Learn about Chinese tea houses and an easy way to make comparisons
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| INTRODUCTION |
| DAVID: Welcome to ChineseClass101.com. I'm David. |
| Amber: 大家好，我是安伯。(Dàjiā hǎo, wǒ shì ān bó.) |
| DAVID: And we’re here today with Upper Beginner, Season 1, Lesson 14 - Is it too late for Chinese tea? |
| Amber: 对，这节课是关于喝茶的。(Duì, zhè jié kè shì guānyú hē chá de.) |
| DAVID: Right. So, Amber, we’ve got a lesson that takes place in a Chinese tea house. |
| Amber: 唔，茶馆里。(Wú, cháguǎn lǐ.) |
| DAVID: Right. It’s between two friends who are trying to decide what they’re going to have to drink. |
| Amber: 对。(Duì.) |
| DAVID: And they are speaking in casual Mandarin, as always. So let’s get to the dialogue. |
| DIALOGUE |
| A: 这个茶馆真地道。(Zhège cháguǎn zhēn dìdao.) |
| B: 对，比星巴克好多了。(Duì, bǐ Xīngbākè hǎoduōle..) |
| A: 咱们来一壶龙井茶。(Zánmen lái yī hú Lóngjǐng chá.) |
| B: 太晚了，点菊花茶吧。(Tài wǎn le, diǎn júhuāchá ba.) |
| A: 才6点？你不能喝咖啡因吗？(Cái liù diǎn? Nǐ bùnéng hē kāfēiyīn ma?) |
| B: 明天要早起。(Míngtiān yào zǎo qǐ.) |
| A: This tea house is really authentic. |
| B: Right, it's much better than Starbucks. |
| A: Let's order a pot of Longjing tea. |
| B: It's too late, let's order chrysanthemum tea. |
| A: At only six o'clock? Can't you drink caffeine? |
| B: I've got to get up early tomorrow. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| DAVID: So this lesson is about ordering tea. |
| Amber: 唔，在茶馆里点茶。(Wú, zài cháguǎn lǐ diǎn chá.) |
| DAVID: Right. But you don’t need to be in a tea house to get tea in China. All good restaurant have a huge tea selection. |
| Amber: 对，没错。(Duì, méi cuò.) |
| DAVID: So you’re going to have many opportunities to drink and try out different teas, and that’s what our vocab this lesson is about. |
| Amber: 没错。(Méi cuò.) |
| DAVID: Tea-related vocab. In China, you are going to use this stuff. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Amber: 茶馆。(cháguǎn.) |
| DAVID: Tea house. |
| Amber: 茶 馆 ， 茶馆， 地道。(cháguǎn, cháguǎn, dìdào.) |
| DAVID: Authentic. |
| Amber: 地 道， 地道， 壶。(dìdào, dìdào, hú.) |
| DAVID: Pot. |
| Amber: 壶， 壶， 龙井茶。(hú, hú, Lóngjǐng chá.) |
| DAVID: Longjing Tea. |
| Amber: 龙 井 茶， 龙井茶， 菊花茶。(Lóngjǐng chá, Lóngjǐng chá, júhuā chá.) |
| DAVID: Chrysanthemum tea. |
| Amber: 菊 花 茶， 菊花茶， 普洱茶。(júhuā chá, júhuā chá, pǔěr chá.) |
| DAVID: Pu-erh tea. |
| Amber: 普 洱 茶， 普洱茶， 才。(pǔěr chá, pǔěr chá, cái.) |
| DAVID: Just. |
| Amber: 才， 才， 咖啡因。(cái, cái, kāfēi yīn.) |
| DAVID: Caffeine. |
| Amber: 咖 啡 因， 咖啡因， 早起。(kāfēi yīn, kāfēi yīn, zǎo qǐ.) |
| DAVID: To get up early. |
| Amber: 早 起， 早起。(Zǎo qǐ, zǎo qǐ.) |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| DAVID: Okay, let’s take a closer look at some of these tea-related words. Our first word is… |
