万一再来几个外国友人 我又不会外语
“What if some foreign friends come? I don't speak any foreign languages.”
THE DIALOGUE REEL
“I wouldn't even recognize the characters on the plaques.”
万一 再来 几个外国友人 我 又不会 外语
“What if some foreign friends come? I don't speak any foreign languages.”
“How could I be a tour guide? Anyway, no matter how much they pay, I'm not going.”
“Stop pushing me to take this job, I am completely out of my depth.”
Speakers often cite potential public embarrassment or language inadequacy to politely decline tasks without directly confronting the person asking.
LEARNING CHUNKS & PARTICLES
just in case; what if
Use at the beginning of a clause to introduce an improbable or unfavorable hypothetical scenario.
foreign friends; international guests
A slightly courteous or traditional term commonly used in Chinese public discourse to refer to foreigners.
VOCABULARY & EXPRESSIONS
Parallel Spoken Cinema Scenes (语义近邻切片)
“(Yili'er, Youzhou merchant) In a week, we'll come again.”
“We probably won't see each other again.”
“Maybe in a few hundred years, we'll meet her again.”
“It's fine. Let's get to know each other again.”
“I still need to wait for someone. ♪ Yet it cannot warm every cold home below ♪”
“We will meet again.”