Lantern Languages

On this page we provide a translation of the two listening tasks in lesson 39 of New Practical Chinese Reader, book 4.  The first dialogue features a couple talking over breakfast.

 

 

Time	Dialogue
0.14	Dawei (David), come eat. I’ve made breakfast for you today.
0.23	David: ‘Darling, you worked hard all morning to prepare this food. Thank you. You have made so much good food. You are very talented!
0.38	Hold your praise, you haven’t even tasted it yet. How much rice would you like?
0.46	As soon as I saw all this wonderful food I started to feel really hungry. I want a full bowl, and even that probably won’t be enough.
0.56	However much you want to eat you can have. There is plenty of rice.
1.05	Dawei: This food has been cooked really well, your cooking skills are getting better and better every day. The best dish is the fried diced chicken; not only is it tasty but it also looks great. This food is much better than what is made in a restaurant. Thank you, my dear.
1.21	That’s good. Don’t thank me, you said it was tasty so eat some more.
1.30	Dawei: In addition, the way you fried the prawns had made them really tasty. I think after we have got married we can open a restaurant in America. You can be the chef and I will be the manager. Together we will surely make a lot of money!
1.50	Oh, you are the manager and I work for you? I won’t do it.
1.53	Dawei: This isn’t about who gives who orders, rather it’s about how we divide up the work. You have a skill, I understand management; we can work together. What’s bad about that? Look, I’ve finished a whole bowl and I still want another bowl full, dear
2.15	Why did you start calling me dear, you are saying it more and more frequently each day.
2.20	Dawei: What did I do? Why are you unhappy , don’t you want to open a restaurant? I mean what I say, it’s a really good idea. You know, lots of Chinese people have gone to America and made good money after opening a restaurant. Besides, Chinese food is famous across the world, that means lots of westerners can eat your food and learn about Chinese culture. Isn’t that a really good thing?
2.50	Earning money is a good plan, but it doesn’t necessarily have to be through opening a restaurant. I like cooking, but I am a long way off the standard of a chef. In order to become a chef you have to graduate with a specialist qualification. Another thing, stop always calling me ‘dear,’ ok? It makes me feel uncomfortable.
3.10	Dawei: Ok, dear. Look, I’m afraid of doing the wrong thing.  However, I really don’t understand, but I’d like to get to the bottom of why would you not want to hear those three characters?

 

New Practical Chinese Reader Book 4 Lesson 39

The second audio that appears in lesson 39 in book 4 of New Practical Chinese Reader includes an animation. A girl named Wang XiaoYun 王小云 tells her friend Linna 林娜 a story…

6.56	XiaoYun 王小云 told her friend Linna 林娜 a story.
7.01	A 12 year old boy and a 13 year old girl were in the same year at Junior High School. Neither the boy or the girl were particularly fond of chatting. They often played or studied with their friends. The girl was like an older sister to the boy. She often told him what to do and he was very keen to do it.
7.35	三年以后 – Three years later….
7.37	The boy and the girl were at senior high school The boy could remember the girls birth date, so he sent her a card wishing her a happy birthday. He was worried the girl would be angry, so he didn’t write his name in the card. The girl send the boy a card in return, but she also didn’t write her name in the letter.
8.04	Senior high school was much more  busy than junior high school, neither the boy nor the girl could do much outside of their studies.
8.14	By the time they graduated from High school the boy had become a young man and the girl had become a young woman. The boy got good enough grades in his final exams to enter Beijing University. Meanwhile the girl achieved a place at Shanghai University studying foreign languages.
8.32	It was the night before the girl was due to head off to Shanghai to start university. The boy went to her home and approached the front door, but he didn’t have the courage to knock. He was a young man hoping to visit a young woman, what would her family think?
8.52	That night the girl was also up late, she was waiting for the boys voice, for him to say ‘goodbye’.’
9.04	A month went by, two months went by…..
9.14	The young lady tried many ways, and eventually she got the young man’s school address. One day the young man received a letter…
9.27	The young lady wrote to me!
9.30	The letter contained just one sentence: Wishing you a happy new life at university. The young man was so happy it seemed like he had gone mad! Every morning, at midday and at night he read the letter in his dormitory.
9.48	In her second year at university the young woman fell sick, and had to take a year out to rest. She didn’t tell anyone that she was returning home.
9.58	The young man sent letter after letter to the young woman’s school, but none came back in return. Why didn’t the girl return his letters? He was very concerned about it.
10.16	With each day that passed the young man became more and more thin.
10.19	A year later…
10.22	The young woman’s was better, and she was able to return to University. The young man then received the letter he had been waiting for. In subsequent letters they talked about life, study, and the affairs of the world.  However there was one word they never used in any of their letters: love.
10.43	In the young man’s heart the young woman was his ideal, his dream. He could also tell from the young woman’s letters that she was putting her heart into the letters.
11.00	The young man graduated a year ahead of the young woman. After that he busied himself with post-graduate research. Because the young woman was also studying she didn’t have enough time to go home.
11.13	He was a researcher at a university and that summer holiday they finally met up again. He could see that she had become taller and even prettier. He felt like there was so much he wanted to say to her, but not a single sentence came out. When he first met her again he even forgot to shake her hand. Every day during that summer holiday the met up to go walks, speak together, or go the park.
11.53	One day, the young man finally told the girl that there was a word in his heart that he wanted to say, it was a very precious word. This word he wanted to say to her today: 爱 – love.