Discussion
You can change it to RMB, but not back unless you have a form and oh, by the way… where’s your red book, visa, and passport? Wrong line – it’s that one, but take another number and wait here. No, there, sorry, we don’t do it at this branch… Exhausting to read? Try hearing it in Mandarin. Fortunately, we’ve been through it so you don’t have to. Listen to this podcast to learn all about banking in Mandarin Chinese.
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This is an excellent lesson for me. These are some of the things I like about the lesson: 1. Understanding the difference between "还需要填些什么吗?" and ""还需要填些什么". 2. Knowing when 会 and 将 are used. 3. Seeing 查 used in a different context. In the dictionary lesson (中级55 Looking up Characters in a Dictionary), 查 was used for looking up a character or word. It was also used in the compound word 查找 chá zhǎo (search for). Today's lesson introduced the word 查询 for inquiring the balance of an account. 4. The word 费 fèi (fee). This lesson covered 手续shǒu xù费 for ATM service charge/fee. That is good to know. For travelers to China, Jenny talked about tipping on the Saturday show and the word for tip is 小费 xiǎo fèi。 I learned this word several months ago before I went on my China vacation. Of course my favorite 费 word is 免费 miǎn fèi, which means free of charge. I learned this word along with 小费. 5. 老人家 lǎo rén jiā - older people/senior citizens. I haven't this word uttered in ages until Jenny said it. That was sweet! Thanks for jogging my memory. For people with an account from Citibank, HSBC or other well-known international banks, they don't have to open an account in China if they're in the major cities. When I traveled in China, I learned that the Beijing airport has ATMs belonging to international banks like HSBC. Shanghai's Hongqiao 虹桥 airport has a Citibank ATM. Jenny and John, I asked for this before and I hope you'll do a lesson on compound characters. Believe it or not, I added 利息 to my Mandarin vocabulary (I know the Hokkien word for this) on my own today before I listened to this lesson. I was curious about the word 息 because of the airport lesson. Connie translated 信息 from pinyin for me and explained that it means information. I immediately thought of 消息 which also means news/information. That made me wonder about 休息 (rest). So I looked up the word for 息 and found several definitions: news, rest, interest. This led the discovery of the word 利息。 The interesting thing about some of the Chinese words formed from compound characters is that they seem redundant. 休 also means rest. Maybe in the future both of you could explain how these words are formed together. Thanks!
Some difficult words in the podcast: 申请 (shēnqǐng) apply for 属于 (shǔyú) belong to 利息 (lìxī) interest 损失 (sǔnshī) lose, loss 罚款 (fákuǎn) levy a fine 限制 (xiànzhì) restrict, restriction 转移 (zhuǎnyí) transfer 金额 (jīn'é) amount/sum of money
本 cannot act as an independent deictic or demonstrative term, correct? More like a reflexive or possessive?
I like "banky" lessons. I can talk about these kind of things in English. So, if I'm really learning Chinese, I should be able to go to the bank and understand what is being said. Mark
I am not intermediate, but I must say I enjoy listening to the conversations. I especially enjoy John's comments in English which helps to make some sense by that context of what is going on. Why can't I just be a language genious? Keep up the good work John.
Hi, I've enjoyed a lot this lesson and it is very useful. Good job!
Hi Jenny and John Well I am going to be flying to America in a few days for a week. I know this is one of the lessons I will spend quite a bit of time with on the plane. After three listens I "hear' quite a bit more I must work on in this lesson. So between this lesson a few others along with Lantian's transcriptions I will keep myself amused on the plane. Now a request John--- Your Grammar notes are great. I look for ward to them. But in your spare time, can you consider a better way to index them than the current alphabetical order? For instance today jiang +V for talking about the future (will) the explanation is great and I think I know 'jiang" fairly well but suppose someone is wondering 'now how do I say "I will do this" Right now you wouldn't know there is a perfectly good explanation in your grammar index unless you knew jiang and were just looking for confirmation. Mike in Jubei
I just wanted to say that I think John is really starting to hit his stride -- the last three or so intermediate lessons have been very good. I think that his style of translating just the difficult parts of the conversation with Jenny are exactly appropriate for intermediate learners. Keep up the good work!
Al, Thanks! I don't think I qualify as a "language genius," but I'll keep doing my best! Mike in Jubei, I totally agree with you. Something much better is on the way. It's just a matter of time and resources. Stay tuned! -John
very very very useful lesson...especially for those of us in trading business where we have to go to banks a lot. Keep up the good work guys.
