URLLesson Introduction
We assume that, as a beginner, deciphering the schedule for the airport bus might be just a little stressful, so put off breaking into that duty-free you bought for 10 minutes or so and get yourself far, far away from the mayhem that is an Asian airport. In this podcast, you will learn how to find a taxi, in Mandarin Chinese. Then, sit back and enjoy the thrill sport that is taxi-taking in China.
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natecross says
July 13, 2008
谢谢！ Another great lesson for us Newbies.
rjberki says
July 13, 2008
does anyone actually use the word chuzuche on the street? I have never heard it.
jennyzhu says
July 13, 2008
rjberki,
I find 出租车/chu1 zu1 che1 to be quite commonly used as a standard term for taxi. But it seems different places bring their local twist. For example, in Shanghai dialect, taxi is referred to as 差头/cha1 tou2/. And I believe people in Guangdong say 的士/di1 shi4. Bottomline is 出租车/chu1 zu1 che1 is comprehensible to all across China.
jicb says
July 13, 2008
Very helpful.. Thank you.
kait says
July 13, 2008
Supplemental vocabulary to the rescue! (I was familiar with 打的 - da3di1 - and was going to ask what the difference was, but i think i see.) Can one say “坐出租车去” as an alternative for “打的”, or does that just sound silly when there's a short verb version?
谢谢！
d1438 says
July 13, 2008
they are interchangable.both are accepted
amber says
July 13, 2008
hi kait,
坐出租车去 (zuò chūzūchē qù) means the same as 打的 (dǎdī). You can say either.
hape says
July 13, 2008
Jenny Zhu said:
Maybe it is comprehensible, but in Taiwan nobody says this and it is avoided by all means. In Taiwan everybody uses
changye says
July 14, 2008
I don't think that 出租车 is a good Chinese translation. At first, I thought it would be a rental car. I guess that 出租车 might be a literal translation of "a hired car" or something like that. On the other hand, 计程车 is an exact (and nice) translation of "a car with a taximeter". By the way, how do you say "a rantal car" or "rent-a-car" in Chinese? 租用(zu1 yong4)汽车？ 出赁 (lin4)汽车？
cassielin says
July 14, 2008
Changye,
I guess what you meant is 租赁zu1lin4, which means "rent" and "tenancy".
newbie888 says
July 14, 2008
对话给德国学生
Finding a Taxi - A0942
你好。我要出租车。
Hello. Ich möchte ein Taxi.
去哪儿?
Wohin?
去机场。
Zum Flughafen.
好的。请等一下。
Gut, warten sie bitte einen Moment.
sushan says
July 14, 2008
出租 chu1zu1 is a very helpful combination of characters to recognize in China - bikes, apartments, anything like this.
My Beijing hostel front desk was going to charge me 150Y to call a taxi to the airport. The actual distance was only worth around 100Y, so there was a 50% surcharge for those who can't say the word 'airport' (机场 ji1chang3) in Chinese.
And the trike driver who originally brought me from the airport shuttle had the nerve to ask for a 小费 xiao3fei4, tip.
rmargetson says
July 14, 2008
In Chengdu I've only heard the western "taxi" But I certainly love "ching deng yixia"
..now I can make my laoshi wait for a mo' when she goes to fast
changye says
July 14, 2008
Hi cassie,
Aiyo, I miswrote it, thank you! By the way, do both 租用汽车 and 租赁汽车 make any sense in Chinese (as a rental car)? Or is there any other "authentic" translation?
rjberki says
July 14, 2008
Thanks Jenny for the alternatives. Chuzuche makes me sound like I have been studying Chinese from a book. It doesnt exactly roll off the tongue either. By the time I am done creating this word, nobody is listening anymore.:-) Im sure 差头 or 打的 will work so much better for me. (in Shanghai).
sushan says
July 14, 2008
打的 da3di1 is pretty common in Chengdu.
Sichuanese taxi terms:
'deng yi ha' - wait a moment
'man di dier' - slow down a bit
'qie ler?' - hey, where are you going?
