Learn about asking about the details of someone's business trip
Now Playing: Lesson Audio
Get a breakdown of the dialogue and translations instantly with the Premium line-by-line Audio. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Get this lesson’s key vocab, their translations and pronunciations. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Unlock Lesson Notes and Transcripts for every single lesson. Sign Up for a Free Lifetime Account and Get 7 Days of Premium Access.
| INTRODUCTION |
| Yinru: Hi everyone, I’m Yinru. |
| Brandon: And I’m Brandon. Welcome back to ChineseClass101.com. This is lower intermediate, season 2 lesson 3. Will Chinese Perfume Make Your Wife Happy? In this lesson, you’ll learn how to use |
| Yinru: 连...都... (Lián... Dōu...) |
| Brandon: meaning ‘even.’ |
| Yinru: In this conversation, Zhou’s wife is asking about the details of the trip. To make his wife happy, Zhou brings up the idea of getting his wife perfume when he travels. Will his wife accept that? Let’s find out. |
| Brandon: The conversation takes place at Zhou’s house, and it's between Mr. and Mrs. Zhou. |
| Yinru: Therefore, they’re using informal language. |
| Brandon: Okay, Let’s listen to the conversation. |
Lesson conversation |
|---|
| 周太太: 你星期天要去哪儿？ (ZHŌU TÀITAI: nǐ xīngqītiān yào qù nǎr?) |
| 周: 去纽约开会。大概一个星期. (ZHŌU: qù niǔyuē kāihuì. dàgài yíge xīngqī.) |
| 周太太: 和谁一起去？ (ZHŌU TÀITAI: hé shéi yìqǐ qù?) |
| 周: 和我的秘书小刘，还有市场部经理。 (ZHŌU: hé wǒ de mìshū Xiǎo Liú , hái yǒu shìchǎng bù jīnglǐ.) |
| 周太太: 你上个月去了迪拜，上上个月去了澳门。怎么总是在出差？连孩子都不高兴了。 (ZHŌU TÀITAI: nǐ shàng ge yuè qùle Díbài, shàng shàng ge yuè qùle Aòmén. zěnme zǒngshì zài chūchāi? lián háizi dōu bù gāoxìng le.) |
| 周: 老婆别生气。我给你带香水回来。 (ZHŌU: lǎopo bié shēngqì. wǒ gěi nǐ dài xiāngshuǐ huílai.) |
| 周太太: 不要你的香水。 (ZHŌU: búyào nǐ de xiāngshuǐ.) |
| Brandon: Let’s hear the conversation one time slowly. |
| 周太太: 你星期天要去哪儿？ (ZHŌU TÀITAI: nǐ xīngqītiān yào qù nǎr?) |
| 周: 去纽约开会。大概一个星期. (ZHŌU: qù niǔyuē kāihuì. dàgài yíge xīngqī.) |
| 周太太: 和谁一起去？ (ZHŌU TÀITAI: hé shéi yìqǐ qù?) |
| 周: 和我的秘书小刘，还有市场部经理。 (ZHŌU: hé wǒ de mìshū Xiǎo Liú , hái yǒu shìchǎng bù jīnglǐ.) |
| 周太太: 你上个月去了迪拜，上上个月去了澳门。怎么总是在出差？连孩子都不高兴了。(ZHŌU TÀITAI: nǐ shàng ge yuè qùle Díbài, shàng shàng ge yuè qùle Aòmén. zěnme zǒngshì zài chūchāi? lián háizi dōu bù gāoxìng le.) |
| 周: 老婆别生气。我给你带香水回来。 (ZHŌU: lǎopo bié shēngqì. wǒ gěi nǐ dài xiāngshuǐ huílai.) |
| 周太太: 不要你的香水。 (ZHŌU: búyào nǐ de xiāngshuǐ.) |
| Brandon: Now let’s hear it with the English translation. |
| 周太太: 你星期天要去哪儿？ (ZHŌU TÀITAI: nǐ xīngqītiān yào qù nǎr?) |
| Brandon: Where are you going this Sunday? |
| 周: 去纽约开会。大概一个星期. (ZHŌU: qù niǔyuē kāihuì. dàgài yíge xīngqī.) |
| Brandon: Having a meeting in New York. For about a week. |
| 周太太: 和谁一起去？ (ZHŌU TÀITAI: hé shéi yìqǐ qù?) |
| Brandon: Who are you going with? |
| 周: 和我的秘书小刘，还有市场部经理。 (ZHŌU: hé wǒ de mìshū Xiǎo Liú , hái yǒu shìchǎng bù jīnglǐ.) |
| Brandon: My secretary Xiao Liu and the Marketing Department Manager. |
| 周太太: 你上个月去了迪拜，上上个月去了澳门。怎么总是在出差？连孩子都不高兴了。 (ZHŌU TÀITAI: nǐ shàng ge yuè qùle Díbài, shàng shàng ge yuè qùle Aòmén. zěnme zǒngshì zài chūchāi? lián háizi dōu bù gāoxìng le.) |
| Brandon: You went to Dubai last month, and Macao the month before that. Why are you always on a business trip? Even the kid is not happy. |
| 周: 老婆别生气。我给你带香水回来。 (ZHŌU: lǎopo bié shēngqì. wǒ gěi nǐ dài xiāngshuǐ huílai.) |
| Brandon: Don't get upset honey. I will bring back perfume for you. |