A friend told me about your programme just 10 days ago - and you have revolutionized my life. I wish I had known about you long ago - before coming to China. Keep on, you're doing all aspiring sinologists a great favour. Barbara
A tip: You'll never receive a statement from a normal savings account in Shanghai. Take your bank book into any branch though, and you can get an automatic printout. I'm not sure if it's from the 取款机though.
In the exercise section, can you please give me a translation of ? : 我可以透支提意见 没想到上个月我没有任意 www.adsotrans.com doesn't help much !
I am on holidays and am traveling in China for 30 days. Prior to leaving the States, I purchased a large amounth of CitiBank - American Express Travelers Cheques. I was told by Citibank USA that I could cash these cheqes at the CitiBank in China. So, I tried to cash some cheques in Shanghai, only to be told by CitiBank in Shanghai - XinTianDi Branch - that unless I had a local CitiBank account, I couldn't cash the CitiBank issued - Amex travelers cheques. But I can use the CitiBank ATM and would only be charged 1% for the exchange rate. So,Cpod bloggers take note. Better to bring your CitiBank Bank Card here, and withdraw RMB, than to pay 2% for Amex Travellers Cheques, and also to pay a fee at Bank of China for exchange fees. By the way, the folks are ChinesePod are work-alcoholics. Lot of hard working people there. States-HK-Shanghai-Beijing-Qingdao-Xian-Urumchi-Kaishi-Chengdu-HK-States - one month holiday. I wonder Aric got his Harley stuff, and if the Cpod Chinese staff enjoyed the microwave popcorn I left with them? will - note lowercase will
I forget to mention that the CitiBank Travelers Cheques can be cashed at the Bank of China. But not the other banks in the area. If you are a CitiBank Customer, use your CitiBank Debit card - 1% exchange fee when you get home. Your Banks' credit card will charge a higher exchange rate service charge. The banks love service charges, don't they. But, it's OK to bring travelers cheques too. But next time, I won't bother. I will get Hongkong money in HK at CitiBank, and RMB in China from CitiBank ATM's. Sure be charge you have enough money in your checking account, or have over-draft protection. Oh, I have to run, my train to Qingdao leaves soon. will
Nicolas, Sorry, those sentences don't make any sense because the wrong words are in the blanks. They should be: 你可以任意提意见 (Feel free to make any comments.) 没想到上个月我没有透支 (I didn't expect that I didn't have any overdrafts last month.) -John
Will, We did enjoy the popcorn. Thanks a lot for sharing! -John
Agree with Barbara, I came across this programme on Monday and it's also revolutionizing my life, I'm already addicted. Great mix, language as it is spoken with just enough contextual information to get back on track when coming across unknown words, expanded section for more repetition, and of course great people, thx a bunch.
This is just a general comment, but if you have enough interest in chinese, and enough money, the single best investment for me was a Chinese dictionary-enabled Palm Pilot. You can get a cheap one for less than 100$, and its really great because you can just write it on the screen and it looks it up for you. I'm an undergrad learning Chinese, and I must say it has saved dozens of hours (really!) looking up words. If you already have a touchscreen-enabled device, try downloading PlecoDict for it (around 50$), which is what I use. Pricey, but really, probably the best investment (besides Chinese Podcast, of course) to learn Chinese!
Hi, This is my first comment, and sorry that it is about an old lesson. I noticed in the transcript of this lesson that the word consistently used for 'account' is 帐户, while my dictionary says it should be 账户. The first zhang means tent, while the second means account. It seems nobody noticed (or at least did not make comments about it). Albert (奥博) in Beijing
Hi Albert, Actually, both of those characters have the meaning of "account". However, when speaking about bank accounts, 帐户 (zhànghù) is more commonly used. Some characters have more than one meaning. The character 帐 (zhàng) is one of those. It can mean tent or canopy, as you mentioned, but also has another meaning : "account". Hope that helps to clarify! ~amber :D
Hopefully some people may find this useful – ie some of the vocabulary from the discussion. I hope it is correct. The majority of the look ups is from the MDBG online dictionary one at http://www.mdbg.net/chindict/chindict.php. 户头 hu4 tou2 bank account 术语 shu4 yu3 term / terminology 词组 ci2 zu3 phrase 密码 mi4 ma3 (secret) code / password / pin number – usage? 随时 sui2 shi2 at any time 利息 li4 xi1 interest 申请 shen1 qing3 interest 罚款 fa2 kuan3 (impose a) fine / penalty / fine (monetary) 损失 sun3 shi1 a (financial, etc.) loss / to lose 限制 xian4 zhi4 (impose) restrictions / to limit / to bound / to restrict 机器 ji1 qi4 machine 金额 jin1 e2 (n) money amount; monetary value 身份证 shen1 fen4 zheng4 ID card / proof of identity 观察 guan1 cha2 to observe / to watch / to survey / to examine 队形 dui4 xing2 formation
大家好！ Just wanted to say thanks for this particular lesson. I've been using CPod to prepare for a state certification test to teach Mandarin, and I did this bank transactions lesson last week. The test was this past Saturday -- lo and behold, the listening comprehension section was about a guy opening a bank account! What a great feeling to know all this specialized vocabulary! 非常感谢中Pod! :)
For 活期存款帳戶 , "demand deposit account" is used more widely than "current account"
interesting to note that there aren't really checks in China the way that there is in other countries. Neither the demand deposit account, current account or fixed term accounts have checking capabilities. Looks more like they are types of savings accounts.
