New Year is coming. Xiaoyu is going home, Chen Hao is working; Auntie Wang invites him to her table.
Auntie Wang
快过年了，你们回家吗？
Kuài guònián le, nǐmen huí jiā ma ?
New Year is almost here, are you two going home?
Xiaoyu
回。票已经买好了，二十八的车。
Huí. Piào yǐjīng mǎi hǎo le, èrshíbā de chē.
I am. My ticket is booked, the train on the twenty-eighth.
Chen Hao
我今年不回，公司三十还上班。
Wǒ jīnnián bù huí, gōngsī sān shí hái shàngbān.
I am not going back this year, the firm is still working on the thirtieth.
Auntie Wang
那三十晚上来我家吃年夜饭。
Nà sān shí wǎnshang lái wǒ jiā chī niányèfàn.
Then come to us on the evening of the thirtieth for New Year's Eve dinner.
Chen Hao
不好意思吧，你们一家人。
Bù hǎo yìsi ba, nǐmen yī jiārén.
I would not want to intrude, it is a family meal.
Auntie Wang
有什么不好意思，多一双筷子的事。
Yǒu shénme bù hǎo yìsi, duō yī shuāng kuàizi de shì.
What is there to be shy about? One more pair of chopsticks.
Xiaoyu
阿姨，你们家三十晚上做什么？
Āyí, nǐmen jiā sān shí wǎnshang zuò shénme ?
Auntie, what do you do on the evening of the thirtieth?
Auntie Wang
包饺子，看春节晚会，聊到半夜。
Bāo jiǎozi, kàn chūnjié wǎnhuì, liáo dào bànyè.
We make dumplings, watch the New Year gala, and talk until the middle of the night.
Chen Hao
以前还放鞭炮，现在城里不让放了。
Yǐqián hái fàng biānpào, xiànzài chéng lǐ bù ràng fàng le.
We used to let off firecrackers, but they are not allowed in the city any more.
Xiaoyu
我小时候最喜欢的就是这个。
Wǒ xiǎo shíhou zuì xǐhuan de jiù shì zhè gè.
That was my favourite part when I was little.
Auntie Wang
我也是。不过现在安静一点儿也好。
Wǒ yě shì. Bùguò xiànzài ānjìng yīdiǎnr yě hǎo.
Mine too. Though a bit of quiet is no bad thing now.
快过年了, New Year is nearly here. The construction brackets the verb or the noun, and the final 了 is compulsory: it is what says the change is close. You also meet 就要…了, more pressing, and 快要…了. Only 就要…了 accepts a date: 明天就要走了 is said, 明天快走了 is not.
三十 here means the last day of the twelfth lunar month, New Year's Eve, and not the thirtieth of a Western month. Its date moves every year in our calendar. In some years the twelfth month has only twenty-nine days and the eve falls on the 二十九: Chinese people still say 三十 out of habit.
不好意思 means to feel awkward, and serves to decline an invitation you actually want to accept. The expected reply is Auntie Wang's: 有什么不好意思, there is nothing to be shy about. The same word does as a light apology, weaker than 对不起: you say 不好意思 when you bump into someone on the metro.
