Learn about Internet access in Hong Kong and about asking questions with adjectives
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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 with Beginner Season 1, Lesson 8. |
| Gimmy: Cantonese Co-workers. |
| David: Right. So our dialogue today takes place in an office. |
| Gimmy: Yes. |
| David: And it involves two co-workers. |
| Gimmy: Uh-hmm. |
| David: We hope that if you live and work in Hong Kong, you don’t have co-workers like this. |
| Gimmy: Yeah, they’re pretty mean. |
| David: Yeah. Okay. And with that, let’s get to the dialogue. |
Lesson conversation |
|---|
| 你忙唔忙呀？ (nei5 mong4 m4 mong4 aa3?) |
| 麻麻哋啦。 (maa4 maa2 dei2 laa1.) |
| 幫我查啲資料吖？ (bong1 ngo5 caa4 di1 zi1 liu2 aa1?) |
| 查咩呀？(caa4 me1 aa3?) |
| 等陣話你知。(dang2 zan6 waa6 nei5 zi1.) |
| 咁我得閒先查喇。(gam2 ngo5 dak1 haan4 sin1 caa4 laa3.) |
| David: Once again, a bit slower. |
| 你忙唔忙呀？ (nei5 mong4 m4 mong4 aa3?) |
| 麻麻哋啦。 (maa4 maa2 dei2 laa1.) |
| 幫我查啲資料吖？ (bong1 ngo5 caa4 di1 zi1 liu2 aa1?) |
| 查咩呀？(caa4 me1 aa3?) |
| 等陣話你知。(dang2 zan6 waa6 nei5 zi1.) |
| 咁我得閒先查喇。(gam2 ngo5 dak1 haan4 sin1 caa4 laa3.) |
| David: And now, with the English translation. |
| 你忙唔忙呀？ (nei5 mong4 m4 mong4 aa3?) |
| A: Are you busy? |
| 麻麻哋啦。 (maa4 maa2 dei2 laa1.) |
| B: A little. |
| 幫我查啲資料吖？ (bong1 ngo5 caa4 di1 zi1 liu2 aa1?) |
| A: Can you help me find some info? |
| 查咩呀？(caa4 me1 aa3?) |
| B: Find what? |
| 等陣話你知。(dang2 zan6 waa6 nei5 zi1.) |
| A: I'll tell you later. |
| 咁我得閒先查喇。(gam2 ngo5 dak1 haan4 sin1 caa4 laa3.) |
| B: Then I'll search when I'm free. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| David: So a lot of our words today are really useful in office settings. |
| Gimmy: Yes. |
| David: Right. So if you’re working in Hong Kong or you’re working with people who speak Cantonese, you’re going to be using this language. |
| Gimmy: Yes. |
| David: Let’s get to our vocab section. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Gimmy: 忙 (mong4) [natural native speed] |
| David: Busy. |
| Gimmy: 忙 (mong4) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 忙 (mong4) [natural native speed]. |
| Gimmy: 得閒 (dak1 haan4) [natural native speed] |
| David: To be free. |
| Gimmy: 得閒 (dak1 haan4) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 得閒 (dak1 haan4) [natural native speed]. |
| Gimmy: 麻麻哋 (maa4 maa2 dei2) [natural native speed] |
| David: A little; sort of. |
| Gimmy: 麻麻哋 (maa4 maa2 dei2) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 麻麻哋 (maa4 maa2 dei2) [natural native speed]. |
| Gimmy: 幫 (bong1) [natural native speed] |
| David: To help. |
| Gimmy: 幫 (bong1) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 幫 (bong1) [natural native speed] |
| Gimmy: 資料 (zi1 liu2) [natural native speed] |
| David: Information, material. |
| Gimmy: 資料 (zi1 liu2) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 資料 (zi1 liu2) [natural native speed]. |
| Gimmy: 查 (caa4) [natural native speed] |
| David: To find, to search. |
| Gimmy: 查 (caa4) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 查 (caa4) [natural native speed]. |
| Gimmy: 咩 (me1) [natural native speed] |
| David: What. |
| Gimmy: 咩 (me1) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 咩 (me1) [natural native speed]. |
| Gimmy: 等陣 (dang2 zan6) [natural native speed] |
| David: Later. |
