Learn an adverb to communicate the unexpected, and learn about Chinese movies
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| INTRODUCTION |
| David: Welcome to ChineseClass101.com. I'm David! |
| Echo: Hi! 大家好，我是Echo. (Dàjiā hǎo, wǒ shì Echo.) |
| David: And we’re here today with Upper Intermediate Season 1 , Lesson 3 - Throwing Rotten Tomatoes at a Chinese Movie. |
| Echo: 没错，你可以感觉到这个课文可能和什么有关系。(Méicuò, nǐ kěyǐ gǎnjué dào zhège kèwén kěnéng hé shénme yǒu guānxì.) |
| David: Yes and if you’ve seen a bunch of Chinese movies, you know there are bad ones out there. |
| Echo: 对，不管你想弄点西紅柿还是弄点鸡蛋 什么的。 (Duì, bùguǎn nǐ xiǎng nòng diǎn xīhóngshì háishì nòng diǎn jīdàn shénme de.) |
| David: So, we’ve got a dialogue and it takes place between a boyfriend and a girlfriend. |
| Echo: 对，他们刚看完一场电影。 (Duì, tāmen gāng kàn wán yīchǎng diànyǐng.) |
| David: Yes, they made a mistake. They said, we’re looking for romance. We’re gonna go to the theatres tonight. |
| Echo: 对。 (Duì.) |
| David: So, let's get right to the dialogue. |
| Echo: 好的。 (Hǎo de.) |
| DIALOGUE |
| A: 亲爱的，你觉得那个电影怎么样？ (Qīn'ài de, nǐ juéde nà ge diànyǐng zěnmeyàng?) |
| B: 还行吧。你说呢？ (Hái xíng ba. Nǐ shuō ne?) |
| A: 我觉得景色挺美的，像是风景片儿。情节倒是一般。 (Wǒ juéde jǐngsè tǐng měide, xiàng shì fēngjǐngpiānr. Qíngjié dàoshì yībān.) |
| B: 就是！情节也太烂了。这导演真没创意。 (Jiùshì! Qíngjié yě tài làn le. Zhè dǎoyǎn zhēn méi chuàngyì.) |
| A: 好像那故事是老套了点儿。 (Hǎoxiàng nà gùshi shì lǎotào le diǎnr.) |
| B: 还有演员的演技也太差了。那个女一号像是在演小品，太夸张了。 (Hái yǒu yǎnyuán de yǎnjìyě tài chā le. Nà ge nǚ yī hào xiàng shì zài yǎn xiǎopǐn, tài kuāzhāng le.) |
| A: 确实挺假的。 (Quèshí tǐng jiǎ de.) |
| B: 这种片子简直是浪费我的时间，侮辱我的智商。 (Zhèzhǒng piànzǐ jiǎnzhí shì làngfèi wǒ de shíjiān, wǔrǔ wǒ de zhìshāng.) |
| A: 我以后再也不拉你来看电影了。 (Wǒ yǐhòu zài yě bù lā nǐ lái kàn diànyǐng le.) |
| B: 啊，亲爱的，别误会。我不是那个意思。 (ā, qīn'ài de, bié wùhuì. Wǒ bù shì nà ge yìsi.) |
| David: Once more, a bit slower. |
| A: 亲爱的，你觉得那个电影怎么样？ (Qīn'ài de, nǐ juéde nà ge diànyǐng zěnmeyàng?) |
| B: 还行吧。你说呢？ (Hái xíng ba. Nǐ shuō ne?) |
| A: 我觉得景色挺美的，像是风景片儿。情节倒是一般。 (Wǒ juéde jǐngsè tǐng měide, xiàng shì fēngjǐngpiānr. Qíngjié dàoshì yībān.) |
| B: 就是！情节也太烂了。这导演真没创意。 (Jiùshì! Qíngjié yě tài làn le. Zhè dǎoyǎn zhēn méi chuàngyì.) |
| A: 好像那故事是老套了点儿。 (Hǎoxiàng nà gùshi shì lǎotào le diǎnr.) |
| B: 还有演员的演技也太差了。那个女一号像是在演小品，太夸张了。 (Hái yǒu yǎnyuán de yǎnjìyě tài chā le. Nà ge nǚ yī hào xiàng shì zài yǎn xiǎopǐn, tài kuāzhāng le.) |
| A: 确实挺假的。 (Quèshí tǐng jiǎ de.) |
| B: 这种片子简直是浪费我的时间，侮辱我的智商。 (Zhèzhǒng piànzǐ jiǎnzhí shì làngfèi wǒ de shíjiān, wǔrǔ wǒ de zhìshāng.) |
| A: 我以后再也不拉你来看电影了。 (Wǒ yǐhòu zài yě bù lā nǐ lái kàn diànyǐng le.) |
| B: 啊，亲爱的，别误会。我不是那个意思。 (ā, qīn'ài de, bié wùhuì. Wǒ bù shì nà ge yìsi.) |
| David: Now let’s hear it with the English translation. |
| A: 亲爱的，你觉得那个电影怎么样？ (Qīn'ài de, nǐ juéde nà ge diànyǐng zěnmeyàng?) |
| David: Darling, what did you think of that movie? |
| B: 还行吧。你说呢？ (Hái xíng ba. Nǐ shuō ne?) |
| David: It was okay. How about you? |
| A: 我觉得景色挺美的，像是风景片儿。情节倒是一般。 (Wǒ juéde jǐngsè tǐng měide, xiàng shì fēngjǐngpiānr. Qíngjié dàoshì yībān.) |
| David: I thought the scenery was nice, like a nature film. But the plot was so-so. |
