Chinese Studio 汉语对话 Lesson 006 Goodbye

Y: Perfect Chinese your way, in only five minutes a day. Welcome to Chinese Studio, an elementary Chinese learning program on China Radio International. I’m Yajie.
Cam: Hi again everyone, I’m Cam. Hi Yajie, 你好吗？

Y: 我很好，谢谢。

Cam: Yajie, one of my Canadian friends has been visiting, and he is going back to Canada tomorrow.  How do I say goodbye?

Y: Well, let’s find out in key words of the day!

***************** Key words of the day
Today we’ll learn a few of popular expressions of saying goodbye.  再见, goodbye. 一会儿见, see you later. 明天见, see you tomorrow. 保重, take care.  All in today’s Chinese Studio. 
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Cam: My best friend Keith is leaving tomorrow.  He is catching a flight in the afternoon and I will be seeing him off at the airport.  What should I say?

Y: I believe the first thing you need to learn is goodbye. In Chinese, goodbye is 再见. 再is again, 见is see. Literally, 再见 is to see you again. 再见 Zàijiàn.

Cam: 再见. Is it suitable for any occasion?

Y: Yes, totally. But if you know you will see him or her soon, you can say一会儿见instead of再见. 一会儿means a while, so一会儿见means see you later. It’s used very often.

Cam: 一会儿见 Yìhuǐ’erjiàn. The pronunciation is so hard for me.

Y: It’s okay. Let me explain. You know “一” means one.  The first tone “一” should be changed to yì, the fourth tone, when you put it in front of a third tone.会。 Yi hui’er jian.

Cam: That makes sense. 一会儿见. See you later. I need to practice this. And what about “See you tomorrow.”

Y: Here it is. 明天见. 明天is tomorrow. So, see you tomorrow.

Cam: Yajie, I don’t want my friend to go back to Canada. I’ll miss him. He is one of my best friends.

Yajie: Poor Cam.  I’m sure you will see him again very soon.  I bet he had a fun time in Beijing.

Cam: Yes, it was great. But tell me how to say, “take care” in Chinese.

Yajie: It’s保重. Take care, 保重, bǎozhòng. 保is like your Chinese name, Yuan Bao.

Cam: Yeah, that will be easy to remember!  保重。

Y: 谢谢，再见。

***************Key Words Reminder:
再见, goodbye.一会儿见, see you later. 明天见, see you tomorrow. 保重, take care.
***************

Y: You know there’s another useful saying, which is 一路顺风，Have a nice trip!

Cam: Is it common?

Y: Yes, but it’s probably not suitable to say it when your friend is catching a plane.  That’s because in Chinese,一路顺风literally means “sail with the wind”. But if you are taking a plane, too much wind might cause turbulence! So it’s probably not best to say at the airport.

Cam: Thanks for the advice.

Y: You are welcome. 不客气

Cam: Ok, that’s it for today but one more important thing, you could win a gift by answering the question of the day: How many ways are there to say good-bye in Chinese?

Y: Send us your answer to [email protected]. That’s [email protected]. If you answer the question correctly, you’ll be able to win CRI prizes! Also you are welcome to log on the website, that’s en.chinabroadcast.cn, then you can learn Chinese whenever you want.

Cam: Well, class is over. This is Cam saying goodbye for now!

Y: And this is Yajie. Hope you’ll join us tomorrow on China Radio International. Bye.