CLO_096: Did you buy new clothes for a birthday party?
Dialogue: Numbers
A: Wo3 yi3qian2 mei2 jian4 guo4 ni3 zhe4 jian4 chen4yi1. Shi4 xin1de ma?
B: Wo3 shang4ge zhou1mo4 cai2 mai3 de.
A: Hen3 hao3 kan4! Ni3 shi4 wei4le sheng1ri4 yan4hui4 mai3 xin1 yi1fu2 ma?
B:Bu2 shi4. Wo3 jiu4 shi4 xi3huan1.
Dialogue: Tones
A: Wǒ yǐqián méi jiàn guò nǐ zhè jiàn chènyī. Shì xīnde ma?
B: Wǒ shàngge zhōumò cái mǎi de.
A: Hěn hǎo kàn! Nǐ shì wèile shēngrì yànhuì mǎi xīn yīfú ma?
B:Bú shì. Wǒ jiù shì xǐhuān.
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PDF Notes: 
May 4th, 2007 at 1:01 am
Thanks for the Bulk Download page, very handy!
Jen has a great voice. I’ve never taken much notice of her voice before, but today I realised it’s very clear and has a pitch range that’s easy for me to imitate. Nothing about it surprises me, or distracts from the lesson content itself, and when Jen’s speaking I can identify every sound without effort. If I met her on the street we could have a conversation with no trouble at all.
Of course, that’s the problem, isn’t it. People we meet on the street, or wherever, will have different voices, often much harder to understand. Some of these lessons have used voices that I found quite difficult to understand, but working through them was very rewarding in the end.
As much as I hate it during a lesson when a voice is difficult, it gets easier quickly and I have experienced the value in this training now. Part of me wants to only listen to someone like Jen, but the rest of me is so grateful for the experience of so many different voices. I heard some people speaking on radio talk-back the other day, and I’d never have understood their non-professional and very individual voices without the experience here. Of course I don’t just want to speak Mandarin well in class, I want to converse in the world with real people, all sorts of people, and I can already do that a little bit.
Thanks for the variety, it works a treat, so please keep it up.
May 4th, 2007 at 1:29 pm
Thanks Parrot! As has been mentioned elsewhere, I will be producing lessons in Taiwan this summer which means more new voices (and some old ones!). I also have some other treats planned that I’ll surprise you with later…
July 26th, 2007 at 2:05 pm
In the first line of the dialog, “Wǒ yǐqián méi jiàn guò nǐ zhè jiàn chènyī”, the translation is listed as “I haven’t seen this shirt before.” I’m a little confused about the use of ni3 here. If the ni3 were left out, wouldn’t it then mean exaxtly what you have listed in English? As written, does it really mean “I haven’t seen this shirt of yours before”? If so, is this a standard pattern? In other words I’m wondering if [pronoun] –> [zhe4\na4] –> [measure word] –> [noun] is the standard way to say “this/that [noun] of yours/his/hers/theirs/etc. Thanks.