URLLesson Introduction
The hills are alive with the sound of the pipa. Singing in China... rife in KTV bars, on street corners, in public parks, in low-budget questionably-directed lip-dub videos. Dancing.. though it's singing's less popular cousin, look out for the classy ballroom dancers in a lit up corner of the park on a cool summer evening. In this podcast, the language of music transcends. Learn it in this Mandarin lesson.
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hitokiri6993 says
May 12, 2008
我也不會跳舞。唱歌很terrible.哈哈！ How do you say terrible in 漢語？
steeveepee33 says
May 12, 2008
If I was the dancing type, I would definitely dance to the background music in this lesson.
changye says
May 12, 2008
Hi Chinesepod! I’d like to know the difference between 跳舞 and 舞蹈. Thank you. (1) 跳舞 (tiao4 wu3) dance, to dance (2) 舞蹈 (wu3 dao3) dance, to dance
architpol says
May 12, 2008
A video? Of the CPOD staff 唱歌 和 跳舞！ Yes, according to Ken and Jenny in this lesson. Now, where on CPOD can we find this work of art?
jennyzhu says
May 12, 2008
hitokiri, You can say 很差/hen3 cha4/ or 很烂/hen3 lan4 for terrible. 烂 means rotten. It's more colourful than 差，which means bad, terrible. architpol, We were talking about our farewell to the old factory video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msV93VApyy8 Amber directed it. The very talented future italianpod host Marco shot and produced it. And the supertalented Praxis team lip synched in one take.
jennyzhu says
May 12, 2008
Lip synch is 对嘴/dui4 zui3, literally means to match lips (with the song) or 假唱/jia3 chang4/fake sing.
christycriters says
May 12, 2008
Me and my friends have a show troupe where we raise money for Hope, a charity organization so I have a lot of experience with 跳舞ing just a question though how do you say show troupe and how would you use it.
jennyzhu says
May 12, 2008
changye, 跳舞 (tiao4 wu3) is a verb and can be used as a noun too. 舞蹈 (wu3 dao3) is a noun. When used as a noun, 舞蹈 is more formal and refers to formal dance forms whereas 跳舞 is more general.
jennyzhu says
May 12, 2008
christycriters, Dance troupe is 舞蹈团/wu3 dao3 tuan2.
kristinchinese says
May 12, 2008
Hello Chinese Pod
buckaroo says
May 12, 2008
我不会唱歌 I cannot sing, but how can I resist checking out the KTVs when I visit Shanghai next month? I'm thinking I should just embrace the experience while I'm there and go for it, right? Perhaps I'll do my rendition of "Baby Got Back" if the opportunity arises. Is that Connie providing the voice of the child?
suburbanite says
May 13, 2008
sidebar: that intro (w/Clay and Amber) sounds like every language class at my high school (in spite of the efforts of our teachers).
krzysztof says
May 13, 2008
Could anyone remind me how to integrate the Chinesepod dictionary with Mozilla Firefox? Thank you in advance.
sophie20461 says
May 13, 2008
i love dancing very much espcially belly dance, i think it's very beautiful and sexy haha. but i can't do that.
sophie20461 says
May 13, 2008
and i also like singing but my sing is also very common. just so so ? haha 很一般。 高音上不去，低音下不来，呵呵。 how do you say this sentence in English?
light487 says
May 13, 2008
I think the most useful word in this lesson is 会 huì. For some reason I have not come across this word up till this point in my studies. It's such a basic-level word in the sense that it is extremely useful and can be used in so many instances of conversation. Not sure why I haven't come across this word, especially since I have been using text-based resources as well.. or may be I did see it but overlooked it.. I don't know.. but this is definitely the first time I have "noticed" it being used. The verbs "sing" and "dance" are ok.. but kind of useless by themselves.. and since there are so many possible verbs they are kind of just "filler" words for this lesson. So if you don't want to ask if or say that you can sing/dance, then you still need to learn the other verb required to ask the question you want to. I notice here the use of 不 bù before the adverb (I am assuming hui is an adverb?? anyway..).. Could I simply say, 没有 méi yǒu, instead? Or do I really need to use the negative form of the adverb?
auntie68 says
May 13, 2008
AaBbCcDdff
light487 says
May 13, 2008
??
auntie68 says
May 13, 2008
bomb
auntie68 says
May 13, 2008
Oh no. Sorry, everyone. My two-year-old nephew got into the laptop when I wasn't paying attention. He actually types and knows how to press "submit", I'm not joking. His Nanny has just carried him off and now he is crying and kicking because he wants to post on CPOD. I need to speak to his father. So sorry.
auntie68 says
May 13, 2008
It won't happen again. Sorry!
boran says
May 13, 2008
light: huì (会) is actually a verb (a modal verb to be precise) meaning "to know how to" so that's why it is used in answering the question. There's a Qing Wen on huì here. Also be aware that there are other types of words for "can" in Chinese. Mainly, examine the differences between huì (会) "know how to" , kěyǐ (可以) "have permission or possibility", and néng (能) "have a general ability". I think in this dialog you could have also used néng (能) but huì (会) seems to be more preferred.
mantid says
May 13, 2008
krzysztof, check out http://blog.praxislanguage.com/2007/09/13/faster-simpler-dictionary-search/ To add the dictionary, simply search for a word or phrase on http://labs.chinesepod.com/dictionary, then go to the Firefox search bar and select "Add ChinesePod Dictionary" from the drop-down list.
