Learn how to ask the question "Why?"
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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 Gimmy with Beginner Season 1 Lesson 2. |
| Gimmy: Yes, Friday in Hong Kong. |
| David: Right, which is the end of the working week for most people. |
| Gimmy: For most of them, yes. |
| David: Yes. So we've got a dialogue that takes place in an office between two colleagues. |
| Gimmy: And they're exciting. |
| David: Yes. One of them is getting excited. Let's listen to the dialogue. |
Lesson conversation |
|---|
| 今日係星期幾？(gam1 jat6 hai6 sing1 kei4 gei2?) |
| 星期五，做咩？(sing1 kei4 ng5, zou6 me1?) |
| 聽日放假喇！(ting1 jat6 fong3 gaa3 laa3!) |
| David: One more time, a bit slower. |
| 今日係星期幾？(gam1 jat6 hai6 sing1 kei4 gei2?) |
| 星期五，做咩？(sing1 kei4 ng5, zou6 me1?) |
| 聽日放假喇！(ting1 jat6 fong3 gaa3 laa3!) |
| David: And now, with the English translation. |
| 今日係星期幾？(gam1 jat6 hai6 sing1 kei4 gei2?) |
| What day is it today? |
| 星期五，做咩？(sing1 kei4 ng5, zou6 me1?) |
| Friday, why? |
| 聽日放假喇！(ting1 jat6 fong3 gaa3 laa3!) |
| Tomorrow is a holiday! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| David: So a pretty easy dialogue. It shorten last time, but there's lot of good stuff in here. |
| Gimmy: Yes. |
| David: Right? And it's true to life unless… |
| Gimmy: You need to work six days a week. |
| David: Yeah, a lot of people in Hong Kong will work Saturday morning. So we hope you're not one of them. That said, let's get to our vocab section. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Gimmy: 今日 (gam1 jat6) [natural native speed] |
| David: Today |
| Gimmy: 今日 (gam1 jat6) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Gimmy: 今日 (gam1 jat6) [natural native speed] |
| Gimmy: 聽日 (ting1 jat6) [natural native speed] |
| David: Tomorrow. |
| Gimmy: 聽日 (ting1 jat6) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Gimmy: 聽日 (ting1 jat6) [natural native speed] |
| Gimmy: 星期 (sing1 kei4) [natural native speed] |
| David: Week. |
| Gimmy: 星期 (sing1 kei4) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Gimmy: 星期 (sing1 kei4) [natural native speed] |
| Gimmy: 做咩 (zou6 me1) [natural native speed] |
| David: What. |
| Gimmy: 做咩 (zou6 me1) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Gimmy: 做咩 (zou6 me1) [natural native speed] |
| Gimmy: 係 (hai6) [natural native speed] |
| David: To be. |
| Gimmy: 係 (hai6) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Gimmy: 係 (hai6) [natural native speed] |
| Gimmy: 放假 (fong3 gaa3) [natural native speed] |
| David: Holiday. |
| Gimmy: 放假 (fong3 gaa3) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Gimmy: 放假 (fong3 gaa3) [natural native speed] |
| Gimmy: 幾 (gei2) [natural native speed] |
| David: How many. |
| Gimmy: 幾 (gei2) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Gimmy: 幾 (gei2) [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCABULARY AND PHRASES |
| David: Let's take a closer look at some of these words. Now, some of these words are review, like how many... |
| Gimmy: 幾 (gei2) |
| David: To be. |
| Gimmy: 係 (hai6) |
| David: And week. |
| Gimmy: 星期. (sing1 kei4.) |
| David: But we've got a good chance today to review the words for today, tomorrow, and yesterday. |
| Gimmy: The first one is 今日. (gam1 jat6.) |
| David: Today. |
| Gimmy: 今日. (gam1 jat6.) |
| David: Today. And we hear this in this line in our dialogue. |
| Gimmy: 今日係星期幾？ (gam1 jat6 hai6 sing1 kei4 gei2?) |
| David: What day is it today? |
| Gimmy: 今日係星期幾？ (gam1 jat6 hai6 sing1 kei4 gei2?) |
| David: What day is it today? We can use the same word to answer that question. |
| GImmy: 今日係星期五. (gam1 jat6 hai6 sing1 kei4 ng5.) |
| David: Today is Friday. |
| Gimmy: 今日係星期五. (gam1 jat6 hai6 sing1 kei4 ng5.) |
| David: And we can just swap in the word for tomorrow as well. |
| Gimmy: 聽日 (ting1 jat6) |