| B: 就是！情节也太烂了。这导演真没创意。 (Jiùshì! Qíngjié yě tài làn le. Zhè dǎoyǎn zhēn méi chuàngyì.) |
| David: Yeah. The story was ridiculous. The director was totally uncreative. |
| A: 好像那故事是老套了点儿。 (Hǎoxiàng nà gùshi shì lǎotào le diǎnr.) |
| David: The story was completely stereotypical. |
| B: 还有演员的演技也太差了。那个女一号像是在演小品，太夸张了。 (Hái yǒu yǎnyuán de yǎnjìyě tài chā le. Nà ge nǚ yī hào xiàng shì zài yǎn xiǎopǐn, tài kuāzhāng le.) |
| David: And the acting was awful. The leading actress played like she was in a cabaret show, completely over-exaggerating! |
| A: 确实挺假的。 (Quèshí tǐng jiǎ de.) |
| David: Yeah, it was pretty fake. |
| B: 这种片子简直是浪费我的时间，侮辱我的智商。 (Zhèzhǒng piànzǐ jiǎnzhí shì làngfèi wǒ de shíjiān, wǔrǔ wǒ de zhìshāng.) |
| David: This kind of movie was a total waste of time and an insult to my intelligence. |
| A: 我以后再也不拉你来看电影了。 (Wǒ yǐhòu zài yě bù lā nǐ lái kàn diànyǐng le.) |
| David: Okay, I won't take you to see a movie with me again. |
| B: 啊，亲爱的，别误会。我不是那个意思。 (ā, qīn'ài de, bié wùhuì. Wǒ bù shì nà ge yìsi.) |
| David: Oh, darling, don't misunderstand me. I didn't mean that. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| David: I think they should edit that, I’m never gonna take you to see a Zhang Yimou film again. |
| Echo: 对，我自己不会去。(Duì, wǒ zìjǐ bù huì qù.) |
| David: Not after the curse of the, what, Curse of the Golden Flower. |
| Echo: 叫什么菊花什么... (Jiào shénme júhuā shénme...) |
| David: I mean, it was good looking, but it was totally ridiculous. |
| Echo: 《满城尽带黄金甲》(Mǎn chéng jǐn dài huángjīn jiǎ) |
| David: Yes. |
| Echo: 好像是那个吧。(Hǎoxiàng shì nàgè ba.) |
| David: Yes. Don’t go see that. Anyway, we’ve got a lot of vocab today that’s about filmmaking and films, so let’s get to it. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Echo: 情节 (qíngjié) [natural native speed] |
| David: plot |
| Echo: 情节 (qíngjié) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Echo: 情节 (qíngjié) [natural native speed]: Next: |
| Echo: 演技 (yǎnjì) [natural native speed] |
| David: acting skill |
| Echo: 演技 (yǎnjì) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Echo: 演技 (yǎnjì) [natural native speed]: Next: |
| Echo: 女一号 (nǚ yī hào) [natural native speed] |
| David: leading lady |
| Echo: 女一号 (nǚ yī hào) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Echo: 女一号 (nǚ yī hào) [natural native speed]: Next: |
| Echo: 智商 (zhìshāng) [natural native speed] |
| David: intelligence |
| Echo: 智商 (zhìshāng) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Echo: 智商 (zhìshāng) [natural native speed]: Next: |
| Echo: 侮辱 (wǔrǔ) [natural native speed] |
| David: to insult, insult |
| Echo: 侮辱 (wǔrǔ) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Echo: 侮辱 (wǔrǔ) [natural native speed]: Next: |
| Echo: 烂 (làn) [natural native speed] |
| David: low quality, rotten |
| Echo: 烂 (làn) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Echo: 烂 (làn) [natural native speed]: Next: |
| Echo: 误会 (wùhuì) [natural native speed] |
| David: to misunderstand |
| Echo: 误会 (wùhuì) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Echo: 误会 (wùhuì) [natural native speed]: Next: |
| Echo: 创意 (chuàngyì) [natural native speed] |