'go gai' - cross the road
'yi ha hao duo?' - how much $$ total?
changye says
July 14, 2008
Does anyone know the etymology of 差头？ What kind of reasoning is there behind it? It's just a mystery.
rjberki says
July 14, 2008
changye - Im guessing its a dispatched something but not clear what has been dispatched :-). Obviously it would mean a car or unit somehow.
rjberki says
July 14, 2008
can 打的 be used to describe a taxi as a noun or does it always mean "to take" a taxi?
cassielin says
July 14, 2008
changye,
Both 租用汽车and租赁汽车 make sense.
的士dishi is common used here for taxi.
You can call the male driver “的哥” and call the female driver “的姐”, these two are new used in rencent years. But the most common one for you to address the taxi driver is 师傅shi1fu.^_^
rainzy1021 says
July 14, 2008
Hi! changeye, “差头”is one of the special way used for "taix". Usually, it was used in ShangHai area.
cassielin says
July 14, 2008
rjberki,
打的means "to take a taxi", it is a verb.
的士dishi means "taxi" , it is a noun.
cassielin says
July 14, 2008
I have never heard about 差头 before, guess it is only used in Shanghai!
rjberki says
July 14, 2008
so 我要打的 or 我要差头 would be correct?
rainzy1021 says
July 14, 2008
Hi, rjberki!
You'd better don't say that. "差头" is a verb. And in China, usually we don't use that word. We say"打的"， "坐出租车"，"坐出租".
dldshanghai says
July 14, 2008
差头 is more used in Shanghai or Shanghainese. In Shanghainese, the 差 cha1 (pronounced as ca1 in Shanghainese) means to dispatch.
dldshanghai says
July 14, 2008
Have anyone tried a 摩的 mo2 di1?
rjberki says
July 14, 2008
ok, can someone give me a good sample sentence. I go to the concierge at the hotel and want to ask for a taxi. I say what? (in Shanghai).
hajaralkhaled says
July 14, 2008
If I went to the clerk and asked "请问， 您能叫 (出租)车吗? 我需要去机场"*, would that be correct?
谢谢你们帮助我!**
* Qing3 wen4, nin2neng2 jiao4 (chu1zu1)che1 ma? Wo3 xu1yao4 qu4 ji1chang3.
**Xie4Xie4 ni3men bang1zhu4 wo3
-Hajar-
changye says
July 14, 2008
Hi rjberki,
You don't need to ask the concierge to call a taxi, cause in general there are always a lot of taxi waiting for you in front of a hotel. All you have to say is "机场!".
By the way, in China even water is often beaten "打". You sometimes hear the phrase 打水 (da3 shui3) in the sense that someone goes to draw water.
P/S. Just in case Shanghai has a few airports......,
dldshanghai says
July 14, 2008
@rjberki, 出租车 (chu1 zu1 che1) can be understood by most people. You can do like the dialogue did in this lesson, 我要一辆出租车 wo3 yao4 yi1 liang4 chu1 zu1 che1.
Or, if you can speak Shanghainese, you can try wu2 yao3 ye5 bu5 ca1 dou5 :), oh, and if the concierge is a Shanghaiese.
@hajaralkhaled, it's better to and something into your sentence, "请问，您能帮我叫（出租）车吗？我需要去机场。"
rjberki says
July 14, 2008
changye - not true in small cities or at 4 am when leaving for airport. Anyway I was just looking for clarification. It was a hypothetical situation. The whole point is I am trying to avoid chuzuche and is there a common sentence used that means to call a taxi such as we would say in english? I want taxi seems a little abrupt and maybe even rude?
sushan says
July 14, 2008
Could preface the 'I want taxi' request with 麻烦你 Máfan nĭ, (trouble you...) but it really doesn't sound abrupt in Chinese.
changye says
July 14, 2008
Hi rjberki,
No more worry about calling a taxi. Just saying "出租车，我要去机场" would be enough. No matter how politely you ask, you cannot expect a polite response anyway at a shubby hotel in a small city at 4 am, China local time. Good luck.
jackle says
July 14, 2008
I think this lesson was probably was based on one of the most troublesome problems for a foreign resident in China who know Chinese.
rjberki says
July 14, 2008
OK, I got it. Thanks guys.
wo yao yi liang chuzuche.
or
wo xiang dadi.
or
qing wen, ni neng bang wo jiao chuzuchu ma. wo xuyao qu ji chang.