| David: Tomorrow. |
| Gimmy: 聽日 (ting1 jat6) |
| David: In the dialogue, we heard this in the following sentence. |
| Gimmy: 聽日放假喇！(ting1 jat6 fong3 gaa3 laa3!) |
| David: Tomorrow is a holiday! |
| Gimmy: 聽日放假喇！(ting1 jat6 fong3 gaa3 laa3!) |
| David: Tomorrow is a holiday! But if today is Friday, we could also say, "Tomorrow is Saturday." |
| Gimmy: 聽日係星期六. (ting1 jat6 hai6 sing1 kei4 luk6.) |
| David: One more time. |
| Gimmy: 聽日係星期六. (ting1 jat6 hai6 sing1 kei4 luk6.) |
| David: So this gives us today and it gives us tomorrow. Gimmy, what about yesterday? |
| Gimmy: That’s 尋日. (cam4 jat6.) |
| David: Yesterday. |
| Gimmy: 尋日. 尋日. (cam4 jat6. cam4 jat6.) So David, if I'm going to say "Yesterday is Thursday," 尋日係星期四. (cam4 jat6 hai6 sing1 kei4 sei3.) |
| David: Yesterday is Thursday. |
| Gimmy: 尋日係星期四. (cam4 jat6 hai6 sing1 kei4 sei3.) |
| David: And in all of those sentences, the dates are the subjects, "Today is..." "Yesterday is..." We can also use them just to indicate the time when something happened, like "Yesterday I gave you a call." |
| Gimmy: 我尋日打過俾你. (ngo5 cam4 jat6 daa2 gwo3 bei2 nei5.) |
| David: Yesterday, I gave a call. |
| Gimmy: 我尋日打過俾你. (ngo5 cam4 jat6 daa2 gwo3 bei2 nei5.) |
| David: Right. Or if it's Saturday and your boss calls and asks you where you are, you could say, "I worked yesterday." |
| Gimmy: 我尋日返工. (ngo5 cam4 jat6 faan1 gung1.) |
| David: I'm not working today. |
| Gimmy: 我今日唔返工. (ngo5 gam1 jat6 m4 faan1 gung1.) |
| David: And in these cases, we're putting it at the beginning of the sentence just after the subject. |
| Gimmy: Right. 我尋日返工. 我今日唔返工. (ngo5 cam4 jat6 faan1 gung1. ngo5 gam1 jat6 m4 faan1 gung1. ) |
| David: Right. So three key words to remember from this lesson. |
| Gimmy: 今日, 聽日, 尋日 (gam1 jat6, ting1 jat6, cam4 jat6) |
| David: And that takes us to the grammar section. |
Lesson focus |
| David: Gimmy, what’s our grammar focus today? |
| Gimmy: We're going to learn how to say "What for?" or "Why?" |
| David: Right. In the dialogue, we see in this following line. |
| Gimmy: 星期五，做咩？(sing1 kei4 ng5, zou6 me1?) |
| David: It's Friday, why? |
| Gimmy: 星期五，做咩？(sing1 kei4 ng5, zou6 me1?) |
| David: It's Friday, why? And this isn't really "why" it's sort of "Why are you asking?" We want more information. |
| Gimmy: Yeah, "what do you want?" |
| David: Yeah, tell me more. |
| Gimmy: So we can also ask, "What did you do yesterday?" |
| David: Right. |
| Gimmy: 你尋日做咩？(nei5 cam4 jat6 zou6 me1?) |
| David: You. yesterday, tell me more. |
| Gimmy: 你尋日做咩？(nei5 cam4 jat6 zou6 me1?) |
| David: What did you do yesterday? |
| Gimmy: And often, in an office, we can ask people "Why so busy?" |
| David: Yeah. |
| Gimmy: 你做咩咁忙？(nei5 zou6 me1 gam3 mong4?) |
| David: "Why are you so busy?" |
| Gimmy: 你做咩咁忙？(nei5 zou6 me1 gam3 mong4?) |
| David: Or maybe even "It's Saturday, why are you working?" |
| Gimmy: 你做咩返工？今日星期六。(nei5 zou6 me1 faan1 gung1? gam1 jat6 sing1 kei4 luk6.) |
| David: One more time. |
| Gimmy: 今日星期六，你做咩返工？(gam1 jat6 sing1 kei4 luk6, nei5 zou6 me1 faan1 gung1?) |
| David: So remember, this short phrase… |
| Gimmy: 做咩 (zou6 me1) |
| David: We can translate it as "why", or "what," or "what for." |
| Gimmy: Yeah, asking for more information. |
| David: Yeah, it really means, "Tell me more." |
| Gimmy: Yeah. |
| David: And that brings us to the end of our podcast for today. |
Outro |
| David: As always, Gimmy, there's something you want to remind people. |
| Gimmy: If you have comments… |
| David: Leave them on the site. The address once more is… |
| Gimmy: CantoneseClass101.com. |
| David: Right. And we're going to look forward to reading your email. That said, we're out of time 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. (do1 ze6 sau1 teng1.) |
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