Learn how to talk about directions
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| INTRODUCTION |
| David: Welcome to CantoneseClass101.com. I’m David. |
| Gimmy: 大家好, 我係 Gimmy。(daai6 gaa1 hou2, ngo5 hai6 Gimmy.) |
| David: And we’re here today with Beginner Season 1, Lesson 12. |
| Gimmy: Asking for Directions in Cantonese. |
| David: Right. So today, we’re going to learn how to turn left, how to turn right, how to go straight ahead. |
| Gimmy: Yup. |
| David: Right. |
| Gimmy: Go towards or how to find the place... |
| David: Destination, yeah. |
| Gimmy: …you want to go. |
| David: So you’re not going to get lost. |
| Gimmy: Yeah. |
| David: We’ve got a conversation here that takes place on the street between strangers. One is asking for directions. And of course, they’re speaking casual Cantonese as always. |
| Gimmy: Right. Let’s get to the dialogue. |
Lesson conversation |
|---|
| 邊度有銀行？(bin1 dou6 jau5 ngan4 hong4?) |
| 前面直行，然後轉左。(cin4 min6 zik6 haang4, jin4 hau6 zyun3 zo2.) |
| 行幾耐？(haang4 gei2 noi6?) |
| 十分鐘度。(sap6 fan1 zung1 dou2.) |
| David: Once again, a bit slower. |
| 邊度有銀行？(bin1 dou6 jau5 ngan4 hong4?) |
| 前面直行，然後轉左。(cin4 min6 zik6 haang4, jin4 hau6 zyun3 zo2.) |
| 行幾耐？(haang4 gei2 noi6?) |
| 十分鐘度。(sap6 fan1 zung1 dou2.) |
| David: And now, with the English translation. |
| 邊度有銀行？(bin1 dou6 jau5 ngan4 hong4?) |
| Where is the bank? |
| 前面直行，然後轉左。(cin4 min6 zik6 haang4, jin4 hau6 zyun3 zo2.) |
| Go straight, then turn left. |
| 行幾耐？(haang4 gei2 noi6?) |
| How long is the walk? |
| 十分鐘度。(sap6 fan1 zung1 dou2.) |
| About ten minutes. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| David: This is a great dialogue for reviewing. |
| Gimmy: Yes. |
| David: There’s a lot of stuff that we’ve covered previously that’s coming back, like about 10 minutes. |
| Gimmy: Yes, 十分鐘度 (sap6 fan1 zung1 dou2). |
| David: Right. But our vocab today, we’re skipping all of these to focus on some new things. |
| Gimmy: Right. |
| David: Directions. |
| Gimmy: Mostly directions. |
| David: Right. So let’s get to our vocab section. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Gimmy: 邊度 (bin1 dou6) [natural native speed] |
| David: Where. |
| Gimmy: 邊度 (bin1 dou6) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 邊度 (bin1 dou6) [natural native speed]. |
| Gimmy: 銀行 (ngan4 hong4) [natural native speed] |
| David: Bank |
| Gimmy: 銀行 (ngan4 hong4) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 銀行 (ngan4 hong4) [natural native speed]. |
| Gimmy: 前 (cin4) [natural native speed]. |
| David: Front. |
| Gimmy: 前 (cin4) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 前 (cin4) [natural native speed]. |
| Gimmy: 後 (hau6) [natural native speed] |
| David: Back. |
| Gimmy: 後 (hau6) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 後 (hau6) [natural native speed]. |
| Gimmy: 左 (zo2) [natural native speed] |
| David: Left. |
| Gimmy: 左 (zo2) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 左 (zo2) [natural native speed]. |
| Gimmy: 右 (jau6) [natural native speed] |
| David: Right. |
| Gimmy: 右 (jau6) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 右 (jau6) [natural native speed]. |
