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Lesson Introduction
We know you would *never* lower yourself to buying a “Rolax” here and passing it off as an original for someone’s birthday, but we’re sure that “friend of yours” will. So how to politely suggest that the opening bid might be a bit out of your range? A lesson on acting incensed by the price could save you a few “jiao.” In this podcast, learn how to tell someone “it’s too expensive” in Mandarin Chinese.
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says
ChinesePod.comAugust 10, 2006
Supplementary expressions in this topic. 宰 zǎi overcharge, fleece 这么贵，宰人啊？ Zhème guì, zǎirén a? So expensive, do you overcharge? 便宜 piányi cheap 便宜点，可以吗？ Piányi diǎn, kěyǐ ma? Cheaper, OK? 打折 dǎzhé discount 可以打折吗？ Kěyǐ dǎzhé ma？ Can you make a discount? 最低价 zuìdījià the lowest price 最低价是多少？Zuìdījià shì duōshǎo？ What’s the lowest price? 你想要多少？ Nǐ xiǎngyào duōshǎo？ What price do you want to give? 卖 mài sell 你说多少？可以卖，我就卖给你。 Nǐ shuō duōshǎo？Kěyǐ mài, wǒ jiù mài gěi nǐ. Name your price. I’ll sell it to you if the price is possible. ～～Connie
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LantianAugust 10, 2006
Connie, great lexis/vocab/phrase list! 可以打折吗？ Kěyǐ dǎzhé ma？ Can you make a discount? (Can you offer a discount?, Any discounts?) 可以吗？ 打折可以吗？ 打折 dǎzhé discount
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LantianAugust 10, 2006
NOT A CHEAP DATE ?- Is this zai3 the same hanzi/word for the colloqial phrase jesting (joking) between friends where one says "I'm going to make him pay." "Wo zai3 ren". 我去宰人。 我去宰他。（宰 zǎi overcharge, fleece）（这么贵，宰人啊？ Zhème guì, zǎirén a? So expensive, do you overcharge?） *Not that I would ev'r do this....
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JaneAugust 11, 2006
I love Connie's supplemental vocabulary lists, but I have noticed my computer shows many of the pinyin characters as boxes. I think this is usually vowels, but am not sure. For example, I can't tell what the word for discount is. I see a "d[box]zhe". Does anyone else have this problem? Any solutions (other than, of course, checking a dictionary).
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jenny zhuAugust 11, 2006
Be very careful about using 宰 zǎi . It means to overcharge in a commercial exchange as Connie pointed out, but the word originally means to butcher,kill, thus the derived meaning ( murder by a horrendous rip off). Lantian, “Wo zai3 ren2”. 我去宰人.' might be taken as a death threat rather than 'I am going to make him pay', which is 我找他算账。/wo3 zhao3 ta1 suan4 zhang4. Note that 算账/suan4 zhang4 is also money-related. It literally means to do accounts, figuratively means to get even with someone. Maybe money is a matter of life and death.
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mikeAugust 11, 2006
Jane I have the same problem when I use internet explorer. Perhaps there is a font to download. But I now use Mozilla Firefox and all the characters work perfectly
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damaoAugust 11, 2006
Jane, For the pinyin display problem in IE, you can follow these instructions from the Wikipedia entry on pinyin: Some Internet users using the Internet Explorer browser may have difficulty displaying characters bearing the third tone mark. If the following character displays as an empty square box: ǔ, do the following: on the Internet Explorer menu at the top of the screen select "Tools," then "Internet Options," then "Accessibility." Check the box labeled "Ignore font styles specified on Web pages." Click "OK." Then select "Tools," then "Internet Options," then "Fonts." In the menu at the left, select "Arial Unicode MS" (or "Arial," if this font is not available), then click "OK." It may also be necessary to select "View," then "Encoding," then "Unicode (UTF-8)." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinyin#Accessibility_note)
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JaneAugust 13, 2006
Thanks damao and mike, I will try both fixes -- I don't want to miss a single character of Connie's supplementary vocabulary!
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JaneAugust 13, 2006
damao, the IE fix worked like a charm, thank you.
says
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