Zhang laoshi asks two people in their thirties whether they think they have arrived. The conversation moves from the reckoning to the word itself.
Zhang laoshi
你们两个，都三十出头了。觉得自己算成功吗？
Nǐmen liǎng gè, dōu sānshí chūtóu le. Juéde zìjǐ suàn chénggōng ma ?
You two are both past thirty now. Do you think you have made a success of it?
Chen Hao
不算。房子没买，职位也一般。同学聚会我都躲着不去。
Bù suàn. Fángzi méi mǎi, zhíwèi yě yībān. Tóngxué jùhuì wǒ dōu duǒ zhe bù qù.
I have not. No flat bought, an ordinary post. I even avoid the class reunions.
Xiaoyu
我也不算。可是我不太喜欢这个词。
Wǒ yě bù suàn. Kěshì wǒ bù tài xǐhuan zhè gè cí.
Nor have I. But I do not much like the word.
Zhang laoshi
为什么？
Wèishénme ?
Why not?
Xiaoyu
因为它总是别人定的。别人说几岁该有什么，你就得有什么。
Yīnwèi tā zǒng shì biéren dìng de. Biéren shuō jǐ suì gāi yǒu shénme, nǐ jiù de yǒu shénme.
Because it is always set by other people. They say what you should have by such an age, and you have to have it.
Auntie Wang
我们那时候简单，有个稳定工作，有个家，就算好了。谁家孩子有出息，院子里都知道。
Wǒmen nà shíhou jiǎndān, yǒu gè wěndìng gōngzuò, yǒu gè jiā, jiù suàn hǎo le. Shéi jiā háizi yǒu chūxi, yuànzi lǐ dōu zhīdào.
In our day it was simple: a steady job, a family, and that was good enough. When someone's child did well, the whole courtyard knew.
Chen Hao
现在也有人这么想，只是不敢说出来。
Xiànzài yě yǒu rén zhème xiǎng, zhǐshì bù gǎn shuō chūlái.
There are still people who think that way, they simply do not dare say so.
Zhang laoshi
为什么不敢？
Wèishénme bù gǎn ?
Why do they not dare?
Chen Hao
说出来就像认输。尤其是在同龄人面前。
Shuō chūlái jiù xiàng rènshū. Yóuqí shì zài tónglíngrén miànqián.
Saying it would be like admitting defeat. Especially in front of people your own age.
Zhang laoshi
我四十岁那年换了一次行，工资少了一半。亲戚都说我糊涂。
Wǒ sìshí suì nà nián huàn le yī cì xíng, gōngzī shǎo le yībàn. Qīnqi dōu shuō wǒ hútu.
At forty I changed trade, and my salary halved. All my relatives said I had lost my senses.
Xiaoyu
您后悔吗？
Nín hòuhuǐ ma ?
Do you regret it?
Zhang laoshi
不后悔。可我也不敢说这就是对的。换一个人，可能就撑不下去。
Bù hòuhuǐ. Kě wǒ yě bù gǎn shuō zhè jiùshì duì de. Huàn yī gè rén, kěnéng jiù chēng bù xiàqù.
I do not. But I would not dare say it was the right thing either. Someone else might not have held out.
Auntie Wang
所以别拿自己的尺子去量别人。我这辈子见过的尺子，没有两把一样长的。
Suǒyǐ bié ná zìjǐ de chǐzi qù liáng biéren. Wǒ zhè bèizi jiàn guò de chǐzi, méi yǒu liǎng bǎ yīyàng cháng de.
Which is why you should not measure others by your own yardstick. Of all the yardsticks I have seen in my life, no two were the same length.
Xiaoyu
那我换个问法：什么时候您觉得这一天没白过？
Nà wǒ huàn gè wèn fǎ : shénme shíhou nín juéde zhè yī tiān méi bái guò ?
Then let me put the question another way: when do you feel a day has not been wasted?
Zhang laoshi
晚上躺下的时候，不后悔白天说过的话。这一条，我四十年才做到一半。
Wǎnshang tǎng xià de shíhou, bù hòuhuǐ báitiān shuō guò de huà. Zhè yī tiáo, wǒ sìshí nián cái zuò dào yībàn.
When I lie down at night and do not regret anything I said during the day. And that one, in forty years, I have only half managed.
A little over thirty. 出头 goes after a round number and says you have passed it by a little; it is not used of large quantities nor of money, only of age and lengths of time. Beware the homonymy with the 出头 of level D, "to stick your head out", which is unrelated.
To put the question another way. The suffix 法 attached to a verb names the manner of doing it: 说法 the way of saying, 想法 the way of thinking, 做法 the way of doing, 问法 the way of asking. It is a very regular way of forming words, and 换个 + verb + 法 is the usual formula for starting again differently.
这一天没白过: that day was not wasted. Before a verb, 白 says the action was done for nothing: 白跑一趟, to have gone for nothing; 白说了, to have spoken in vain. The word no longer has its colour sense here, and the construction has already appeared in lesson 2 of this level in 打听了也白打听.