I always called the airport fei ji chang. Evidently the fei is not needed.
susiejlau says
July 14, 2008
Where can I find the correct answers to the tests? I am baffled that some of my answers have been marked as wrong
susiejlau says
July 14, 2008
Can anyone tell me how to download lesson to itunes so I can listen to it on my iphone?
rjberki says
July 14, 2008
susie - I just ran through the exercises and got them all right so I think they are ok. I dont think they list the anwers anywhere. Keep trying until you get a full score. One tricky one was na3r in the fill in the blanks portion.
there is an RSS feed listed for itunes on the me page. Set your profile to determine what you want to recieve. Cut and paste RSS into itunes setup.
changye says
July 14, 2008
Hi rjberki,
Both 飞机场 and 机场 are OK. As far as Mandarin is concerned, the shorter, the better. But the longer one might more easily get through to natives than the shorter one does when you are unsure about your pronunciation.
rjberki says
July 15, 2008
thank you Changye for the confirmation. You are right in both counts of course. Shorter is more elegant but the longer version does help to insure I am understood. I am always concerned in Shanghai because there are two airports. I usually say pudong fei ji chang but always watch to see if we head in the right direction. :-). Leaving is always such a nervous situation. If I were to miss a flight I fear it would be a horrible situation to straighten out. I always wondered how that would work. Do you have to pay for another ticket? Do the airlines just give you another flight, or do you have to pay all or some part again? Anybody know?
jaywelch61 says
July 15, 2008
Excellent lesson! This would have been a huge help when I was in Shanghai in May :D It'll likely help after I've gone back too.
Also, I've an off topic question... Do the tests and such come with the basic subscription? I'm going to be upgrading, and I need to be sure I get the most out of it :)
yangyanga says
July 15, 2008
差头(pronounced as "cadoo" in Shanghai dialect) comes from the English word "charter" which means "to rent a car". Actually,差头 is a pidgin English that started being used from around 1910's.
changye says
July 15, 2008
Hi yangyanga,
Thank you! At last, a great mystery has solved! 差头 is a transliteration of the English word "charter", who would have expected this?
nicklyth says
July 16, 2008
I was always told by friends that 飞机场 was the generic "airport". If you wanted to be specific (such as Shanghai with more than one airport) you needed the name + 机场...not name + 飞机场
Certainly I always ask for 浦东机场...and I seem to get there!
billm says
July 16, 2008
国内机场。guo2nei4 ji1chang3 "domestic airport" is also a useful phrase. Drivers usually assume foreigners are going to the international terminal or airport.
国际机场。guo2ji4 ji1chang3 "international airport"
bigboss4997 says
July 17, 2008
Hen hao?
coop1949 says
July 20, 2008
Tip for Jenny Zhu when teaching the tones for
fangjie chaodan. If you haven't noticed
they are 1234 straight across and thus easy
to remember.
kongkunhuan says
July 22, 2008
i like this one.and when they told me what it meant,i was happy to know i could understand it.but at first it was hard because chinese people talk so fast,but now they dont beacause i understand lol.
hitokiri6993 says
August 27, 2008
Do people use 的士 to call a taxi like how 香港人/廣東人 do, or do they prefer to use 出租車？
amber says
August 27, 2008
hi hitokiri,
In other parts of China 出租車 (chūzūchē) is the more common term.
hitokiri6993 says
August 28, 2008
Thanks Amber!:)
shahnawaz says
December 14, 2008
Very good lesson :)
I didn't know I can learn Chinese like this.
Zai chian :)