| David: creativity |
| Echo: 创意 (chuàngyì) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Echo: 创意 (chuàngyì) [natural native speed]: Next: |
| Echo: 老套 (lǎotào) [natural native speed] |
| David: stereotype |
| Echo: 老套 (lǎotào) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Echo: 老套 (lǎotào) [natural native speed] |
| VOCAB: AND PHRASE USAGE |
| David: Let's have a closer look at the usage of some of these words. |
| Echo: The first word we want to highlight is the word for “plot”. |
| Echo: 情节 (qíngjié) |
| David: plot. |
| Echo: 情节 (qíngjié) |
| David: So this is used with movies, it’s used with books |
| Echo: 对。电影呀，书呀，故事呀，都可以。(Duì. Diànyǐng ya, shū ya, gùshì ya, dōu kěyǐ.) |
| David: TV series too. |
| Echo: 比如说这两天发生的一切就像小说中的故事情节。 (Bǐrú shuō zhè liǎng tiān fāshēng de yīqiè jiù xiàng xiǎoshuō zhōng de gùshì qíngjié.) |
| David: The last few days were like the plot of a novel. |
| Echo: 不敢相信。(Bù gǎn xiāngxìn.) |
| David: Right. |
| Echo: 这两天发生的一切就像小说中的故事情节。(Zhè liǎng tiān fāshēng de yīqiè jiù xiàng xiǎoshuō zhōng de gùshì qíngjié.) |
| David: Right. When you come into a room where you see a friend of yours is watching TV, you can ask them, you know, what’s the plost of this TV show. |
| Echo: 这个电视剧的情节是什么。(Zhège diànshìjù de qíngjié shì shénme.) |
| David: Right. The next word is “acting skill”. |
| Echo: 演技 (Yǎnjì) |
| David: acting skill |
| Echo: 演技 (Yǎnjì)。表演的技巧。(Biǎoyǎn de jìqiǎo.) |
| David: Yes, notably absent from some Zhang Yimou’s films, along with plot. |
| Echo: 她凭着在电影中出色的演技夺得了最佳女演员奖。 (Tā píngzhe zài diànyǐng zhòng chūsè de yǎnjì duó déliǎo zuì jiā nǚ yǎnyuán jiǎng.) |
| David: She took the best actress for her acting in the film. |
| Echo: 她凭着在电影中出色的演技夺得了最佳女演员奖。 (Tā píngzhe zài diànyǐng zhòng chūsè de yǎnjì duó déliǎo zuì jiā nǚ yǎnyuán jiǎng.) |
| David: Right, which is - She took the best actress prize for her outstanding acting skills. |
| Echo: 出色的演技 (Chūsè de yǎnjì) |
| David: So we have 演技 (Yǎnjì), we’ve also got “special effects,” which are… |
| Echo: 特技 (tèjì) |
| David: Right. |
| Echo: 特殊的技巧，特殊的技术。(Tèshū de jìqiǎo, tèshū de jìshù.) |
| David: Yes. |
| David: So one is special skills, the other is acting skills, right. It sounds like the movie in the dialogue had a lot more special effects than good acting. So, when they came out, they said, this movie, it’s really, it’s really low quality. |
| Echo: 很烂。这是一个很口语的说法。很烂。 (Hěn làn. Zhè shì yīgè hěn kǒuyǔ de shuōfǎ. Hěn làn.) |
| David: Yeah. It literally means “rotten.” |
| Echo: 对。 (Duì.) |
| David: Right. So you’d say that the fruit has rotted. |
| Echo: 水果烂了。 (huǐguǒ lànle.) |
| David: Right. |
| Echo: 不能吃了。 (Bùnéng chīle.) |
| David: Right. So the usage here is exactly the same as in English. |
| Echo: 对。这个电影的情节太烂了。 (Duì. Zhège diànyǐng de qíngjié tài lànle.) |
| David: Right. The last word we want to highlight here is the word for “a stereotype” or “stereotypical.” |
| Echo: 老套 (lǎotào) |
| David: Stereotype. |
| Echo: 老套 (lǎotào) |
| David: And this isn’t really a good translation. |
| Echo: Mm-hmm. |
| David: Because it’s not really a stereotype. It’s just like, it’s like… |
