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. 
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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?