他说等我长大了
“He said that when I grow up,”
THE DIALOGUE REEL
就把我卖了
“so he sold me.”
他说等我长大了
“He said that when I grow up,”
就可以从东主家里
“I can escape from the master's place”
“He made empty promises to soften the blow of selling me away.”
In pre-modern China, impoverished families often sold children to wealthy masters under the guise of temporary indenture or survival.
LEARNING CHUNKS & PARTICLES
when I grow up
A common temporal clause used when recounting childhood hopes, plans, or promises.
Marks a change of state or completion of the condition (growing up).
VOCABULARY & EXPRESSIONS
Parallel Spoken Cinema Scenes (语义近邻切片)
“Then buy me one when we grow up.”
“Then when we grow up, you can buy me one. Okay.”
“You'll understand when you grow up.”
“You'll know when you grow up.”
“when I grow up, I want to be like my father,”
“He'll understand naturally when he grows up”