The above YouTube video features the tracks from lesson 42 from the Mandarin textbook New Practical Chinese Reader book 4. The first listening task from lesson 42, book 4 of New Practical Chinese Reader features a student, Jack, who is visiting his girlfriend’s parents house to celebrate Chinese New Year with them.
| Time | Dialogue |
| 0.11 | Father: “Jack and YuLan we welcome you back home to celebrate Chinese New Year. As a whole family we can eat a New Year’s Eve family dinner together. Me and your Mother are extremely happy. First let’s drink a toast together. Bottoms up!” |
| 0.21 | Yulan: “To Mother and Father, I wish you good health. |
| 0.24 | Jack: “May you have a prosperous New Year”. |
| 0.26 | Father: “Good, good. Greetings, greetings. I hope all your dreams come true in the New Year” |
| 0.41 | Father: “Jack, if you feel uncomfortable just call me Mr and call her Mrs. Call us whatever you live, both are OK. I know that you have your own customs. |
| 0.54 | Jack: “You won’t be angry?” |
| 0.57 | Mother: “What do you mean? Not only will i not be angry, on the contrary I will be very happy. I am also called Mrs” |
| 1.03 | Mother: “Eat, Eat. I don’t want the food to get cold!” |
| 1.11 | YuLan: “Try this fried fish.” |
| 1.14 | Father: “Have some more” ” Jack when we are eating our New Year’s Eve family meal, other than chicken and meat we must have a dish of fish, do you know why this is?” |
| 1.25 | Jack: “chicken, duck, fish, meat; all of these are tasty dishes. Could it be that there is another reason?” |
| 1.33 | YuLan: “yes, there is another reason. Because the pronunciation of Yu 鱼 (as in fish) is similiar to the pronunciation of Yu 余 in the word abundance, therefore when we say have fish we also mean have abundance. The meaning is that we wish that in the new year you and all your family have more and more abundance” |
| 1.45 | Jack: “oh, I know. There are some people who prefer a phone number, or a car registration plate with the number 8. Not 188, but 518, this is the reason, yes?” |
| 1.59 | YuLan: “Yes, that’s right. Because some people in the south think the pronunciation of 8 (ba ) is similiar to the pronuciation of 发 fa in facai. They also think the pronunciation of five (wu) is similiar to the pronunciation of me (wo), so 188 and 518 make YaoFaFa (want riches) and WoYaoFa (I want riches). They want riches so they choose the number 8 Ba (which sounds like fa 发 the character for abundance). |
| 2.17 | YuLan: “Later people in other places started to follow this too.” |
| 2.21 | Mother: “It would appear that our son-in-law knows more than a bit about China. When we have finished eating our New Year’s Eve meal, we will make dumplings while watching TV.” |
| 2.30 | Jack: “Why will we make dumplings after we have finished our dinner? Is it because we are expecting more visitors?” |
| 2.38 | Father: “This is one of our customs in the north of China. Today is Lunar New Year’s Eve, the old year has almost passed. The New Year is about to start, so the whole family go to bed very late, we call it seeing in the New Year. While seeing in the New Year most people in the north of China like to make lots of dumplings. Then we get through them slowly in the New Year “ |
| 2.57 | YuLan: ” Jack is not able to make Dumplings Jack, what do you want to do to see in the New Year? |
| 3.01 | Jack: “I’m easy, I think whatever I do will be really interesting. When in Rome do as the Romans do.” |
| 3.09 | Mother: “If you can’t make dumplings that is no problem. Go out with her and the other youngsters to set off firecrackers. |
| 3.15 | YuLan: “That will make him so happy! In Beijing setting off fireworks is prohibited. Beijingers New Year celebrations are more and more simple. Is there anywhere as lively as the villages? |
| 3.24 | Mother: “These days people have a long holiday at New year, that’s why there aren’t many people celebrating on the street of the cities. They have gone back to their home village to celebrate New Year. |
| 3.34 | Father: “In this area setting off firecrackers is not forbidden, in fact firecrackers are more common than before. This year we have bought lots of big fireworks, and small firecrackers. When 12pm comes go outside and join in. These days our New Year celebrations in the villages are much more lively than in the city. As well as eating a New Year’s Eve meal, we also write Spring couplets, make paper cuttings, and have rural folk dances. As well as this we also have plays and competitions. How many days do you intend to stay here? You can see whether our village is suitable to start a tourism business. Above all it could be a place for a cultural trip. Cheers, Bottoms up!” |
Track 2
The audio tracks of lessons in book 4 of New Practical Chinese Reader follow a pattern: a dialogue, followed by a monologue. In this case following the dialogue from lesson 42 (translated above) is a monologue about New Year and moving house. Which we have translated below:
| Time | Dialogue |
| 8.58 | Narrator: This Spring we had a house with a courtyard built in the countryside. One Saturday we loaded a van full of planks of wood and cement to decorate our new home. When we arrived in the village everyone was preparing their dinner. However, when the neighbours heard the sound of our transport arriving they all came out and stood in line to watch. They looked at us inquisitively. Myself and my husband busied ourselves with unloading the van and moving the planks inside. We wanted the things to be unloaded as quickly as possible, so the driver could go back to the city. |
| 13.20 | We had lived in the city for a very long time, and had become unused to heavy work. After completing two trips from the van to the house both of us were too tired to continue |
| 13.33 | Not only did the neighbours not laugh at us, they seemed to want to help. However, they didn’t know what we would think about their offer and so they were hesitant. One young man made a joke, he said: how’s it going? |
| 13.50 | Young Man:’ It seems that you plan to work tomorrow? If you continue to work in this way you won’t have finished by tomorrow.’ |
| 14.00 | All of the people listening started laughing. I leant on the side of the van and started laughing too. When the young man saw us both laughing, he proceeded to say: |
| 14.13 | Young man: ‘Inspect the things, do you have anything that is particularly important? If so that should be got first. |
| 14.19 | Husband: ‘No, no, there’s nothing like that.’ |
| 14.25 | Narrator: After that the young man said to the others: |
| 14.29 | Young Man: ‘Don’t stand there watching. Help out everyone.’ |
| 14.36 | Narrator: The neighbours started using their own cart to help us. They worked very fast and very well. Within an hour the van had been completely cleared. All the material was neatly arranged in the courtyard. The driver of the van was able to drive home. The neighbours patted down their clothes as they too were about to go. I started to speak to my husband about how much we should give each of the neighbours as a reward. When they overheard us talking about giving them money, they quickly got their cart and began to leave. No matter what we said they wouldn’t listen. The exception was the young man who, as he was leaving, said: |
| 15.12 | Young man: ‘You city folk. Whatever happens you always talk about money. Our dinners are getting cold, we should go back and eat. |
| 15.25 | Young man: ‘from now on you are our neighbours. If you have any problem just say it… you’re welcome’ |
| 15.33 | Narrator: When they had all left we rested in the garden. I said to my husband: ‘in big buildings in the city nobody knows each other. But today in the village I was give the feeling that a relative afar is less use than a neighbour who is close (idiom) |
| 15.48 | Husband: Villagers really are good people |