S: Wo3 shi4 Stuart. ML, jin1tian1 wo3men xue2 shen2me?

M. Well, we’ve arrived at the Summer Palace 我们到了颐和园　wǒmen dào le Yíhéyuán. We’ll buy the tickets and go in to take some photos.

S. Hǎo zhúyi. M. Where do we buy tickets? 我们去哪儿买票？我们去哪儿买票？买 MAI mǎi, means ‘to buy’. So try to pick out the word for ‘ticket’. 我们去哪儿买票？wǒmen qù nǎr mǎi piào? S. 去那儿　qù nǎr.

M. 好，我去买票 wǒ qù mǎi piào. (to the ticket seller)您好，我要两张票 nín hǎo, wǒ yào liǎng zhāng piào.

WOMAN. 两张票，三十块 liǎng zhāng piào, sān shí kuài.

M. xièxie. Stuart, 票买好了 piào mǎihǎo le.

S. How much? 多少钱 duōshǎo qián?

M. 十五块一张 shí wǔ kuài yì zhāng.

S. Good, we’ll go in. 好，我们进去 hǎo, wǒmen jìn qù.

M. Where’s the entrance? 入口在哪儿 rùkǒu zài nǎr?

S. 在那儿. zàｉ nǎr.

S. Right, let’s look at the new stuff. ML asked me where to buy tickets?

M 我们去哪儿买票？买MAI mǎi, means ‘to buy’, so what does piào mean? Méi cuò – ‘ticket’, piào, piào. And tickets are usually flat, like a small sheet of paper, so the measure word is 张 ZHANG zhāng. So try to say ‘I’ve bought three tickets’. Hěn hǎo, 我买了三张票 wǒ mǎi le sān zhāng piào.

S. ＂Zhāng＂ is a very common measure word, used for things like tables and sheets of paper, and it’s also a very common family name. Ok, coming back to our text. ML goes off to buy the tickets. Listen out for the ＂zhāng＂.

M. 好，我去买票 wǒ qù mǎi piào. 您好，我要两张票 hello, I want two tickets. Nín hǎo, wǒ yào liǎng3 zhāng piào. WOMAN. 两张票，三十块

S. In colloquial speech we often use ＂kuài＂ to mean yuán, the Chinese monetary unit. So ten RMB is 十块shí kuài, or we can add qián, meaning ‘money’, at the end, 十块钱 shí kuài qián. So say ‘fifteen yuan’. Right, shí wǔ kuài, or shí wǔ kuài qiàn.

M. I bought the tickets, 我买了票 wǒ mǎi le piào, and Stuart said:

S. 我们进去

M. Wo3men jìn qù. 进 JIN jìn means ‘to enter’ We’ll go in, wǒmen jìn qù.

S. Where’s the entrance? 入口在哪儿?

M. Rùkǒu zài nǎr? Ru4, RU, ru4, fourth tone, also means ‘to enter’. And 口 KOU kou, means ‘mouth’. Rùkǒu, entrance.

S. The entrance is there 入口在那儿 rùkǒu zài nǎr.

S. So today we learnt to say things like, ‘I’ll go buy the tickets’. 我去买票 wǒ qù mǎi piào.

M. And, I’ve bought two tickets, 我买了两张票 wǒ mǎi le liǎng zhāng piào.

S. And, ‘where’s the entrance?’ 入口在哪儿 Rùkǒu zài nǎr?

M. And we’ll go over the dialogue again in the next lesson.

S. See you tomorrow. Míng tīan jiàn