| Amber: 茶馆。(Cháguǎn.) |
| DAVID: Tea house. |
| Amber: 茶馆。(Cháguǎn.) |
| DAVID: Right, so this is not just any place where you get tea. It’s a traditional Chinese tea house. |
| Amber: 对，没错，就是专们喝茶的地方。(Duì, méi cuò, jiùshì zhuānmen hē chá dì dìfāng.) |
| DAVID: Right. And China has a lot of authentic tea houses. |
| Amber: 中国有很多地道的茶馆。(Zhōngguó yǒu hěnduō dìdào de cháguǎn.) |
| DAVID: China has a lot of authentic tea houses. |
| Amber: 中国有很多地道的茶馆，比如说老舍茶馆。(Zhōngguó yǒu hěnduō dìdào de cháguǎn, bǐrú shuō lǎoshě cháguǎn..) |
| DAVID: Right. That’s the 老舍 (Lǎoshě), tea house, named after the play he wrote, tea house, which is a micro-study of Chinese society. Moving on, we’ve got the word for “authentic” in there. |
| Amber: 地道。(Dìdào.) |
| DAVID: Authentic. |
| Amber: 地道。(Dìdào.) |
| DAVID: And this is fun because in Southern China you can reverse this and say… |
| Amber: 道 地。(Dào de.) |
| DAVID: And you can even reduplicate the word. |
| Amber: 地 地 道 道。(De dìdào dào.) |
| DAVID: Or… |
| Amber: 道 道地 地。 (Dào dào dì de.) |
| DAVID: Right. So you could say “This tea house is really authentic” by saying… |
| Amber: 这个茶馆真是地 地 道 道。(Zhège cháguǎn zhēnshi de dìdào dào.) |
| DAVID: Right. In China these days, 地道 (Dìdào) is more common than 道地.(Dào dì.) |
| Amber: 没错。(Méi cuò.) |
| DAVID: You’ll hear 道地 (Dào dì) a bit more overseas. |
| Amber: 对，没错，因为它更像是广东或者香港人说的。(Duì, méi cuò, yīnwèi tā gèng xiàng shì guǎngdōng huòzhě xiānggǎng rén shuō de.) |
| DAVID: Yeah, it’s closer to what people will say in Cantonese. |
| Amber: 对。(Duì.) |
| DAVID: Moving on, we’ve got three kinds of tea here. Our first kind is… |
| Amber: 龙井茶。(Lóngjǐng chá.) |
| DAVID: Dragon-well tea. |
| Amber: 龙井茶。(Lóngjǐng chá.) |
| DAVID: And 龙井 tea is a kind of green tea. |
| Amber: 龙井茶是一种绿茶。(Lóngjǐng chá shì yī zhǒng lǜchá.) |
| DAVID: 龙井 (Lóngjǐng) tea is a kind of green tea. |
| Amber: 龙井茶是一种绿茶。(Lóngjǐng chá shì yī zhǒng lǜchá.) |
| DAVID: And, Amber, we find this mostly around 杭州.(Hángzhōu.) |
| Amber: 没错，它最开始是在杭州。(Méi cuò, tā zuì kāishǐ shì zài hángzhōu.) |
| DAVID: Right. So not that far from Shanghai. If you’re in Shanghai, you can take a train an hour and you can go to 杭州 (Hángzhōu) and they’ve got tea plantations where you can drink it. |
| Amber: 最好是在每年下雨之前。(Zuì hǎo shì zài měinián xia yǔ zhīqián.) |
| DAVID: Right. Before it starts raining, it’s actually one of the best things about being in Shanghai. |
| Amber: 对，没错。(Duì, méi cuò.) |
| DAVID: So, moving on, we also have another kind of tea. |
| Amber: 普洱茶。(Pǔ'ěr chá.) |
| DAVID: 普洱 (Pǔ'ěr) tea. |
| Amber: 普洱茶。(Pǔ'ěr chá.) |
| DAVID: And this is a different kind. This is more of a… they ferment the tea leaves… |
| Amber: 对 ，因为是发酵过的。(Duì, yīn wéi shì fāxiàoguò de.) |
| DAVID: Yeah, and it comes from South-Western China. |
