The Pickup Artist

好吧，谢谢你鼓励我！可是别忘了：If you can fake sincerity, you've got it made!

你别失望了！这么单纯的态度肯定有人感觉很有吸引力。

zhenlijiang and baba, many thanks for your contributions! I've adopted almost all of them.

According to Wenlin, hǎoxiàng may be 好像 or 好象, but I've changed those to the more common 好像 anyway.

The rest of my mistakes and omissions I thank you for catching and bringing up, it's remarkable how obvious they seem now, coming back to it again with the benefit of another's ears!

And I certainly do appreciate your identification of 吸引力, an entirely new term for me. I guess if you've no idea what that is, you haven't got it. *sigh*

Thanks zhen, you know my first feeling was for 又, I should have stuck with it! Thanks for the clarification though.

Aah, if only! Maybe a pickup artist manqué! I am the manqué king after all! 呵呵！

"I love how you explain why this was the first ever CPod lesson you studied."

..呵呵，我同意

“P.S. also love how the title of this thread is

Transcripts with Tal--the Pickup Artist”

。。哈哈大笑 ：）

hehe,yeah,I can see it now [had to get there by googling as you suggested].Very funny.Obviously fake fake Nasa photos.Of course it's very hard to totally prove or disprove anything,till we get back to the point...我觉得所以我是。

On the community page,rankings is the last tab on the right. It's all ok by me mate. Others may take a dim view though,hehe.

"Australian Constitution"

...don't tell me it has us all still as convicts serving under our morally superior English masters,hehe.I think it would be too much to bear after that spammer had me going the other day.Oh well,it is the year of the tiger now.Fresh start,hehe.

Take a look at the info on that site and decide for yourself.

hehe

Have to go now

So you think that man has never landed on the moon?

Nope - there's an utterly convincing argument there about how the landings were faked. I'm now converted to that truth :)

Top 8 ? Really ? Where do you get that info ? How do I hit the #1 spot ? If I duplicate all my posts several times is that okay ?

If you finally manage to access the site, there's an interesting copy of the Australian Constitution there, too.

;)

"the real stuff"....I thought it was just a bit of a prank....the server going on about being depressed,etc

What are you converted to?

"All the posts I tried to make before I joined this group have suddenly appeared."

..better watch out mate.You've already made it to this months top 8, and even more recently this weeks top 7...you're going up the ladder ....you don't want to go from a FP to a VFP ,hehe ;) ..hey,but I do want ya to;jiayou

Try again later .... I just followed the link and got that message. The real meat is on the site there somewhere.

Edit: I just googled the link address and managed to get to the real stuff.

Is it ever going to stop? I'm wondering if it's testing to see how long you stay...and the longer,the bigger the 笨蛋，呵呵

。。 ok,it has finished,hehe.

I was just like you before I saw this analysis ... I used to think that folks who made that claim were one slate short of a roof, but now I'm converted !

Bloody hell. All the posts I tried to make before I joined this group have suddenly appeared. Magic !

haha,very funny.I like it mate :)

No,sorry mate,but I have read a lot of that stuff before.Is there something new there? Ok,I'll take a squiz. I just mean that while the photos etc may have been faked,it doesn't mean there was no moon landing at all.

You followed the link ?

yeah,I've come across all that before. It's not to say of course that there wasn't a moon landing.

The moon landings were definitely faked. Here's proof:

http://stuffucanuse.com/fake_moon_landings/moon_landings

Yeah tal,I can recall those moon landing recordings [actually heard 'em again last year on the 40th anniversary] and I can see they'd be a challenge for non natives. Good example.

I often read subtitles while watching English-speaking movies (part of it is probably compulsive criticism). I almost never need subtitles to know what's going on or get the gist of what's being said but very often won't be able to hear exactly what the words were. But with movies, unlike audio-only speeches, the picture always brings you so much information.

We "understand" so much in our native language through familiarity with the culture, and experience (being able to anticipate what will be said), right? Therefore, by the same token once we have the sufficient background (yeah that takes time) we'll be able to do the same in the foreign language we're trying to acquire, then we'll be able to hear like Changye does I guess.
I do want to become able to hear each word distinctly though, some day.

长夜，呵呵，噢，现在我明白，谢谢不过我真的不认为上网冲浪为找图片一个技巧；任何人都可以做这个。另一方面，我愿意换为了有你的中文知识任何一天 ：）

Hi bababardwan

我错误地以为你是八十后的主要原因就是你过去上传的图片。看来你很快就找到各种各样的精彩图片，肯定需要某种技巧，结果我渐渐地把你看做一个熟悉电脑的年轻人了。没想到，我们俩都是同一代的中年人。我认为你确实拥有网络冲浪技巧，真棒！

呵呵，“I can recall those moon landing recordings”。。意思不一定是我听过现场直播，但是，其实，实在我可以记得听过现场直播【我很小的时候】

"我一直以为你是一个80后的澳大利亚男人，太不好意思了！"

。。没关系，没关系，不过我很好奇；为什么你认为我是80后的男人？可能你觉得我是有点儿天真，哈哈或者不同的孔子；不是明智的，呵呵？

Hi bababardwan

> I can recall those moon landing recordings

看来，至少你不是个70后。我也看过人类第一次登月的现场直播.....。其实呢，我一直以为你是一个80后的澳大利亚男人，太不好意思了！

大概两五六零岁。。左右，你呢？

Ok,well that makes way more sense anyhow [and 我 definitely wouldn't ].I'd translate it as:

meaning is precisely that people have previously already used it many many times.

