LESSON NOTES

Absolute Beginner S4 #25

Beijing Restaurant Renovation

CONTENTS
2 Simplified Chinese
2 Traditional Chinese
2 Pinyin
3 English
3 Vocabulary
4 Sample Sentences
5 Grammar
5 Cultural Insight

# 25
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 SIMPLIFIED CHINESE

1. CUSTOMER: 不好意思，我去方便一下。

2. 服务员，洗手间在哪儿？

3. WAITER: 对不起，这儿没有厕所。

4. CUSTOMER: 那。。。。。。我去哪儿？

5. WAITER: 洗手？

6. CUSTOMER: 对。

7. WAITER: 跟我来。

TRADITIONAL CHINESE

1. CUSTOMER: 不好意思，我去方便一下。

2. 服務員，洗手間在哪兒？

3. WAITER: 對不起，這兒沒有廁所。

4. CUSTOMER: 那。。。。。。我去哪兒？

5. WAITER: 洗手？

6. CUSTOMER: 對。

7. WAITER: 跟我來。

PINYIN
CONT'D OVER

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1. CUSTOMER: Bùhǎoyìsi, wǒ qù fāngbiàn yīxià.

2. Fúwùyuán, xǐshǒujiān zài nǎr?

3. WAITER: Duìbuqǐ, zhèr méiyǒu cèsuǒ.

4. CUSTOMER: Nà... Wǒ qù nǎr?

5. WAITER: Xǐshǒu?

6. CUSTOMER: Duì.

7. WAITER: Gēn wǒ lái.

ENGLISH

1. CUSTOMER: I'm sorry, I've gotta go to the washroom.

2. Waiter, where is the washroom?

3. WAITER: I'm sorry, there is no washroom here.

4. CUSTOMER: Then, where do I go?

5. WAITER: To wash your hands?

6. CUSTOMER: Right.

7. WAITER: Come with me.

VOCABULARY

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 S implifie d Tr aditional Pinyin English C lass

to wash one's
洗手 洗手 xǐshǒu hands phrase

对不起 對不起 duìbuqǐ I'm sorry verb

厕所 廁所 cèsuǒ restroom noun

方便 方便 fāngbiàn convenient adjective

服务员 服務員 fúwùyuán waiter noun

洗手间 洗手間 xǐshǒujiān washroom noun

一下 一下 yíxià for a while measure word

phrase,
不好意思 不好意思 bùhǎo yìsi excuse me expression

SAMPLE SENTENCES

饭前要洗手。 对不起，我迟到了。
Fàn qián yào xǐshǒu 。 Duìbuqǐ, wǒ chídào le。

You should wash your hands before I'm sorry that I'm late.
eating.

我想去厕所。 出租车很方便。
Wǒ xiǎngqùcèsuǒ 。 Chūzūchē hěn fāngbiàn.

I want to go to the lavatory. Taxis are convenient.

服务员，点菜。 洗手间在哪儿？
Fúwùyuán, diǎncài . Xǐshǒujiān zài nǎr?

Waiter, we want to order food. Where is the washroom?

你等我一下。 不好意思，你见过我的狗吗？
Nǐ děng wǒ yíxià. Bùhǎoyìsi , nǐ jiànguò wǒ de gǒu ma ?

Wait for me a moment. Excuse me, have you seen my dog?

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不好意思，请再说一遍，好吗？
Bùhǎoyìsi, qǐng zài shuō yī biàn, hǎo ma?

Excuse me, please say that again, okay?

GRAMMAR

The Focus of This Lesson is a Verb Complement for "A Little Bit of Time"
我去方便一下 。
"I've got to go to the washroom."

Our grammar focus in this lesson is on the verb complement 一下, yī xià ("for a bit"). When
you add this to the end of select verbs you signify that the action implied by the verb will only
take a little bit of time. We see this used in our dialogue when our first speaker tells his partner
我去方便一下, wǒ qù fāngbiàn yīxià ("I've got to go to the washroom"). The verb
complement 一下 is very polite and useful here; it tells us that the speaker will only be gone
for a moment. Consider also these other examples:

1. 你来看一下。
Nǐ lái kàn yī xià.
"Come and look for a bit."

2. 我去演唱会听一下。
Wǒ qù yǎn chàng huì tīng yī xià.
"I went to the concert to listen a bit."

3. 我要上网查一下。
Wǒ yào shàng wǎng chá yī xià.
"I'm online to search something."

One final tip: perhaps because the complement itself has two characters, it is used most often
with single character verbs such as 找, zhǎo ("to find"), or 看, kàn ("to look"), or 听, tīng ("to
listen"). You will hear it less frequently with two character verbs, although there are some like
方便, fāngbiàn ("to go to the washroom"), which are used with it quite regularly.

CULTURAL INSIGHT

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Chinese Washrooms

In China you will frequently run into complaints about smaller restaurants without washrooms.
Some critics even collect lists of these restaurants and post them on "dianping.com" (大众点
评网), a restaurant review website. This same site will often point out the interesting names
that some restaurants give to their restrooms. For example, at least one Hunan restaurant
calls their washroom the 解放区 ("the liberation region") and a Korean restaurant calls theirs
解忧所 ("stress relief institute").

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