Published by: Chinese080808
Companion grammar guide found here.
Transcript covers between 0:00 and 8:39.

汉字 Pinyin English
(Edward) (Google Translate) (Edward)
大为，你的信。 Dàwéi, nǐ de xìn. Dawei, your letter.
哦，是我姐姐寄来的。宋华，你是不是独生子女？ Ó, shì wǒ jiejie jì lái de. Sòng Huá, nǐ shì bùshì dúshēngzǐ nǚ? Oh, it’s my sister who sent it. Song Hua, are you an only child?
是啊，我是独生子女。 Shì a, wǒ shì dúshēngzǐ nǚ. Yes, I am an only child.
我发现你们好像个个都是独生子女。 Wǒ fāxiàn nǐmen hǎoxiàng gè gè dōu shì dúshēngzǐ nǚ. I have discovered that it seems you all are only children.
没错。我们国家实行计划生育，鼓励一对夫妇只生一个孩子，所以，像我这么大的人，基本上都是独生子女。 Méi cuò. Wǒmen guójiā shíxíng jìhuà shēngyù, gǔlì yī duì fūfù zhǐ shēng yīgè háizi, suǒyǐ, xiàng wǒ zhème dà de rén, jīběn shàng dū shì dúshēngzǐ nǚ. That’s right. Our country has implemented family planning, to encourage couples to only have one child, therefore, for people who are as old as me, pretty much all of us are only children.
听说中国实现计划生育是从上个世纪七十年代开始的。 Tīng shuō Zhōngguó shíxiàn jìhuà shēngyù shì cóng shàng gè shìjì qīshí niándài kāishǐ de. I heard that it was from the seventies that China began to implement family planning.
对啊！你知道为什么要实行计划生育吗？五十年代、六十年代，中国的人口增长得太快。一九四九年全中国的人口是五点四亿，到一九六九年就达到八亿多了。中国的人口实在太多了！尽管经济在不断地发展，还是不能很快地提高人民的生活水平。从七十年代以来，计划生育成了中国的基本政策。最近三十年，中国成功地控制了人口的增长，现在中国人口的增长率已经低于世界人口的平均增长率。 Duì a! Nǐ zhīdào wèishéme yào shíxíng jìhuà shēngyù ma? Wǔshí niándài, liùshí niándài, Zhōngguó de rénkǒu zēngzhǎng de tài kuài. Yījiǔsìjiǔ nián quán Zhōngguó de rénkǒu shì wǔ diǎn sì yì, dào yījiǔliùjiǔ nián jiù dádào bā yì duōle. Zhōngguó de rénkǒu shízài tài duōle! Jǐnguǎn jīngjì zài bùduàn de fāzhǎn, háishì bùnéng hěn kuài dì tígāo rénmín de shēnghuó shuǐpíng. Cóng qīshí niándài yǐlái, jìhuà shēngyùchéngle Zhōngguó de jīběn zhèngcè. Zuìjìn sānshí nián, Zhōngguó chénggōng de kòngzhìle rénkǒu de zēngzhǎng, xiànzài Zhōngguó rénkǒu de zēngzhǎng lǜ yǐjīng dī yú shìjiè rénkǒu de píngjūn zēngzhǎng lǜ. That’s right! Do you know why family planning was implemented? In the 1950s and 1960s, China’s population grew too quickly. In 1949 the entire population of China was 54 million, and by 1969 the population had reached more than 800 million. China’s population really is too many! Although the economy has not stopped developing, it still cannot quickly improve people’s living standards. Since the seventies, family planning has become China’s fundamental policy. In the last three decades, China has succeeded in controlling population growth, and now China’s population growth rate is already lower than the average growth rate of the world’s population.
这可是很大的成绩啊。如果中国不控制人口的增长，每年经济要保持百分之七八的增长速度，那是不可能做到的。人口增长速度太快，其实也会影响到家庭生活水平的提高，对不对？ Zhè kěshì hěn dà de chéngjī a. Rúguǒ Zhōngguó bù kòngzhì rénkǒu de zēngzhǎng, měinián jīngjì yào bǎochí bǎi fēn zhī qībā de zēngzhǎng sùdù, nà shì bù kěnéng zuò dào de. Rénkǒu zēngzhǎng sùdù tài kuài, qíshí yě huì yǐngxiǎng dào jiātíng shēnghuó shuǐpíng de tígāo, duì bùduì? This is a big achievement. If China does not control population growth, sustaining economic growth of 7-8 percent per year, would be impossible. Too fast population growth, in fact will also affect the improvement of family living standards, right?
那还用说。穿衣、吃饭、住房、交通、看病、教育等等，哪件事跟家庭的经济情况没有关系？中国是发展中国家，大部分家庭还不很富裕，家庭人口越多，经济负担就越重。所以，计划生育也是关系到每个家庭生活水平提高的大问题。 Nà hái yòng shuō. Chuān yī, chīfàn, zhùfáng, jiāotōng, kànbìng, jiàoyù děng děng, nǎ jiàn shì gēn jiātíng de jīngjì qíngkuàng méiyǒu guānxì? Zhōngguó shì fāzhǎn zhōngguójiā, dà bùfèn jiātíng hái bù hěn fùyù, jiātíng rénkǒu yuè duō, jīngjì fùdān jiù yuè zhòng. Suǒyǐ, jìhuà shēngyù yěshì guānxì dào měi gè jiātíng shēnghuó shuǐpíng tígāo de dà wèntí. Of course. Clothing, food, housing, transportation, medical treatment, education etc. which of these is not related to a family’s economic situation? China is a developing country, and most families are not very wealthy, so the more families, the greater the economic burden. Therefore, family planning is also related to the problem of improving each families’ living standards.