ingmar says
May 13, 2008
During every visit to my friends in China I get dragged to one of the kareoke bars, where I become the unimpressed spectator, wishing I had earmuffs to lower the volume somewhat. Then at home another session on their Hi-Fi for the benefit of the neighbours.These days I do not contribute because my voice resembles the sounds of my coffee maker. However, some years ago I could not escape becoming a performer when I was travelling on a Chinese tour to JiuZhaiGou with some of my friends' kids. Everybody on the bus was required to sing something and as I could only think of 'Twinkle twinkle litte star...' and 'Walzing Matilda', I settled for the latter when it was my turn. This caused a spontaneous clapping accompaniment with the rhythm of the song, the words of which I made up as I went along, because nobody could understand me anyway. Not much time for song and dance in Sichuan at the moment though!
penben says
May 13, 2008
I would love it if the exercises used different sentences than in the expansion. Of course I know the answers... I just read them! 100% every time. It would be better for learning if they were different sentences, so I'd have to think. Thanks though, 我很喜欢cpod.
hitokiri6993 says
May 13, 2008
jenny: 謝謝！ "烂"的繁體字是爛，對不對？ Now that I know what terrible means, I can say: 我一邊唱得烂一邊跳舞得俄很大的差. 我跟我朋友追不上. :( 哈哈. :)
lilywhytelegs says
May 13, 2008
Auntie - Your nephew is very talented. 他会打字。
vann0000 says
May 13, 2008
na fang bian hao dong xi
auntie68 says
May 13, 2008
lilywhytelegs, he loves typing. Scrolling, return, space bar, caps lock, shift, selecting things with his mouse, clicking... everything. It's so great for him because he can read, but can't control a pen properly yet (very frustrating). So learning to type made him feel like he had grown a pair of wings. Once I saw him doing a changye-style "word shape"! We'll be registering him with some office temp agencies as soon as he turns 3 on June 29.
architpol says
May 13, 2008
Jenny, 谢谢，thank you for pointing out the youtube video. It was great to see the CPOD almost live, and it seems a fitting farewell to the Factory. I'm amazed that so many people seemed to know the words to that song. At least they all were moving their lips at the right time. Well done Amber....很不错！
texastochina says
May 13, 2008
This reminded me of The New Year's Song lesson. I am trying to learn some songs for KTV and so far have picked up The Moon Represents My Heart...not too hard. The New Year's Song got me started. Thanks!
khobaib says
May 13, 2008
我真喜欢你们的program!!
luolande says
May 14, 2008
当我读有的人写的东西的时候，觉得挺好笑的。
HannahIm says
May 14, 2008
Auntie68, I've been feeling depressed today afer the horrible disasters in Burma and now China. Anyway, just happened to look at this lesson now and your "Stunt-toddler's" comments in your name just cheered me up. 谢谢! 请你让他再留言啊！
auntie68 says
May 14, 2008
Hmph. I'm not sure I liked the idea of the S.T. posting the word "bomb" in any comment in my name, but today it seems almost funny! I, too, too am feeling fragile over these natural disasters, particularly over the (increasingly) manmade disaster in Myanmar. My Myanmar friend thinks that the only thing which keeps her sane is the Myanmar sense of humour... two days before her flight back to Singapore, she had to take an OVERNIGHT bus (7.00pm to 5.00am) from Yangon to the new capital because all the Government Ministries are there now. Of course when she got there, she had to pay not a few soldiers and officials a "disaster levy", which went straight into the trouser pocket of their uniforms! It beggars the imagination.
auntie68 says
May 14, 2008
And all that just to renew her Myanmar passport...
connie says
May 14, 2008
Hi hitokiri6993, 你可以说： 我既唱得烂，跳舞又跳得差。 (不能用“一边......一边......”)
vcjason says
May 14, 2008
yeah,,hitokiri6993 一边。。一边 means actually doing something,not means you capable of doing something,lol
calkins says
May 14, 2008
这个孩子的声音做了我笑。 zhè ge háizi de shēngyīn zuò le wǒ xiào. It sounded like it was Connie...after inhaling some helium balloons!
hitokiri6993 says
May 15, 2008
vcjason & connie: Thanks for correcting! :) I get it now. :)
wyfwyf112 says
May 16, 2008
hi everyone,i am a chinese,my English is poor ,i hope make friends with you ,if you want pls contact me,i am glad to teach you chinese,my MSN is :wyf86208091@hotmail.com 我是中国人，想学习英语，并且很乐意教大家中文
szu1985 says
May 16, 2008
terrible in chinese 是恐怖! haha
kimlytton says
May 16, 2008
Loved the kids voice - goes well with Autie68's nephew posting comments - I'll join with the fun, and say that indeed, 我会唱歌- in fact, you can check it out for yourself - a song I wrote about my lovely province Yunnan, - go to youtube, type in "lovely Yunnan" or my name, (Kim Lytton) and do some on line sightseeing in Yunnan!
wolson says
May 17, 2008
auntie68, bring the child back! His comments almost made sense compared to some that have been made in the past (including mine :) too bad we don't don't have emoticons.) Let start a demonstration on CPOD: AUNTIE, AUNTIE, BRING THE CHILD BACK! AUNTIE, AUNTIE, BRING THE CHILD BACK! AUNTIE, AUNTIE, BRING THE CHILD BACK!
auntie68 says
May 17, 2008
Erm, wolson, the child's last post was "bomb". And as I mentioned to lilywhytelegs on the Frenchpod.com BB, he's "not the brightest lightbulb in the basket". A couple of days ago I clipped a jumbo-sized clothes peg on the back hem of his T-shirt, and then sat back and watched him spin himself round and round into exhausted dizziness trying to look at it. He's no changye! He's only two and a bit!
misterjess says
May 17, 2008
OH AUNTIE!!! YOU ARE MEAN!!! ( Thanks for the suggestion.)
auntie68 says
May 17, 2008
Oh, do try it, it's so fun to watch!
wolson says
May 17, 2008
ROFLMAO
lolonono says
May 25, 2008
i really like chinesepod it is very useful thank you ken & jenny