| 周太太: 不要你的香水。 (ZHŌU: búyào nǐ de xiāngshuǐ.) |
| Brandon: I don't want your perfume. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Yinru: I’m pretty sure Zhou’s son is an only child. |
| Brandon: Why's that? Because he has a say in the family? |
| Yinru: Yeah, Zhou’s wife is not happy about the trip because her son is not happy. |
| Brandon: I heard in the news that China has loosened the one-child policy lately. |
| Yinru: Yes, it was big news in China when they announced it in November, 2013. |
| Brandon: So what has been changed? |
| Yinru: It used to be one couple—one child. Now if one of the parents is a single child, the couple can have a second child. |
| Brandon: It may fix the population’s aging problem, which has happened in many countries. |
| Yinru: For single-child couples, they have four parents to take care of, some even have grandparents, besides their own child. They have a lot of responsibility. |
| Brandon: That's hard. I guess people are happy now because the policy changed. |
| Yinru: Well, not necessarily. Some couples are under more pressure, because they don’t want or can’t afford to have a second child, but their parents don’t agree. |
| Brandon: Well, it’s never easy to make everybody happy. Okay, now let’s move on to the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Brandon: Let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| : The first word we shall see is: |
| Yinru: 纽约 (Niǔyuē) [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: New York City |
| Yinru: 纽约 (Niǔyuē) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Yinru: 纽约 (Niǔyuē) [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Yinru: 大概 (dàgài) [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: about |
| Yinru: 大概 (dàgài) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Yinru: 大概 (dàgài) [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Yinru: 和...一起 (hé ...yìqǐ) [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: with somebody |
| Yinru: 和...一起 (hé ...yìqǐ) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Yinru: 和...一起 (hé ...yìqǐ) [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Yinru: 市场部 (shìchǎng bù) [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: marketing department |
| Yinru: 市场部 (shìchǎng bù) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Yinru: 市场部 (shìchǎng bù) [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Yinru: 经理 (jīnglǐ) [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: manager |
| Yinru: 经理 (jīnglǐ) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Yinru: 经理 (jīnglǐ) [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Yinru: 上个月 (shàng ge yuè) [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: last month |
| Yinru: 上个月 (shàng ge yuè) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Yinru: 上个月 (shàng ge yuè) [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Yinru: 迪拜 (Díbài) [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: Dubai |
| Yinru: 迪拜 (Díbài) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Yinru: 迪拜 (Díbài) [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Yinru: 上上个月 (shàng shàng ge yuè) [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: the month before last month |
| Yinru: 上上个月 (shàng shàng ge yuè) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Yinru: 上上个月 (shàng shàng ge yuè) [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Yinru: 澳门 (Aòmén) [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: Macao |
