Dialogue

Vocabulary

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Lesson Transcript

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 12.
Nicole : “Jammed in Hong Kong.”
David : Right. It’s about a traffic jam.
Nicole : It happens a lot.
David : It does happen a lot. Especially if you need to cross over to the island from the mainland.
Nicole : Yeah.
David : Going through the bridge. So, we’ve got a dialogue that takes place at work.
Nicole : And it’s between colleagues.
David : Right, so they’re speaking casual Cantonese as always.
Nicole : That’s right.
David : Now, in the dialogue we’re going to learn why is someone’s late. Before we get there though, we want to remind you. We’re getting a bit more difficult.
Nicole : Yeah, we are.
David : So, one of the really useful ways to keep up with us is getting your hands on those PDF transcripts.
Nicole : Yeah.
David : We’ve mentioned it before, we’ll mention it again, they’re on the website CantoneseClass101.com.
Nicole : In the premium learning center.
David : Right. You can download them and review the stuff right away. That said, let’s get to the dialogue.
DIALOGUE
A: 唔好意思我遲到。 (m4 hou2 ji3 si1 ngo5 ci4 dou3.)
B: 唔緊要。(m4 gan2 jiu3.)
A: 塞車。真係對唔住。(sak1 ce1. zan1 hai6 deoi3 m4 zyu6.)
B: 唔緊要,我明。(m4 gan2 jiu3, ngo5 ming4.)
A: Sorry I'm late.
B: It's okay.
A: There was a traffic jam. I'm really sorry.
B: It's okay, I understand.
POST CONVERSATION BANTER
David : What an understanding boss!
Nicole : No, it’s between colleagues.
David : Okay. So, Oh, you were late too! That’s okay. No problem. So we’ve got a vocab section which is going to be useful for you if you like us, always arrive late or early.
Nicole : Yeah, we’ll provide you with excuses.
David : Yes.
Nicole : For being late.
David : Let’s get to that.
VOCAB LIST
Nicole : 遲到。 (ci4 dou3.)
David : “To arrive late”.
Nicole : 遲到, 遲到, 早到。(ci4 dou3, ci4 dou3, zou2 dou3.)
David : “To arrive early”.
Nicole : 早到, 早到, 塞車。(zou2 dou3, zou2 dou3, sak1 ce1.)
David : “Traffic jam”.
Nicole : 塞車, 塞車, 瞓過籠。(sak1 ce1, sak1 ce1, fan3 gwo3 lung4.)
David : “To oversleep”.
Nicole : 瞓過 籠, 瞓過籠, 真係。(fan3 gwo3 lung4, fan3 gwo3 lung4, zan1 hai6.)
David : “Really”.
Nicole : 真係, 真係, 唔緊要。 (zan1 hai6, zan1 hai6, m4 gan2 jiu3.)
David : “It’s okay”.
Nicole : 唔緊要, 唔緊要, 明。(m4 gan2 jiu3, m4 gan2 jiu3, ming4.)
David : “To understand”.
Nicole : 明, 明。(ming4, ming4.)
VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE
David : So all of our vocab section today is about arriving late and arriving early.
Nicole : Yeah.
David : Yeah. Those were actually your first two words. “To arrive late”.
