Learn how to talk about floor names
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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 9. |
| Gimmy: Lost in Hong Kong. |
| David: Right. Actually, they’re not lost so much as the… |
| Gimmy: They’re just really looking for a direction. |
| David: Yeah, they’re looking for directions, how do I get to where I need to go. |
| Gimmy: Right. |
| David: So our dialogue takes place in the school. It’s between the student and the teacher and they’re speaking casual Cantonese as always. Let’s get to the dialogue. |
Lesson conversation |
|---|
| 請問課室喺幾樓？(cing2 man6 fo3 sat1 hai2 gei2 lau2?) |
| 喺三樓。(hai2 saam1 lau2.) |
| 唔該！(m4 goi1!) |
| 唔使客氣。(m4 sai2 haak3 hei3.) |
| David: Once again, a bit slower. |
| 請問課室喺幾樓？(cing2 man6 fo3 sat1 hai2 gei2 lau2?) |
| 喺三樓。(hai2 saam1 lau2.) |
| 唔該！(m4 goi1!) |
| 唔使客氣。(m4 sai2 haak3 hei3.) |
| David: And now, with the English translation. |
| 請問課室喺幾樓？(cing2 man6 fo3 sat1 hai2 gei2 lau2?) |
| A: Excuse me, on which floor is the classroom? |
| 喺三樓。(hai2 saam1 lau2.) |
| B: On the third floor. |
| 唔該！(m4 goi1!) |
| A: Thank you! |
| 唔使客氣。(m4 sai2 haak3 hei3.) |
| B: You're welcome. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| David: And I’ve got a little warning here. If you’re not from Hong Kong, you are probably aware that the third floor is actually the 4th floor. Because in Hong Kong, people use the British counting system. |
| Gimmy: Yes. |
| David: So the ground floor is zero. |
| Gimmy: Yes. |
| David: Okay. That being said, we’ve got a lot of vocab here which is really useful if you’re looking for stuff. Let’s get to it. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Gimmy: 請問 (cing2 man6) [natural native speed]. |
| David: Excuse me |
| Gimmy: 請問(cing2 man6) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 請問 (cing2 man6) [natural native speed]. |
| Gimmy: 喺 (hai2) [natural native speed] |
| David: To be. |
| Gimmy: 喺 (hai2) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 喺 (hai2) [natural native speed]. |
| Gimmy: 課室 (fo3 sat1) [natural native speed] |
| David: Classroom. |
| Gimmy: 課室 (fo3 sat1) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 課室 (fo3 sat1) [natural native speed]. |
| Gimmy: 樓 (lau2) [natural native speed] |
| David: Floor |
| Gimmy: 樓 (lau2) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 樓 (lau2) [natural native speed]. |
| Gimmy: 唔該 (m4 goi1) [natural native speed] |
| David: Thank you. |
| Gimmy: 唔該 (m4 goi1) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 唔該 (m4 goi1) [natural native speed]. |
| Gimmy: 唔使 (m4 sai2) [natural native speed]. |
| David: No need. |
| Gimmy: 唔使 (m4 sai2) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 唔使 (m4 sai2) [natural native speed]. |
| Gimmy: 客氣 (haak3 hei3) [natural native speed]. |
| David: Polite. |
| Gimmy: 客氣 (haak3 hei3) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 客氣 (haak3 hei3) [natural native speed]. |
| KEY VOCABULARY AND PHRASES |
| David: Let’s take a closer look at some of these words and phrases. |
| Gimmy: The first one we want to get to is to review the word 幾 (gei2). |
| David: Which means “how many”. |
| Gimmy: 幾 (gei2). |
| David: How many. |
| Gimmy: In the dialogue, we heard 課室喺幾樓？(fo3 sat1 hai2 gei2 lau2 ?) |
| David: “On which floor is the classroom?” |
| Gimmy: 課室喺幾樓？(fo3 sat1 hai2 gei2 lau2 ?) |
| David: So we know there are several floors and we’re asking… |
| Gimmy: Which floor. |
| David: …which floor. In a previous lesson, we used this to ask “what time is it?” |
| Gimmy: 幾點？(gei2 dim2?) |
| David: How old are you? |
| Gimmy: 幾歲？(gei2 seoi3?) |
| David: Or how tall is someone? |
| Gimmy: 幾高？(gei2 gou1?) |
| David: Here, we’re using it to ask “on which floor.” |
| Gimmy: 幾樓? (gei2 lau2?) |
| David: So a quick reminder about how versatile this word is. |
| Gimmy: 幾 (gei2). |
| David: Now Gimmy, there’s something you wanted to highlight about all of these polite words we have in the dialogue. |
| Gimmy: Yes. The first one we heard was 請問. (cing2 man6.) |
| David: Which means “excuse me”. |
| Gimmy: 請問. (cing2 man6.) |
| David: It’s a polite way to ask a question. |
