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Complete transcript for ChineseLearnOnline Lesson 121.

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Kirin: Shàngwǎng xué Zhōngwén dì yībǎi èr shí yī kè 上網學中文第一百二十一課 上网学中文第一百二十一课Chinese Learn Online lesson 121 .

Adam: Hello, and welcome to the first lesson for level 3 of our course. I’m your host, Adam, along with Kirin, who you may remember from level 1 and the first part of level 2 of our course, who is back with us today as are our native Mandarin Chinese speaker.

In today’s lesson we will try and describe our course, using Chinese. This is important since, as you may have noticed in recent lessons, we have been moving towards using more Chinese to explain the content of new lessons.

So to begin with, how would you say “course” in Chinese?

Kirin: Kèchéng 課程课程Course .

Adam: This is made up of two characters. The first, we’ve seen before, means “class” while the second refers to “journey” or “procedure” so together

Kirin: Kèchéng 課程课程Course .

Adam: means “course.” But this isn’t any normal course we have here, is it?

Kirin: Bú shì, shì yíge gèng jìn yí bù de kèchéng 不是。是一個更進一步的課程不是。是一个更进一步的课程No, it’s a progressive course .

Adam: So let’s look at what she just said. There’s the character gèng 更更more , which we’ve seen before in

Kirin: Gèng hǎo 更好更好Better .

Adam: which means “better.” The gèng 更更more on its own refers to “change” and here it combines with another term.

Kirin: Jìn yí bù 進一步进一步One step at a time .

Adam: The first character we’ve also seen before. We in fact saw it way back in lesson 16 in the term.

Kirin: Qǐng jìn 請進请进Please enter .

Adam: Which means “Please enter.” The Jìn 進进Enter means “to enter” or “advance.” That’s followed by

Kirin: Yí bù 一步一步One step

Adam: which means “one step.” So together

Kirin: Gèng jìn yí bù de kèchéng 更進一步的課程更进一步的课程Progressive course .

Adam: literally means “to progress one step at a time course,” in other words “a progressive course.”

Kirin: Gèng jìn yí bù de kèchéng 更進一步的課程更进一步的课程Progressive course .

Adam: So knowing this, we can now change the intro to our lesson to:

Kirin: Huānyíng láidào wǒmen gèng jìn yí bù de zhōngwén xuéxí kèchéng 歡迎來到我們更進一步的中文學習課程欢迎来到我们更进一步的中文学习课程Welcome to our progressive course teaching Chinese .

Adam: So that literally translates to “Welcome arrive we progressive Chinese study course.”

Kirin: Huānyíng láidào wǒmen gèng jìn yí bù de zhōngwén xuéxí kèchéng 歡迎來到我們更進一步的中文學習課程欢迎来到我们更进一步的中文学习课程Welcome to our progressive course teaching Chinese .

Adam: which means I can now retire my previous intro of “Welcome to our progressive course teaching Chinese.” (sigh) Alright, so what can you tell us about this course, Kirin?

Kirin: Xiànzài yǒu sān jí 現在有三級现在有三级Right now there are three levels .

Adam: Ah yes. Right now there are three

Kirin: Jí 級级Level .

Adam: And that means “level.” What else can you tell us?

Kirin: Yī jí yǒu liù shí kè 一級有六十課一级有六十课Each level has 60 lessons .

Adam: So can you figure out what she said there? “One level has 60 lessons.”

Kirin: Yī jí yǒu liù shí kè 一級有六十課一级有六十课Each level has 60 lessons .

Adam: Now in most lessons, we try to teach you some new vocabulary items. Previously, we taught you the term used for “word.” There are two similar terms we’ve been using. Our friends in Mainland China used the word

Kirin: Dāncí 單詞单词Word .

Adam: while in our most recent lessons we’ve been using

Kirin: Dānzì 單字单字Word .

Adam: Similarly, there is a term used to describe a “new word” which is

Kirin: Shēngcí 生詞生词New word

Adam: or

Kirin: Shēngzì 生字生字New word .

Adam: So Kirin, what can you tell us about the shēngzì 生字生字new word in our course?

