夜店族yè diàn zú
people who enjoy pub crawls, that is, drinking at a number of pubs in a single night

富二代fù èr dài
the second-generation rich or silver-spoon generation; the children of upstart millionaires and entrepreneurs

贫二代pín èr dài
the second-generation poor; the children of poverty-stricken families

潜规则qián guī zé 
tacit rule, under-the-table practice

民工荒mín gōng huāng
labor shortage

Lucy      今天去王府井书店吗？

                Are you going to the Wangfujing Book Store today?

                        Zěnme le? bùshì shàngzhōumò gāng qùguò ma?

Chen Hong   怎么了？不是上周末刚去过吗？

                       What’s up? Didn’t we just go there last weekend?

Jīntiān bùyīyàng. yì zhōngtiān jiàoshòu yào zài wángfǔjǐng shūdiàn qiānmíng shòushū.

Lucy      今天不一样。易中天教授要在王府井书店签名售书。

Yes, I know. But Professor Yi Zhongtian is going to sign books at the book store.

Zhè yǒu shénme dàbùliǎo de！wángfǔjǐng shūdiàn yòu bùshì dì-yī cì gǎo zhèzhǒng huódòng.

Chen Hong   这有什么大不了的！王府井书店又不是第一次搞这种活动。

What’s the big deal! It’s not the first time that someone has signed books at the store.

Nǐ bù zhīdào,yì jiàoshòu shì wǒ de ǒuxiàng. wǒ yīdìng yào nádào tā qīnbǐ qiānmíng de shū.

Lucy     你不知道，易教授是我的偶像。我一定要拿到他亲笔签名的书。

But it’s Professor Yi Zhongtian. He’s my idol. I’m going to get a book with his signature.

                       Hǎobā hǎobā,wǒ péi nǐ qù.

Chen Hong   好吧好吧，我陪你去。

                       Ok, I’ll go with you.

              Zěnme le?
Tom     怎么了？    
              What’s the matter?   

               Jì gěi wǒ āyí de xìn tuì huílái le.
David    寄给我阿姨的信退回来了。    
               The letter to my aunt was sent back.   

              Zěnme huì zhèyàng?
Tom     怎么会这样?    
              What’s wrong?   

               Shuí zhīdào!
David    谁知道！    
               Who knows!

              Dìzhǐ shì ***,  duì ma?
Tom      地址是***，对吗？    
              The address is ***. Is that right?

               O, wǒ lòu le gè líng.
David     噢，我漏了个零。    
               Oh, I forgot a "0".

Qǐng wèn nín duōdà niánjì le?

Li Lei

请问您多大年纪了？

Excuse me, but could I ask you how old you are?

Wǒ jīnnián bāshíjiǔ le.

Old man

我今年八十九了。

I’m turning 89 this year.

	Nín kànqǐlái hěn niánqīng ā!
Li Lei	您看起来很年轻啊！
	You still look so young!
	Wǒ měitiān dōu dǎ Tàijíquán.
Old man	我每天都打太极拳。
	Well, I practice Tai chi every day.

]]> http://www.echineselanguagelearning.com/classroom/chinese-conversation/how-young-are-you.html/feed 0 http://www.echineselanguagelearning.com/classroom/chinese-conversation/traffic-accident.html http://www.echineselanguagelearning.com/classroom/chinese-conversation/traffic-accident.html#comments Mon, 19 Apr 2010 13:33:16 +0000 Pippo http://www.echineselanguagelearning.com/?p=747

Kàn, zhuàngchē le. zěnme bàn?

Alice

看，撞车了。怎么办？

Look, there’s an accident. What should we do?

Bàojǐng!

Tom

报警！

Call the police！

	Hǎo de, bùguò hàomǎ duōshǎo?
Alice	好的，不过号码多少？
	Yes, but what’s the number?
	Yāo yāo líng
Tom	一一零！
	110!

	Yǒurén liúxiě le.
Alice	有人流血了。
	Somebody is bleeding.
	Gǎnjǐn jiào jiùhùchē！
Tom	赶紧叫救护车！
	Call an ambulance, quick!

]]> http://www.echineselanguagelearning.com/classroom/chinese-conversation/traffic-accident.html/feed 1 http://www.echineselanguagelearning.com/classroom/chinese-conversation/a-plane-crash.html http://www.echineselanguagelearning.com/classroom/chinese-conversation/a-plane-crash.html#comments Mon, 19 Apr 2010 13:22:40 +0000 Pippo http://www.echineselanguagelearning.com/?p=744

Zuótiān yǒu jià fēijī chūshìle.

Chen Hong

昨天有架飞机出事了。

A plane crashed yesterday.

Shì ma? zài nǎr?

Kate

是吗？在哪儿？

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The top step of this staircase is in the west, where the Himalaya mountains are (India is on the other side of these mountains). Tibet is in this part of China. And Mount Everest is here (it’s the world’s tallest mountain). People call it “the roof of the world.” The tops of the mountains have snow even in the summertime. In winter, the whole area is very cold – it can be as cold as -40 Fahrenheit (that’s the same in Celsius). But in the summer it can get hot, up to about 100 degrees Fahrenheit (40 degrees Celsius). Panda bears live mostly in the mountains of south-western China.

Himalaya Mountains

Then in the middle of China is the second step of the staircase. There are still hills, but they are lower and not snowy anymore. Actually, most of this middle part of China is deserts. The most famous is the Gobi Desert. Some of it is grassland where you can graze cattle (mostly yaks) but you can’t farm. Mongolia is in this part of China. Here, too, it gets very cold in the winter and hot in the summer.

Gobi Desert

In Eastern China, nearer to the Pacific Ocean, is the bottom step of the staircase. There are long rivers running all through this part of China, running down to the Pacific Ocean. The two biggest rivers are theYangtze and the Yellow Rivers. Most of the people of China live around here, where they can get plenty of water for farming. In the northern part, they mostly grow wheat, and in the southern part, they mostly grow rice. In this part of China, which people who live there call the Middle Kingdom, it doesn’t get as hot or as cold. But in the spring, when the snow melts in the mountains, these rivers often flood.

Yangtze River, China

Northeastern China has lots of forests and in the forests there are deer and even reindeer, and tigers.

Changbai Mountain

In the very southernmost part of China, there’s one more kind of climate, which is almost a tropical rainforest or jungle. It’s hot and wet there in the summer, and sometimes there are typhoons (tie-FOONS), tropical storms like hurricanes. Even in winter, it never really gets cold. Ginseng, a plant people used for medicine, grows here. There are elephants, wild chickens, leopards, and all sorts of other jungle animals.

In the construction “一 + Situation 1, 就 + Situation 2″, Situation 1 is the condition, whereas Situation 2 is what results directly from it.

E.g:
我一喝冰水，就肚子疼。

“一” and “就” are both adverbs and should be placed after the subject and before the predicate. In the example above, “喝冰水” and “肚子疼” are both subject-predicate construction used as predicates.

Note:
In “他一进屋就睡觉了.”, “一……就……” is not a conditional compound sentence. It indicates one action takes place immediately after another, e.g:

小王一吃完饭就出去了。

In Chinese, one uses “又……又……” to link coordinate verbs (verbal phrases) or adjectives (adjectival phrases) to underline that two situations or characteristics exist simultaneously.

e.g:
女孩子们又(唱)又(跳)。（verb）