October 30th, 2010
October 26 — I Would Like to Buy a Pen
This Week’s Character Writing Practice:
有
没
想
买
This Week’s Dialogue:
你好，你想买什么？
Nǐhǎo, nǐ xiǎng mǎi shénme?
Hello. What would you like to buy?
我想买笔。有没有？
Wǒ xiǎng mǎi bǐ.Yǒuméiyǒu?
I’d like to buy a pen. Do you have one?
对不起，我没有笔。
Duìbuqǐ, wǒ méiyǒu bǐ.
Sorry, I don’t have pens.
没关系。
Méiguānxi.
That’s okay.
Key Vocabulary:
有 — yǒu： (v.) To have
没有 — méiyǒu: (v.) To not have
想 — xiǎng: (v.) To consider, to think, to want
买 — mǎi: (v.) To buy
Traditional/Simplified Character Comparison:
你好，你想买什么？
你好，你想買什麼？
我想买笔。有没有？
我想買筆。有沒有？
对不起，我没有笔。
對不起，我沒有筆。
没关系。
沒關係。
Other Vocabulary:
卖 — mài: (v.) To sell
书 — shū: (n.) Book
笔记本 — bǐjìběn: (n.) Notebook
多少钱？ — duōshao qián: (sentence) How much money?
Dialogue Audio File:
Here is the MP3 file for this week’s lesson: Chinesepod lesson 15 MP3: “I Would Like to Buy a Pen” (This week’s lesson starts in minute 2 of the audio file.)
September 29th, 2010
September 28 — Can You Speak Chinese?
Today’s Character Writing Practice:
你
会
说
吗
Today’s Dialogue:
你会说普通话吗？
nǐ huì shuō pǔtōnghuà ma?
Can you speak Chinese (Mandarin)?
我会说一点，你会说英语吗？
wǒ huì shuō yīdiǎn, nǐ huì shuō yīngyǔ ma?
I can speak a little. Can you speak English?
英语？我不会说。
yīngyǔ? wǒ bùhuì shuō.
English? No, I can’t speak it.
Note: Remember that the pin-yin romanization for 不 is written as fourth tone (bù), but in spoken Mandarin, it takes the opposite tone as the following verb — so in this case, because it’s followed by a fourth-tone word (会 huì), it is spoken as a second tone (bú).
Key Vocabulary:
普通话 – pǔtōnghuà： Mandarin (literally “the common language”)
英语 – yīngyǔ: English
会 – huì：(verb) can, able to, know how to
一点 – yīdiǎn: a little bit
Traditional/Simplified Character Comparison:
你会说普通话吗？
你會說普通話嗎？
我会说一点，你会说英语吗？
我會說一點，你會說英語嗎？
英语？我不会说。
英語？我不會說。
Other Vocabulary:
广东话 – guǎngdōnghuà：Cantonese (literally “the language of Guangdong Province)
上海话 – shànghǎihuà：Shanghainese (literally “the language of Shanghai”)
Note: Notice that the last character in all these words is the same as the last character in the word for Mandarin (话). This character means “language” — the characters preceding it tells which language it is (ie. “Shanghai language,” “Guangdong language,” “common language”).
September 17th, 2010
September 14th — I’m Upset
Today’s Phonetic Sounds:
po ㄆㄛ
pou ㄆㄡ
mo ㄇㄛ
mou ㄇㄡ
fo ㄈㄛ
fou ㄈㄡ
Today’s Dialogue:
A: 你怎么了？
nǐ zěnme le?
What’s the matter?
B: 我很难过。
wǒ hěn nánguò.
I’m very upset.
A: 真的吗？为什么？
zhēnde ma? wèishénme?
Really? Why?
B: 对不起，我不能说。
duìbuqǐ, wǒ bù néng shuō.
I’m sorry, I can’t say.
Traditional/Simplified Character Comparison (differences are highlighted in red):
怎么
怎麼
难过
難過
为什么
為什麼
对不起
對不起
说
說
Dialogue Audio File:
Here is the MP3 file for this week’s lesson: Chinesepod lesson 11 MP3: “I’m Upset”
August 10th, 2010
End-of-Summer Dinner Night
We had a great time finishing up our summer classes with a great dinner at Chopsticks China Bistro. We hope everyone had a good time and learned a lot during our summer session!
Remember, we won’t be meeting for the rest of August. Our fall classes start again on the first Tuesday of September. If you’re interested in coming or are looking to get back into our classes, that will be a great time to start. See you then!
