ဘလော့ဂ်

 M: 大家好！我是ML!
S: dajia hao! Wo shi Stuart.
M: Pencil and paper ready? Hao! 请，Please, qǐng, say the Chinese out loud with us. We’ll repeat most things.
S: First, let’s hear the dialogue of the last lesson. But we’ll change one or two words. Listen carefully.
M: Stuart, 你的行李太多了. Ni de xingli tai duo le.
S: Wo tongyi. 我的行李太多了. Wode xingli tài duo le.
M: 你的行李也太重了。 Ni de xingli yě tai zhòng le.
S: Shide, wo de xingli ye tai zhòng le. Wo de xingli ye tai zhòng le.
M: Tin a, oh dear, his luggage is too heavy. ta de xingli tai zhòng le.
S: But last lesson my xingli was tài chén, too heavy. Xianzai it’s tài zhòng. Zhòng shi shenme yisi? What does zhòng mean？ Zhòng shi shenme yisi?
M: Xingli tài zhòng, hé xingli tài chén. 一样，yíyàng, the same, yíyàng, YI YANG, yíyàng, 2nd tone, 4th tone, yíyàng.
S: Ah, so chén and zhòng both mean ‘heavy’, but chén is a bit more colloquial. Now the dialogue again, no repetition, and faster.
M: Ready. Stuart, ni de xingli tai duo le.
S: Wo tongyi. Wode xingli tài duo le.
M: Ni de xingli yě tai zhong le.
S: Shide, wo de xingli tai chen le. Wo de xingli tai chen le.
M: 很好!
S: We’re STILL at the airport. Women hai zai jichang. Now mimic this short chat.
M: 我们走吧。我打车, wo da che.
S: 好，你打车。Ni da che, 我打电话, wo da dianhua.
M: wo da che. Wo da che. Dǎ DA DA dǎ, means to ‘hit’, dǎ. Chē CHE CHE chē chē. Say it chē, chē, 1st tone, che, means ‘vehicle’. But when we say “da che”, it doesn’t mean “hit a vehicle”, it means ‘get a taxi’. Wo da che, I’ll get a cab.
S: This is very common in Chinese. One word, like dǎ, can have several different meanings. For example, I also said, Wo da dian hua. Wo da dianhua. Diàn DIAN DIAN diàn, electricity, or electric. Diàn. Huà HUA HUA, hua, words. Guess what electric words means. Yes, telephone, dianhua. Another compound word. Da dianhua. Hit the phone? Well, kind of, it means ‘make a telephone call’. Da dianhua.
M: And usually we put the common classifier gè GE gè in front of it. Dǎ ge dianhua. Listen and repeat. Stuart, 我去打车。Wo qu da che. 你去哪儿？ni qu na’er?
S: Wo qu da ge dianhua. Wo qu da ge dianhua.
M: Hao, ni qu da ge dianhua. Ni qu da ge dianhua.
S: Follow everything? 非常好。
M: Stuart’s finished phoning. 车来了, chē lái le. The taxi’s here. Che lai le.
S: Na hen hao. Che lai le. And here’s the driver.
Taxi Driver: 你们去哪儿？nimen qu na’er?
M: 我们去友谊宾馆, wo men qu youyi binguan. We’re going to the Friendship Hotel. Youyi bin’guan.
TD: 没问题。No problem. Méi wèntí.
S: Maybe we’re finally leaving the jichang!
M: We’ll see in the next lesson. Zaijian.