| Gimmy: 轉 (zyun3) [natural native speed] |
| David: To turn. |
| Gimmy: 轉 (zyun3) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 轉 (zyun3) [natural native speed]. |
| Gimmy: 直行 (zik6 haang4) [natural native speed]. |
| David: To go straight. |
| Gimmy: 直行 (zik6 haang4) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 直行 (zik6 haang4) [natural native speed]. |
| KEY VOCABULARY AND PHRASES |
| David: Let’s take a closer look at some of these words and phrases. Our focus today is obviously on directions. |
| Gimmy: Yes. |
| David: So the two most important are turning left and turning right. |
| Gimmy: Right, David. Left is 左. (zo2.) |
| David: “Left.” |
| Gimmy: 左. (zo2.) |
| David: And we have the word for “right” as well. |
| Gimmy: 右. (jau6.) |
| David: Right. |
| Gimmy: 右. (jau6.) |
| David: Now, let’s say you’re in a cab. You can tell the cab driver, “Go left.” |
| Gimmy: 轉左. (zyun3 zo2.) |
| David: “Go left.” |
| Gimmy: 轉左. (zyun3 zo2.) |
| David: Or “Go right.” |
| Gimmy: 轉右. (zyun3 jau6.) |
| David: “Go right.” |
| Gimmy: 轉右. (zyun3 jau6.) |
| David: But this is necessarily the most native way of giving directions. |
| Gimmy: Right. People from Hong Kong, they say “turn left, and then turn right.” |
| David: Right. So it’s a bit different. Let’s say you’re in a cab and you want to give directions to the cabbie. Gimmy, what should you do? |
| Gimmy: Okay. Say you want the cab to turn left, you say 轉左. (zyun3 zo2.) |
| David: “Turn left.” |
| Gimmy: 轉左. (zyun3 zo2.) |
| David: “Turn left.” |
| Gimmy: Now we need to make a right turn, 轉右. (zyun3 jau6.) |
| David: Turn right. |
| Gimmy: 轉右. (zyun3 jau6.) |
| David: So Cantonese is very straight forward. It’s literally the verb for turn and then the direction. |
| Gimmy: Yes. |
| David: What if we don’t want to turn left or right but we want to go straight ahead? |
| Gimmy: Okay, that’s 直行. (zik6 haang4.) |
| David: “Go straight ahead.” |
| Gimmy: 直行 (zik6 haang4) |
| David: And that literally means “continue to go.” |
| Gimmy: Straight. |
| David: Yeah. |
| Gimmy: Yes. |
| David: So if you don’t want the cabbie to turn, you can say… |
| Gimmy: 唔該直行. (m4 goi1 zik6 haang4.) |
| David: “Please go straight ahead.” |
| Gimmy: 唔該直行. (m4 goi1 zik6 haang4.) |
| David: What about “go straight ahead, and then stop” |
| Gimmy: 前面直行, 然後停車. (cin4 min6 zik6 haang4, jin4 hau6 ting4 ce1) |
| David: “First go straight ahead.” |
| Gimmy: 前面直行. (cin4 min6 zik6 haang4.) |
| David: “And then stop.” |
| Gimmy: 然後停車. (jin4 hau6 ting4 ce1) |
| David: So three really important things today. We now know how to say “left”… |
| Gimmy: 左. (zo2.) |
| David: …right… |
| Gimmy: 右. (jau6.) |
| David: And straight ahead. |
| Gimmy: 直行. (zik6 haang4.) |
| David: In our grammar section, we’ll then learn how to chain these together into longer instructions. |
| Gimmy: Right. |
Lesson focus |
| David: So our focus today is on giving chained instructions. |
| Gimmy: Right. |
| David: We have something close to this in the second line in our dialogue. |
| Gimmy: 前面直行，然後轉左。 (cin4 min6 zik6 haang4, jin4 hau6 zyun3 zo2.) |
| David: Right. Literally this means “right here.” |
| Gimmy: 前面... (cin4 min6...) |
