67 Bike repairs 1 修自行车1
中国といえば自転車の国……だったのは昔の話です。
大家好, 欢迎收看今天的成长汉语. Thanks for joining us for today’s episode of Growing up with Chinese.
Now last show it was sports day at 小明, Mike and 兰兰’s school. And today things are pretty much back to normal. Well, 兰兰’s actually in a bit of a bind*1 but luckily, she has 小明 around to give her a hand. So, let’s check in with the two of them now and see what’s up.
小明：兰兰，等等我。
兰兰：小明，你今天怎么一个人骑自行车上学啦？ 麦克呢？
小明：麦克今天做值日。一大早就去学校了。我估计他正在教室扫地、擦窗户呢。小明：兰兰，什么声音啊？
兰兰：哎呀，卡住了，我骑不动了。
小明：兰兰，快下车，别摔着。
兰兰：小明，怎么回事啊？
小明：兰兰，别着急，我看看。哦，大概是这里的零件坏了。
兰兰：附近哪儿有修车铺啊？ 咱们快去修修吧。
小明：现在太早了，人家还没上班呢。
兰兰：那怎么办啊！ 我们班早自习要听写。老师说谁都不能迟到。
小明：嗯，这样吧，兰兰，你骑我的车上学吧。
兰兰：那哪儿成啊，你怎么办啊？
小明：我没事儿。我们班早自习没有什么事儿。再说了，我这也叫助人为乐啊。老师不会批评我的，放心吧。
兰兰：小明，你对我真好，太谢谢你了。
小明：哈哈，就是的，兰兰。好在你碰到了我，要不然你今天准得迟到。
兰兰：就是啊。下回请你看电影。
小明：你不用那么客气。再怎么说，我也是个男孩子啊！ 你快走吧。说不定我跑得比你骑得还快呢。
兰兰：哈哈，又吹牛！ 好吧，那我就先走了。
小明：拜拜！
Poor 兰兰, having your transportation break down half way to school is an awful way to start the day. But luckily, 小明 was there to help out. OK let’s take a look at some of our dialogue’s main phrases.
我估计他正在教室扫地, 擦窗户. My guess is he’s currently sweeping the classroom and washing the windows. 估计 means reckon or guess. 扫地 is to sweep the floor. And 擦窗户 is to wipe windows or wash windows.
Now in Chinese school’s every student participates in classroom chores*2 before school starts. You take turns of course, but everybody has to participate. It’s kind of fun really. If you do a good job cleaning the classroom, you might get extra points or being acknowledged at school assembly*3 for the stellar job that you did.
兰兰：小明，你今天怎么一个人骑自行车上学啦？ 麦克呢？
小明：麦克今天做值日。一大早就去学校了。我估计他正在教室扫地、擦窗户呢。小明：兰兰，什么声音啊？
兰兰：哎呀，卡住了，我骑不动了。
小明：兰兰，快下车，别摔着。
兰兰：小明，怎么回事啊？
小明：兰兰，别着急，我看看。哦，大概是这里的零件坏了。
兰兰：附近哪儿有修车铺啊？ 咱们快去修修吧。
小明：现在太早了，人家还没上班呢。
哎呀, 卡住了. 我骑不动了. Oh no it’s stuck, I can’t ride it. 卡 is to get stuck or be jammed. And if you add 住 to it, 卡住, it means the jam is permanent. So it’s stuck and it won’t unstuck any time soon. 骑 is the verb to ride so 骑不动 is like saying it won’t ride or it won’t go I can’t ride it.
附近哪儿有修车铺? Is there a bicycle fix-it*4 shop nearby? 修车铺 is how you say bicycle fix-it shop. Now these are usually all over the place as many people here in China ride bicycles. Now either be an actual shop or they might be on the back of a three wheeled cart. In other words, the shop is the back of the cart. And they set up shop*5 every morning on say maybe a street corner. It’s very convenient if you need to get your bike fixed.
兰兰：你今天怎么一个人骑自行车上学啦？ 麦克呢？
小明：麦克今天做值日。一大早就去学校了。我估计他正在教室扫地、擦窗户呢。小明：兰兰，什么声音啊？
兰兰：哎呀，卡住了，我骑不动了。
小明：兰兰，快下车，别摔着。
兰兰：小明，怎么回事啊？
小明：兰兰，别着急，我看看。哦，大概是这里的零件坏了。
兰兰：附近哪儿有修车铺啊？ 咱们快去修修吧。
小明：现在太早了，人家还没上班呢。
兰兰：那怎么办啊！ 我们班早自习要听写。老师说谁都不能迟到。
小明：嗯，这样吧，兰兰，你骑我的车上学吧。
兰兰：那哪儿成啊，你怎么办啊？
小明：我没事儿。我们班早自习没有什么事儿。再说了，我这也叫助人为乐啊。老师不会批评我的，放心吧。
兰兰：小明，你对我真好，太谢谢你了。
小明：哈哈，就是的，兰兰。好在你碰到了我，要不然你今天准得迟到。
兰兰：就是啊。
我们班早自习要听写, 老师说谁都不能迟到. Our class has to take dictation in early study hall and our teacher said no one could be late. 早自习 is a mandatory study hall that occurs before the start of regular classes in the morning. Now just like a spelling quiz in English, Chinese students have character quizzes that kind of hard. Or 听写, which means dictation.