So if I was hearing the "我“ sound..that sound comes at the end of 用过。。what I'm not picking up is the 用 and a "g" sound. I'd love to know if it has been contracted a bit in this case and whether context [I mean meaning wise yongguo fits in there beautifully/naturally/even predictably if one had been more advanced] would kind of extrapolate it in there and pick it up better. Actually,come to think of it ,when I was helping out a bit on English pod there were times when stuff was barely perceptable but I knew what a half said word was from context. I must have another listen to this some time. I think you are right again though changye, usually it is probably not necessary to pick up every last sound to get the overall meaning.Actually of course we do this all the time.That is not necessarily with not picking up sound,but rather not knowing every last word's meaning but still getting a pretty good overall gist as zhen has also nicely illustrated.Still,it's important to try as much as possible to push one's comprehension I think.At least I intend to keep giving it a crack.

我想问你一下，你今年到底多大岁数？

zhen that's really helpful and interesting to hear. Thanks for your 觉、觉得 example. If you do come across any others I'd be most interested to hear of them and grateful.

"(no specific examples on hand though, sorry)."

..no need for sorry. I know exactly what you mean. You've noted it and that's important. I should look out for it more myself.Maybe there have been instances and I haven't given it much thought.Dunno.But I'll be more aware of the possibility now.

Thanks for your thoughts changye 大哥.

"different story for young guys like you"

..hehe,I always thought we were 大概相同的年龄。。你是一样的大哥

Hi bababardwan

Probably it happens very often, unfortunately, in any language. I guess that actually even native speakers don't catch all the sounds and syllables used in conversation, but they can make out what other guys are saying from context and "experience". As for me, I've already given up the idea of improving my English/Chinese listening comprehension. At my age, the time-to-benefit ratio of "listening skills training" is too low, hehe. Reading skills are more important for me and much easier to improve, thankfully. Of course, it's a different story for young guys like you. 加油！

Baba I'm not Changye but I've noticed it quite a bit, for instance in the banter in the old Advanced lessons (in the recent ones the hosts enunciate very clearly). In the old Advanced lesson 中西方幽默 I transcribed, Jenny seems to say 觉 (jue) a lot but she is of course saying 觉得 (I had to ask Jiaojie about that to be sure).

But also I think it happens often in the dialogues, newer ones as well as older ones, in the Intermediate level too, not just Advanced (no specific examples on hand though, sorry).

thanks changye ,but I can't say I feel any better as I'd still like to be able to hear it,and am not interested comparing myself to anyone else [I always think one has one's own journey...it's just nice there are other travellers on the same path].I'm wondering if each syllable of 用过 was clearly enunciated or whether it was kind of like contractions we have in English where it has been shortened into one syllable like "y'all" for "you all",though I can't say I've really noticed that in Chinese before.Does that kind of thing happen at native level and if so,how oft'?

Hi bababardwan

I have "a confession" to make. To tell you the truth, I couldn't make out the "用过" either. Fortunately, I had a welcome-new-year party with a few Chinese friends at my home last night...... So, you don't need to feel down, hehe.

多谢长夜

我的妈呀；no matter how many times I listen to that line,I still can't make out the 用过 part.It still sounds like 我 to me.Is it plain as daylight to you? It makes me wonder whether I'll ever be able to catch the really quick stuff...the little words in between...words I know but just not quick enough to catch.Until now I've resisted the temptation to adopt xiaophil's clever suggestion of using something like audacity to slow it down,only because I want to practice my listening to speed skills,but I agree it's an excellent idea for putting out a good and more reliable transcript.Oh well,onward and upward.大家加油吧，呵呵。

changye, 太谢谢你了！

意思就是人家以前已经用过好多好多遍了

ok,just done a google search:

"我又不用"..773,000

"我有不用"...328,000

"我又不用泡妞"...6

"我有不用泡妞"...0

...so I'm going to trust my ears and go with 又

...further,it makes more sense to me to stress a word like 又 which is often used for emphasis [I think] and not as much sense to stress 有

。。and maybe the 又[in this case meaning also] is kinda following on from John's laughing and incredulousness in his confirmatory questioning which kinda implied that he wasn't up for going off to pick up chicks.

so you went with 有。Yeah,well I was going to add that I wondered whether it sounded a bit fourth tone-ish because of the way that Jenny emphasised it or because it was followed by a fourth tone.I couldn't quite tease that out and decide so it's nice to see what you went with.

ok the section you had highlighted at 4m40s,I heard as:

意思就是人家以前景我好多好多变了

..but I don't think I've captured it either.Particularly unsure about the bit I have as :

人家以前景我

..esp 景

I would translate that as:

..meaning is precisely:other peoples [or families] former circumstances I have changed quite a lot [? many times,or much better].hehe,yep I definitely haven't quite captured it either but I hope there's something there that may help.

You have a point, I'm changing that.

Oh right,thanks tal. hehe,泡妞 is a classic new term. It reminds me of another activity fraught with danger,namely 跑牛。。which is my Chinglish way of saying running with the bulls.

Hey baba, thanks for the feedback. The words highlighted in blue are actually links to dictionary definitions of those words at nciku, I choose certain words to do this for which I think are worth getting to know better. Maybe I should add a vocab list at the end of the transcript as well, (haven't done so before but perhaps it's a good idea.)

It's the bits highlighted in yellow that I'm currently not sure of, but there may well be other mistakes as well! I'm open to nitpicking!