Practice Reading Chinese with a Chat Story: Texting About the Pandemic

If you’re learning Chinese, and have Chinese friends, family, or coworkers, you may have been wanting to check in with them, to see how they’re doing amidst the pandemic. 

With this in mind, we have released two new videos as part of our previous “Chat Story” video series, so you can learn how to chat about life during the pandemic with Chinese people you know!

First, check out the video for Part 1 and Part 2 of the conversation between two good friends, 张明 (zhāng míng) and 小美 (xiǎo měi), who are catching up. The video is all in Chinese characters, so first test yourself to see how much you can understand from the video! 

Then, check out the full breakdown with Chinese characters, pinyin, English, and audio, so you can review everything from the video, and maybe even learn some new vocabulary while you’re at it! You’ll also see some different ways you can check in with your Chinese friends through texting to see how they’ve been holding up!

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Part 1



Part 1: Breakdown

小美：张明，你最近怎么样啊？还好吗？
xiǎo měi: zhāng míng nǐ zuì jìn zěn me yàng a hái hǎo ma
Xiao Mei: Zhang Ming, how have you been lately? Have you been OK?

张明：你好小美，好久没联系了！
zhāng míng: nǐ hǎo xiǎo měi hǎo jiǔ méi lián xì le
Zhang Ming: Hi Xiao Mei, it’s been a while since we’ve talked last!

张明：我这边还不错，你呢？
zhāng míng: wǒ zhè biān hái bú cuò nǐ ne
Zhang Ming: I’ve been pretty good, how about you?

小美：我也是，你们家里人都好吗？
xiǎo měi: wǒ yě shì nǐ mén jiā lǐ rén dōu hǎo ma
Xiao Mei: Me too, is your family good?

张明：我们家里人都很好，谢谢你的关心！
zhāng míng: wǒ men jiā lǐ rén dōu hěn hǎo xiè xie nǐ de guān xīn
Zhang Ming: Our family is great, thanks for being concerned!

张明：你们家呢？希望一切都好。
zhāng míng: nǐ men jiā ne xī wàng yí qiè dōu hǎo
Zhang Ming: How about your family? I hope everything is good.

小美：我们挺好的，还好家里没人感染病毒。
xiǎo měi: wǒ men tǐng hǎo de hái hǎo jiā lǐ méi rén gǎn rǎn bìng dú
Xiao Mei: We’re pretty good, luckily none of my family members have gotten the virus.

小美：因为疫情的原因，我现在都在家里工作了，所以很少出门了。
xiǎo měi: yīn wei yì qíng de yuán yīn wǒ xiàn zài  dōu zài jiā lǐ gōng zuò le suǒ yǐ hěn shǎo chū mén le
Xiao Mei: Because of the pandemic, now I’m working from home, so I don’t go out much.

小美：你们公司的情况怎么样？
xiǎo měi: nǐ men gōng sī de qíng kuàng zěn me yàng
Xiao Mei: How is your company’s situation?

张明：没办法，因为我在银行工作，所以得每天都去上班。
zhāng míng: méi bàn fǎ yīn wei wǒ zài yín háng gōng zuò suǒ yǐ děi měi tiān dōu qù shàng bān
Zhang Ming: There’s nothing that can be done, because I work at a bank, I have to go in to work every day.

张明：不过，公司有很多新的安全措施来保护我们的。
zhāng míng: bú guò gōng sī yǒu hěn duō xīn de ān quán cuò shī lái bǎo hù wǒ men de
Zhang Ming: But, our company has many new safety measures to protect us.

小美：哦，那还不错！
xiǎo měi: ò nà hái bú cuò
Xiao Mei: Oh, that’s good!

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Part 2



Part 2: Breakdown

小美：一般都是什么样的措施啊？
xiǎo měi: yì bān dōu shì shén me yàng de cuò shī a
Xiao Mei: Usually what kind of measures is it?

张明：嗯，公司要求我们每个员工还有客人戴口罩。
zhāng míng: èn gōng sī yāo qiú wǒ men měi ge yuán gōng hái yǒu kè rén dài kǒu zhào
Zhang Ming: The company requires every employee and customer to wear a face mask.

