Learn with me: HEY需要你的美 by Nick Chou (song)

I recently watched the Taiwanese drama Love, Timeless on Netflix and was introduced to the musical talents of Nick Chou (Zhōu Tāngháo 周湯豪, also known as NICKTHEREAL).

As I’ve mentioned in a previous post, I often use songs to learn new Mandarin vocab and grammar points, so I thought I’d try using some of my favourite Nick Chou songs to study.

The problem is that some of Nick’s songs have some complex rap sections, making it difficult to use for language learning, but awesome to listen to.

Like this one:

Luckily, one of my favourites HEY需要你的美! is relatively simple with plenty of repetition and even some English thrown in.

Have a listen.

Catchy, right? Let’s learn together.

First, take a look at the lyrics and try to decipher what’s going on in this song.

The lyrics

 

HEY 需要你的美! by Zhōu Tāngháo 周湯豪

 

Hey, zhè fùzá de shìjiè

Hey, 这复杂的世界

Hey, this complicated world

hěn xūyào nǐ de měi

很需要你的美

Really needs your beauty

wǒ xiǎng jǐn jǐn zhuā zhù nǐ de shǒu, bù sōngxiè

我想紧紧抓住你的手，不松懈

I want to tightly grasp your hand, won’t let go

 

wǒ rúcǐ de xiǎngniàn

我如此的想念

I miss you so

bùcéng wàng nǐ de liǎn

不曾忘你的脸

I’ve never forgotten your face

wǒ xiǎng wǒmen dōu xūyào duō yīdiǎn shíjiān

我想我们都需要多一点时间

I think we both need a little bit more time

 

I’ve been waiting for a long time, girl

I’ve been waiting for a long time, girl

xīwàng nǐ bù huì zài nánguò

希望你不会再难过

Hope you won’t be sad again

ài nǐ, bù biàn

爱你，不变

Loving you, that won’t change

 

wǒ xiǎng yào gěi nǐ zuì wánměi

我想要给你最完美

I want to give you the most perfect

měilì yǔ hépíng de shìjiè

美丽与和平的世界

Beautiful and peaceful world

For you girl if you ready

For you girl if you ready

wǒ juéduì bù fàngqì

我绝对不放弃

I definitely won’t give up

 

wǒ xiǎng yào gěi nǐ zuì wánměi

我想要给你最完美

I want to give you the most perfect

měilì yǔ hépíng de shìjiè

美丽与和平的世界

Beautiful and peaceful world

For you girl if you ready

For you girl if you ready

wǒ juéduì bù fàngqì

我绝对不放弃

I definitely won’t give up

 

Hey, ràng guòqù fān yè zuòfèi

Hey, 让过去翻页作废

Hey, let the pages of the past be deleted

méi shíjiān qù làngfèi

没时间去浪费

There’s no time to waste

zhǔnbèi yǒule mèngxiǎng jiù yònglì qù zhuī

准备有了梦想就用力去追

Get ready, try hard to chase your dreams

 

I’ve been waiting for a long time, girl

I’ve been waiting for a long time, girl

xīwàng nǐ bù huì zài nánguò

希望你不会再难过

Hope you won’t be sad again

ài nǐ, bù biàn

爱你，不变

Loving you, that won’t change

 

wǒ xiǎng yào gěi nǐ zuì wánměi

我想要给你最完美

I want to give you the most perfect

měilì yǔ hépíng de shìjiè

美丽与和平的世界

Beautiful and peaceful world

For you girl if you ready

For you girl if you ready

wǒ juéduì bù fàngqì

我绝对不放弃

I definitely won’t give up

 

wǒ xiǎng yào gěi nǐ zuì wánměi

我想要给你最完美

I want to give you the most perfect

měilì yǔ hépíng de shìjiè

美丽与和平的世界

Beautiful and peaceful world

For you girl if you ready

For you girl if you ready

wǒ juéduì bù fàngqì

我绝对不放弃

I definitely won’t give up

 

