Lesson 130 We'll Go to the Zoo.

M: Péngyoumen. Nǐmen hǎo! Huānyíng shōu1tīng Xiànzài XúeHànyǔ. Wǒshì ML.

S: Wǒ shì Stuart. ML, jīn tiān wǒ men xué shénme?

M: Well, we've just finished a thrilling story about yìzhī xiǎo niǎo, yì zhī māo, hé liǎng zhīdà gǒu. So how about the zoo, and some more animals?

S: Hǎo zhúyì. Ok. Listen out for a new way to say ‘us', and the word for ‘zoo'.

M: Zhǔnbèi, kāishǐ.

S: ML, 今天咱们去哪儿? jīn tiān zánmen qù nar?

M: We'll go to the zoo 咱们去动物园 zánmen qù dòngwùyuán.

S: 去动物园? 那太好了！咱们能看到很多动物 nà tài hǎole! Zánmen néng kàndao hěn dūodòngwu. I already know some animals' names in Chinese.

M: Such as?

S: ‘Rats' is lǎoshǔ, and ‘ox' is níu.

M: Hey, not bad, Stuart!

S: Of course! And I'm sure I can learn more in the zoo.

M：For example, the tigers, 老虎lǎohǔ.

S: And rabbits还有兔子 hái yǒu tùzi.

M: Rabbits are so cute 兔子是那么可爱 tùzi shìnàme kěài.

S: Just like me.

M: And now, kěaì de Stuart and I will look at the new words.

S: ML, 今天咱们去哪儿?

M: jīn tiān zán men qù nar? 咱们 ZAN MEN zánmen means ‘us'. But it's a little bit different from wǒmen. Zánmen always includes the speaker and the person or persons he or she is speaking to.

S: Wǒmen might, or might not, include those being spoken to.

M: We, the we including the listener, go to the zoo 咱们去动物园

S: zán men qù dòngwùyuán 动物园. If 园 YUAN means ‘park' or ‘garden' yuán, and a dòngwùyuán is a zoo, guess what a dòngwù is.

M: Yes, a dòngwù is an ‘animal', so dòngwù means ‘animal'.

S: Now say, we, including the listener, are going to the zoo. Méi cùo. 咱们去动物园 zán men qù dòngwùyuán.

M: And what does this sentence mean: 在动物园里, 我们能看到很多动物。Again, zài dòngwùyuán lǐ, wǒmen néng kàndao hěn dūo dòngwù.

S：Duì le! In the zoo we can see lots of animals.

M: rats 老鼠, LAO SHU lǎoshǔ.

S: Why on earth do we start with rats, ML?

M: Because now we'll learn the first two of the 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac, and the lǎoshǔ year is the first year in that 12-year cycle.

S: I see! The measure word for lǎoshǔ is zhī, the same as we learnt for  niǎo, māo and gǒu. Now everyone say, that rat is very big. Hěn hǎo, 那只老鼠很大 nèi zhī lǎoshǔ hěn dà.

M: The second animal is the ox 第二个动物是牛。牛NIU níu, ox, or cattle in general. And the measure word is 头 TOU tóu, which means ‘head'. Same as in English, we say ‘head of cattle', as in 一头牛 yì tóu níu.

S: So let's finish by saying, That ox is very big.

M: Hěn hǎo. 那头牛很大 nèi tóu niú hěn dà.

S: And now it's time to say zàijiàn.

M: See you next time!