# Elementary | Getting Picked up by a Driver

An episode of [ChinesePod - Beginner](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1489328856), 27 Mar 2026, 15 min.

Audio: https://anchor.fm/s/109bf914/podcast/play/116612135/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2026-2-9%2F1b692c44-de64-558b-5c04-526c40cf9e23.mp3

If you've really made it in China, you may have a driver to get you where you need to go. But a driver that also speaks fluent English would just be no fun, so this lesson focuses on basic communications with the driver in Chinese. Episode link: https://www.chinesepod.com/1651

## Transcript

[0:06] Watch. What to?
[0:08] Learn Chinese, but Chinese. But that's the way to learn
[0:13] Chinese. Chinese, but that's the way to
[0:20] learn Chinese. Hi, you're listening to an
[0:25] elementary lesson on Chinese part.
[0:26] I'm Jenny. And I'm Jason.
[0:28] Jason, today we're going to talk about driver or Shellfur
[0:32] culture. Yeah, that's right.
[0:33] Somebody who helps you get around town, right?
[0:35] Yes, and this is actually quite common among expats, at least in
[0:40] Shanghai. It is like if you get your
[0:42] company sends you on an expat package to live in another
[0:44] country that may also provide a driver for you.
[0:46] So today we'll hear a very practical dialogue about
[0:49] communicating with your driver. All right, So what is the key
[0:53] verb? You're in this dialogue, Jenny.
[0:56] It's Jie Jie. OK, so that's Jie.
[1:01] First tone, Jie. And what does that mean?
[1:04] It means to pick someone up not in the bar.
[1:10] It's a much cleaner version of picking up, right?
[1:13] So it means to either drive or actually to just go in person
[1:16] and to get somebody when they arrive and then take them to
[1:18] where they need to go. Yes, OK, I think that's enough
[1:21] information. Let's listen to the dialogue 3
[1:23] times. The RPN.
[2:24] All right. We're.
[2:35] Back. So first we're going to go
[2:36] through the dialogue line by. Line.
[2:42] Sir, what time do you need to be picked up today?
[2:48] Sir, what time should I pick you up today?
[2:51] Xian Sheng Jin Tian Ji, Tian Ji NI.
[2:54] Washington, Japan. I have to work overtime today.
[3:00] Pick me up at 8:00. Washington.
[3:06] I'm working overtime today. Pick me up at 8:00.
[3:09] Washington, Japan. How?
[3:16] OK. And your child how?
[3:20] OK, what about your child? How we'll put you down.
[3:26] I'm not. Sure, you'll have to ask my
[3:30] wife. We'll put you down.
[3:32] I don't. Know.
[3:35] Ask my wife. We'll put you down.
[3:43] OK, I'll call her and ask. OK, I'll call her and ask.
[3:50] Her. OK, Jason, I know you once had a
[3:56] driver in China. I did, kind of.
[3:59] It's not like the everyday go anywhere I want to go, but his
[4:02] job was to bring me to the school I was teaching at in
[4:04] Nanjing. Fancy.
[4:05] Yeah, I felt pretty cool. Well, we'll get into more of the
[4:08] cultural stuff after the analysis.
[4:11] Now let's look at the dialogue in more detail.
[4:13] So in this first line here we have.
[4:15] What is this form of address? Xin Sheng.
[4:19] Xin Sheng. And that's first tone, neutral
[4:22] tone. And that means Sir, right?
[4:24] DUI So the driver, of course, is being very respectful, and he
[4:30] calls the man Xin Shun. Xin Shun.
[4:33] So it's like, Mr. Sir, it's a polite way of addressing a male.
[4:37] DUI guy DUI. And you wouldn't use this for
[4:39] children though, right? It's an.
[4:41] Adult male. Yes, OK.
[4:42] And then he asks him a question. Qin Tien Qin tien tien Chin.
[4:48] Chin. Chin.
[4:50] Chin. So there's that verb chia.
[4:52] Right. And directly after that comes.
[4:55] NI. You, right.
[4:59] So to pick you up, you just have to say chien NI, take the verb
[5:02] and then you put the you afterwards.
[5:04] Yes. Now, the order here in this part
[5:06] of the sentence is different than it would be in English,
[5:08] right? Chin chien.
[5:11] Chin Chien. So literally today, what time
