URLLesson Introduction
You've always had a secret affinity for borscht, and a secret compulsion to buy nesting dolls at neighborhood garage sales. Enter this lesson, where we transport you to the land that gave us Zhivago, caviar, perogie-making babushkas (bless their souls), and huge fur hat sporting dedushkas. Get ready to warm yourself from the insides out with a vodka-filled journey in Mandarin Chinese to Moscow.
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johns says
July 1, 2008
I met my first native Russian in Shanghai. This is a great idea for a lesson...thoroughly enjoyable.
http://video.search.yahoo.com/video/play?p=moscow%2C+kremlin&n=21&ei=utf-8&js=1&fr=yfp-t-501&tnr=20&vid=000110540933
ronironi says
July 1, 2008
I see two entries in dictionary for lìhai 利害? or 厉害?
bill says
July 1, 2008
有意思...今天我们决定明年要去莫斯科。We'll take a 12 day trip from Moscom to St. Petersburg on a river boat.
Bill
changye says
July 1, 2008
俄罗斯的首都在哪里？
(e2 luo2 si1 de shou3 du1 zai4 na3 li3)
What is Russia's capital city?
下周我要去莫斯科出差。
(xia4 zhou1 wo3 yao4 qu4 mo4 si1 ke1 chu1 chai1)
I'm going to Moscow on business next week.
clarsen says
July 1, 2008
Check out the cool Chinese cartoon... tell me your thoughts...
http://chinesepod.com/community/conversations/post/2198
mikeinewshot says
July 1, 2008
The music is Московские вечера (Moscow Nights)
I was there in the 70s working for 15 months. The Brezhnev era. Lots of restrictions for foreigners in principle, but not so many in practice.
I lived outside Moscow at a scientific institute, learned the language and found that you could move freely in Moscow.
amber says
July 1, 2008
hi ronironi,
厉害 (lìhai) when used in the type of context as it is in this dialogue takes these characters: 厉害. The other written form of 利害 (lìhai) is sometimes used in similar contexts, but the former is more correct.
利害 (lìhai) written in these characters can also have another meaning altogether, which is 'benefits and drawbacks.'
sushan says
July 2, 2008
I always get 莫斯科 (mòsīkē. Moscow) mixed up with
墨西哥 (mòxīgē, Mexico). I think the most confusing thing is that the tones pattern is the same.
shaxan says
July 2, 2008
So, vodka and the Red Square kind of sums the whole thing up, huh? You must be kidding, right! Oh, well....
dpay02 says
July 2, 2008
Спасибо большое. Этот урок очень интересен, я люблю москву! Нам нужен русский под!
谢谢.这节课很有意思,我很喜欢莫斯科!我们真需要俄语播客!
Thank you. This lesson was very interesting, I love Moscow! We need Russian Pod!
brims says
July 2, 2008
so 旅游 means travel as a tourist. what about 旅行？can they be used interchangeably sometimes?
pinkjeans says
July 2, 2008
我也很想去莫斯科旅游。
wo3 ye3 hen3 xiang3 qu4 mo4 si1 ke1 lü3 you2。
amber says
July 2, 2008
hi brims,
Yes, 旅游 (lǚyóu) and 旅行 (lǚxíng) are both verbs that can be used interchangeably to mean 'to travel, to tour.'
dahuoshan says
July 2, 2008
Ура...наконец-то...спасибо...)))
Xiexie laoshimen)))...
suntzu8 says
July 2, 2008
Hi Brims,
Another word I have seen thrown around (mainly in my Chinese textbook) is cānguān. Although it seems to me that both lüyóu and lüxíng can be normally used for visiting a foreign place (i.e. another country) while cānguān appears to be more used for some specific smaller place (like a museum, historic site etc.). I'm not sure if this is necessarily the case, just what I often have seen.
penben says
July 2, 2008
我不想去莫斯科旅游。After having a russian roommate for 2 years, I have had far too much Vodka and pickles (some bad memories there) and am not terribly fond of certain Russians' procivity to singing drunkenly far into the not so early morning.
rich says
July 2, 2008
Funny, JUST yesterday I asked my teacher specifically how to say 莫斯科 in Chinese, just because a few of my classmates happened to travel through 俄国 to get to 天津 in 中国. You guys are amazing...help me to get this memorized like not even my teacher could.