Kirin: Wǒmen zài dì yī èr jí yǐjīng jiāo le hěnduō shēngzì 我們在第一二級已經教了很多生字我们在第一二级已经教了很多生字In the first and second level, we taught you many new words .

Adam: Yes, that’s right. Let’s look at some examples of some of the shēngzì 生字生字new word we have taught you in the past. First though, let’s look at how we say “example.”

Kirin: Bǐrú 比如比如Example .

Adam: So to say “for example” we could say

Kirin: Bǐrú shuō 比如說比如说For example .

Adam: which means she’s going to tell us some examples. Now before we do that, let’s look at a few categories of shēngzì 生字生字new word we have taught you.

Kirin: Guójiā 國家国家Country .

Adam: Ah, can you figure out what that is? It’s made up of two characters we’ve seen before. The first refers to “country,” but you may remember that on its own, concepts are usually described using two characters, so here there is a second character added, which in this case refers to “home.” And when you put the two together you get the word meaning “country.”

Kirin: Guójiā 國家国家Country .

Adam: So what can you tell us about the guójiā 國家国家Country we have taught here?

Kirin: Wǒmen yǐjīng jiāo nǐmen hěnduō guójiā de míngzi 我們已經教你們很多國家的名字我们已经教你们很多国家的名字We have already taught you the names of many countries . Bǐrú shuō 比如說比如说For example Táiwān 台灣台湾Taiwan ，Měiguó 美國美国America ，Rìběn 日本日本Japan ，Jiānádà 加拿大加拿大Canada ，Àozhōu 澳洲澳洲Australia děng děng 等等等等etc .

Adam: Great, you can… sorry what did you say at the end there?

Kirin: Děng děng 等等等等etc .

Adam: I’m sorry what country is that? I don’t have that on my list.

Kirin: Nà bú shì guójiā 那不是國家那不是国家That’s not a country . Shì “etcetera” de yìsi 是“etcetera”的意思是“etcetera”的意思It means “etcetera” .

Adam: Ah, I knew that （ahem）. The literal meaning is “wait wait” but it’s commonly used in this context to mean “etc.” You can find the whole list of countries and more in lesson 3.

Kirin: Hái yǒu wǒmen jiāo nǐmen bù yíyàng de shíwù 還有我們教你們不一樣的食物还有我们教你们不一样的食物As well, we taught you many different foods .

Adam: So there’s another shēngzì 生字生字new word for us.

Kirin: Shíwù 食物食物Food . Shì shípǐn de shí gēn dòngwù de wù 是食品的食跟動物的物是食品的食跟动物的物It’s the “shí” in “shípǐn” (food products) and the “wù” in “dòngwù” (animal) .

Adam: So that’s the character from “food products” and “animal”, which together forms the word for “food” in general.

Kirin: Duì 對对Correct ，wǒmen yě jiāo nǐmen hěnduō shíwù de míngzi 我們也教你們很多食物的名字我们也教你们很多食物的名字we also taught you the names of many foods . Bǐrú shuō 比如說比如说For example hànbǎo 漢堡汉堡hamburger ，shǔtiáo 薯條薯条French fries ，chǎo miàn 炒麵炒面fried noodles ，mǐ fàn 米飯米饭rice ，tāng 湯汤soup děng děng 等等等等etc .

Adam: For the entire list, premium subscribers can access the word bank, and type in “food” under the “type” field.

Kirin: Wǒmen yě jiāo nǐmen hěnduō yǐnliào de míngzi 我們也教你們很多飲料的名字我们也教你们很多饮料的名字We also taught you many names of drinks . Bǐrú shuō 比如說比如说For example kāfēi 咖啡咖啡coffee ，chá 茶茶tea ，kělè 可樂可乐cola ，píjiǔ 啤酒啤酒beer děng děng 等等等等etc .

Adam: To see that list, type in “drink” in the “type” category of the Word Bank.

Kirin: Wǒmen háiyǒu jiāo nǐmen yìxiē dìfāng de míngzi 我們還有教你們一些地方的名字我们还有教你们一些地方的名字As well, we taught you the names of some places . Bǐrú shuō 比如說比如说For example chá guǎn 茶館茶馆tea