[5:18] pick you up? Should that?
[5:19] Or pick up you. Yeah, so you'll notice we put
[5:22] time before the verb. That's right.
[5:24] And we'll see that again actually coming up.
[5:26] Yes, so let's look at the man's reply.
[5:30] Washington, Jing. Tian.
[5:31] Japan Badian Jiwa. Washington, Japan.
[5:36] Badian, Jiwa. All right.
[5:39] So in the first part there the verb we have is to work
[5:41] overtime, right. And how do you say that again,
[5:43] Jenny? Japan.
[5:45] Japan. Two first tones and literally if
[5:48] you break this word down, it's pretty interesting.
[5:50] It's to add or to do more and then ban is like work.
[5:53] So it's like add work I have to do over work overtime.
[5:58] Shuda and this word Japan can be used as a verb in Chinese.
[6:03] Yeah, you don't have to say I have to work overtime.
[6:05] You just say Jia ban tui. Or Jin Tian.
[6:09] Yeah, so here again we have the chin, chin coming before the
[6:11] verb, right? Yes, time before the verb so.
[6:14] I today work overtime. So he tells the driver to pick
[6:18] him up at 8. This is a really good example I
[6:25] think of when there's the repetition of the verb and the
[6:27] repetition of the structure as an answer to a question, right?
[6:30] Should The question was chin, chin, chin chini and now the
[6:35] answer is yeah. So he asks him what time pick up
[6:41] you and he says 8:00 time pick up me.
[6:46] See how neat it is? Yeah, what a neat pattern.
[6:49] Structured, yeah. Okay.
[6:50] And the driver goes on to ask about the man's kid.
[6:54] He hides knee heights now. OK.
[6:57] So we have knee, which is you obviously and then heights which
[7:01] is second tone, neutral tone. Yep, meaning kids or children.
[7:06] Yeah. And so in Chinese, there's other
[7:08] examples that are like this as well where there isn't a gender
[7:10] specified. So whereas in English you
[7:12] wouldn't usually say your child because the driver knows the
[7:15] child, so he would say your daughter or your son, right?
[7:17] Yes, but in Chinese it's quite common and it sounds completely
[7:21] natural to use the word heights. Heights.
[7:24] It's clear to both of them if it's girl or boy, but for us as
[7:27] the listeners, we don't. Know we're intrigued.
[7:31] And then there's this little particle at the end of that that
[7:33] is not right. Knee heights.
[7:36] Knee heights essentially does not makes the question into what
[7:43] about? How about?
[7:45] Yeah, exactly. So it's kind of like after it's
[7:48] like a way of asking a question in more of a suggestive tone or
[7:51] more of a yeah, less of a direct question.
[7:56] All right. And so his answer to that is, I
[7:58] have no idea. I'm not sure.
[8:03] So you can memorize this little fragment and respond whenever
[8:05] you don't know something. So the is to know and the bull
[8:11] is to not. And of course, the wife will
[8:16] have a better idea. All right.
[8:22] So yes, this is the best answer he could give.
[8:24] Ask my wife. So here we have that the verb to
[8:27] ask, which is. When?
[8:30] When? And so he gives him a suggestion
[8:32] by saying you ask NI when right. And we know it's a suggestion
[8:37] because of the particle BA at the end.
[8:40] NI one wah Tai Tai Bah NI one wah Tai Tai Bah.
[8:44] So what is that Tai Tai Tai? Wife.
[8:48] OK, so he's like, ask my wife. Ask my better half.
[8:53] Actually, that's a pretty good translation I think, because Tai
[8:56] Tai is also make a respectful way of referring to 1's wife.
[9:00] Because there are different words which mean wife in
[9:03] Chinese, but Tai Tai is the more formal and respectful term.
[9:08] And because he has a professional relationship with
[9:10] this driver, not necessarily a personal relationship, he's
[9:13] using the the formal word for wife.
[9:15] Tai Tai and he. Says OK, I'll call her and.
[9:22] Ask OK. So we have two people, I and
[9:31] her. In the middle.
[9:32] Sandwiched in between is 2 verbs right in a row.