张明：然后排队办理业务时需要保持六英尺，也就是两米左右的距离。
zhāng míng: rán hòu pái duì bàn lǐ yè wù shí xū yào bǎo chí liù yīng chǐ yě jiù shì liǎng mǐ zuǒ yòu de jù lí
Zhang Ming: And then when lining up to handle things, everyone needs to maintain a distance of 6 feet, in other words, 2 meters.

张明：恰好柜台以前就有玻璃，这样就可以保护我们和客人的安全了。
zhāng míng: qià hǎo guì tái yǐ qián jiù yǒu bō lí zhè yàng jiù kě yǐ bǎo hù wǒ men hé kè rén de ān quán le
Zhang Ming: It just so happens that the counter already had glass before, this way it can protect our and the customers’ safety.

张明：另外，我们还会戴手套。
zhāng míng: lìng wài wǒ men hái huì dài shǒu tào
Zhang Ming: Also, we wear gloves.

张明：每个人桌子上也有自己的免洗杀菌洗手液，这样可以经常消毒什么的。
zhāng míng: měi ge rén zhuō zi shàng yě yǒu zì jǐ de miǎn xǐ shā jūn xǐ shǒu yè zhè yàng kě yǐ jīng cháng xiāo dú shén me de
Zhang Ming: Each person’s desk also has their own hand sanitizer, this way each of us can sanitize often and whatnot.

小美：嗯，听起来还挺安全的！
xiǎo měi: èn tīng qǐ lái hái tǐng ān quán de
Xiao Mei: Yeah, it sounds pretty safe!

小美：没办法，银行这个行业需要当面和客人交流，帮助办理业务什么的。
xiǎo měi: méi bàn fǎ yín háng zhè ge háng yè xū yào dāng miàn hé kè rén jiāo liú bāng zhù bàn lǐ yè wù shén me de
Xiao Mei: There’s not much that can be done, in the banking industry you have to communicate with customers in person, help them handle business, etc. 

小美：感觉你们还是很辛苦的！
xiǎo měi: gǎn jué nǐ men hái shì hěn xīn kǔ de
Xiao Mei: It seems you guys are working hard!

小美：希望能尽快恢复正常。
xiǎo měi: xī wàng néng jìn kuài huī fù zhèng cháng
Xiao Mei: I hope things will go back to normal soon.

张明：是啊，没办法，生活还得继续，哈哈！
zhāng míng: shì a méi bàn fǎ shēng huó hái děi jì xù hā ha
Zhang Ming: Yeah, there’s not much that can be done, life must still go on, haha!

张明：看看疫情过后，咱们一起去吃个饭吧！
zhāng míng: kàn kan yì qíng guò hòu zán men yì qǐ qù chī ge fàn ba
Zhang Ming: After the pandemic, let’s have a meal together!

小美：好啊，这么说定啦！
xiǎo měi: hǎo a zhè me shuō dìng la 
Xiao Mei: OK, it’s decided!

小美：希望疫情能早点儿过去！
xiǎo měi: xī wàng yì qíng néng zǎo diǎnr guò qu
Xiao Mei: I hope the pandemic will pass soon.

张明：是啊！
zhāng míng: shì a
Zhang Ming: Yeah!

张明：我这边还有点儿事，那我先忙了，咱们保持联系！
zhāng míng: wǒ zhè biān hái yǒu diǎnr shì nà wǒ xiān máng le zán men bǎo chí lián xì
Zhang Ming: I have a little something to take care of, I’ll get back now, let’s keep in contact!

小美：嗯，好的！拜拜！
xiǎo měi:  èn hǎo de bài bai
Xiao Mei: Yeah, OK! Bye!

张明：再见！
zhāng míng: zài jiàn
Zhang Ming: Bye!

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Learn More

We hope you’ve enjoyed these videos to help you express yourself better when talking about life during the pandemic!

Please let us know in the comments what you think of these videos!

Want to learn how to go from memorizing individual Chinese characters to reading full sentences in Chinese? Check out our Chinese Character Reader course, with fun animated videos, voice actors, and jam-packed practical, colloquial Chinese! 

The first two units are free, so start with Lesson 1 here:

And if you’re just starting out learning Chinese, be sure to try out our Beginner Conversational Course. 

Level 1 of the course - 45 lesson videos plus tons of study tools - is totally FREE, and will help you to master pinyin, the four tones, and some must-know Chinese words, phrases and sentences! 

Get started on the first lesson here!