Learn about a reform policy that helped some get rich quick and an advanced way of offering explanations
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 |
| David: Welcome to chineseclass101.com. I am David. |
| Echo: Hi, 大家好, 我是 (Dàjiā hǎo, wǒ shì) Echo. |
| David: And we are here today with upper intermediate, season 1, Lesson 9. |
| Echo: The Chinese Gold Rush. |
| David: Right. So with us, you are going to learn to speak Chinese with fun and effective lessons and cultural insights you won’t find in the textbook. |
| Echo: 没错。 (Méi cuò.) |
| David: Echo, what do we have today? |
| Echo: 今天我们这个对话是发生在北京一家很有名的珠宝店里。 (Jīntiān wǒmen zhège duìhuà shì fāshēng zài běijīng yījiā hěn yǒumíng de zhūbǎo diàn lǐ.) |
| David: Okay. So it’s in a gold and jewelry market in Beijing and it’s between two bystanders |
| Echo: 唔，没错。 (Wú, méi cuò.) |
| David: Who are watching the chaos! |
| Echo: 大家在买..... 买黄金。 (Wú, méi cuò.) |
| David: Yes. So we’ve got a dialogue for you. We are going to listen to it a couple of times without and then within an English translation. |
| Echo: Right. |
| David: Let’s go. This was mid-2010 I think. Actually 2008 to 2010. With the financial crisis abroad, there was a huge, huge flood of money into gold. |
| DIALOGUE |
| A: 这么多人在买黄金，也太夸张了吧。 (Zhème duō rén zài mǎi huángjīn, yě tài kuāzhāng le ba.) |
| B: 这还叫多？周末再来瞅瞅。 (Zhè hái jiào duō? Zhōumò zàilái chǒuchǒu.) |
| A: 怎么跟买大白菜似的。 (Zěnme gēn mǎi dàbáicài shìde.) |
| B: 这两年黄金升值太快，而且还越炒越高。谁都怕错过发财机会。 (Zhèliǎngnián huángjīn shēngzhí tài kuài, érqiě hái yuè chǎo yuè gao. Shéi dōu pàcuòguò fācái jīhuì.) |
| A: 那我也没见过这场面呀，跟白给不要钱似的。 (Nà wǒ yě méi jiànguo zhè chǎngmiàn yā, gēn báigěi bù yào qián Shìde.) |
| B: 谁让咱老百姓的生活水平提高了呢，咱不缺钱！ (Shéi ràng zán lǎobǎixìng de shēnghuó shuǐpíng tígāo le ne, zán bù quē qián!) |
| A: 这么说你也送我点儿什么吧。 (Zhème shuō nǐ yě sòng wǒ diǎnr shénme ba.) |
| B: 呃，这...可是还有一小部分像我这样没有富裕起来的群众呢。 (E, zhè ...kěshì hái yǒu yìxiǎobùfen xiàng wǒ zhèyàng méiyǒu fùyù qǐlai de qúnzhòng ne.) |
| A: So many people are buying gold. This is way too much. |
| B: This is too much? Come back to have a look on the weekend. |
| A: It looks like people buying cabbage. |
| B: These last few years the value of gold has gone up quickly and it's getting higher all the time. No-one wants to miss this opportunity to make a fortune. |
| A: Yet I haven't seen anything like this. It looks like they are being given out for free. |
| B: Thanks to the fact the standard of living of the ordinary people has increased, we're not short of money. |
| A: If that's the case then why don't you buy me something? |
| B: Well... there are still a couple of people like me who haven't gotten rich yet. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| David: This was mid-2010, I think. Actually 2008 to 2010, with the financial crisis abroad, there was a huge flood of money into gold. |
