Intermediate - Asking to Be Paid Back

Right-Wingnut
March 29, 2013, 08:39 AM posted in Transcripts with Tal

Lesson here.

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Right-Wingnut
March 29, 2013, 08:35 AM

0:00-0:30

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Right-Wingnut

John: Hi Intermediate learners, this is ChinesePod, my name is John.

Dilu: 大家好,我是Dilu。

John: And today we have a very important lesson about getting your money back.

Dilu: 对。因为你借了钱给别人。

John: You lent money to someone. How do you say 'lend money'?

Dilu: 借钱。借钱。

John: 4th tone, 2nd tone.

Dilu: 没错。

John: But then how do you say 'borrow money'?

Dilu: 也是借钱。

John: So the same expression is for lending and borrowing, so obviously you're going to have to pay attention to the context.

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Right-Wingnut
March 29, 2013, 08:36 AM

0:30-1:00

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Right-Wingnut

0:33

Dilu: 没错。没错。

John: We're going to go into this in more detail, but first the dialog.

Dilu: 好。先听一下对话。

0:38 - Dialog

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Right-Wingnut
March 29, 2013, 08:36 AM

1:00-1:30

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Right-Wingnut
March 29, 2013, 08:36 AM

1:30-2:00

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Right-Wingnut

John: In the first sentence we get the context for the rest of the dialog. Can we hear that again.

Dilu: 有个朋友借了我一万块,好几个月了还没还。

John: 借了我一万块. Is there enough context here to know whether that's 'lent me 10000' or 'borrowed from me 10000' ?

Dilu: 如果没有后面帮助的话,你是不知道的。

John: So without the rest of the sentence, we can't tell whether this is 'lent me 10000' or 'borrowed from me 10000'.

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Right-Wingnut
March 29, 2013, 08:36 AM

2:00-2:30

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Right-Wingnut

2:01

Dilu: 对。两个都有可能。

John: And then what's the key word that tells us that this person borrowed 10000 from the guy?

Dilu: 这个 key word 在后面。还没还。还没还。

John: 还 (huán), 2nd tone, that means 'to return'.

Dilu: 对。第二声。就是'还钱'。

John: 还钱 means to return money that was borrowed.

Dilu: 是的。而且呢,已经过了好几个月了。好几个月了还没还。

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Right-Wingnut
March 29, 2013, 08:36 AM

2:30-3:00

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Right-Wingnut

2:30

John: So 几个月 means 'several months'.

Dilu: 是的。

John: If we say 好几个月, how does that change it?

Dilu: 感觉上就是 more than several months。

John: So quite a few months probably.

Dilu: 对。比几个月再多一点点。

John: So if you hear this 好几个月了, 'its been quite a few months'.

Dilu: 是的。

John: How many would you guess that it has been, just off the top of your head?

Dilu: 好几个月应该是四五个月了。

John: Four or five months. Maybe even five or six months.

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Right-Wingnut
March 29, 2013, 08:36 AM

3:00-3:30

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Right-Wingnut

Dilu: 有可能。

John: So the situation is the guy lent 10000, its been quite a few months, he hasn't gotten it back. So then the other friend asks a key question.

Dilu: 对。他问:铁哥们儿还是普通朋友?

John: So is your friend an 'iron buddy' or a regular friend?

Dilu: 那在男人之间,比较好的朋友,比较 close 的朋友,他们都会说:铁哥们儿。铁哥们儿。

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Right-Wingnut
March 29, 2013, 08:37 AM

3:30-4:00

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Right-Wingnut

John: Like a close buddy, a 'bro'.

Dilu: 没错。关系好的像 iron 一样。

John: 铁哥们儿. So the tones are ...

Dilu: '铁'是第三声,'哥'是第一声,然后就是一个轻声。铁哥们儿。铁哥们儿。

John: And then what do we say, just like a regular friend, a normal friend?

Dilu: 普通朋友。普通朋友。

John: What are the tones on 普通?

Dilu: 第三声和第一声。普通。

John: That often means 'common', like the word for the common speech of mainland China is what?

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Right-Wingnut
March 31, 2013, 01:35 AM

4:00-4:30

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Right-Wingnut

4:03

Dilu: 普通话。

John: Same 普通.

Dilu: 是的。一样的普通。

John: So this is a 普通朋友.

Dilu: 那如果他是一个普通朋友,一万块钱不是小钱。

John: So 'its not small money', 'its not small change'.

Dilu: 是指这个钱比较多。

John: So if we say 不是小钱, is that a set phrase, is it often for the negative?

Dilu: 对。常常会用在否定句里面。

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Right-Wingnut
March 31, 2013, 01:43 AM

4:30-5:00

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Right-Wingnut

4:32

John: So its no small amount of money. And because its no small amount of money, ... what?

Dilu: 他应该不会忘记。他应该不会忘记。

John: So its 'he should will not forget'. Now this 不会, it doesn't necessarily mean 'will not', it means there's not much possibility that this will have happened.

Dilu: 没错。是指不太可能。

John: So sometimes this 会 becomes a 'would' in English, its hypothetical. So we might translate this as 'he probably wouldn't forget that'.