| Amber: 对，没错，普洱茶是云南的茶。(Duì, méi cuò, pǔ'ěr chá shì yúnnán de chá.) |
| DAVID: Right, so it originally comes from… |
| Amber: 云南。(Yúnnán.) |
| DAVID: Right. And if you like ice-tea, this is normally what you’re drinking. |
| Amber: 没错。(Méi cuò.) |
| DAVID: Right. So ice tea is made with 普洱 (Pǔ'ěr) tea. |
| Amber: 冰红茶是用普洱茶做的。(Bīng hóngchá shì yòng pǔ'ěr chá zuò de.) |
| DAVID: Ice tea is made with 普洱 (Pǔ'ěr) tea. |
| Amber: 冰红茶是用普洱茶做的。(Bīng hóngchá shì yòng pǔ'ěr chá zuò de.) |
| DAVID: Now 普洱 (Pǔ'ěr) tea doesn’t have very much caffeine. Right, there are some varieties with no caffeine. There is another kind of tea that’s really popular in China, that doesn’t have any caffeine either. |
| Amber: 对，没错，你说的是菊花茶。(Duì, méi cuò, nǐ shuō de shì júhuā chá.) |
| DAVID: Chrysanthemum tea. |
| Amber: 菊花茶，菊花茶完全没有咖啡因。(Júhuā chá, júhuā chá wánquán méiyǒu kāfēi yīn.) |
| DAVID: Chrysanthemum tea has absolutely no caffeine. |
| Amber: 菊花茶完全没有咖啡因。(Júhuā chá wánquán méiyǒu kāfēi yīn.) |
| DAVID: Right, it’s made with flowers. |
| Amber: 对，没错。(Duì, méi cuò.) |
| DAVID: So, if you’re taking a cab you’ll see this sometimes. They put the heads of the flowers in the water [unintelligible 00:06:56]. And it’s a sweeter, lighter tea. |
| Amber: 没错，我自己比较喜欢菊花茶。(Méi cuò, wǒ zìjǐ bǐjiào xǐhuān júhuā chá.) |
| DAVID: Right. A lot of people drink it when they want to lose weight. Another popular tea for losing weight actually is 普洱 (Pǔ'ěr) tea. |
| Amber: 没错，因为普洱可以除掉油，体内的油脂。(Méi cuò, yīnwèi pǔ'ěr kěyǐ chú diào yóu, tǐnèi de yóuzhī.) |
| DAVID: Yeah, Chinese people believe that if you want to lose weight, 普洱茶 (Pǔ'ěr chá) it will help you flush fat and oils out of your system. |
| Amber: 没错，没错。(Méi cuò, méi cuò.) |
| DAVID: Okay. With that, that’s our tea vocabulary. If you haven’t yet, be sure to try these three varieties. |
| Amber: 龙井茶，普洱茶，菊花茶。(Lóngjǐng chá, pǔ'ěr chá, júhuā chá.) |
| DAVID: In our grammar section, we’re going to learn how to make comparisons. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| M2: It’s grammar time! |
| DAVID: In our grammar pattern today, we want to talk about an easy way to make comparisons. To say that A is better than B. |
| Amber: A 比 B 好。(A bǐ B hǎo.) |
| DAVID: Right, where A and B can be anything you want, different kinds of teas, different kinds of phones, products, anything. |
| Amber: 所有的东西都可以用这个结构。(Suǒyǒu de dōngxī dū kěyǐ yòng zhège jiégòu.) |
| DAVID: And what is the pattern again? |
| Amber: A 比 B 好。(A bǐ B hǎo.) |
| DAVID: In the dialogue, we saw this pattern in the following line. |
| Amber: 对，比星巴克好多了。(Duì, bǐ xīngbākè hǎoduōle.) |
| DAVID: Yes, it’s much better than Starbucks. |
| Amber: 对，比星巴克好多了。(Duì, bǐ xīngbākè hǎoduōle.) |
| DAVID: And what is better than Starbucks? |
| Amber: 茶馆，所以我们也可以说 茶馆比星巴克好多了。 |
