Lesson 073 – Taxi Cabs (1)

Cam: Welcome to Chinese Studio on China Radio International.  I’m Cam.
YJ:  And I’m Yajie – Cam, you were telling me the other day that you were having a hard time getting around the city.
Cam: Yeah, I always need to bring a card with me that show the address of wher I want to go.  And if I forget the card, I get lost!
YJ: That sounds like a good lesson for today.
  
******** Key Words of the Day
您 去哪儿？wher would you like to go? 去朝阳公园。Please take me to the Chaoyang Park.  医院 (yīyuàn)，Hospital. 去那儿多长时间？(qù nàr duō cháng shíjiān) How long will it take to get there? 多少钱？(duōshao qián) How much is it?
All in today’s Chinese Studio.
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YJ:  So Cam, what is the first thing you hear when you step inside of a taxi?
Cam:  The taxi driver would ask me “您去哪儿？（nin2 qu4 na3er）” Does that mean “wher would you like to go?” in English?
YJ: Yes. You got it. As we learned before 您 is the polite form of 你, meaning you.
Cam：yes I remember it. Nin
YJ: qu means to go, and na er means wher. Together qu na er means to go wher.
Cam: qu na er?
YJ:您去哪儿？（nin2 qu4 na3er），wher would you like to go?
Cam:您去哪儿？（nin2 qu4 na3er）
YJ: Now please listen carefully to the conversations and you can get more information.

Conversation1:

Cam: I heard that the answer to您去哪儿？（nin2 qu4 na3er）”  wher would you like to go? Could be 去 plus the name of the destination. Right?
YJ: yes. For instance, if you want to go to the Chaoyang Park, you may say去朝阳公园(wǒ xiǎng qù Cháoyáng Gōngyuán).
Cam: 去朝阳公园(wǒ xiǎng qù Cháoyáng Gōngyuán).Easy. And if i want to go to the hospital, that is 医院 in Chinese。Then can I say 去医院(wǒ xiǎng qù yīyuàn ) to the taxi driver?
YJ: Very good. But I think you need to tell the driver which hospital you want to go. Let’s just say “Please take me to the People’s hospital.” In Chinese it’s去人民医院.
Cam: I see.  qu ren min yi Yuan. But in fact, that’s the last place I want to go to.
YJ: absolutely.

Conversation2:

YJ:  There is a much easier way to tell the driver wher you want to go.  Just say the name of the place.  For example, if you want to go to Chaoyang Park, then you could just say朝阳公园(chao yang gong yuan )  for short.
Cam: 朝阳公园(chao yang gong yuan ). Much easier.  So how long will it take to get there?
YJ: well, you may ask in this way: 去那儿多长时间？(qù nàr duō cháng shíjiān)
Cam: 去那儿多长时间？(qù nàr duō cháng shíjiān).
Yajie: we learned 多长 in our previous show, which means how long, and 时间 is time.
Cam: 多长时间(duō cháng shíjiān).
YJ: 去那儿，means to go there.
Cam: qu na.
YJ: together it’s去那儿多长时间？(qù nàr duō cháng shíjiān)
Cam: 去那儿多长时间？(qù nàr duō cháng shíjiān)
YJ: Good. After you’ve reached the place, you can ask 多少钱？(duōshao qián), which means how much is it?
Cam: 多少钱？(duōshao qián) How much is it?
YJ: 多少, how much
Cam: duo shao, how much
YJ: 钱 Q-i-a-n, the second tone. Money
Cam: 钱 (qián).
YJ: 多少钱？(duōshao qián) How much is it?
Cam: 多少钱？(duōshao qián)

Conversation3:

Key Words Reminder:

您去哪儿？wher would you like to go?去朝阳公园。Please take me to the Chaoyang Park.  医院 (yīyuàn)，Hospital. 去那儿多长时间？(qù nàr duō cháng shíjiān) How long will it take to get there? 多少钱？(duōshao qián) How much is it?