Lesson 074 I’ll Visit Xi’an Next Week.

M: Dàjiā hǎo! Huānyíng nǐmen dào Xiànzài Xué Hànyǔ. Wǒ shì ML

S: Wǒ shì Stuart.

M: Stuart, what shall we learn today? 今天我们学什么？jīntiān wǒmen xué shénme?

S: How about things like, ‘next week', ‘last week', and we'll take a look at two very useful words, 上 shàng and 下xià.

M: Hǎo zhúyì.

S: We'll start with the chat we had at the end of the previous lesson. Yī èr sān, kāishì.

M: Stuart, what's the time now? 现在几点xiànzài jídiǎn？

S: Five o'clock. 五点wú diǎn. I'm about to get off work. 我马上要下班了 wó mǎshàng yào xià bān le.

M: Me, too. 我也下班 wó yě xià ban. Tomorrow's Saturday. 明天是星期六 míng tiān shì xīngqī liu.

S: Duì. The weekend! 是周末 shì zhōumò.

M: Zhōumò. We don't work. 我们不上班 wǒmen bú shàngbān.

S: Bú shàngbān. Wó hěn gāoxìng.

M: Hǎo. Xiànzài wǒmen xiàbān.

S: Ok, everybody. Now say, no help from us, ‘Today, I don't go to work'. …

M: Hén hǎo. 今天我不上班 jīn tiān wǒ bú shàng bān.

S: Now say, ‘Now I get off work'.

M: Fēicháng hǎo. 现在我下班 xiànzài wǒ xià bān.

S: And we know that xià kè means to ‘leave class, lesson's over' So can you guess how to say, ‘now we go to class'?

M: Duìle. 现在我们上课xiànzài wǒmen shàng kè.

S: And can you remember how to say, ‘I get in the car'?

M: Duìle! 我上车 wǒ shàng chē.

S: And, ‘I get out of the car'?

M: Fēichánghǎo! 我下车 wǒ xià chē.

S: And, in a lift, for example, how do you say, ‘I go up'?

M: Méi cuò. 我上去 wǒ shàng qù.

S: Now, ‘We go down'.

M: Right! 我们下去 wǒmen xià qù.

S: Shàng and xià. 上 SHANG shàng means all sorts of things, like ‘on',‘upper', ‘up', ‘preceding', and ‘last', but most of the meanings are conceptually related.

M: And 下 XIA xia, also means all sorts of things, like ‘under', ‘lower', ‘down', ‘following' and ‘next'.

S: And, yes, you've guessed it. When we use shàng to say one thing, we often use xià to say the opposite.

M: Now, put your thinking caps on! I'll say, ‘last week I went to Shanghai'. Here goes. 上个星期我去了上海 shàng ge xīngqī wǒ qù le Shànghǎi.

S: Now, all of you guess how to say, ‘next week I go to Xīān'.

M: Congratulations! 恭喜 gōngxǐ. Yes, it's 下个星期我去西安 xià ge xīngqī wǒ qù Xīān.

S: So, ‘last week', 上个星期 shàng ge xīngqī. Here we can also omit the little classifier ‘ge' and just say, shàng xīngqī.

M: And ‘next week'. 下个星期xià ge xīngqī, or xià xīngqī.

S: Ok, Everybody say, ‘Now we finish the lesson'.

M: Hěn hǎo. 现在我们下课 xiànzài wǒmen xiàkè.

S: Now say, ‘tomorrow we go to class again'.

M: Duìle. 明天我们再上课 míng tiān wǒmen zài shàng kè.

S: Míng tiān jiàn.