English
Japanese
Korean
French
German
Spanish
Italian
Arab
Portuguese
Vietnamese
Russian
Finnish
Thai
dk
M: Dà jiā hǎo. Huān yíng nǐ men dào Xiàn zài Xué Hàn yǔ. Wǒ shì ML.
S: Wǒ shì Stuart. Ok, everybody say with ML, ‘today we learn Lesson 87'.
M: 今天我们学第八十七课。
S: ML, 今天我们学什么 jīn tiān wǒ men xué shén me?
M. More on wèn lù, asking directions, wèn lù.
S. We're on the south side of Tiananmen Square.
M. 我们在天安门的南边 wǒ men zài Tiān ān mén de nán biān.
S. We want to go to the Friendship Store.
M. 我们要去友谊商店 wǒ men yào qù Yǒu yí Shāng diàn.
S. We know we go north. At Chang'an Avenue, head east.
M. 我们知道，我们往北走.
S. 到了长安街，往西走 Dào le Chang'an Jie, wǎng xī zǒu.
M. Bú duì! Head east. 我们要往东走，wǒ men yào wǎng dōng zǒu.
S. 不是往西走吗 bú shì wǎng xī zǒu ma?
M. 不是，我们往东走 wǒ men wǎng dōng zǒu.
S. Have you guessed the meaning of the xī in wǎng xī zǒu?
M. Duì le! It's ‘west'. 西 XI xī, like in xī cān, western food, xī cān.
S. Now can you say, ‘north south east west'?
M. Hěn hǎo. 北南东西 běi nán dōng xī. Zài lái yí cì, once again. běi nán dōng xī.
S. Before we have a break, you'd never guess the commonest meaning of 东西 east west dong1xi, in Chinese.
M. Listen. 这是什么东西 zhé shì shén me dōng xi?
S. 这是地图 it's a map zhè shì dì tú.
M. Guessed what a "dong1xi" is? Yes, a dōng xi is a ‘thing'. zhè shì shén me dōng xi? This is what thing? Or simply - what's this?
S. It's a ‘map' zhè shì dì tú. 地 DI dì, means ‘land' or ‘place'. 图 TU tú, is ‘picture' or ‘chart'. Dì tú map dì tú.
S: Great, now we have a map.现在我们有一张地图 xiàn zài wǒ men yǒu yì zhāng dì tú.
M: 张 ZHANG zhāng is a measure word used for flat things, like a sheet of paper, 一张纸，or a map, 一张地图 say it, yì zhāng dì tú.
S: In formal Chinese, we should use the correct measure word, like zhang1 for something like a map. And we still want to go to the Friendship Store. So let's locate it on the map.
M. 我们看地图 wǒ men kàn dì tú. 天安门在哪儿 Tiananmen zài nǎr?
S. 天安门在这儿 Tiān ān mén zài zhèr.
M: 长安街在哪儿 Chang'an Jie zài nǎr?
S: 长安街在这儿 Chang'an Jie zài zhèr.
M: 友谊商店在哪儿 You yí Shāng diàn zài nǎr.
S. 友谊商店在那儿 Yǒu yí Shāng diàn zài nǎr.
M．这张地图很有用，this map is very useful, hěn yǒu yòng.
S: But, useful or not, it's time to xià kè. Zài jiàn.