48 Farewell 送别
一週間の休暇を終え、王叔叔が上海へ帰ります。
なおこのFarewell 送别というタイトルはせっかくの最終回episode 100と丸かぶりです。
Hi there everyone, 你们好吗? Thanks for tuning into today’s episode of Growing up with Chinese. 欢迎大家收看成长汉语.
All good things come to an end at some point, don’t they? Now in a way*1 that’s what qualifies them as good. If they never ended, there would never be anything bad and if the bad didn’t exist, good will neither. Have I made your head spin*2?
Well, 王叔叔’s vacation in 北京 is finally up. And he has to head back to 上海 today. So now let’s head over to the train station and see what kind of goodbyes are being spoken. Shall we?
小明：叔叔，咱们应该去第几站台？
叔叔：我看看啊。走，去第二站台。
小明：第二站台就在前面。我帮您拿行李吧。妈妈：王楠，你看你。才来几天就忙着回去。
叔叔：嫂子，我已经够麻烦你们的了。非常感谢。
妈妈：千万别这么说。我们都是一家人。还说什么麻烦不麻烦的。
爸爸：你嫂子说的对。王楠，下次再来北京，一定要在家多住几天。
小明：对对，下次叔叔在我家住上两个月。我们一起去香山照红叶。
妈妈：这孩子，现在满脑子都是摄影。
叔叔：嫂子，您还别说，小明还真有点儿摄影天赋呢。
小明：谢谢叔叔。
叔叔：小明，等你放假，让你爸爸妈妈带你到我家来玩儿吧。叔叔可以带你去上海很多好玩儿的地方。
小明：真的吗？ 太好了！ 上海有适合拍照的好地方吗？
叔叔：那可太多了。比如说东方明珠电视塔啊、外滩啊、城隍庙啊。对了，我们还可以去周庄拍照。
小明：真棒，我都等不及了！
爸爸：好啦好啦。车快开了，王楠，快上车吧。
妈妈：王楠，路上多加小心，一路平安。
叔叔：好的。哥哥、嫂子，你们放心吧。
爸爸：到了上海给我们来个电话。
叔叔：好的，你们也多保重。小明，好好学习啊。叔叔等着听你的好成绩。
小明：哈哈，我一定努力。对了，叔叔，您晚上要好好睡觉啊。不然的话明天会打瞌睡的。
叔叔：这小子……
Well that looked like a very lively goodbye didn’t it. There is quite the custom in China that escorting visitors to their destination or as close as you can get to their destination. And the whole family has turned out to 送王叔叔 to the train station. So let’s break down some of the more important phrases in today’s dialogue.
咱们应该去第几站台? Which platform should we be going to? 站台 means platform and so 第几站台 is which number platform.
才来几天就忙着回去. You’ve only been here a few days and already you’re rushing to go back. 才来几天 is you’ve only been here a few days. 忙着 means to be busy with. So 忙着回去 is like saying you’re rushing to return or you’re hurrying to go back.
小明：叔叔，咱们应该去第几站台？
叔叔：我看看啊。走，去第二站台。
小明：第二站台就在前面。我帮您拿行李吧。妈妈：王楠，你看你。才来几天就忙着回去。
叔叔：嫂子，我已经够麻烦你们的了。非常感谢。
妈妈：千万别这么说。我们都是一家人。还说什么麻烦不麻烦的。
爸爸：你嫂子说的对。王楠，下次再来北京，一定要在家多住几天。
我们一起去香山照红叶. We can go to the fragrant hills together and photograph all the red leaves. 香山 is fragrant hills and it’s a beautiful area of 北京 where full foliages is especially gorgeous. 红 means red and 叶 means leaves so 红叶 is red leaves.
现在满脑子都是摄影. Your head is completely full of photography now. 脑子 means head or brain. And 满脑子 is your entire head or all of your brain. The only thing you can think of is photography. 现在满脑子都是摄影.
小明还真有点儿摄影天赋呢. 小明 really does have natural gift for photography. 天赋 means talent or natural gift. So 摄影天赋 refers to a natural gift or talent for photography.
小明：下次叔叔在我家住上两个月。我们一起去香山照红叶。
妈妈：这孩子，现在满脑子都是摄影。
叔叔：嫂子，您还别说，小明还真有点儿摄影天赋呢。
小明：谢谢叔叔。
叔叔：小明，等你放假，让你爸爸妈妈带你到我家来玩儿吧。叔叔可以带你去上海很多好玩儿的地方。
小明：真的吗？ 太好了！ 上海有适合拍照的好地方吗？
叔叔：那可太多了。比如说东方明珠电视塔啊、外滩啊、城隍庙啊。对了，我们还可以去周庄拍照。
路上多加小心, 一路平安. The extra careful on the road and safe travels. 一路平安 is a set saying in Chinese that literally translates as “may your whole trip be safe and well.” In other words, “safe travels.” You can hear people say this all the time in China when someone is about to travel somewhere. So it’s a very good phrase to know. 一路平安.
