S: Dàjiāhǎo, wǒshì Stuart. We’ll first finish explaining the sentence we left last lesson. I asked ML what she does on the net, and she answered –
M: I send emails, visit different websites, and chat quite often. Wǒ fā diànzǐ yóujiàn, fǎngwèn bùtóngde wǎngzhàn, hái jīngcháng liáotiān.
S: Diànzǐyóujiàn, e-mail, 电子邮件。Diànzǐ, DIAN ZI, fourth tone third tone, means electronic. For example, in English we have e-commerce, e-magazine, and their Chinese equivalents are diànzǐ shāngwù and diànzǐ zázhì.
M: Yóujiàn, YOU JIAN, 邮件,second tone fourth tone, mail. And when we send a mail, we use the verb ‘fā’, FA, first tone, 发。发邮件,fāyóujiàn.
S: Fǎngwèn bùtóngde wǎngzhàn. 访问,FANG WEN, third tone fourth tone, fǎngwèn, to visit. Bùtóngde, different, 不同的。Tóng, TONG, second tone, tóng, means yíyàng, the same.
M: And wǎngzhàn, WANG ZHAN, third tone fourth tone, 网站, means website. Remember the gōnggòng qìchēzhàn we’ve learned? Duìle, it’s bus station, 公共汽车站。The zhàn is the same zhàn as in wǎngzhàn, web-station, website.
S: And the wǎng of course means web, net.
M: So fǎngwèn bùtóngde wǎngzhàn, to visit different websites, 访问不同的网站。
S: Hái jīngcháng liáotiān. Jīngcháng, JING CHANG, first tone second tone, 经常,often, frequently. Liáotiān, LIAO TIAN, 聊天,second tone first tone, to chat. It can both mean chatting through the net, or face to face.
M: Now let’s read the whole sentence again, Wǒ fā diànzǐ yóujiàn, fǎngwèn bùtóngde wǎngzhàn, hái jīngcháng liáotiān. 我发电子邮件,访问不同的网站,还经常聊天。
S: Wow, ML, in the past two lessons we really learnt a lot of new words.
M: That’s true! But we still have one more thing to tell our listeners. Then we’ll finish our lesson by repeating most of the text we learnt today.
S: No objection! Wǒbù fǎnduì. 我不反对。Literally, I don’t object.
M: What’s the Chinese word for computer? Duìle, diànnǎo, the ‘electric brain’, 电脑. There is another Chinese name for computer, which is ‘jìsuànjī’, a computing machine, 计算机。
S: Remember the measure word for jìsuànjī or diànnǎo? Duìle, it’s tái. We use this measure word for big electric home appliances or machines. So, a computer, we can either say 一台电脑 or 一台计算机,the same, yíyàng, yíyàng.
M: Ok, now let’s read the text again, at full speed. Try to follow us, and speak as loudly as you can. Yīèrsān, kāishǐ!
S: Zhèjǐtiān, ML míshàngle shàngwǎng. 这几天,曼丽迷上了上网。
M: Shìde. 我发电子邮件,访问不同的网站,还经常聊天。Wǒ fā diànzǐ yóujiàn, fǎngwèn bùtóngde wǎngzhàn, hái jīngcháng liáotiān.
S: And with that we end our lesson, míngtiānjiàn!
M: Zàijiàn!