Lesson 138 I Can Be Your Guide.

M: 大家好！欢迎收听现在学汉语，我是曼丽。

S: 朋友们好！我是Stuart. Now we’ll start right away.

M: Because today we’ll learn a lot of stuff. 因为，今天我们将要学习很多东西。Yīnwéi, jīntiān wǒmen jiāngyào xuéxí hěn duō dōngxi. 东西，DONG XI, stuff.

S: Or things. Fine! So what are we going to learn?

M: Well, last lesson we taught our listeners 夏天 and 秋天，which mean ‘summer’ and ‘autumn’. Now we’ll learn how to say ‘winter’ and ‘spring’ in Chinese.

S: 冬天，DONG TIAN, dōngtiān, both 1st tone, is winter. Out of interest, in Chinese there is a word 冻，also spelled DONG but is in the fourth tone, which means freezing.

M: And 春天, CHUN TIAN, chūntiān, means ‘spring’.

S: So now we’ve learned all the four seasons of a year. They are –

M: Chun tiān, spring, chun tiān.

S: xià tiān, summer, xià tiān.

M: qiūtiān, autumn, qiūtiā.

S: And dōngtiān, winter, dōngtiān. Hey, that seems pretty easy!

M: Last lesson Stuart told me that he had heard about, 听说过，tīngshuō guò, quite a few places of interest. However, he hasn’t had a chance to visit them yet.

S: That’s right. 我听说过很多风景名胜，但是一直没有机会去。Wǒ tīngshuō guò hěnduō fēngjǐngmíngshèng, dànshì yìzhí méiyǒu jīhuì qù.

M: Fēngjǐng míngshèng. Fēngjǐng, FENG JING, 1st tone 3rd tone, fēngjǐng, ‘scenery’. And míngshèng, MING SHENG, míngshèng is ‘place of interest’.

S: Yìzhí, we know is ‘always’, yìzhí. So yìzhí méiyǒu means ‘always not have’, or, in real English, ‘never have’.
So, ‘I never have a chance’ is ?… Duì le, wǒ yìzhí méiyǒu jīhuì. wǒ yìzhí méiyǒu jīhuì. 机会 is of course ‘chance’, ‘opportunity’.

M: Right. Now here’s the whole sentence, 我听说过很多风景名胜，但是一直没有机会去。I’ve heard about many scenic spots and places of interest, but never got a chance to visit them. Wǒ tīngshuō guò hěnduō fēngjǐngmíngshèng, dànshì yìzhí méiyǒu jīhuì qù.

S: What a pity! You bet I feel sad about that, ML.

M: Don’t worry, Stuart. As I told you, 我和你一起去，我可以做你的导游。Wǒ hé nǐ yìqǐ qù, wǒ kěyǐ zuò nǐ de dǎoyóu.

S: Aha! Travel with me and be my guide! Really? Zhēnde ma? Zhēn de ma?

M: Of course. 当然。当然是真的。Dāngrán, dāngrán shì zhēn de

S: Wonderful! ML hé wǒ yìqǐ qù, ‘ML and I together go’, ML hé wǒ yìqǐ qù. Go together, yìqǐ qù, yìqǐ qù.

M: And I can be your guide. 我可以做你的导游。导游，DAO YOU, 3rd tone 2nd tone, dǎoyóu, means guide. Zuò, ZUO, zuò, 4th tone, can mean ‘do’ or ‘make’, here it means ‘be’, or ‘serve as’. 我可以做你的导游。Wǒ kěyǐ zuò nǐ de dǎoyóu.

S: Zhen1 de ma? Really? Zhen1 de ma? Tài hǎo le! Wonderful! Great! Tài hǎo le! This is a very common way expression.

M: And a good end to our lesson. Everyone can have a good rest now.

S: Zhēn de ma? Tài hǎo le! So everybody, míngtiān jiàn!

M: Míngtiān jiàn.