[9:35] Yes, 2 actions. One is which?
[9:38] Is to make a phone call, right? And then one.
[9:45] One which we just heard meaning to ask.
[9:48] So I to make a phone call and to ask her.
[9:51] Yes. We're in English.
[9:52] Many times you have to add a little particle in there or some
[9:54] other like connecting word like I'll call and ask her.
[9:57] But in Chinese, with these sequential actions, sometimes
[10:01] you don't need any linking words.
[10:03] Yeah, you just put them together in the order that they will
[10:05] occur and you're. Good.
[10:06] Yes. What That Dianhua?
[10:08] What that Dianhua? What TA Now this is actually a
[10:14] very common phrase if you want to make a phone call and ask
[10:18] about something, so it's very useful to memorize it.
[10:21] All right, good. So let's go back and listen to
[10:23] the dialogue 3 more times and hopefully you can pick up some
[10:25] more this time around. Greetings everyone and welcome
[10:28] to Chinese Pod Trivia. Our first question is how long
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[11:45] How? All.
[12:19] Right, we're back. Jenny, I have a question for
[12:22] you. This dialogue is about a driver,
[12:24] but we haven't learned the word for driver yet.
[12:26] So how do you say? Driver in Chinese.
[12:29] Driver in Chinese is Fuji Fuji. Now that's two first tones.
[12:37] You're correct. SIJI, right?
[12:42] And this word is mostly used to mean a personal driver, like a.
[12:46] Chauffeur. Yeah, it's like a chauffeur.
[12:48] It's actually a more more direct, accurate translation.
[12:51] Yes, because the person in English, if you say the driver
[12:53] or a driver, it could be the person driving the car.
[12:56] But this means the person who has this profession of being
[12:58] somebody who drives a car for somebody.
[13:01] Else all. Right, so Jenny, do you have a
[13:04] Chinese pod Suji? Or male.
[13:07] That's too. Bad.
[13:08] I don't even have a car. Neither do I.
[13:10] I walk over here so. But you once had a suji while
[13:14] you were teaching in Nanjing, yeah.
[13:15] I think he actually worked for the school that my training
[13:18] company had a contract with, so I was supposed to teach at the
[13:21] school and then the school would send the driver to pick up the
[13:23] teachers. What a complicated relationship.
[13:26] I know, but he was a cool guy. I practiced a ton of Chinese
[13:28] with him. Actually that's, I think a lot
[13:31] of our learners, how they practice Chinese exactly with
[13:35] their CG. They listen to the Chinese part
[13:37] dialogue and then rehearse it with their driver.
[13:40] Yeah. And in Shanghai, I have to say
[13:42] it's quite common for expats to have a CG and a car.
[13:47] And actually a lot of the times the CG, the driver, he actually
[13:53] owns the car. So you pay him a certain amount
[13:57] of money every month for both his service and his car.
[14:00] Yeah, which is a really good deal because I think in a lot of
[14:03] other countries where this kind of service is less available,
[14:06] it's very expensive. But in China it can be pretty
[14:09] affordable and you don't have to buy the car.
[14:10] He has his own car and he makes a good living helping people
[14:13] drive around. OK, that's it for our lesson
[14:16] today. Hope it was useful for you.
[14:18] Yeah. And if you have any questions
[14:19] about any of the vocab or any of the cultural issues that we
[14:22] touched upon, come on to the site and ask away.
[14:24] Thanks for listening. We'll see you next time, Sajin.
[14:27] Sajin. As usual, Chinese Pod provides
[14:32] an extensive selection of learning materials for this
[14:34] lesson on its website www.chinesepod.com.
[14:39] You can access this lesson directly with the lesson number
[14:42] 1651. So just go to www.chinesepod.com
[14:47] slash 1651 and you will find a transcript, vocabulary and much
[14:53] more the link again www.chinesepod.com slash 1651.

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