中国这么大，农村人口又特别多，一直坚持实行这个政策真不容易。 Zhōngguó zhème dà, nóngcūn rénkǒu yòu tèbié duō, yīzhí jiānchí shíxíng zhège zhèngcè zhēn bù róngyì. China is so big, and the rural population is particularly large, so implementing this policy really is not easy.
可不。控制人口增长是一个很复杂的问题。计划生育在城市做得比较好，农村还有不少问题。传统的“重男轻女”的生育观念影响还很深。特别是一些比较穷的地方，有的夫妇尽管已经有了两个女孩了，他们还是希望再生一个男孩。如果第三个又是女孩，他们也许还要生第四个。这样生下去，当然会影响到农村的经济发展和农民的生活水平的提高。 Kěbù. Kòngzhì rénkǒu zēngzhǎng shì yīgè hěn fùzá de wèntí. Jìhuà shēngyù zài chéngshì zuò de bǐjiào hǎo, nóngcūn hái yǒu bù shǎo wèntí. Chuántǒng de “zhòngnán qīng nǚ” de shēngyù guānniàn yǐngxiǎng hái hěn shēn. Tèbié shì yīxiē bǐjiào qióng dì dìfāng, yǒu de fūfù jǐnguǎn yǐjīng yǒule liǎng gè nǚháile, tāmen háishì xīwàng zàishēng yīgè nánhái. Rúguǒ dì sān gè yòu shì nǚhái, tāmen yěxǔ hái yào shēng dì sì gè. Zhèyàng shēng xiàqù, dāngrán huì yǐngxiǎng dào nóngcūn de jīngjì fāzhǎn hé nóngmín de shēnghuó shuǐpíng de tígāo. That’s right. Controlling population growth is a complex issue. Family planning in the cities has been relatively better, but the countryside still has many problems. The traditional sense of “valuing males and belittling females” still runs deep. Especially in some of the poorer places, although some couples already have two girls, they still wish to have a boy. If the third child is also a girl, they may perhaps also have a fourth. Giving birth like this, of course will influence rural economic development and raising rural living standards.
有不少外国人对你们国家的计划生育政策是有看法的，他们不太理解这个政策。 Yǒu bù shǎo wàiguó rén duì nǐmen guójiā de jìhuà shēngyù zhèngcè shì yǒu kànfǎ de, tāmen bù tài lǐjiě zhège zhèngcè. There are many foreigners who take a view on your country’s family planning policy, but they do not really understand this policy.
其实只要客观地分析一下，就不难理解了。就拿你们国家来说，它的面积比中国稍微小一点儿，可是人口却只有中国的五分之一。要是你们国家的人口跟中国一样多，恐怕你们也得实行计划生育。中国是世界人口最多的国家，全世界百分之二十二的人口在中国。如果中国不控制人口的增长，你算得出现在全世界会有多少人吗？ Qíshí zhǐyào kèguān dì fēnxī yīxià, jiù bù nán lǐjiěle. Jiù ná nǐmen guójiā lái shuō, tā de miànjī bǐ Zhōngguó shāowéi xiǎo yīdiǎnr, kěshì rénkǒu què zhǐyǒu zhòng guó de wǔ fēn zhī yī. Yàoshi nǐmen guójiā de rénkǒu gēn Zhōngguó yīyàng duō, kǒngpà nǐmen yě de shíxíng jìhuà shēngyù. Zhōngguó shì shìjiè rénkǒu zuìduō de guójiā, quán shìjiè bǎi fēn zhī èrshí’èr de rénkǒu zài Zhōngguó. Rúguǒ Zhōngguó bù kòngzhì rénkǒu de zēngzhǎng, nǐ suàndé chūxiàn zài quán shìjiè huì yǒu duōshǎo rén ma? In fact, as long as the analysis is objective, it is not difficult to understand. Take your country for example, it’s area is a little smaller than China’s, but it’s population is only one-fifth of China’s. If your country’s population is as much as that of China, then I am afraid you will also have to do family planning. China is the world’s most populous country, with 22 percent of the world’s population in China. If China does not control the growth of it’s population, how many people do you think the world would have now?
中国的计划生育政策不但关系到中国的发展，也关系到世界的发展。人们应该好好地研究一下这个问题。 Zhōngguó de jìhuà shēng yù zhèngcè bùdàn guānxì dào Zhōngguó de fǎ zhǎn, yě guānxì dào shìjiè de fǎ zhǎn. Rénmen yīnggāi hǎohǎo de yánjiū yīxià zhège wèntí. China’s family planning policy is not only related to China’s development, but also related to the development of the world. People should closely study this issue.
嗯！ Ń! Yes!
（重复） (Chóngfù) (Repeat)