| Yinru: 澳门 (Aòmén) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Yinru: 澳门 (Aòmén) [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Yinru: 老婆 (lǎopo) [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: wife/honey |
| Yinru: 老婆 (lǎopo) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Yinru: 老婆 (lǎopo) [natural native speed] |
| : And Last: |
| Yinru: 香水 (xiāngshuǐ) [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: perfume |
| Yinru: 香水 (xiāngshuǐ) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Yinru: 香水 (xiāngshuǐ) [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. What’s the first one? |
| Yinru: The first phrase is, 和 (hé) plus 一起 (yìqǐ) |
| Brandon: meaning “...with someone” |
| Yinru: Between 和 (hé) and 一起 (yìqǐ), you can put a pronoun or someone’s name. |
| Brandon: For example... |
| Yinru: 和家人一起 / 家人 (Hé jiārén yīqǐ/ jiārén) means ‘family’ so it means “with family.” Then you can put a verb. |
| Brandon: Okay. Let’s take a look at a sample sentence using this pattern. |
| Yinru: 和家人一起旅游 (Hé jiārén yīqǐ lǚyóu) |
| Brandon: “to travel with family.” And another one? |
| Yinru: 和同事一起看电影. (Hé tóngshì yīqǐ kàn diànyǐng.) |
| Brandon: “to watch a movie with colleagues.” |
| Yinru: 我昨天和我的男朋友一起喝了咖啡. (Wǒ zuótiān hé wǒ de nán péngyǒu yīqǐ hēle kāfēi.) |
| Brandon: “Yesterday I had coffee with my boyfriend.” Okay, what’s the next phrase? |
| Yinru: The next one上上个月. (Shàng shàng gè yuè.) |
| Brandon: What does it mean? |
| Yinru: Here, the word 上个月 (Shàng gè yuè) means ‘last month.’ And the month before last month is 上上个月 (Shàng shàng gè yuè). As you know, 上 (Shàng) means ‘before’ in that case. |
| Brandon: How about the month before the month before the last month? |
| Yinru: Hmm... I don’t think people say 上上上个月 (Shàng shàng shàng gè yuè), that’s just too long. |
| Brandon: But there’s a saying for the month after next month, right? |
| Yinru: Yes, the opposite of 上 (Shàng) is 下 (Xià), which means “after” here. So you can say next month in Chinese as 下个月 (Xià gè yuè). The month after this month is 下下个月. (Xià xià gè yuè.) |
| Brandon: Do we use the same pattern for “week”, too? |
| Yinru: Yes. You can say 上个星期, 下个星期, 上上个星期, 下下个星期. (Shàng gè xīngqí, xià gè xīngqí, shàng shàng gè xīngqí, xià xià gè xīngqí.) |
| Brandon: Just to remind our listeners, how do you say "this week" or "this month" then? |
| Yinru: 这个星期, 这个月 (Zhège xīngqí, zhège yuè), respectively. |
| Brandon: Ok. Let’s move on to the next word. |
| Yinru: The next word is 老婆 (Lǎopó). You will hear this a lot in colloquial Chinese. You can use this word to call your wife, or you can use it to refer to your wife when speaking to a third party. |
| Brandon: So when you use it to call your wife, is it like an intimate way to address your wife? |
| Yinru: Exactly. It's like the way English speakers call their wife “dear” or “honey”. |
| Brandon: Can you give us an example? |
| Yinru: Sure. 老婆, 谢谢你做的晚饭. (Lǎopó, xièxiè nǐ zuò de wǎnfàn.) |
| Brandon: “Honey, thanks for the dinner you made.” |
| Yinru: Ok. Here comes another one, 我老婆在医院工作. (Wǒ lǎopó zài yīyuàn gōngzuò.) |
| Brandon: “My wife works in a hospital.” So the first sentence used the word as a way to call your wife like “honey” in English, and the second sentence used the word to refer your wife to someone else. |
| Yinru: 没错 (Méi cuò). That’s right! And you can use the same word for both cases. |
| Brandon: Okay, now onto the grammar. |
Lesson focus |