| Gimmy: 等陣 (dang2 zan6) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 等陣 (dang2 zan6) [natural native speed]. |
| KEY VOCABULARY AND PHRASES |
| David: Let’s take a closer look at some of these words and phrases. |
| Gimmy: Yes. |
| David: The first word we want to highlight is in the second line. |
| Gimmy: 麻麻哋啦. (maa4 maa4 dei2 laa1.) |
| David: Right. And it’s this word. |
| Gimmy: 麻麻哋. (maa4 maa4 dei2.) |
| David: So Gimmy, this is a bit slangish, it’s very casual. |
| Gimmy: Yes. It’s basically telling people, “yes”, “a little”, “yeah”, “not sure”. |
| David: “Yeah”, “sort of”… |
| Gimmy: Yes. |
| David: “No.” “Are you free?” “Ummm….” |
| Gimmy: So it is very useful. Think about it… |
| David: Yeah. |
| Gimmy: …when you’re asked to do something…. |
| David: Right, right. |
| Gimmy: …or when you’re asked to go out. |
| David: Right. So Gimmy, this is really casual. |
| Gimmy: Yes. It’s something to tell people, “yes”, “sort of”, “not too sure”. |
| David: Yeah. You don’t really know what they’re asking so you don’t want to commit. |
| Gimmy: Yes. |
| David: Right. Like “Gimmy, can you help me out?” |
| Gimmy: 麻麻哋啦. (maa4 maa4 dei2 laa1.) |
| David: “Well, you know…sort of.” Tell me more. |
| Gimmy: Right. |
| David: So one more time. |
| Gimmy: 麻麻哋. (maa4 maa4 dei2.) |
| David: A really useful casual phrase. |
| Gimmy: Yes. |
| David: Right. The next word we want to highlight, we translated in the dialogue as “to find”. |
| Gimmy: 查. (caa4.) |
| David: We heard it in this sentence. |
| Gimmy: 幫我查啲資料吖？ (bong1 ngo5 caa4 di1 zi1 liu2 aa1?) |
| David: “Can you help me find some information (or find some resources)?” |
| Gimmy: Yes. 幫我查啲資料吖？(bong1 ngo5 caa4 di1 zi1 liu2 aa1?) |
| David: Right. But it’s not necessarily “find”, it’s more “to search for”. |
| Gimmy: Right. |
| David: Right. So the English translation and what the Cantonese really means is a bit different. |
| Gimmy: A little bit. |
| David: Yeah. So this word really means “to search.” |
| Gimmy: Right, David. Say, for example, you go on Google and you want to find some information. |
| David: Right. You would be…. |
| Gimmy: 查資料. (caa4 zi1 liu2.) |
| David: Searching for materials. |
| Gimmy: 查資料. (caa4 zi1 liu2.) |
| David: Or let’s say you’re looking through your office files for a document. That would also be… |
| Gimmy: 查資料. (caa4 zi1 liu2.) |
| David: Right. So it’s the act of looking for something as opposed to the act of finding it. |
| Gimmy: Yes. |
| David: Now, the last word we want to highlight is… |
| Gimmy: 等陣. (dang2 zan6.) |
| David: We hear this in this line in the dialogue. |
| Gimmy: 等陣話你知. (dang2 zan6 waa6 nei5 zi1.) |
| David: I’ll tell you in a bit. |
| Gimmy: 等陣話你知. (dang2 zan6 waa6 nei5 zi1 .) |
| David: And this word… |
| Gimmy: 等陣. (dang2 zan6 .) |
| David: …it means “in a while” or “in a little bit.” |
| Gimmy: Yes. So for instance, you’re asked to do something…. |
| David: Right. |
| Gimmy: …but you don’t want to do it right away. |
| David: Right, or you don’t want to do it at all but you want to be polite. |
| Gimmy: Yes. We can say 等陣先. (dang2 zan6 sin1.) |
| David: Which means, “wait a bit and I’ll do it then.” |
| Gimmy: Yes, 等陣先. (dang2 zan6 sin1.) |
| David: But the key word there is… |
| Gimmy: 等陣. (dang2 zan6.) |
| David: And this is an adverb so you put it in front of verbs. |
| Gimmy: Right. |