Is there a lot of science in 莫斯科 for it to have 科 in the name? heh.
rich says
July 2, 2008
shaxan,
huh, it is an elementary lesson, doubt they wanted to get into too much detail, and outside of Russia, 伏特加(Vodka) is a very common way to start up a conversation about 俄国. You try summing up all of 莫斯科 in just a 5-6 line elementary dialog and maybe I can learn something more too ;)
rich says
July 2, 2008
Any reason 伏特加 (fútèjiā) isn't 伏特酒? Funny 加(jiā) isn't 酒(jiǔ) for meaning and phonetic.
And is 伏特加 very easy/common to buy in China? Haven't seen much on the liquor shelves other than 白酒 and 红葡萄酒... not that I really want to buy any as drinking isn't my cup of tea...err....酒, but I was wondering how to identify/find it other than asking by name.
shaxan says
July 2, 2008
rich,
you should try your local 久加久 store for vodka, it's 全国连锁, so wherever you actually are, you could find it, I think.
margallitka says
July 2, 2008
to rich,
可能在北方买俄罗斯的伏特加没问题，还是我可以买伏特加给你，哈哈
vibrantcommunitylearner says
July 2, 2008
So nice to meet russkies here and people who travelled or is going to travel to our odd country!
Всем привет!
daolin says
July 2, 2008
听说来 他喝/注入啤酒,
不喝伏特加
(你们说啊! - 我听气)
Tīngshuōlái tā hē/zhùrù píjiǔ, bù hē fútèjiā.
(Nǐmen shuō ā ! - Wǒ tīng qì )
It sounds as if he's pouring beer, not vodka!
(be honest :-) - It's too much, and I can hear the bubbles)
Question: How to express 'gas bubbles in a beverage'?
penben says
July 2, 2008
When exporting the vocabulary for this lesson (to xml), the pinyin for 俄 in 俄国 and 俄罗斯 is messed up.
penben says
July 2, 2008
doalin,
You're right, its definitely not vodka that's being poured.
sushan says
July 2, 2008
In China, you can see Russian/Chinese flag desk ornaments in many stationery stores and the art/souvenir markets have big portraits of Lenin and Stalin alongside Mao, Marx, and other famous figures in the history of Communism.
Russian visitors have commented that China copies Russia a lot - for example, the central public square in Chengdu with Mao saluting over it mimics the Red Square.
俄罗斯 套娃 éluósī tàowá - Russian nesting doll
chiquito says
July 2, 2008
La copa de Europa es nuestra. 欧洲杯就是我们，西班牙人的。
alexz says
July 2, 2008
我 很 高兴 听 我的 老家。
真谢谢 你们 从莫斯科 chinesepod 学生！
missworldtraveler says
July 2, 2008
In February I travelled to Harbin to see the snow and ice sculptures. The sculptures were absolutely amazing!! Anyway, while in Harbin my friends and I dined in a typical Russian restaurant and visited a few Russian sites. It felt strange being in China but enjoying many things so typical of Russia -- including the biting cold winter!
amber says
July 2, 2008
hi daolin,
Bubbles in a beverage are called: 气泡 (qìpào)
auraweimin says
July 2, 2008
Russian Vodka - 40' strong - Red Square
Irish Whisky - 45' strong – Green grass fields
Chinese Moutai - 53' strong – Yellow oceans of crowds.
Choose your drink carefully!
osckeezee says
July 2, 2008
Hello ChenesePodders,
Does anyone know how to say tequila in Chinese?
amber says
July 3, 2008
hi osckeezee,
Tequila: 特基拉酒 (Tèjīlājiǔ)
boran says
July 5, 2008
From the dialog, why does the line "他去那儿旅游 (tā qù nàr lǚyóu)" get translated into a question. It seems it would get translated as "He went there to travel". Is it a question based on the context?
boran says
July 5, 2008
Regarding the intro promo: Is a wiggity, wiggity week the same as a regular week? Kris Kross? really? heh heh
amber says
July 7, 2008
hi boran,
When in context, sometimes a question doesn't have to have a 'ma' at the end, but you can still know it is a question.
rjberki says
July 7, 2008
Boran- the second wiggity multiplies the first by an order of magnitude (factor of ten). :-)
chris says
August 27, 2008
I think "li4hai5" can also be used to describe a person that gets angry and upset easily.
I was trying to pay my other half a compliment by saying "ni3 hen3 li4hai5" ("You're amazing") - but I got punched for saying it!
Perhaps same pronunciation but different characters?
Thanks, Chris
amber says
August 28, 2008
hi chris,
你很厉害 (Nǐ hěn lìhai) in either a good or bad way is the same characters, same pronunciation. It's all context, whether people will know which you mean.
emily311 says
August 29, 2008
利害 means benefit
厉害 means powerful