Learn to clarify what you said, which could be important if you don't want that loan shark after you
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| INTRODUCTION |
| David: Welcome to CantoneseClass101.com. I’m David. |
| Nicole: 大家好, 我係 (daai6 gaa1 hou2 , ngo5 hai6) Nicole. |
| David: And we’re here with Absolute Beginner, Season 2, Lesson 18. |
| Nicole: “The Cantonese Loan Shark”. |
| David: Right. We’ve got a lesson here about Richard Branson. |
| Nicole: Oh yeah. |
| David: And the famed Cantonese speaking Richard Branson. |
| Nicole: He speaks Cantonese? |
| David: In our dialogue he speaks Cantonese. |
| Nicole: Alright. |
| David: We don’t know about real life, but if Richard Branson spoke Cantonese and he was with a friend, and they were speaking casual Cantonese, this is what it would sound like. |
| Nicole: That’s right. |
| David: Okay? So, we’re going to take you to the dialogue in a sec, before we do we want to remind you that we got flashcards for this lesson on CantoneseClass101.com |
| Nicole: Just visit the premium learning center and you can be studying flashcards in a second. |
| David: Right. And it’s really going to help you making this new vocab stick. |
| Nicole: That’s right. |
| David: Let’s get to the dialogue. |
| DIALOGUE |
| A: 我想借一萬。(ngo5 soeng2 ze3 jat1 maan6.) |
| B: 冇問題。(mou5 man6 tai4.) |
| A: 我係話美金。(ngo5 hai6 waa6 mei5 gam1.) |
| B: 我係話英鎊。(ngo5 hai6 waa6 jing1 bong2.) |
| A: I want to borrow 10,000. |
| B: No prob. |
| A: I meant US dollars. |
| B: I meant UK pounds. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| David: Because Richard Branson is rich. |
| Nicole: Yeah. |
| David: U.S dollars? British pounds? Same thing. |
| Nicole: He doesn’t care. |
| David: Yes. Money like wine. So, we’ve actually got an easier dialogue today. |
| Nicole: Yeah. |
| David: Compared to our last few. Especially compared to the grammar point in the last lesson. |
| Nicole: That’s right. |
| David: Okay. So we’re giving you guys a break. But we still have a lot of really useful vocab. |
| Nicole: About currencies. |
| David: Right. So, let’s get to it. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Nicole: 借。(ze3.) |
| David: “To borrow”. |
| Nicole: 借, 借, 美金。(ze3, ze3, mei5 gam1.) |
| David: “U.S dollar”. |
| Nicole: 美金, 美金, 英鎊。(mei5 gam1, mei5 gam1, jing1 bong2.) |
| David: “British pound”. |
| Nicole: 英鎊, 英鎊, 港紙。(jing1 bong2, jing1 bong2, gong2 zi2.) |
| David: “Hong Kong dollar”. |
| Nicole: 港紙, 港紙, 人民幣。(gong2 zi2, gong2 zi2, jan4 man4 bai6) |
| David: “Chinese RMB”. |
| Nicole: 人民幣, 人民幣, 日元。(jan4 man4 bai6, jan4 man4 bai6, jat6 jyun4) |
| David: “Japanese Yen”. |
| Nicole: 日元, 日元, 係話。(jat6 jyun4, jat6 jyun4, hai6 waa6.) |
| David: “Meant to say”. |
| Nicole: 係話, 係話。(hai6 waa6, hai6 waa6.) |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| David: Let’s take a closer look at the usage for some of these words and phrases. |
| Nicole: Alright. |
| David: Our first word is “to borrow”. |
| Nicole: 借。(ze3.) |
| David: “To borrow”. |
| Nicole: 借。(ze3.) |
| David: In the dialogue, we heard this in the following sentence. |
| Nicole: 我想借一萬。(ngo5 soeng2 ze3 jat1 maan6.) |
| David: “I want to borrow 10000”. |
| Nicole: 我想借一萬。(ngo5 soeng2 ze3 jat1 maan6.) |
| David: But this isn’t just borrow. |
| Nicole: Yeah, it could be “lend”. |
| David: It could be “I really need to get rid of this 10000 dollars”. Who can I find to take these of my hands? |