How about your love, girl

Would you give it to me

Would you give it to me, my love

How about your love, girl

Would you give it to me

Would you give it to me

Would you give it to me, my love

 

wǒ xiǎng yào gěi nǐ zuì wánměi

我想要给你最完美

I want to give you the most perfect

měilì yǔ hépíng de shìjiè

美丽与和平的世界

Beautiful and peaceful world

For you girl

For you girl

For you girl

wǒ juéduì bù fàngqì

我绝对不放弃

I definitely won’t give up

 

wǒ xiǎng yào gěi nǐ zuì wánměi

我想要给你最完美

I want to give you the most perfect

měilì yǔ hépíng de shìjiè

美丽与和平的世界

Beautiful and peaceful world

For you girl if you ready

For you girl if you ready

wǒ juéduì bù fàngqì

我绝对不放弃

I definitely won’t give up

Vocabulary

I jotted down some key vocabulary used in the song. How many do you know?

Hanzi	Pinyin	Meaning
复杂	fùzá	complicated; complex
世界	shìjiè	world; field; sphere; realm
需要	xūyào	to need; to want; to require
紧	jǐn	tight; to tighten
抓住	zhuā zhù	catch (or seize) hold of; grip
松懈	sōngxiè	to relax; slacken
如此	rúcǐ	so; such; in this way; like that
想念	xiǎngniàn	to miss; to remember with longing; to long to see again
不曾	bùcéng	never (have done sth.)
希望	xīwàng	to wish for; to desire; hope
难过	nánguò	to feel sad; to feel unwell; (of life) to be difficult
完美	wánměi	perfect; perfection; perfectly
和平	hépíng	peace; peaceful
绝对	juéduì	absolute; unconditional
放弃	fàngqì	abandon; give up; renounce
作废	zuòfèi	to become invalid; to cancel; to delete; to nullify
浪费	làngfèi	waste ; squander; throw away
准备	zhǔnbèi	prepare; get ready
梦想	mèngxiǎng	(fig.) to dream of; dream
追	zhuī	to chase after; pursue

Grammar points

Finally, I reviewed some of the grammar points used in the song.

Expressing ‘most’ with 最(zuì)

最 is a very useful and common way of expressing ‘the most’. You can use it in front of an adjective to indicate the superlative suffix ‘-est’. For example:

最大 – the biggest

最小 – the smallest

Expressing ‘and’ or ‘together with’ with 与

与 is a more formal way of expressing ‘and’ or ‘together with’. It can be used in place of 和 or 跟. For example:

工业与农业 – industry and agriculture (Pleco example)

In the context of the song, it is used as ‘and’ – possibly to avoid the repetition of 和:

美丽与和平的世界

měilì yǔ hépíng de shìjiè

Beautiful and peaceful world

Using 都 (dōu) to express ‘both’

都 is used to express ‘all’ in Chinese, for example:

大家都到了吗? 

Dàjiā dōu dào le ma?

Is everybody here?

Since there isn’t a specific word to express ‘both’, you can use 都 to express ‘all’ (for more than two things) or ‘both’ (for two things).

In the song, Nick Chou is presumably referring to himself and his love interest (both) needing a little bit more time, so he says:

我想我们都需要多一点时间

wǒ xiǎng wǒmen dōu xūyào duō yīdiǎn shíjiān

Using 不曾(bùcéng) to express that you haven’t done something before

I hadn’t come across this grammar point before, so I turned to the great oracle the Chinese Grammar Wiki for help.

According to the wiki, 不曾 (bùcéng) or 未曾 (wèicéng) is a formal way of expressing that you haven’t ever done something or that something hasn’t happened ever.

The grammar structure for this is:

不曾/ 未曾 + Verb + 过 + Obj.

For example:

我 不曾到过那里 – I have never been there (Pleco example)

Headache sentence

让过去翻页作废 

Say what, now? I had to break this one down.

• 让 (ràng) – to let or allow (I know this one! So far, so good!)
• 过去 (guòqù) – (in the) past; former
• 翻 (fān) – I think in this context it means ‘turn over’, as in ‘turn the page’, please correct me if I’m wrong
• 页 (yè) – a page or leaf
• 作废 (zuòfèi) – to become invalid; to cancel; to delete; to nullify (This is an HSK 6 word)

Let the pages of the past be deleted? 

Yes. Let’s go with that.

Do you study your target language  through song? How do you go about it?