Intermediate - Personal Chop

Right-Wingnut

John: Hey guys, you're listening to an Intermediate lesson on ChinesePod. My name's John Pasden.

Dilu: 你好，我是 Dilu。

John: And today we have a lesson for you people who may have travelled around China, and you've seen these little personal stamps - we call them 'chops' - for printing your name on a piece of paper with Chinese characters.

Dilu: 对。那在中文里面，我们就叫＇印章＇。印章。第四声和第一声。

John: 4th tone, 1st tone. So 印章 is a thing, its not a verb.

Right-Wingnut

Dilu: 对，它是一个名词。［？？］东西。

John: Its a noun. So 印章 refers to the chop, the seal, that you can get carved.

Dilu: 对。那今天的对话我们会听一下，你在哪里可以看到这样的印章，然后又有一些什么样普通的印章。

John: So let's listen to the options in the dialog.

Dilu: 好，先听一下对话。

0:51 - Dialog

Right-Wingnut

Dialog

Right-Wingnut

Dialog

Right-Wingnut

1:57

John: So right off the bat we hear this girl who apparently is not Chinese I guess.

Dilu: 应该是一位外国的女生。

John: She says where they are. Where are they?

Dilu: 他们在一条老街上。老街。

John: 老街 literally means 'old street'.

Dilu: 很多的城市好像都会有这个老街。一般性老街上面会有很多的商店，会有一些吃的、玩的、喝的、用的。

John: So they usually are kind of twisty, they have shops, restaurants, stuff to eat.

Dilu: 是。

John: So 老街 - 3rd tone, 1st tone. And the measure word for a street is ...

Right-Wingnut

2:34

Dilu: 条。条。一条老街。

John: And they saw some kind of performance. How do you say 'performance'?

Dilu: 表演。表演。两个第三声。

John: Two 3rd tones. That can be a noun or a verb.

Dilu: 是的。那在这里是：看了一个表演。是一个名词。

John: And what kind of 表演 was it?

Dilu: 叫＇耍猴＇。耍猴。

John: 猴，referring to 'monkey'.

Right-Wingnut

2:59

Dilu: 对。就是猴子。

John: So 耍猴, what is that?

Dilu: 耍猴就是让这个猴子去表演一些节目，然后可能会做一些动作。

John: So there is a trainer and a monkey, and he has the monkey do tricks ...

Dilu: 对。

John: ...right there on the street, and at that little performance people can give money, and that is called 耍猴.

Dilu: 没错。耍猴。你在中国看到过吧，耍猴。

John: I've seen the monkeys and the trainers, but I haven't seen them actually doing performances.

Dilu: ［要么就为］你要钱，对吧。

Right-Wingnut

3:29

John: I usually pass them on the street. So that's 3rd tone, 2nd tone.

Dilu: 对。第三声第二声。耍猴。

John: And then soon after that, they run into one of these shops that have the 印章。

Dilu: 又因为做印章的师傅就跟他们说：这是印章。你可以把你的名字刻在上面。

John: So here we have a 把 pattern. So you take your name, and you carve it onto the chop.

Dilu: 把你的名字刻在上面。

John: How do we say 'carve'?

Dilu: 刻，第四声。

Right-Wingnut

John: 4th tone. Sounds kind of similar - 刻。 Now why do we have to say 把 here? This is a good example of why you need 把。 Could we just say 刻你的名字在上面？ That would be ...

Dilu: 这个听上去很 English。

John: That would be wrong. You don't say that in Chinese.

Dilu: 对。[就］听上去很奇怪。

John: Because you can't say 在上面 and what you're carving after the verb together like that.

Dilu: 我们通常会说：把你的名字刻在上面。

John: Carve your name into the seal. So then the girl says what?

Right-Wingnut

4:32

Dilu: 哦，我想起来了，我在很多书法和中国画上面看到过这个。

John: So she says 'now I remember'. How does she say that?

Dilu: 我想起来了。我想起来了。

John: 想起来 - that means 'I recall', 'I remember now'.

Dilu: 对。

John: Think of 想起来 as a totally different verb from 想，because its a bit of a shift from what we might expect in English. So 'I remember now ...'

Dilu: 她想起来她在书法和中国画上面看到过。