| Echo: 没错, 现在好像买黄金的人少了一点儿。 (Méi cuò, xiànzài hǎoxiàng mǎi huángjīn de rén shǎole yīdiǎn er.) |
| David: Yeah it’s like the property bubble. It’s deflated a bit since. |
| Echo: 对。 (Duì.) |
| David: But yeah it’s still relatively popular. So our dialogue is all about gold and jewelry and value. |
| Echo: 唉！我非常喜欢今天的这个课。 (Āi! Wǒ fēicháng xǐhuān jīntiān de zhège kè.) |
| David: So we are going to get right to the vocab section. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Echo: 好的。黄金。 (Hǎo de. huángjīn.) |
| David: Gold. |
| Echo: 黄 金, 黄金, 升值。 (huáng jīn, huángjīn, shēngzhí.) |
| David: To increase in value. |
| Echo: 升 值, 升值, 场面。 (shēng zhí, shēngzhí, chǎngmiàn.) |
| David: Situation. |
| Echo: 场 面, 场面, 白给。 (chǎng miàn, chǎngmiàn, bái gěi.) |
| David: To give for free. |
| Echo: 白 给, 白给, 生活水平。 (bái gěi, bái gěi, shēnghuóshuǐpíng.) |
| David: Living standard. |
| Echo: 生 活 水 平, 生活水平, 富裕。 (shēng huó shuǐ píng, shēnghuóshuǐpíng, fùyù.) |
| David: To get rich. |
| Echo: 富 裕, 富裕, 老百姓。 (fù yù, fùyù, lǎobǎixìng.) |
| David: Ordinary people. |
| Echo: 老 百 姓, 老百姓, 瞅瞅。 (lǎo bǎi xìng, lǎobǎixìng, chǒu chǒu.) |
| David: To look at. |
| Echo: 瞅 瞅, 瞅瞅, 发财。 (chǒu chǒu, chǒu chǒu, fācái.) |
| David: To make a fortune. |
| Echo: 发 财, 发财。 (fā cái, fācái.) |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| David: Let’s take a closer look at some of these words and phrases. Our first word is |
| Echo: 黄金。 (Huángjīn.) |
| David: Gold. |
| Echo: 黄金。 (Huángjīn.) |
| David: Or literally it’s yellow gold. |
| Echo: 对，原来还有白金。 (Duì, yuánlái hái yǒu báijīn.) |
| David: Yes that’s platinum and as of 2010, you could honestly say |
| Echo: 最近大家都在抢着买黄金。 (Zuìjìn dàjiā dōu zài qiǎngzhe mǎi huángjīn.) |
| David: Especially in Shanghai. Recently, everyone has rushed to buy gold. |
| Echo: 最近大家都在抢着买黄金。 (Zuìjìn dàjiā dōu zài qiǎngzhe mǎi huángjīn.) |
| David: And the reason gold was so popular was |
| Echo: 升值。 (Shēngzhí.) |
| David: To increase in value. |
| Echo: 升值。 (Shēngzhí.) |
| David: To increase in value. |
| Echo: 黄金升值太快了！ (Huángjīn shēngzhí tài kuàile!) |
| David: It increased too quickly. |
| Echo: 唔，所以大家都去抢着买。 (Wú, suǒyǐ dàjiā dōu qù qiǎngzhe mǎi.) |
| David: Yeah. There was something in the dialogue that caught me which was this verb to give away for free. |
| Echo: 白给。 (Bái gěi.) |
| David: To give away for free. |
| Echo: 白给。 (Bái gěi.) |
| David: In the dialogue, we heard it in this sentence. |
| Echo: 跟白给不要钱似的。 (Gēn bái gěi bùyào qián shì de.) |
| David: Right. |
| Echo: 跟白给不要钱似的。 (Gēn bái gěi bùyào qián shì de.) |
| David: Okay. So no one is giving away gold. That’s the wrong reading of the sentence. |
| Echo: 唔，对，就好像是 …. (Wú, duì, jiù hǎoxiàng shì….) |
| David: It’s as if. |
| Echo: 对，因为有太多人买, 所以就好像卖的人是把这个黄金白白的送给你一样。 (Duì, yīnwèi yǒu tài duō rén mǎi, suǒyǐ jiù hǎoxiàng mài de rén shì bǎ zhège huángjīn báibái de sòng gěi nǐ yīyàng.) |