| Echo: Yeah, just a cliche. |
| David: It’s the old way of doing things. |
| Echo: 对，就没有什么创意。 (Duì, jiù méiyǒu shé me chuàngyì.) |
| David: Yeah, you hear it all the time, so it’s not necessarily an idea about a group of things. It’s just, it’s, it’s not creative. |
| Echo: 对。 (Duì.) |
| David: Right. So, if someone is always saying the same thing… |
| Echo: 没错。 (Méi cuò.) |
| David: You can say… |
| Echo: 你说的很老套。 (Nǐ shuō de hěn lǎo tào.) |
| David: You’re always saying the same old stuff. |
| Echo: Yeah. 你说的很老套。 (Nǐ shuō de hěn lǎo tào.) |
| Echo: 或者你也可以说，中国的电影很老套。 (Huòzhě nǐ yě kěyǐ shuō, zhōngguó de diànyǐng hěn lǎo tào.) |
| David: Well, some Chinese movies are very, very 老套 (lǎotào) , right. |
| Echo: 我觉得多数的中国电影很老套。 (Wǒ juédé duō shǔ de zhōngguó diànyǐng hěn lǎo tào.) |
| David: Right. |
| Echo: 要不然就是模仿中国以前的电影，要不然就是模仿好莱坞的电影。 (Yào bùrán jiùshì mófǎng zhōngguó yǐqián de diànyǐng, yào bùrán jiùshì mófǎng hǎoláiwù de diànyǐng.) |
| Echo: 很老套，没有自己的创意。 (Hěn lǎo tào, méiyǒu zìjǐ de chuàngyì.) |
| David: Well, a lot of Hollywood movies are pretty 老套 (lǎotào) as well. |
| Echo: That’s right. |
| David: Especially the ones with special effects. |
| Echo: 特技 (tèjì) |
| David: Yeah. |
| Echo: 有的还可以。 (Yǒu de hái kěyǐ.) |
| David: Anyway, there’s a lot of good vocabs here. We can’t cover it all, but we do want to get onto our grammar section where we got something great. |
| Echo: 没错。 (Méi cuò.) |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| David: Our grammar focus today is about a really high-level adverb. |
| Echo: 倒是 (dǎo shì) |
| David: Let’s hear that again. |
| Echo: 倒是 (dǎo shì) |
| David: And-- |
| Echo: 这个很难翻译。(Zhège hěn nán fānyì.) |
| David: Yeah. You know, how do we do it? It means sort of “unexpectedly.” |
| Echo: 对。 (Duì.) |
| David: Right? I didn’t expect this to happen. |
| Echo: 有点像 (Yǒudiǎn xiàng) “on the contrary.” |
| David: Yeah. |
| Echo: 反而 什么样。(Fǎn'ér shénme yàng.) |
| David: Let’s… let’s have some examples which should help make this clear. |
| Echo: 比如说，我没吃药，病倒是好了。 (Bǐrú shuō, wǒ méi chī yào, bìng dǎo shì hǎole.) |
| David: Right. I didn’t eat the medicine, but the disease… |
| Echo: 病倒是好了 (bìng dǎo shì hǎole.) |
| David: Unexpectedly got better. |
| Echo: Right. 我没吃药，病倒是好了。 (Wǒ méi chī yào, bìng dǎo shì hǎole.) |
| David: So the meaning here is “it’s unexpected.” |
| Echo: 对。 (Duì.) |
| David: You’re implying that you’re not expecting this to happen. |
| Echo: 没错。比如说，这部电影很烂，倒是得了最佳影片奖。 (Méi cuò. Bǐrú shuō, zhè bù diànyǐng hěn làn, dǎoshì déliǎo zuì jiā yǐngpiàn jiǎng.) |
| David: That’s a great example because we’re saying like, we’re saying the movie itself, it was really, really rotten. |
| Echo: 对，很烂。这部电影很烂。 (Duì, hěn làn. Zhè bù diànyǐng hěn làn.) |
| David: But… |
| Echo: 倒是得了最佳影片奖。 (Dǎoshì déliǎo zuì jiā yǐngpiàn jiǎng.) |
| David: Yeah, but it won the best film prize. |
| Echo: 但是它没有「但是」那么强的一个转接的感觉。它是有一点儿轻轻的感觉，就是没想到。 (Dànshì tā méiyǒu `dànshì'nàme qiáng de yīgè zhuǎn jiē de gǎnjué. Tā shì yǒu yīdiǎn er qīng qīng de gǎnjué, jiùshì méi xiǎngdào.) |
| David: Yeah. I mean we translated it there as “but” and we translated it before as “unexpectedly.” |
| Echo: 对。 (Duì.) |