| Nicole: Yeah, it could mean that. |
| David: So, two words, the same pronunciation. Totally different meanings. “To borrow”. |
| Nicole: 借。(ze3.) |
| David: “To lend”. |
| Nicole: 借。(ze3.) But if you’re lending money to someone else, you would want to use 借畀 (ze3 bei2). |
| David: Which is “to lend to”. |
| Nicole: 借畀 (ze3 bei2) |
| David: So you usually can tell these apart in context. |
| Nicole: That’s right. |
| David: Also because no one really asks you to borrow money from them. Not often. Anyway, the rest of our vocab today is really the name of currencies. |
| Nicole: That’s right. |
| David: We can’t do them all, but we picked the top five. First, “U.S dollar”. |
| Nicole: 美金。(mei5 gam1.) |
| David: “U.S dollar”. |
| Nicole: 美金。(mei5 gam1.) |
| David: And that second character there. |
| Nicole: 金。(gam1.) |
| David: Literally means “gold”. |
| Nicole: That’s right, 金 (gam1). |
| David: Right. So it’s “U.S gold”. Next, we’ve got the pound. |
| Nicole: 英鎊。(jing1 bong2.) |
| David: “British pound”. |
| Nicole: 英鎊。(jing1 bong2.) |
| David: One of the reasons we picked these currencies is because they each have a different last character. |
| Nicole: That’s right. In the pound, we have 鎊. (bong2.) |
| David: And that literally means “pound”. |
| Nicole: Yeah. It can refer to the weight or - |
| David: Or the currency. |
| Nicole: Yes. |
| David: Right. Our next example shows what Hong Kong people think of their own currency. |
| Nicole: Haha, 港紙。(gong2 zi2). |
| David: We’ve got “Hong Kong” there. |
| Nicole: 港。(gong2.) |
| David: And then the word for “paper”. |
| Nicole: 紙。(zi2.) |
| David: “Hong Kong dollar”. |
| Nicole: 港紙 (gong2 zi2) . We treat money like paper. |
| David: Right. Although I love the Hong Kong currency, it’s so colorful and all the banks issue actually. |
| Nicole: We make fun of it, though. |
| David: Right. Our next example is the “Chinese RMB”. |
| Nicole: 人民幣。(jan4 man4 bai6.) |
| David: “The Chinese RMB”. |
| Nicole: 人民幣。(jan4 man4 bai6.) |
| David: And that last sound. |
| Nicole: 幣。(bai6.) |
| David: Literally means a “coin” or “hard note”. |
| Nicole: That’s right, 幣 (bai6). |
| David: Our final example is the “Japanese Yen”. |
| Nicole: 日元。(jat6 jyun4.) |
| David: “Japanese Yen”. |
| Nicole: 日元。(jat6 jyun4.) |
| David: What’s the last character there? |
| Nicole: 元。(jyun4.) |
| David: Normally, this also means “dollar”. |
| Nicole: That’s right. |
| David: So, in addition to hearing people say. |
| Nicole: 美金。(mei5 gam1.) |
| David: You’ll also hear them say. |
| Nicole: 美元。(mei5 jyun4.) |
| David: Right. And that would mean “U.S dollar”. |
| Nicole: Yeah. |
| David: To be less descriptive. |
| Nicole: Yes. Let’s hear both of them again. |
| David: Okay. |
| Nicole: 美金, 美元。 (mei5 gam1, mei5 jyun4.) |
| David: So, five different currencies. The “U.S dollar”. |
| Nicole: 美金。 (mei5 gam1.) |
| David: “The UK pound”. |
| Nicole: 英鎊。(jing1 bong2.) |
| David: “The Hong Kong paper”. |
| Nicole: Hong Kong dollar! 港紙. (gong2 zi2.) |
| David: “The Chinese RMB”. |
| Nicole: 人民幣。 (jan4 man4 bai6.) |
| David: And the “Japanese Yen”. |
| Nicole: 日元。(jat6 jyun4.) |
| David: With this, you should be set to start changing money and doing international banking. Okay, and with that, let’s get to our grammar section. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| David: It’s grammar time! Our grammar point today is really useful. |
| Nicole: That’s right. |