Nicole : 遲到。 (ci4 dou3.)
David : “To arrive late”.
Nicole : 遲到。(ci4 dou3.)
David : What are the tones on that?
Nicole : 遲 (ci4) is the lowest tone, [unintelligible 00:03:04] tone, flat low. 遲. (ci4.)
David : And then?
Nicole : 到 (dou3) is a middle level flat tone. 到.(dou3.)
David : So low flat, mid flat.
Nicole : 遲到。(ci4 dou3.)
David : So when you’re late you can say “Sorry, I’m late”.
Nicole : 唔好意思我遲到。(m4 hou2 ji3 si1 ngo5 ci4 dou3.)
David : “Sorry, I’m late”.
Nicole : 唔好意思我遲到。 (m4 hou2 ji3 si1 ngo5 ci4 dou3.)
David : Our next word is “to arrive early”.
Nicole : 早到。 (zou2 dou3.)
David : To arrive early.
Nicole : 早到。(zou2 dou3.)
David : And what are the tones on that?
Nicole : 早到 (zou2 dou3) is a high rising tone, 早 (zou2) and it’s followed by 到 (dou3), midlevel flat tone.
David : Right.
Nicole : 早到 (zou2 dou3), “to arrive early”.
David : Yeah. Now before the podcast, I said “You might want to say sorry, I’ve arrived early.”
Nicole : 唔好意思我早到。(m4 hou2 ji3 si1 ngo5 zou2 dou3.)
David : And Nicole, you’d never say that.
Nicole : Yeah, it never happens.
David : So, everyone in Hong Kong is always busy and running late.
Nicole : I would assume so, at least we’re punctual.
David : Yeah. But if you show up at a party, say, you show up too early you can say “Sorry, I’m early”.
Nicole : 唔好意思我早到。(m4 hou2 ji3 si1 ngo5 zou2 dou3.)
David : Right.
Nicole : And they’ll probably say “Go away!”
David : “Go away! Come back later!” Yeah. Well, the third excuse you’ll probably don’t want to give which is “to oversleep”.
Nicole : 瞓過籠。(fan3 gwo3 lung4.)
David : “To oversleep”.
Nicole : 瞓過籠。(fan3 gwo3 lung4.)
David : It’s a real cause of tardiness.
Nicole : Yeah.
David : So, you can always say “Sorry, I overslept”.
Nicole : 唔好意思我瞓過籠。(m4 hou2 ji3 si1 ngo5 fan3 gwo3 lung4.)
David : And we hope it honestly keeps you from being fired.
Nicole : Yeah, let’s hope so.
David : Yeah. So, three really, really critical pieces of vocab today. First, “to arrive late”.
Nicole : 遲到。(ci4 dou3.)
David : Second, “to arrive early”.
Nicole : 早到。(zou2 dou3.)
David : And third, “to oversleep”.
Nicole : 瞓過籠。 (fan3 gwo3 lung4.)
David : “Sorry, I’m late.”
Nicole : 唔好意思我遲到。(m4 hou2 ji3 si1 ngo5 ci4 dou3.)
David : “Sorry, I’m early.”
Nicole : 對唔住, 我早到。(deoi3 m4 zyu6, ngo5 zou2 dou3.)
David : “Sorry, I overslept.”
Nicole : 對唔住, 我瞓過籠。 (deoi3 m4 zyu6 , ngo5 fan3 gwo3 lung4.)
David : Since this lesson is all about being polite, in our grammar section today we’re going to review some really polite words and phrases.
Nicole : That’s right.
David : Let’s get to it.