| David: So, a lot of it depends on the feeling of the sentence. Now, in that last sentence, we translated it… |
| Echo: 倒是 (dǎoshì) |
| David: As if it was a conjunction, but we should remind you that it’s not. It’s not a conjunction. |
| Echo: 他是一个副词。 (Tā shì yīgè fùcí.) |
| David: Yeah. So, we still wanna put it in front of our verbs or adjectives. We got a really good example here. |
| Echo: 他长得虽然不高，力气倒是不小。 (Tā zhǎng dé suīrán bù gāo, lìqì dǎoshì bù xiǎo.) |
| David: Let’s hear that again. |
| Echo: 他长得虽然不高，力气倒是不小。 (Tā zhǎng dé suīrán bù gāo, lìqì dǎoshì bù xiǎo.) |
| David: So we’re setting it up, although he isn’t very tall. |
| Echo: 他长得虽然不高 (Tā zhǎng dé suīrán bù gāo), although he isn’t very tall. |
| David: So we’re setting that up, although he’s not very tall. |
| Echo: 他长得虽然不高 (Tā zhǎng dé suīrán bù gāo) |
| David: He’s got plenty of physical power. |
| Echo: 力气倒是不小。(lìqì dǎoshì bù xiǎo.) |
| David: Yeah, his 力气 (lìqì), his physical strength, that is, unexpectedly not little. |
| Echo: 对。或者再举一个例子。(Duì. Huòzhě zài jǔ yīgè lìzi.) |
| Echo: 这个女一号长得虽然不漂亮，演技倒是不错。(Zhège nǚ yī hào zhǎng dé suīrán bù piàoliang, yǎnjì dǎoshì bùcuò.) |
| David: Yeah and that’s, that’s Echo having high standards, right. One more sample sentence. This one is interesting because we’re putting 倒是 (dǎoshì) in the first clause. |
| Echo: 不是第二个了。 (Bùshì dì èr gèle.) |
| David: Yeah and the sentence is this - It’s easy to say it, but it’s really hard to do in real life. |
| Echo: 你说的倒是容易，可事情哪有那么好办。 (Nǐ shuō de dǎoshì róngyì, kě shìqíng nǎ yǒu nàme hǎo bàn.) |
| David: As you say it, unexpectedly easy, but things weren’t that easy to do. |
| Echo: 你说的倒是容易，可事情哪有那么好办。 (Nǐ shuō de dǎoshì róngyì, kě shìqíng nǎ yǒu nàme hǎo bàn.) |
| David: Right. |
| Echo: 这个时候呢，就是你把「倒是」放在第一个句子里。然后第二句子有一个downturn. (Zhège shíhòu ne, jiùshì nǐ bǎ `dǎoshì'fàng zài dì yīgè jùzi lǐ. Ránhòu dì èr jùzi yǒu yī gè downturn.) |
| David: Yeah. You can say it’s that easy, but really, it’s not. And this is sort of neat because we really can’t do this in English. |
| Echo: Mm-hmm. |
| David: We really have to change the sentence to translate it and still capture that meaning. |
| Echo: 你说的倒是容易，可事情哪有那么好办。 (Nǐ shuō de dǎoshì róngyì, kě shìqíng nǎ yǒu nàme hǎo bàn.) |
| David: Now, this is a tricky adverb and we often hear this in paired couplings, so it will be 倒是...可 (dǎoshì... kě) or 虽然...倒是 (suīrán... dǎoshì). We don’t have time to go with all of these in the podcast, but we have put them into the PDF. |
Outro |
| Echo: Mm-hmm. 所以如果你有任何的问题，都可以到我们的PDF里面去看一看。 |
| David: Yes. Take a look at the transcripts and if you have any questions after that, send us an email. Our address is… |
| Echo: contactus@ChineseClass101.com. |
| David: Right or you can come by the website and leave a comment and we will get back to you. |
| Echo: 没错。 (Méi cuò.) |
| David: Okay. For now though, thanks for listening and we hope you enjoyed the show. |
| David: From Beijing, I’m David. |
| Echo: 我是Echo。(Wǒ shì Echo.) |
| David: And we’ll see you on the site. |
| Echo: 我们下次见吧，拜拜。 (Wǒmen xià cì jiàn ba, bàibài.) |
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