| David: Yeah. So they are not saying that anyone is giving stuff away for free. They are saying, there are so many people buying, it’s like they were giving it away for free. |
| Echo: 没错。 (Méi cuò.) |
| David: Okay. So that is |
| Echo: 白给。 (Bái gěi.) |
| David: Let’s look at this word, to get rich. |
| Echo: 富裕。 (Fùyù.) |
| David: To get rich. |
| Echo: 富裕。 (Fùyù.) |
| David: Is this any different than 发财 (Fācái). |
| Echo: 富裕是 一般是表示一个比较长期的经济的状态，比如说他的家很富裕。 (Fùyù shì yībān shì biǎoshì yīgè bǐjiào chángqí de jīngjì de zhuàngtài, bǐrú shuō tā de jiā hěn fùyù.) |
| David: Okay. |
| Echo: 但是发财呢, 意思好像就是说 你从没有钱 ….. (Dànshì fācái ne, yìsi hǎoxiàng jiùshì shuō nǐ cóng méiyǒu qián…..) |
| David: It’s the process. |
| Echo: 变成有钱了。 (Biàn chéng yǒu qiánle.) |
| David: Okay. |
| Echo: 对，属于 一个动态的过程。 (Duì, shǔyú yīgè dòngtài de guòchéng.) |
| David: Okay. So if you are describing the state of being rich, you want to use |
| Echo: 富裕。 (Fùyù.) |
| David: And if you are describing the process of getting rich. |
| Echo: 发财。 (Fācái.) |
| David: Right. For instance, |
| Echo: 老百姓的生活越来越富裕了。 (Lǎobǎixìng de shēnghuó yuè lái yuè fùyùle.) |
| David: The lives of ordinary Chinese people are wealthier and wealthier. |
| Echo: 老百姓的生活越来越富裕了。 (Lǎobǎixìng de shēnghuó yuè lái yuè fùyùle.) |
| David: And we couldn’t use 发财 (Fācái) there. |
| Echo: No. |
| David: Because you can’t 越来越发财 (Yuè lái yuè fācái). |
| Echo: 不成, 你只能说我的邻居昨天买彩票中了大奖, 突然发财了。 (Bùchéng, nǐ zhǐ néng shuō wǒ de línjū zuótiān mǎi cǎipiào zhōngle dàjiǎng, túrán fācáile.) |
| David: Yeah. So you can 突然发财 (Túrán fācái) but you can’t 越来越发财 (Yuè lái yuè fācái). |
| Echo: 对，你也不能突然富裕。 (Duì, nǐ yě bùnéng túrán fùyù.) |
| David: And with that, that’s our vocab section. Our grammar section is actually about a word but it’s a particularly tricky one. |
| Echo: 没错。 (Méi cuò.) |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| David: So we’ve got a section for it. Let’s get to that. It’s grammar time. Okay Echo, what are we focusing on today? |
| Echo: 今天我们要看的是这个词，谁让。 (Jīntiān wǒmen yào kàn de shì zhège cí, shéi ràng.) |
| David: Huh! |
| Echo: 谁让。 (Shéi ràng.) |
| David: Right. We ran into it in this sentence in our dialogue. |
| Echo: 谁让咱老百姓的生活水平提高了呢，咱不缺钱！ (Shéi ràng zán lǎobǎixìng de shēnghuó shuǐpíng tígāole ne, zán bù quē qián!) |
| David: Right. And it’s tempting to translate this as who made. |
| Echo: Right. |
| David: And that’s wrong. It’s really tricky. |
| Echo: 对，因为不是有人在问你 到底是谁让你的生活水平提高了。 (Duì, yīn wéi bùshì yǒurén zài wèn nǐ dàodǐ shì shéi ràng nǐ de shēnghuó shuǐpíng tígāole.) |
| David: Yeah. No one cares about who, so it’s not a question. It’s a statement. |
| Echo: 没错。 (Méi cuò.) |
| David: And it’s a particularly tricky one. So Echo, we are going to explain this for people in a bit but before we do, let’s throw another example or two at them. |
| Echo: Okay. 谁让我就喜欢钻石呢! 多贵我也愿意买。 (Shéi ràng wǒ jiù xǐhuān zuànshí ne! Duō guì wǒ yě yuànyì mǎi.) |