Lesson focus

David : It’s grammar time! In our grammar section today, we’re going to review a lot of really common words and phrases.
Nicole : That’s right. Starting with 對唔住. (deoi3 m4 zyu6.)
David : “Sorry”.
Nicole : 對唔住。 (deoi3 m4 zyu6.)
David : “Sorry”. We also have?
Nicole : 唔好意思 (m4 hou2 ji3 si1)
David : “Excuse me”.
Nicole : 唔好意思。 (m4 hou2 ji3 si1.)
David : “Excuse me”.
Nicole : That could be “sorry”, too.
David : Yeah, depends on the situation.
Nicole : Yeah.
David : Next, is “thank you”.
Nicole : 唔該。 (m4 goi1.)
David : “Thank you”.
Nicole : 唔該。(m4 goi1.)
David : And we’ve got two more.
Nicole : 唔使客氣。(m4 sai2 haak3 hei3.)
David : “You’re welcome”.
Nicole : 唔使客氣。 (m4 sai2 haak3 hei3.)
David : “You’re welcome”.
Nicole : 唔緊要。(m4 gan2 jiu3.)
David : “It’s okay”.
Nicole : 唔緊要。(m4 gan2 jiu3.)
David : “It’s okay”. So these are all platitudes.
Nicole : Yeah.
David : You know, by now we know them and we’re used toss them out, but sometimes you really mean it. You’re really sorry.
Nicole : Yeah.
David : Or you do really want to say “excuse me” and in our dialogue, we learned how to take these and really turn them up a notch. Listen to this line from the dialogue.
Nicole : 真係對唔住。 (zan1 hai6 deoi3 m4 zyu6.)
David : That’s “I’m really sorry”.
Nicole : 真係對唔住。 (zan1 hai6 deoi3 m4 zyu6.)
David : Literally “Really, I’m sorry.”
Nicole : 真係對唔住。(zan1 hai6 deoi3 m4 zyu6.)
David : How are we saying “really”, here?
Nicole : 真係。 (zan1 hai6.)
David : “Really”.
Nicole : 真係。 (zan1 hai6.)
David : And we can put anything after that.
Nicole : Yeah.
David : Let’s practice this with these polite phrases we’ve just covered.
Nicole : Okay.
David : First. “I’m really sorry.”
Nicole : 真係對唔住。 (zan1 hai6 deoi3 m4 zyu6.)
David : “I’m really sorry.”
Nicole : 真係對唔住。 (zan1 hai6 deoi3 m4 zyu6.)
David : Next, you could say “Really, excuse me.”
Nicole : 真係唔好意思。 (zan1 hai6 m4 hou2 ji3 si1.)
David : Now it really means “I’m sorry”, too.
Nicole : Yeah. 真係唔好意思。 (zan1 hai6 m4 hou2 ji3 si1.)
David : “Thank you” is?
Nicole : 唔該。 (m4 goi1.)
David : So you could say “Really, thanks”.
Nicole : 真係唔該晒!(zan1 hai6 m4 goi1 saai3!)
David : “Really, thanks”.
Nicole : 真係唔該晒! (zan1 hai6 m4 goi1 saai3!) You notice the 晒 (saai3) in the end, because 唔該晒 (m4 goi1 saai3) means “thank you” as well.
David : Yeah.
Nicole : And we’ve learned another way of saying thank you. That’s 多謝. (do1 ze6.)
David : Yeah.
Nicole : It’s more formal and polite.
David : It’s more formal.
Nicole : Yeah.
David : If you’re using it in stores you should say this instead.
Nicole : 多謝。(do1 ze6.)
David : Now, someone would probably answer?
Nicole : 唔使客氣。 (m4 sai2 haak3 hei3.)
David : Which means “You’re welcome”.
Nicole : 唔使客氣。 (m4 sai2 haak3 hei3.)
David : But if they really, really mean it, they can also say.
Nicole : 真係唔使客氣。 (zan1 hai6 m4 sai2 haak3 hei3.)
David : “You’re really welcome.”
Nicole : 真係唔使客氣。 (zan1 hai6 m4 sai2 haak3 hei3.)
David : Our last plate phrase was?
Nicole : 唔緊要。 (m4 gan2 jiu3.)
David : “It’s okay.”
Nicole : 唔緊要。 (m4 gan2 jiu3.)
David : To add really to this, say.
Nicole : 真係唔緊要。 (zan1 hai6 m4 gan2 jiu3.)
David : “It’s really okay”.
Nicole : 真係唔緊要。 (zan1 hai6 m4 gan2 jiu3.)
David : Right. So, in this lesson, we’ve covered a really simple way to take plate phrases and turn them up a notch, add...
Nicole : 真係 (zan1 hai6)
David: ...at the very beginning.

Outro

David: So, that’s our lesson for today. Before we go, we want to remind you: in this lesson, we touched on a couple of those tones in the vocab section. Normally, we don’t. One of the reasons that we don’t is all the stuff is in the PDF.
Nicole : That’s right.
David : So if you’re ever listening and wonder what tone is that, just download the PDF and check it and you’ll know in a couple of seconds. With that though, our time is up for today. I’m David.
Nicole : 我係 (ngo5 hai6) Nicole.
David : Thanks a lot for listening, and we’ll see you on the site.
Nicole : See you!
David : Bye-bye.

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