Zhang laoshi and Xiaoyu compare their journeys. She lives beside the school, he is forty minutes away by metro.
Zhang laoshi
小雨，你住在哪儿？
Xiǎoyǔ, nǐ zhù zài nǎr ?
Xiaoyu, where do you live?
Xiaoyu
我住在学校后面，走路十分钟。
Wǒ zhù zài xuéxiào hòumian, zǒulù shí fēnzhōng.
I live behind the school, ten minutes on foot.
Zhang laoshi
那很近。你住几楼？
Nà hěn jìn. Nǐ zhù jǐ lóu ?
That is very close. Which floor are you on?
Xiaoyu
六楼，没有电梯。
Liù lóu, méi yǒu diàntī.
The sixth, with no lift.
Zhang laoshi
每天上下楼，也是运动。
Měi tiān shàng xià lóu, yě shì yùndòng.
Up and down every day, that is exercise in itself.
Xiaoyu
是啊。张老师，您家离学校远吗？
Shì a. Zhāng lǎoshī, nín jiā lí xuéxiào yuǎn ma ?
It is. Zhang laoshi, is your home far from the school?
Zhang laoshi
有点儿远，坐地铁要四十分钟。
Yǒudiǎnr yuǎn, zuò dìtiě yào sìshí fēnzhōng.
A bit far, forty minutes by metro.
Xiaoyu
那您每天都很早就出门吧？
Nà nín měi tiān dōu hěn zǎo jiù chū mén ba ?
So you must leave very early every day?
Zhang laoshi
对，七点就出门了。
Duì, qī diǎn jiù chū mén le.
I do, I am out of the door by seven.
Xiaoyu
那真早。
Nà zhēn zǎo.
That really is early.
我家离学校很远: my home is far from the school. The order is A 离 B, then 远 or 近. 离 is not a verb of action, it takes no conjugation of any kind; it merely sets out the two points between which the distance is measured. To say where you are setting out from, you need 从, not 离.
走路十分钟, 坐地铁四十分钟: the ordinary Chinese answer to "is it far?" is a length of time and a means of transport, not a distance. You hear it even in town for journeys of a few hundred metres. Kilometres, 公里, are kept for roads and maps.
六楼 is the sixth level counting from the ground floor, which Chinese calls 一楼. What Britain calls the fifth floor is therefore 六楼 in China, as in the United States. The word 层 counts the same thing seen another way: 这个楼有六层, this building has six levels.