| Gimmy: Especially to start a question. |
| David: Right. It literally means “please ask.” |
| Gimmy: Yes. |
| David: Can I please ask you this? |
| Gimmy: Right. 請問. (cing2 man6.) |
| David: But we also have these other words. |
| Gimmy: 唔該 (m4 goi1) |
| David: Thank you. |
| Gimmy: 唔該 (m4 goi1) |
| David: Thank you. |
| Gimmy: And also, 唔使客氣. (m4 sai2 haak3 hei3.) |
| David: There’s no need to be polite. |
| Gimmy: 唔使客氣. (m4 sai2 haak3 hei3.) |
| David: “There’s no need to be polite.” In the dialogue, we translated that as “you’re welcome.” |
| Gimmy: Right. |
| David: Because it was the response to “thank you.” |
| Gimmy: Yes. |
| David: But really, it means “don’t be so polite.” |
| Gimmy: Right. One more thing, David, we can also combine 唔使 (m4 sai2) and 唔該 (m4 goi1) together. |
| David: Right. And that gives us… |
| Gimmy: 唔使唔該. (m4 sai2 m4 goi1.) |
| David: And what does that mean, Gimmy? |
| Gimmy: It’s almost the same expression saying… |
| David: Right. |
| Gimmy: ….”you don’t have to thank me.” |
| David: Yeah, don’t be so polite. |
| Gimmy: You’re welcome. |
| David: Right. |
| Gimmy: Exactly. |
| David: So two useful ways to kind of turn out thanks. The first is… |
| Gimmy: 唔使客氣. (m4 sai2 haak3 hei3.) |
| David: The second is… |
| Gimmy: 唔使唔該. (m4 sai2 m4 goi1.) |
| David: In our grammar section, we’re going to look at asking for directions in a building. |
Lesson focus |
| David: It’s grammar time! |
| Gimmy: So grammar section today is about asking location in a building. |
| David: Right. Is it on the 10th floor or the 9th floor? |
| Gimmy: Right. |
| David: And what room is it? |
| Gimmy: Right. In our dialogue, we heard 喺幾樓? (hai2 gei2 lau2?) |
| David: “On which floor …” |
| Gimmy: 喺幾樓? (hai2 gei2 lau2?) |
| David: “On which floor…” |
| Gimmy: The answer is 喺三樓. (hai2 saam1 lau2.) |
| David: “On the third floor.” |
| Gimmy: 喺三樓. (hai2 saam1 lau2.) |
| David: “On the third floor.” So our first point, which is a review, is that if you’re introducing locations, you use the verb. |
| Gimmy: 喺. (hai2.) |
| David: On the third floor. |
| Gimmy: 喺三樓. (hai2 saam1 lau2.) |
| David: Which is literally “it is the third floor.” |
| Gimmy: Right. |
| David: Of course, we could change the number. It can be the 4th floor… |
| Gimmy: 喺四樓. (hai2 sei3 lau2.) |
| David: …the 5th floor. |
| Gimmy: 喺五樓. (hai2 ng5 lau2.) |
| David: The 17th floor. |
| Gimmy: 喺十七樓. (hai2 sap6 cat1 lau2.) |
| David: Right. |
| Gimmy: David, in Hong Kong we also got the ground floor. It’s a different way of saying “ground floor.” 地下. (dei6 haa5.) |
| David: So “on the ground floor” would be… |
| Gimmy: 喺地下. (hai2 dei6 haa5.) |
| David: Right. And reminder again, it’s because in Hong Kong, people count from zero so there’s a special name for the lobby. |
| Gimmy: Yes, 地下. (dei6 haa5.) |
| David: Now, usually we’re not just asking about the floor. We want to know the room number, too. In English, we’d say something like “I want Room 3 on the second floor.” |
| Gimmy: In Cantonese, we put the floor first. |
| David: Right. So we’ll say… |
| Gimmy: 喺二樓三號室. (hai2 ji6 lau2 saam1 hou6 sat1.) |
| David: Which would be, “Floor 2… |
| Gimmy: 二樓... (ji6 lau2...) |
| David: …Room 3.” |
| Gimmy: ...三號室. (...saam1 hou6 sat1.) |
| David: So in Cantonese, we put the room number after the floor. |
| Gimmy: Yes. |
| David: One more time. |
| Gimmy: 二樓三號室. (ji6 lau2 saam1 hou6 sat1.) |
| David: “Floor 2, Room 3.” |
| Gimmy: 二樓三號室. (ji6 lau2 saam1 hou6 sat1.) |
| David: We hope this helps you find your way through all of these gargantuan office building that we have here in Hong Kong. |
| Gimmy: Yes, good luck! |
Outro |
| David: If you have any questions, if you get lost, you can always send us an email. |
| Gimmy: Our address is contact us at CantoneseClass101.com. |
| David: Right, and we look forward to hearing from you. For now though, that’s our podcast for today. I’m David. |
| Gimmy: I’m Gimmy. |
| David: Thanks a lot for listening, and we’ll see you on the site. |
| Gimmy: 多謝收聽, 下次見. (do1 ze6 sau1 teng1, haa6 ci3 gin3.) |
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