CLO_110: Living with family
Dialogue: Numbers
A: Ni3 zi4ji3 zhu4 ma?
B: Bu4. Wo3 gen1 wo3 jia1ren2 yi1qi3 zhu4.
A: Ni3 bu4 xiang3 zi4ji3 yi1ge ren2 zhu4 ma?
B: Bu2 tai4 xiang3. Yin1wei4 yi1ban1 ren2 zai4 jie2hun1 qian2 dou1 gen1 jia1ren2 yi1qi3 zhu4. Zhe4 shi4 Zhong1guo2 de wen2hua4.
Dialogue: Tones
A: Nǐ zìjǐ zhù ma?
B: Bù. Wǒ gēn wǒ jiārén yīqǐ zhù.
A: Nǐ bù xiǎng zìjǐ yīge rén zhù ma?
B: Bú tài xiǎng. Yīnwèi yībān rén zài jiéhūn qián dōu gēn jiārén yīqǐ zhù. Zhè shì Zhōngguó de wénhuà.
Premium Online Content: Please log in or subscribe to view the content below.
PDF Notes: 
October 21st, 2008 at 3:40 pm
“My older brother works in the city and lives by himself”
is translated:
我哥哥在城市工作而且自己一个人住。
what does the “一个人” part adds to the sentence ? If we say
我哥哥在城市工作而且自己住。
does the meaning stay the same ?
October 21st, 2008 at 7:44 pm
Hi Olivier,
The meaning is the same, however in the first sentence there is more emphasis on him living by himself than in the second.
October 25th, 2008 at 4:20 pm
If I’m correct, then the “yi ge ren” means “alone” here (not one person).
So, “zi ji yi ge ren” sums up to something like “himself alone”.
(Please correct me if I’m wrong!)
Maybe this is similar to using “yi qi” in “wo men liang ge ren yi qi chi fan” - you could also leave it out, but with the “yi qi” the “together” gets more clear.
(Again, please correct me if I’m wrong!)
Wan3 An1
Shi3 Si1 Wen2
October 25th, 2008 at 10:34 pm
Hi Sven,
Yes you’re right on both counts. “Yige ren” here means alone and is used to add more information just like “yiqi” does.
Part of our goal with this course is to give you a feel for the language, since not all elements can be explained with direct English translations. I’m glad to see that you’re grasping this feel, Sven! Jiāyóu!!
October 26th, 2008 at 2:34 am
Thanks! Nice to see some progress on my side. I’m currently around course 160, but I’m a bit stuck. It’s getting really hard to follow the speed of the speech, because my high-level brain is STILL busy with recognizing and understanding single words. I’m hoping every day that my low-level brain finally learns to do that job, such that my high-level brain can concentrate more on the really important aspects of the language.
Anyway, thanks a lot for the course! Hearing your course in the evening really makes my day!
By the way, could you give me a hint on how to find the music you are playing in into and outro of the course? What’s the interpret and album/song for example?
I would like to hear more of it. I would like to search iTunes Store for it or buy some disc at amazon.
October 26th, 2008 at 2:58 am
Hi Sven,
You will find the level of difficulty in this course going up in jumps. There might be a sudden jump in difficulty, but then it will stay that way for a little while to give you (and your brain) time to adjust. You may initially find yourself having to follow the transcripts all the time, even for words that were taught before. However hopefully with time your brain will adjust.
The idea is to mimic my real life experience here in Taiwan. When I first came here, of course I was hearing Chinese everywhere I went, all spoken very quickly. However with time my brain adjusted and my level of understanding slowly went up with it. I think I would have done so a lot faster if I had the transcripts that you get to use.
Regarding the music, it was actually composed for us. It starts off with a bit of a Western beat that fades into a Chinese style for the lesson. At the end of the lesson the music fades from the Chinese style back into Western style - so we are letting you get back into your world!