| Brandon: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to use... |
| Yinru: 连...都...(Lián... Dōu...) |
| Brandon: meaning ‘even.’ as in “Even a three-year-old knows one plus one is two.” Okay, Yinru. How do you make a sentence with that? |
| Yinru: Normally we put a noun after 连 (Lián). So if you want to say ‘Even a three-year-old’, you can put “three-year-old” after 连 (Lián), then put 都 (Dōu). So you can say.. 连三岁小孩儿都 (Lián sān suì xiǎo hái'ér dōu) |
| Brandon: ‘Even a three-year-old child.’ |
| Yinru: Here, the word ‘三岁小孩儿 (Sān suì xiǎo hái'ér)’ means ‘three-year old kid.’ You can see that we used 连 (Lián) and 都 (Dōu) around the noun to say ‘even’ |
| Brandon: Okay. So, how do you say “Even a three-year-old knows one plus one is two.” |
| Yinru: 连三岁小孩儿都知道一加一等于二 (Lián sān suì xiǎo hái'ér dōu zhīdào yī jiā yī děngyú èr). You can put the verb after the phrase 连三岁小孩儿都 (Lián sān suì xiǎo hái'ér dōu) |
| Brandon: When Mrs. Zhou says it in the dialogue, she seems to be complaining about something using this phrase. |
| Yinru: Yes, Chinese people use 连...都...(Lián... Dōu...),especially when they are complaining about something. |
| Brandon: Can you give us more examples? |
| Yinru: 连傻瓜都知道. (Lián shǎguā dōu zhīdào.) |
| Brandon: "Even an idiot knows." |
| Yinru: Here, the word 傻瓜 (Shǎguā) means ‘an idiot.’ |
| Brandon: Okay, can you give us another example? |
| Yinru: 我连自己家的地址都不记得了.(Wǒ lián zìjǐ jiā dì dìzhǐ dōu bù jìdéliǎo.) |
| Brandon: "I don’t even remember my own home address." |
| Yinru: 自己家的地址 (Zìjǐ jiā dì dìzhǐ) means ‘my home address’ and I used 连 (Lián) and 都 (Dōu) around the word. Not remembering where you live is not very good, because that’s a basic thing you need to know. 一定要记得自己家的地址 (Yīdìng yào jìdé zìjǐ jiā dì dìzhǐ) |
| Brandon: (laughs) If you didn’t know already, Yinru just said “So remember your home address!” |
| Yinru: Let’s look at another sample sentence. 连水都没有还怎么洗澡? (Lián shuǐ dū méiyǒu hái zěnme xǐzǎo?) |
| Brandon: "How do I even take a shower without any water?" |
| Yinru: All right listeners. Do you know how to use this word structure now? |
| Brandon: Even I know how to use it! |
| Yinru: 连 (Lián) Brandon 都会用了 (Dūhuì yòngle), 你也会用了吧? (Nǐ yě huì yòngle ba?) |
| Brandon: Ok. We asked a question at the beginning of this lesson—”Will perfume make the wife happy?” |
| Yinru: Unfortunately no, Mrs. Zhou says 我不要你的香水 (Wǒ bùyào nǐ de xiāngshuǐ), "I don’t want your perfume." |
| Brandon It’s really hard to strike a balance between work and family. I wish Mr. Zhou luck. |
| MARKETING PIECE |
| Brandon: Listeners, do you know the reason flashcards are so popular? |
| Yinru: It’s because they work! |
| Brandon: We’ve taken this time-tested studying tool and modernized with My Wordbank Flashcards! |
| Yinru: Learn vocabulary using your eyes and ears! |
| Brandon: It’s simple and powerful. Save difficult and interesting words to your personal vocabulary list called My Wordbank. |
| Yinru: Master words in your My Wordbank by practicing with Flashcards. |
| Brandon: Words in My Wordbank come with audio, so you learn proper pronunciation. |
| Yinru: While you learn to recognize words by sight! |
| Brandon: Go to chineseclass101.com now, and try My Wordbank and Flashcards today! |
Outro |
| Brandon: Well, that’s all for this lesson. Remember to check the lesson notes to review what you’ve learned in this lesson. Thanks for listening, and we’ll see you next time. Bye! |
| Yinru: 再见 (Zàijiàn) |
Comments
Hide