| David: Gimmy, can we have one more example? |
| Gimmy: Yeah. “Wait a bit, I’m busy.” |
| David: Right, like your partner asked you to come over for dinner with him and you want to go but you need another 20 minutes to finish… |
| Gimmy: Yeah. |
| David: …you can say… |
| Gimmy: 等陣先去食飯 (dang2 zan6 sin1 heoi3 sik6 faan6) |
| David: “Wait a minute, and then we’ll go eat.” |
| Gimmy: 等陣先去食飯 (dang2 zan6 sin1 heoi3 sik6 faan6) |
| David: “Wait a bit and we’ll eat.” So all of the stuff is incredibly useful. |
| Gimmy: Yes. |
| David: Our grammar point is also incredibly useful and its review. |
| Gimmy: Right. |
Lesson focus |
| Gimmy: Okay, David, our grammar point today is asking question with adjectives. |
| David: Right. We’ve run into this in previous lessons and we see it again in the first line in our dialogue. |
| Gimmy: 你忙唔忙呀？(nei5 mong4 m4 mong4 aa3?) |
| David: “Are you busy?” |
| Gimmy: 你忙唔忙呀？(nei5 mong4 m4 mong4 aa3?) |
| David: “Are you buys?” |
| Gimmy: The key here is 忙唔忙. (mong4 m4 mong4.) |
| David: Busy, not busy. |
| Gimmy: 忙唔忙. (mong4 m4 mong4.) |
| David: Right. And the answer is usually, of course, busy… |
| Gimmy: 忙. (mong4.) |
| David: …or if you’re not busy, you can say… |
| Gimmy: 唔忙. (m4 mong4.) |
| David: Although in our dialogue, of course, we get the third answer. |
| Gimmy: 麻麻哋啦. (maa4 maa4 dei2 laa1.) |
| David: Sort of. |
| Gimmy: Yes. |
| David: Right. So you already know how to do this with basic adjectives. For instance… |
| Gimmy: For instance, you’re learning Chinese and someone asked you, “Is Chinese difficult?” 中文難唔難？(zung1 man2 naan4 m4 naan4?) |
| David: “Is Chinese difficult?” |
| Gimmy: 中文難唔難？ (zung1 man2 naan4 m4 naan4?) |
| David: Right. You might also be asked if you like your work or if you find work frustrating and bothersome. |
| Gimmy: 工作煩唔煩？ (gung1 zok3 faan4 m4 faan4?) |
| David: “Is work bothering you?” |
| Gimmy: 工作煩唔煩？ (gung1 zok3 faan4 m4 faan4?) |
| David: Now here’s a trick. In all of the examples we’ve given you so far, we’ve used single character adjectives. |
| Gimmy: Right. |
| David: For instance, busy. |
| Gimmy: 忙. (mong4.) |
| David: Bothersome. |
| Gimmy: 煩. (faan4.) |
| David: Difficult. |
| Gimmy: 難. (naan4.) |
| David: What if we have a two character adjective like “fresh”? |
| Gimmy: 新鮮(san1 sin1), then we do this 新唔新鮮. (san1 m4 san1 sin1.) |
| David: Fresh or not fresh. |
| Gimmy: 新唔新鮮. (san1 m4 san1 sin1.) |
| David: So we drop the second character the first time we say the adjective. |
| Gimmy: Right. |
| David: Right. It makes it a bit more compact. |
| Gimmy: Right. 新唔新鮮. (san1 m4 san1 sin1.) |
| David: Right. Like, “Is the fish fresh or not?” |
| Gimmy: 魚新唔新鮮? (jyu5 san1 m4 san1 sin1?) |
| David: As always, we want to remind you our grammar point, all of our vocab is contained in our premium lesson PDF. |
| Gimmy: You can find it on our site at CantoneseClass101.com. |
Outro |
| David: Right. It’s in the Premium Member learning center. If you have any questions, though then go beyond the PDF. You’re always welcome to email u s. |
| Gimmy: Right. Our address is… |
| David: Contact us at CantoneseClass101.com. For now though, we’re done with today’s lesson. I’m David. |
| Gimmy: I’m Gimmy. |
| David: Thanks a lot for listening and we’ll see you on the site. |
| Gimmy: 下次見. (haa6 ci3 gin3.) |
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