Intermediate - Donation Dilemma

Right-Wingnut

Vera: 大家好。欢迎来到今天ChinesePod的中级课。我是Vera。

John: Hey guys, I'm John. This is an Intermediate lesson. Today we have a lesson related to some recent events, so we have a key word.

Vera: 地震。

John: 地震, two 4th tones, that means 'earthquake'. There have been several big earthquakes in 四川 lately, and this caused a lot of Chinese people and people abroad to really want to help the victims. And so there's this whole discussion of donations and organisations controlling the donations that are given to them. And that's what we are going to touch on today. So first we'd like to know the word for 'to donate'.

Right-Wingnut

0:40

Vera: 捐款。捐款。

John: 1st tone, 3rd tone.

Vera: 对。

John: Literally that means 'donate money'. The 款 part means 'money'.

Vera: 是的。

John: Could we say 捐钱？

Vera: 也可以呀。

John: So we're going to hear those words in the dialog. It is going to get a little bit complicated, because we're talking about organisations, managing funds. So this isn't the easiest Intermediate dialog in the world, but this is being talked about a lot in Chinese society. So if you want to engage with your friends on this topic, this is the lesson for you.

Right-Wingnut

1:15

Vera: 那我们来听一听吧。

1:16 - dialog

Right-Wingnut

Dialog

Right-Wingnut

2:10

John: So right in the beginning we have 又地震了。So there has been another earthquake.

Vera: 对。因为四川经常有地震。

John: So this 又地震了, this 地震 is like a verb.

Vera: 对。地震了。就是因为＇了＇就发生改变。

John: And what's the next line?

Vera: 是啊。四川真悲剧。

Right-Wingnut

2:32

John: 悲剧, 1st tone-4th tone. If you look this up, you'll find the word 'tragedy', in the sense of Greek tragedy.

Vera: 是个名词。

John: Its a noun. But 真悲剧，this way they use 真 makes it seem like an adjective.

Vera: 对。它是一个名词，但是现在呢很多人都会用它做一个形容词。

John: So it used to just be a noun, but its been converted into an adjective, largely by people on the internet.

Right-Wingnut

Vera: 对的。所以你可以说：真悲剧，或者：很悲剧。

John: 'Really tragic'. And the recent earthquake wasn't quite as bad as the earlier one, but ...

Vera: 也有不少人受灾。

John: So 'not few people have also 受灾'. What is this?

Vera: 受呢就是suffer，灾呢就是一个disaster。

John: To 'suffer disaster'. 受灾。

Vera: 对。

John: 4th tone, 1st tone. This 受 as a 4th tone word, you might have learned in some other phrases - how do you say 'to get hurt'?

Right-Wingnut

3:33

Vera: 受伤。

John: The 受 - its often to suffer something bad. In this case 灾, 1st tone, refers to a disaster.

Vera: 对的。

John: And we're going to see it in other words as well. Before we move on though, 受灾 - to suffer a disaster, how do we use this?

Vera: 这个呢可以是人，或者是一个地区受灾。

John: So you can say 四川受灾了。

Vera: 对的。这是一个地方。

John: Could I say 'I went to 四川 and I 受灾了。＇？

Right-Wingnut

4:01

Vera: 你不可以。这个人呢经常是 a group of people。

John: Just like in this case 不少人受灾。

Vera: 是的。

John: Got it. So then what happens?

Vera: 我们给灾区捐款吧？

John: So 'we'll give the disaster area'?

Vera: 受灾地区。

John: And the [?] is ...

Vera: 灾区。

John: 灾区。The region affected by the disaster. Give them what?

Vera: 捐款。捐款。

Right-Wingnut

4:31

John: This is the one we talked about before. It means to donate money.

Vera: 对的。

John: So 给什么人捐款。

Vera: 是。

John: In this case, give an area donations.

Vera: 对。给四川捐款。

John: Then they start talking about where to donate to. What do they say?

Vera: 捐到哪里呢？

John: So you can say 捐到。 Is that to a place or to an organisation?

Vera: 都可以。

John: Then the answer is ...

Vera: 反正不能捐到红十字会。