After listening to Season 3, Lesson 04, start reinforcing what you've learned by taking five minutes a day to practice listening and imitating the material. Repetition makes progress.
Magic Phrase (1-2)
This phrase is composed entirely of words that use the 1-2 tone pair. We use it to practice identifying and then pronouncing the tones, hearing how they interact with each other in context.
雖然公園非常安全，阿姨居然失眠！
Suīrán gōngyuán fēicháng ānquán, āyí jūrán shīmián!
雖然 / suīrán / although, even though
公園 / gōngyuán / park ("public garden")
非常 / fēicháng / extremely ("not common, not normal")
安全 / ānquán / safe
阿姨 / āyí / aunt, auntie, a woman approximately the age of one's parents
居然 / jūrán / unexpectedly, surprisingly
失眠 / shīmián / to suffer from insomnia ("lose sleep")
Transcript of the dialogue (Chinese characters only)
S：歡迎光臨我的空調商店，我專門賣空調！你需要什麼嗎？
K：你終於開門了！
S：你有什麼需求嗎？
K：我要抓狂了！
S：你的精神看起來不太好。
K：當然啊！
S：怎麼了？
K：我的兒子。
S：你的兒子怎麼了？
K：他要出國了！
S：是嗎？
K：他說不要我干涉他的私人生活！
S：你有在干涉嗎？
K：沒有！我只是跟他說，刷牙要堅持！
S：然後呢？
K：他不聽話！我的兒子糟透了！
S：你要不要試著不要批評他，對他溫柔一點。
K：可是生活有規則啊！
S：你需要跟他溝通。
K：我不行！你要幫我！
S：… 你要買空調嗎？
K：沒關係啦，我試著跟他溝通好了。謝謝你。
S：謝謝光臨！
Transcript of the dialogue (w/ pinyin and translation)
Use this as a visual listening guide, or if you want to check your tone comprehension. Tones are indicated by marks above the letters in the pinyin transliteration, as follows: (1) ā (2) á (3) ǎ (4) à
- S：歡迎光臨我的空調商店，我專門賣空調！你需要什麼嗎？
- Huānyíng guānglín wǒ de kōngtiáo shāngdiàn, wǒ zhuānmén mài kōngtiáo! Nǐ xūyào shénme ma?
- Welcome to my air conditioner shop! I specialize in selling air conditioners. Do you need something?
- (Note: in one version of the dialogue, the speaker elides the 門 (mén) in 專門 (zhuānmén). This is another way to express the same idea. 專門 (zhuānmén) means to specialize or be a specialist in something, so 專門賣 (zhuānmén mài) means to specialize in selling a particular thing. 專賣 (zhuānmài) is simply a shortening of this.
- K：你終於開門了！
- Nǐ zhōngyú kāimén le!
- You finally opened!
- S：你有什麼需求嗎？
- Nǐ yǒu shé me xūqiú ma?
- Do you need something? (lit. do you have a requirement?)
- K：我要抓狂了！
- Wǒ yào zhuākuáng le!
- I’m about to go mad!
- S：你的精神看起來不太好。
- Nǐ de jīngshén kàn qǐlái bu tài hǎo.
- Your spirit / energy / mental state doesn’t look very good.
- K：當然啊！
- S：怎麼了？
- K：我的兒子。
- S：你的兒子怎麼了？
- Nǐ de érzi zěnmeliǎo?
- What’s wrong with your son?
- K：他要出國了！
- Tā yào chūguó le!
- He’s leaving the country!
- S：是嗎？
- K：他說不要我干涉他的私人生活！
- Tā shuō bu yào wǒ gānshè tā de sīrén shēnghuó!
- He says he doesn’t want me to interfere with his personal life.
- S：你有在干涉嗎？
- Nǐ yǒu zài gānshè ma?
- Are you interfering?
- K：沒有！我只是跟他說，刷牙要堅持！
- Méiyǒu! Wǒ zhǐshì gēn tā shuō, shuāyá yào jiānchí!
- I’m not! I only said to him, you need to persist with brushing your teeth!
- S：然後呢？
- K：他不聽話！我的兒子糟透了！
- Tā bù tīnghuà! Wǒ de érzi zāotòule!
- He doesn’t listen! He’s a terrible son!
- S：你要不要試著不要批評他，對他溫柔一點。
- Nǐ yào búyào shìzhe búyào pīpíng tā, duì tā wēnróu yīdiǎn.
- Why don’t you try not criticizing him? Be gentler towards him.
- K：可是生活有規則啊！
- Kěshì shēnghuó yǒu guīzé a!
- But life has rules!
- S：你需要跟他溝通。
- Nǐ xūyào gēn tā gōutōng.
- You need to communicate with him.
- K：我不行！你要幫我！
- Wǒ bùxíng! Nǐ yào bāng wǒ!
- I can’t do it! You have to help me!
- S：… 你要買空調嗎？
- … Nǐ yāomǎi kōngtiáo ma?
- …Do you want to buy an air conditioner?
- K：沒關係啦，我試著跟他溝通好了。謝謝你。
- Méiguānxì la, wǒ shìzhe gēn tā gōutōng hǎole. Xièxiè nǐ.
- Never mind, I guess I’ll try communicating. Thanks.
- S：謝謝光臨！
- Xièxiè guānglín!
- Thank you for coming!
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