time, so he asks, 请问不堵车的话要多久？ (qǐngwèn bù dǔchē dehuà yào duōjiǔ?) |
| Brandon: "How long will it take if there's no traffic jam?" We can also use the two structures we mentioned earlier to express the same thing. We can say... |
| Yinru: 请问, 如果不堵车的话要多久? or 请问, 要是不堵车的话要多久? (Qǐngwèn, rúguǒ bù dǔchē dehuà yào duōjiǔ? Or qǐngwèn, yàoshi bù dǔchē dehuà yào duōjiǔ?) |
| Brandon: Both of these mean "How long will it take if there's no traffic jam?" So how was that, listeners? If you have any questions, please let us know. |
Outro |
| Brandon: And that’s all for this lesson. Thanks for listening, and we’ll see you next time. Bye! |
| Yinru: 再见 (Zàijiàn) |
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