| David: Okay. So you weren’t asking, who made me like diamonds so much? |
| Echo: 对。 |
| David: I will buy them no matter how expensive they are. Something else is happening. |
| Echo: 谁让我就喜欢钻石呢! 多贵我也愿意买。 (Shéi ràng wǒ jiù xǐhuān zuànshí ne! Duō guì wǒ yě yuànyì mǎi.) |
| David: Let’s have one more example and then we are going to spill the beans on what’s going on. |
| Echo: Okay 谁让黄金升值这么快，珠宝的价格也贵了一倍。 (Shéi ràng huángjīn shēngzhí zhème kuài, zhūbǎo de jiàgé yě guìle yī bèi.) |
| David: Right and it’s so tempting to want to translate this as who made this happen. |
| Echo: 唔，没错。 (Wú, méi cuò.) |
| David: But that’s not what’s going on. Echo, what is happening? |
| Echo: 在这个地方 “谁让”不是问你, 对吧！它是在.... 其实是在解释.....是说因为.... (Zài zhège dìfāng “shéi ràng” bùshì wèn nǐ, duì ba! Tā shì zài.... Qíshí shì zài jiěshì..... Shì shuō yīnwèi....) |
| David: Right. |
| Echo: 我喜欢钻石。 (Wǒ xǐhuān zuànshí.) |
| David: It’s because of or for the reason that. |
| Echo: 没错，我们再听一下我们的句子, “谁让我就喜欢钻石呢! 多贵我也愿意买。” (Méi cuò, wǒmen zài tīng yīxià wǒmen de jùzi, “shéi ràng wǒ jiù xǐhuān zuànshí ne! Duō guì wǒ yě yuànyì mǎi.”) |
| David: So we could actually just drop it from the sentence. |
| Echo: 对。 (Duì.) |
| David: And it would mean almost exactly the same thing. |
| Echo: 对。 (Duì.) |
| David: Right. It’s because I like |
| Echo: 我就喜欢钻石, 多贵我也愿意买。 (Wǒ jiù xǐhuān zuànshí, duō guì wǒ yě yuànyì mǎi.) |
| David: I like diamonds this much. No matter how expensive they are, I will still buy them. |
| Echo: 唔，没错。 (Wú, méi cuò.) |
| David: Or |
| Echo: 谁让黄金升值这么快，珠宝的价格也贵了一倍。 (Shéi ràng huángjīn shēngzhí zhème kuài, zhūbǎo de jiàgé yě guìle yī bèi.) |
| David: The price of gold is going up so quickly. The price of jewelry has doubled too. |
| Echo: 没错。 (Méi cuò.) |
| David: Right. So it adds this sense of it’s for the reason that or it’s because of. |
| Echo: 对。 (Duì.) |
| David: But we add it because it still has this tone and it communicates a tone of, it’s unfortunate that or it’s your fault that. |
| Echo: 对, 就是好像是说话人的错误, 好像有一点儿不是在怪谁，但是.... (Duì, jiùshì hǎoxiàng shì shuōhuà rén de cuòwù, hǎoxiàng yǒu yīdiǎn er bùshì zài guài shéi, dànshì....) |
| David: Yeah. |
| Echo: 有一点是说这就是说话人的错误。 (Yǒu yīdiǎn shì shuō zhè jiùshì shuōhuà rén de cuòwù.) |
| David: Yeah or there is… |
| Echo:而且你也没有别的办法。 (Érqiě nǐ yě méiyǒu bié de bànfǎ.) |
| David: Or there is nothing that can be done about it. |
| Echo: 没错，很无奈的那种。 (Méi cuò, hěn wúnài dì nà zhǒng.) |
| David: And it’s not entirely negative because in the dialogue, it’s describing people getting wealthier. |
| Echo: 对。 (Duì.) |
| David: But it’s saying you know, it’s a process that can’t be stopped. |
| Echo: 对，谁让咱老百姓的生活水平提高了呢，咱不缺钱！ (Duì, shéi ràng zán lǎobǎixìng de shēnghuó shuǐpíng tígāole ne, zán bù quē qián!) |
| David: Right. It’s because of the unstoppable. |
| Echo: 这个....这个 生活水平提高了。 (Zhège.... Zhège shēnghuó shuǐpíng tígāole.) |
