Lesson 145 Tomorrow Is My Birthday.

M: Péngyoumen hǎo! 欢迎收听"现在学汉语"，我是曼丽。

S: Dàjiāhǎo, wǒshì Stuart. ML, you look really excited today. What's happening?

M: Tomorrow is my birthday. 明天是我的生日。
S: Oh, I didn't know a bit. Happy birthday, shēngrì kuàilè, ML!

M: Thank you, Stuart. My family sent me beautiful cards. And my friends told me they would hold a birthday party for me tomorrow evening! 我的家人寄来了漂亮的卡片。而且我的朋友们说，他们明天晚上要为我举行生日宴会！

S: How nice!

M: And Stuart, would you come and join my birthday party?

S: I would love to if I have time! But first, let's look at the new stuff in this lesson.

M: I said, ‘tomorrow is my birthday'. 明天是我的生日。生日，SHENG RI, first tone fourth tone, shēngrì, birthday. Remember the ‘rì', which means ‘day'? We learnt it before in ‘xīngqīrì', Sunday.

S: Learning that tomorrow is ML's ‘shēngrì', I said, ‘shēngrì kuàilè!' Happy birthday! Shēngrì kuàilè. I bet you've guessed what ‘kuàilè' means here…Duìle, happy, kuàilè, KUAI LE, both fourth tone, kuàilè.

M: So, if new is ‘xīn' and year is ‘nián', new year is ‘xīnnián', how do we say ‘happy new year' in Chinese?

S: Did you say ‘xīnnián kuàilè', ‘xīnnián kuàilè'? You did？Congratulations! 恭喜恭喜， you've won a break.

S: Break's over! Let's continue learning the rest new stuff.

M: I told Stuart, 我的家人寄来了漂亮的卡片。My family sent me beautiful cards. 我的家人寄来了漂亮的卡片。

S: Jì, send by post or email, jì. Out of interest, if you are the receiver, you usually use ‘jìlái', as in this sentence. Remember, 来means to come. But if you are the one to send things out, you often use ‘jìqù' or ‘jìzǒu'. The ‘qù' and ‘zǒu' both mean ‘to go'.

M: Jiārén, family, family members, jiārén. Piàoliang, PIAO LIANG, beautiful or pretty, piàoliang. And ‘卡片', KA PIAN, third tone fourth tone, kǎpiàn, is card.

S: So, tāde jiārén jìláile piàoliangde kǎpiàn. once again. Tāde jiārén jìláile piàoliangde kǎpiàn.

M: What's more, my friends told me, 而且我的朋友们说，they would hold a birthday party for me tomorrow evening! 他们明天晚上要为我举行生日宴会！

S: Wèi, WEI, fourth tone, means ‘for'. Wèi wǒ, for me. In English we say, ‘do sth. for sb.', but in Chinese people always say ‘for sb. do sth.'. Wèiwǒ jǔxíng shēngrì yànhuì.

M: Still remember the word ‘jǔxíng', 举行? Right, it means to hold a meeting, party, or whatever. And ‘party' in Chinese is ‘yànhuì', YAN HUI, both fourth tone, yànhuì. So ‘birthday party' is ‘shēngrì yànhuì', ‘shēngrì yànhuì'.

S: And ML kindly invited me to her birthday party. Hmm, I'll try my best, though I'm really busy these days. But now I'm to get off work – xiàbān, and find a gift for her. See you tomorrow!