A: 房间里有什么大象?
Fángjiān li yǒu shénme dàxiàng?
What elephants are in the room?
B: 你的意思是什么?
Nǐ de yìsi shì shénme?
What do you mean?
A: 我们都看到一些事情是真的 ，但是我们不讨论它.
Wǒmen dōu kàn dào yīxiē shìqíng shì zhēn de, dànshì wǒmen bù tǎolùn tā.
We both see a matter is true but we don’t discuss it.
B: 你的意思是我们看到它但我们回避它?
Nǐ de yìsi shì wǒmen kàn dào tā dàn wǒmen huíbì tā?
You mean we see it but avoid it?
A: 是的.
Shì de.
Yes.
B: 如果我们讨论大象，我们可能会打架！
Rúguǒ wǒmen tǎolùn dà xiàng, wǒmen kěnéng huì dǎjià!
If we talk about the elephants, we may fight!
A: 如果房间里有大象，我们已经在打架了，所以只是沉默.
Rúguǒ fángjiān li yǒu dà xiàng, wǒmen yǐjīng zài dǎjiàle, suǒyǐ zhǐshì chénmò.
If elephants are in the room, we are already fighting, just silently.
B: 好吧.
Hǎo ba.
Okay.
A: 我对你是好意。你对我是好意。加油,我们可以做到. 告诉我. 我们的最大的大象是什么?
A: Wǒ duì nǐ shì hǎoyì. Nǐ duì wǒ shì hǎoyì. Jiāyóu wǒmen kěyǐ zuò dào! Gàosù wǒ. Wǒmen de zuì dà de dàxiàng shì shénme?
I have good intentions towards you. You have good intentions towards me. Come on, we can do this. Tell me. What is our biggest elephant?
B: 好啊. 我非常欣赏你. 你知道我们有时候…
Hǎo a! Wǒ fēicháng xīnshǎng nǐ. Nǐ zhīdào wǒmen yǒu shíhòu…
Okay! I appreciate you so much. You know when you and I sometimes…
Author: Anne Giles
Tian Gan contributed to writing and editing this post.
This post includes 对 duì and 知道 zhīdào, meaningful words on our list of universal human concepts.
If you are a user of Mandarin Blueprint, this post’s content may be helpful in learning these characters:
Phase 1 Level 1 Character #11 什 shén
Phase 3 Level 15 Character #161 大 dà
Phase 4 Level 22 Character #305: 道 dào
Phase 5 Level 33 Character #518 知 zhī
This post is part of our Meaningful Words 有意义的词 yǒu yìyì de cí series. In hopes of fostering empathy and understanding, the series features dialogues about universal human concepts in simplified Chinese characters, pinyin, and English. Posts in the Meaningful Words series are here. If you are interested in writing for the Meaningful Words series, please see these submission requirements.
Submissions are read and edited by people proficient in Mandarin Chinese before publishing. Since the publisher is a beginning student of Mandarin Chinese, changes made may introduce new, undetected errors. Since posts use simple vocabulary to convey complex ideas, ambiguity may result. Posts are estimated to be 95% correct in terms of typography, vocabulary, grammar, and clarity.
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