兰兰：附近哪儿有修车铺啊？ 咱们快去修修吧。
小明：现在太早了，人家还没上班呢。
兰兰：那怎么办啊！ 我们班早自习要听写。老师说谁都不能迟到。
小明：嗯，这样吧，兰兰，你骑我的车上学吧。
兰兰：那哪儿成啊，你怎么办啊？
小明：我没事儿。我们班早自习没有什么事儿。再说了，我这也叫助人为乐啊。老师不会批评我的，放心吧。
兰兰：小明，你对我真好，太谢谢你了。
小明：哈哈，就是的，兰兰。好在你碰到了我，要不然你今天准得迟到。
兰兰：就是啊。下回请你看电影。
小明：你不用那么客气。再怎么说，我也是个男孩子啊！ 你快走吧。说不定我跑得比你骑得还快呢。
兰兰：哈哈，又吹牛！ 好吧，那我就先走了。
小明：拜拜！
All right everyone it’s time to take a look at today’s vocabulary and our pinyin highlight.
And first off let’s take a look at our specific vocabulary words.
- 自行车 bicycle. zì xíng chē
- 值日 be on duty for the day. zhí rì
- 估计 estimate, reckon. gū jì
- 窗户 window. chuāng hu
- 摔 fall, tumble*6, lose one’s balance. shuāi
- 着急 worry, feel anxious, have ants in one’s pants*7. zhāo jí
- 大概 probably, most likely. dà gài
OK today we are going to be looking at bicycle or 自行车. So let’s take a look at the pinyin.
自 is pretty straightforward z-i and because it’s fourth tone, we put our tone marker above our only vowel zì.
Now, 行 is x-i-n-g xing, think of the shin from shingle and you’ve pretty much got pronunciation of xing it’s second tone, our i takes the tone marker zì xíng.
And 车 c-h-e che. Now che is first tone so our e takes the marker and there we are. zì xíng chē bicycle.
Spotlight
Bicycles have always been a very popular formal transportation in China. Now back on my family first moved to here in the eighties, the average person couldn’t afford to buy a car, so everyone had bikes. Now I read a statistic that said nineteen eighty-seven, China had five hundred million bicycle riders, that’s a lot of bicycles.
Back then it was also a very common sight to see an entire family on one bicycle. Now usually the dad would pedal, the mom would sit on the back and the kid would sit on the cross bar in front. I was always amazed at the balancing talents everybody here.
Now these days while bikes are still very popular, cities have grown and it takes much longer to get from point A to point B. And so the number of people who ride bikes in cities anyway has dropped.
What has become popular though, is the electric bicycle. You see them everywhere now. And while they’re substantially more expensive than a regular bicycle, they are substantially cheaper than a car. And better for the environment too. It’s a common sight to see people coming home from work, parking their electric bikes and then carrying the batteries home to be charged, it’s a lot of fun.
Primer
All right it’s time for today’s language point discussion. And to begin with let’s take a look at 大概.
大概 means roughly, approximately or most likely. And it functions as an adverb in Chinese. So 小明 said to 兰兰 today 大概是这里的零件坏了. It’s most likely this part that’s broken. Now you could also say 从这里到地铁站走路大概五分钟. It’s roughly a five-minute walk from here to the subway station. All right, let’s look at some more examples.
- 几点了？／我没带表，大概两点多了吧。
- 你爸妈什么时候来北京？／大概下个月。
好在 or fortunately, luckily. 好在 is an adverb that you usually see before the subject of a sentence. Now 小明 said to 兰兰, 好在你碰到了我, 要不你准得迟到. Luckily you ran into me otherwise you would be late for sure. Now I could say 好在有他帮忙, 要不这么多行李我一个人肯定拿不了. Fortunately, he is helping out otherwise I wouldn’t be able to carry all this luggage.
- 我把钥匙落在超市了。／好在离这儿不远，快去取。
- 谢天谢地，我们没有误飞机。／是啊，好在路上不堵车。
再怎么说. Now this can come in the middle of a sentence or stand on its own. And it has two meanings. One is “no matter what you say” like 你再怎么说, 我都不去. No matter what you say, I will not go. And the other meaning is adding explanation to a situation or thing, which is how it was used today. 你不用那么客气, 再怎么说, 我也是个男孩子. You don’t have to be so polite, besides, I’m a guy. Let’s look at some more examples.
- 兰兰，我真的不是故意的。／你再怎么说我也不会相信你了。
- 小明，我先走了。／今天有篮球比赛，再怎么说，你也不能走啊。
OK everyone that just about wraps up everything for today. Now please do not forget to check out our website. If you want to go over anything we covered and while you are doing that, you can also send us any questions or comments you might have about China, Chinese, our show or anything really it’s always great to hear from you. And we love hearing from you as well. 好了, 我们今天的节目就到这里. 谢谢大家的收看. 大家, 加油, I’ll see you all next time, 再见.