Interesting one day to see China get personal checks.
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Yeah, I don't have the chinese skills to figure that out either... but I saw an ad of theirs that showed a smartphone with the bank website on it and many other pictures that led me to believe you can get online service comparable to a US bank. And I pay my roommate for utilities, so have no experience in that regard. The only bill I pay myself is for my cell phone and that is prepay, so you just go to any vendor and top it off. You don't even need any chinese... hand them your phone and a 50 or a 100 and you are good to go. China Mobile even has English customer service on their 热线。Convenient for me, bad for my language acquisition.
Hmm, sounds like I need to start quizzing my roommate on all these things so I know what I am doing when I finally get my own place.
I know you can do wire transfers, but that's a big hassle, and you pay a fee for it. But at the end of the day, most of the bills that we get are for rent, water, heat, electricity and phone, and as you said, there's someone to give cash to, or do debit card. The problem is that the rent can be a sizeable chunk of change that you'd rather not walk around town with in cash.
Yeah, my roommate has expressed discomfort about walking around with the rent money. But then seeing people walking out of the bank with a grocery bag of cash for big purchases makes her feel better. I guess culturally it is not that big a deal. Still hurts if someone does end up relieving you of your burden though.
My wife told me that once this guy showed up at the bank with 350,000 RMB in cash. And they apparently knew it was that much because it all had to be counted with one of those money counting machines. Even the tellers were amazed, and they started staring at this transaction going down.
喔！Someone's mattress wasn't quite so cushy that night...
Hi..大家好。。我不了解一件事。到底银行顾客选择什么账户？ 活期存款账户还是定期存款账户？谢谢。。。
活期账户 就是 任何时候都可以去提取现金。
定期账户 就是 在所定的期限内不得提取现金。如果提取现金了，那么利息将按照活期账户的进行计算。
好像大概是这样。
ok,我谢谢你很多。。。我觉得跟你一样。。
有学生问，中国银行的利率情况。下面是当前利率表：
2.79
The vocabulary section seems to be missing. I hate to be a complainer, but these words would be useful to me. Thanks.
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I occasionally have to go to the bank in China, and this is one area where I seem as if I cannot speak any Chinese at all. Thanks for the tip.
I have somthing to share when speaking of the bank in China.
You know we have a currency detector in the Bank of China,we it can only test the RMB. So the banker can only test the USD by their eyes, in a very ancient way.
I found the situation myself oneday,which I think need to be improved.
I keep vocabulary from this lesson in my date book. It has come in handy on more than one occasion.
Oh, that drives me crazy! I exchanged RMB to USD, then brought the USD to a Western Union, and they would not accept one of the bills because it had a mark on it.
Thank you for fixing this. I really want to study this lesson, and I think that seeing the vocabulary will be very helpful. I just wanted to say this because I want you all to feel appreciated, especially fixing something so quickly! This really shows that the people at Chinesepod really do care about the needs and wishes of its costumers. Keep up the good work!
Thanks again.
Regarding the dialog sentence:
您只需在您要选择的类型前打勾就可以了。(Nín zhĭ xū zài nín yào xuănzé de lèixíng qián dăgōu jiù kĕyĭ le.) Just check the box of your choice.
I'm really having trouble parsing this sentence. Is 需 and 要 an example of a separable verb, or are they considered as 2 separate words. In either case, I don't get the sentence.
My parsing attempt: 需 and 要 are two different words here.
您只需: You only need to
在…前: in front of
您要选择的类型: the type you want to choose
打勾: make a checkmark
就可以了: and then that's fine
Thanks. Got it.