| David: Because if you were anything like me when you’re learning Cantonese, you’re going to make mistakes. You’re going to make lots of mistakes. |
| Nicole: This happens so me, too! |
| David: Yeah. And you’re going to need to restate what you said and say “Well, actually what I mean was…” Yes. And that is what we’re going to cover in today’s grammar point. |
| Nicole: That’s right. |
| David: In the dialogue, we had this sentence. |
| Nicole: 我係話美金。(ngo5 hai6 waa6 mei5 gam1.) |
| David: “I meant U.S dollars.” |
| Nicole: 我係話美金。(ngo5 hai6 waa6 mei5 gam1.) |
| David: And to this, Richard Branson responded. |
| Nicole: 我係話英鎊。(ngo5 hai6 waa6 jing1 bong2.) |
| David: “I meant British pounds.” |
| Nicole: 我係話英鎊。(ngo5 hai6 waa6 jing1 bong2.) |
| David: Our key word here is? |
| Nicole: 係話。(hai6 waa6.) |
| David: “Meant to say”. |
| Nicole: 係話。(hai6 waa6.) |
| David: That’s literally “to be and then to say”. |
| Nicole: Yeah, 係 (hai6) and then 話. (waa6.) |
| David: But we’re using it here to say “Well what I really meant was…” For instance, if you meet someone for the first time and you really want their number, but it stumbles at the wrong way. |
| Nicole: Yeah. |
| David: You could always say. |
| Nicole: 我係話你好靚。(ngo5 hai6 waa6 nei5 hou2 leng3.) |
| David: “I meant to say you were really beautiful.” |
| Nicole: Yeah, that sounds sweet actually. 我係話你好靚。(ngo5 hai6 waa6 nei5 hou2 leng3.) |
| David: “I meant you were really beautiful.” On a different topic, you could be in a meeting and things could go horribly wrong at which point you could toss it this. |
| Nicole: 佢係話 係佢唔啱。(keoi5 hai6 waa6 hai6 keoi5 m4 ngaam1.) |
| David: “He meant, it’s him that’s wrong.” |
| Nicole: 佢係話 係佢唔啱。(keoi5 hai6 waa6 hai6 keoi5 m4 ngaam1.) |
| David: “He meant, it was him that’s wrong.” That’s a tricky one. Our next example is also a bit tricky, but it shows how you can use this to clarify things. |
| Nicole: That’s right. 我係話 聽日開會。(ngo5 hai6 waa6 ting1 jat6 hoi1 wui2.) |
| David: “I meant to say we’d have a meeting tomorrow.” |
| Nicole: 我係話 聽日開會。(ngo5 hai6 waa6 ting1 jat6 hoi1 wui2.) |
| David: “I meant to say tomorrow to have a meeting.” |
| Nicole: That’s right. You’re emphasizing “tomorrow”, 聽日. (ting1 jat6.) |
| David: So to use this, put it at the start of any sentence. “I meant to say”. |
| Nicole: 我係話 ……….。(ngo5 hai6 waa6……..) |
| David: “I meant to say it’s no problem.” |
| Nicole: 我係話 冇問題。(ngo5 hai6 waa6 mou5 man6 tai4.) |
| David: “I mean to say I’m sorry.” |
| Nicole: 我係話 對唔住。(ngo5 hai6 waa6 deoi3 m4 zyu6.) |
| David: “I meant to say you’re really beautiful.” |
| Nicole: 我係話你好靚。(ngo5 hai6 waa6 nei5 hou2 leng3.) |
| David: A really simple point, but one is really useful as well. And with that, that’s our grammar point for today. Before we go, we want to remind you that there’s nothing like a little competition. |
| Nicole: Even against yourself. |
| David: Right. So, you can test what you’ve learned in this lesson with our fun review quizzes. |
| Nicole: Master vocabulary and grammar. |
| David: With our short challenging quizzes. And you can find these on our lesson’s page at CantoneseClass101.com. |
| Nicole: That’s right. |
Outro |
| David: That’s it for us for today. Thanks a lot for listening as always. I’m David. |
| Nicole: 我係 (ngo5 hai6) Nicole. |
| David: And we’ll see you on the site. |
| Nicole: See you! |
| David: Bye-bye. |
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