| David: “Go straight.” |
| Gimmy: 直行... (zik6 haang4...) |
| David: “And then turn left.” |
| Gimmy: 然後轉左. (jin4 hau6 zyun3 zo2.) |
| David: Right. So if you’re talking on the street, you can always use this “right here”. |
| Gimmy: Yes. |
| David: But it’s more important to know how to generalize instructions. |
| Gimmy: Right. |
| David: So today, we’re going to teach you how to say, “First do something and then… |
| Gimmy: And then… |
| David: …do something else.” |
| Gimmy: Right. |
| David: The pattern for this is... |
| Gimmy: 首先...然後... (sau2 sin1... jin4 hau6...) |
| David: “First.” |
| Gimmy: 首先... (sau2 sin1…) |
| David: “Then” |
| Gimmy: 然後. (jin4 hau6.) |
| David: For instance, let’s say you need to ask your friend to do you a favor. |
| Gimmy: You’re asking him “First go to the bank, and then buy a drink.” |
| David: Right. |
| Gimmy: 首先去銀行, 然後買飲品. (sau2 sin1 heoi3 ngan4 hong4, jin4 hau6 maai5 jam2 ban2.) |
| David: Right. “First, go to the bank.” |
| Gimmy: 首先去銀行... (sau2 sin1 heoi3 ngan4 hong4...) |
| David: “Then buy a drink.” |
| Gimmy: 然後買飲品. (jin4 hau6 maai5 jam2 ban2.) |
| David: Or maybe you’re asking someone on a date. You can say, “First a movie, then a bar.” |
| Gimmy: 首先睇戲, 然後飲嘢. (sau2 sin1 tai2 hei3, jin4 hau6 jam2 je5.) |
| David: “First a movie, then a bar.” |
| Gimmy: 首先睇戲, 然後飲嘢. (sau2 sin1 tai2 hei3, jin4 hau6 jam2 je5.) |
| David: Which is literally, “First we’re going to watch a movie, and then we’re going to drink.” |
| Gimmy: Yes. |
| David: Right. So this is a really powerful structure. |
| Gimmy: 首先... 然後... (sau2 sin1... jin4 hau6...) |
| David: We can use this in giving directions to. |
| Gimmy: Right. |
| David: For instance, “First go straight ahead, then turn left.” |
| Gimmy: 首先直行, 然後轉左. (sau2 sin1 zik6 haang4, jin4 hau6 zyun3 zo2.) |
| David: How about, “First turn left, then turn right.” |
| Gimmy: 首先轉左, 然後轉右. (sau2 sin1 zyun3 zo2, jin4 hau6 zyun3 jau6.) |
| David: And there’s no reason we need to stop at two. |
| Gimmy: All right David, you can say “First turn left, then turn right, then go straight, then do whatever.” |
| David: Right. And to do this, you just keep adding “and then” or “afterwards.” |
| Gimmy: Yes. Let me give you an example, 首先轉左, 然後轉右, 然後直行, 然後再轉左. (sau2 sin1 zyun3 zo2, jin4 hau6 zyun3 jau6, jin4 hau6 zik6 haang4, jin4 hau6 zoi3 zyun3 zo2 .) |
| David: Okay. So that’s “First turn left, then turn right, then go straight ahead, and then turn left again.” |
| Gimmy: Right. |
| David: Right. So you can change many of these together as you want. |
| Gimmy: Of course. |
| David: Okay? Once again, the grammar pattern is… |
| Gimmy: 首先... 然後... (sau2 sin1... jin4 hau6... ) |
| David: In our dialogue, we replaced “first”… |
| Gimmy:首先. (sau2 sin1.) |
| David: …with “right here”… |
| Gimmy: 前面. (cin4 min6.) |
| David: …which means “right in front of you.” |
| Gimmy: Right. |
| David: But it’s the same pattern. And with that, we’re done our lesson for today. |
Outro |
| David: Thanks for listening. I’m David. |
| Gimmy: I’m Gimmy. |
| David: And we’ll see you on the site. |
| Gimmy: 下次見. (haa6 ci3 gin3.) |
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