| David: Yes it’s because the standard of living is getting better. It’s inevitable that of course people are going to have money to buy this stuff. |
| Echo: 没错。 (Méi cuò.) |
| David: Okay. We’ve got another example that stresses how sometimes this is used to lay blame on people. |
| Echo: 对，谁让你去年不投资黄金，现在晚了吧！ (Duì, shéi ràng nǐ qùnián bù tóuzī huángjīn, xiànzài wǎnle ba!) |
| David: Again, this is really tricky. Let’s listen again. |
| Echo: 谁让你去年不投资黄金，现在晚了吧！ (Shéi ràng nǐ qùnián bù tóuzī huángjīn, xiànzài wǎnle ba!) |
| David: And it’s easy to want to translate this as a question. You know who made you do – why didn’t you do this, right. |
| Echo: 对，其实不是一个问题，是 一个 …... (Duì, qíshí bùshì yīgè wèntí, shì yīgè…...) |
| David: Whose fault was it that this happened. |
| Echo: 对。 (Duì.) |
| David: You know, they are really saying, look it’s because you didn’t do this. |
| Echo: 唔, 谁让你去年不投资黄金。 (Wú, shéi ràng nǐ qùnián bù tóuzī huángjīn.) |
| David: It’s because you didn’t invest in gold last year. |
| Echo: 对，现在晚了吧！ (Duì, xiànzài wǎnle ba!) |
| David: It’s too late now. Right and so we get the sense that it’s kind of unstoppable what’s happened. |
| Echo: 对。 (Duì.) |
| David: And it’s also maybe a bit your fault. |
| Echo: 没错，我们再来听最后一个例句, “谁让你去得这么晚，只剩下大白菜了。” (Méi cuò, wǒmen zàilái tīng zuìhòu yīgè lìjù, “shéi ràng nǐ qù dé zhème wǎn, zhǐ shèng xià dà báicàile.”) |
| David: That’s maybe if you go to the market at 5:59 right. You went so late. There is nothing left but the cabbage. |
| Echo: Right. 谁让你去得这么晚，只剩下大白菜了。 (Shéi ràng nǐ qù dé zhème wǎn, zhǐ shèng xià dà báicàile.) |
| David: Right and so we are being told, of course there is only going to be cabbage left. It’s you know, it’s 6 o’ clock. |
| Echo: 对，而且是你的错。 (Duì, érqiě shì nǐ de cuò.) |
| David: Yeah. So to review, this trips up a lot of advanced speakers. |
| Echo: 对, 谁让。 (Duì, shéi ràng.) |
| David: It’s not a question. We are not asking whose fault it is. We are making a statement about why things are the way they are. |
| Echo: 没错。 (Méi cuò.) |
| David: And there is a sense of inevitability and sometimes blame. |
| Echo: 谁让，谁让我们已经说了这么都了，现在没有时间了！ (Shéi ràng, shéi ràng wǒmen yǐjīng shuōle zhème dōule, xiànzài méiyǒu shíjiānle!) |
Outro |
| David: Exactly. If you have questions though, we have premium PDFs on the site you can download to view the transcript, read the grammar point and refresh what we’ve covered. |
| Echo: 没错，就在我们的 (Méi cuò, jiù zài wǒmen de) Learning Center. |
| David: Yes. So go check that out. If you don’t have an account with us, be sure to sign up because it takes 7 seconds or less. |
| Echo: 谁让它这么快了？快去 sign up 吧！ (Shéi ràng tā zhème kuàile? Kuài qù sign up ba!) |
| David: For now though, that’s all the time we have. From Beijing, I am David. |
| Echo: 我是 (Wǒ shì) Echo. |
| David: Thanks for listening and we will see you on the site. |
| Echo: 谁让时间这么短了! (Shéi ràng shíjiān zhème duǎnle!) Bye bye. |
Comments
Hide