| DAVID: Tea houses are much better than Starbucks. |
| Amber: 茶馆比星巴克好多了。(Cháguǎn bǐ xīngbākè hǎoduōle.) |
| DAVID: Let’s forget this 多了(Duōle) for a moment and just focus on this pattern. We have two objects or items, in this case a tea house and Starbucks, but we can replace them with anything. |
| Amber: 没错。(Méi cuò.) |
| DAVID: So we could say, “Mine is better than yours”. |
| Amber: 我的比你的好。(Wǒ de bǐ nǐ de hǎo.) |
| DAVID: Mine is better than yours. |
| Amber: 我的比你的好。(Wǒ de bǐ nǐ de hǎo.) |
| DAVID: How about, “Tea is better than coffee?” |
| Amber: 茶比咖啡好。(Chá bǐ kāfēi hǎo.) |
| DAVID: Tea is better than coffee. |
| Amber: 茶比咖啡好。(Chá bǐ kāfēi hǎo.) |
| DAVID: And regardless of whether you agree with that, they key thing is the structure. |
| Amber: 对，我们就是想告诉你 A 比 B 好。(Duì, wǒmen jiùshì xiǎng gàosù nǐ A bǐ B hǎo.) |
| DAVID: Right. Now, we can swap in any adjective that we want. |
| Amber: 对。(Duì.) |
| DAVID: So it doesn’t just need to be good. You could say… |
| Amber: 这壶茶比哪壶茶地道。(Zhè hú chá bǐ nǎ hú chá dìdào.) |
| DAVID: This tea is more authentic than that tea. |
| Amber: 这壶茶比哪壶茶地道。(Zhè hú chá bǐ nǎ hú chá dìdào.) |
| DAVID: This pot of tea is more authentic than that pot of tea. |
| Amber: 没错。(Méi cuò.) |
| DAVID: Right. Maybe that pot of tea is 冰红茶。.(Bīng hóngchá.) |
| Amber: 对，本来是 (Duì, běnlái shì) mixture. |
| DAVID: Right, ice tea. |
| Amber: There’s a mixture. |
| DAVID: Yes. How about “I'm older than him.” |
| Amber: 我比他大。(Wǒ bǐ tā dà.) |
| DAVID: I'm older than him. |
| Amber: 我比他大。(Wǒ bǐ tā dà.) |
| DAVID: Right, so this can be any adjective. |
| Amber: 对，所有的形容词都可以。(Duì, suǒyǒu de xíngróngcí dōu kěyǐ.) |
| DAVID: Yeah, but it has to be a positive adjective. You can negate the adjective, so you can’t say 我比他不大.(Wǒ bǐ tā bù dà.) |
| Amber: 对，没错，。(Duì, méi cuò,.) |
| DAVID: You’d have to say… |
| Amber: 我不比他大. (Wǒ bùbǐ tā dà.) |
| DAVID: I'm not compared to him bigger. |
| Amber: 对，我不比他大，要把 不 放在 比 的前面。(Duì, wǒ bùbǐ tā dà, yào bǎ bù fàng zài bǐ de qiánmiàn.) |
| DAVID: Right, so the negation has to happen in front of 比 , which is a comparison. Not in front of the adjective itself. |
| Amber: 没错。(Méi cuò.) |
| DAVID: So, to review, when you want to compare two things, use this structure. |
| Amber: A 比 B 好。(A bǐ B hǎo.) |
| DAVID: Right, where 好 can be replaced with any adjective you want. When you want to negate this, don’t negate the adjective. |
| Amber: 不，不，不，要把 不 放在 比 的前面。(Bù, bù, bù, yào bǎ bù fàng zài bǐ de qiánmiàn.) |
Outro |
| DAVID: Okay, that said, that is all the time we have. From Beijing, I'm David. |
| Amber: 我是安伯。(Wǒ shì ān bó.) |
| DAVID: Thanks for listening and we’ll see you on the site. |
| Amber: 下次见。(Xià cì jiàn.) Bye-bye. |
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