你们也多保重. You guys take care also.
妈妈：王楠，路上多加小心，一路平安。
叔叔：好的。哥哥、嫂子，你们放心吧。
爸爸：到了上海给我们来个电话。
叔叔：好的，你们也多保重。小明，好好学习啊。叔叔等着听你的好成绩。
小明：哈哈，我一定努力。对了，叔叔，您晚上要好好睡觉啊。不然的话明天会打瞌睡的。
All right, so let’s take a look at today’s vocabulary.
- 天赋 natural gift, talent. tiān fù
- 保重 take care of oneself. bǎo zhòng
- 努力 make great efforts, try hard, exhort*3 oneself. nǔ lì
- 打瞌睡 doze off, be sleepy. dǎ kē shuì
Today we’re going to be looking at a radical that means a piece of cloth 巾. So it looks like this. A piece of cloth. Does it look like a piece of cloth to you? Now we see this as a radical in the 常 of 非常. So let’s take a look at this character… 常.
All right. Now here a radical 巾 appears at the bottom section of our character. But the 巾 radical can appear on the left side of the character as well.
So, here a few more examples. 带 bring, belt, ribbon. 帮 help, assist. 帽 hat, cap.
Spotlight
Now 北京 actually has a cricket market, it’s fabulous. You have to go at the right time of the year but if it is cricket season, which is roughly from July to November, the market is bustling. There’re all kinds of crickets for sale like fighting crickets, sweet sounding crickets, big crickets, small crickets, it’s the site you will never forget.
And apart from selling actual crickets, people sell all kinds of cricket things. Things like different kinds of cages. Now a typical traditional cricket cage resembles a clay pot. You can’t see inside unless you take the lid off. So these cages aren’t as popular these days as plastic ones. They have clear tops, and may be clear sides. Now they might be partition into a few rooms so that a cricket has different spaces to sit in. Or they might be equipped with the side that functions like a magnifying glass. So you can see your cricket up close.
Now apart from cages, cricket tools are also sold at the cricket market. My favorite tool looks like chopstick with a feather bowl on one end. This is used to move the cricket around without hurting it. So think of something like a tickler. When you’re cleaning your cricket cage, you use the tickler to move it from its dirty cage to a temporary one.
There was a radio show I heard not too long ago about a Swedish man who first came to China nineteen seventies as a student and got into*4 crickets. So much so, that he created a cricket orchestra. I’ve heard the music before it’s incredible. And you might be hard pressed*5 to guess that the music is the sound of over seven hundred crickets all in one orchestra.
Anyway, all in all crickets are fabulous low maintenance pets that people all over China absolutely adore.
Primer
It’s language point time everyone and to begin with, let’s take a look at the pattern 才 something 就.
Now it’s similar to the only … already pattern in English. Now this pattern expresses surprise at the results or resulting situation of something that happened in a short period of time or something that happen under specific circumstances. So typically 才 is followed by a time related or action related phrase. And 就 is followed by the results or resulting situation. So 小明’s mom said to 王叔叔, 才来几天就忙着回去. You’ve only been here a few days and already you’re busy with leaving.
千万别. 千万别 is like saying 一定不要 or don’t even or must not. 千万别这么说. Don’t even say that or you must not say that. 千万别想了. You must not think about that any more or don’t even think about it. Pretty straightforward, no? Let’s look at a few more examples just to make sure you all get it.
- 小明，我明天去上海出差。／妈，您千万别忘带身份证。
- 这件事你千万别告诉兰兰。／好的。
比如. This is just like the English “for example.” 王叔叔 said in today’s dialogue, 比如说东方明珠电视塔. For example the Pearl of the Orient TV Tower. Now if you noticed in this example, 王叔叔 says 比如说, which is pretty much the same as saying 比如. Both work for setting the stage for some examples.
- 你会说几种语言？／好几种呢。比如说英语、德语、法语、汉语。
- 你喜欢什么运动？／很多啊，比如说打篮球、踢足球、跑步、游泳什么的。
We’ve reached our finish line everyone, I hope you all enjoyed today’s episode of Growing up with Chinese. 别忘了上我们的网页看一看. Don’t forget you can always visit our website for clarification or to send us any questions or comments you might have about what we covered today or any other day. Chinese can get quite complicated so make sure to take adventure of all the resources that are out there. Thanks for joining us. 大家加油, good luck with your Chinese studies, 我们下次节目再见. See you all next time.
