 M: Dà jiā hǎo! Huānyíng shōutīng Xiànzài Xué Hànyǔ. Wǒ shì ML.
S: Wǒ shì Stuart.
M: And we'll continue with our banking adventure.
S: Now we'll pop over to the Bank of China, to cash some traveller's cheques. 现在我们去中国银行兑现旅行支票 xiànzài wǒmen qù Zhōngguó Yínháng duìxiàn lǚxíng zhīpiào.
M: Ok. You're the customer 你是顾客 nǐ shì gùkè. I'm the manager 我是经理 wǒ shì jīnglǐ. Let's begin. Kāishǐ.
S: I'm a very impolite customer. 我是一个很没有礼貌的顾客 wǒ shì yíge hěn méiyǒu lǐmào de gùkè.
M: 先生，您好 Can I help you with something? 我能帮您什么吗? wǒ néng bāng nín shénme ma?
S: Who are you? 你是谁 nǐ shì shéi?
M: I am the Manager. 我是经理 wǒ shì jīnglǐ
.
S: Now I will be very polite, 很有礼貌 hěn yǒu lǐmào, and help ML start explaining the new things.
M: I said, you're the customer 你是顾客. 顾客 GU KE gùkè, both fourth tone, ‘customer', gùkè.
S: So everybody say, I am a customer. Hěn hǎo. 我是顾客 wǒ shì gùkè.
M: And I said, 我是经理 经理 JING LI jīnglǐ, ‘manager', jīnglǐ.
S: In Chinese a person's title comes after his or her name; we don't say for example, King Stuart, we say, Stuart King. So, how do we say, he is Manager Wang?
M: Duìle! 他是王经理 tā shì Wáng Jīnglǐ.
S: Then I said, I'm a very impolite customer. Try to pick out the words for very impolite. 我是一个很没有礼貌的顾客。
M: Hěn méiyǒu lǐmào de gùkè. Hear it? Méiyǒu lǐmào. 礼貌 LI MAO lǐmào, third tone and fourth tone, ‘courtesy' or ‘manners'. 没有 makes it negative, as in, ‘don't have' or ‘there aren't any'.
S: So méiyǒu lǐmào means ‘without manners' ‘impolite', and hěn méiyǒu lǐmào, ‘very impolite'. Hěn méi yǒu lǐmào de gùkè. Note the little de after lǐmào - Hěn méi yǒu lǐmào de gùkè.
M: The little ‘de' is used after intensive forms of adjectives and words that work like adjectives. For example, ‘a very big dog', 一只很大的狗 yì zhì hěn dà de gǒu.
S: Or, ‘a very good person', 一个很好的人 yíge hěn hǎo de rén.
M: And can you guess what this means, 我很有礼貌。 Wǒ hěn yǒu lǐmào. Méi cuò. I am very polite. Literally, we say so-and-so ‘has manners'. Tà yǒulǐmào, he or she is polite. And in my case we say ‘very has manners', 很有礼貌. I am very polite, wǒ hěn yǒu lǐmào.
S: 对了，曼丽是一个很有礼貌的人 Mànlì shì yígè hěn yǒu lǐmào de rén.
M: And she's also very modest!
S: Oh dear, Now ML is adoring herself in the mirror! I think it's time to xiàkè. Zài jiàn. |
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