User Comments - Lantian
Lantian
Posted on: Chinese Wedding Customs
May 17, 2007 at 2:22 AMThe First 12-seconds Hi welcome to ChinesePod,Chinese on Your Term, 我是株寄, 我是Jenny. Hi I'm John. 就是全是中文哪我就想说自己中文名字好。 那，今天的课文也要是很特别高兴的场合。。。Right, today's intermediate lesson is about weddings. 婚礼对吧。Right 婚weddings. Ceremonies. 婚礼。第一声和第三声。One three，"hun li." 对。Alright, and what exactly are we learning about Chinese weddings? 我们今天要去喝喜酒。喝喜酒。So "xijiu，'xi'" is like happy. 对。And 'jiu' is alcohol. 是的。So Chinese weddings are all about getting wasted! 是！但是哪，喝喜酒的意思是。大家光。。饭，说的就是大的婚约wedding banquet，又吃又喝。Al'right, so the "jiu" represents the banquet.呢 对。And the "xi" is just because wedding banquets are happy. 是啊。Alright “xijiu" that's two third tones, right. 没错。So "he xi jiu" just means attend a Chinese wedding ceremony。对 Or any wedding ceremony. 对对对，哪咱们快去喝吧. Ok! STATS 0:00 - 0:12 240 words, 143 hanzi Hi welcome to ChinesePod,Chinese on Your Term, wǒ 我 shì 是 zhū 株 jì寄, wǒ 我 shì 是 Jenny. Hi I'm John.wǒ 我 shì 是 jiù 就 shì 是 quán 全 shì 是zhōng 中 wén 文 nǎ 哪 wǒ 我 jiù 就 xiǎng 想 shuo 说 zì 自 jǐ 己 zhōng 中 wén 文 míng 名 zì 字 hǎo 好. nā 那，jīn 今 tiān 天 de 的 kè 课 wén 文 yě 也 yāo 要 shì 是hěn 很 tè 特 bié 别 gāo 高 xīng 兴 de 的cháng 场 gě 合hūn 婚 lǐ 礼 duì 对 bā 吧. Right, today's intermediate lesson is about weddings.合hūn 婚 lǐ 礼 duì 对 bā 吧. Right hūn 婚 weddings. Ceremonies. 婚 lǐ 礼 dì 第 yī 一 shēng 声 hé 和 dì 第 sān 三 shēng 声 One three，"hun li." duì 对。 Alright, and what exactly are we learning about Chinese weddings? 对 wǒ 我 men 们 jīn 今tiān 天 yāo 要 qù 去 hē 喝xǐ 喜jiǔ 喝 hē. So "xijiu，'xi'" is like happy. duì 对。 And 'jiu' is alcohol. shì 是 de 的. So Chinese weddings are all about getting wasted! shì 是！dàn 但 shì 是 nǎ 哪，hē 喝 xǐ 喜 jiǔ 酒 de 的 yì意 si 思 shì 是 dà 大 jiā 家 guāng 光 fàn 饭. shuo 说 de 的 jiù 就 shì 是 dà 大 de 的 hūn 婚 yāo 约 yòu wedding banquet, 又chī 吃 yòu 又 hē 喝 Al'right, so the "jiu" represents the banquet. nà 呢 duì 对。And the "xi" is just because wedding banquets are happy. shì 是 ā 啊。 Alright “xijiu" that's two third tones, right. méi 没 cuò 错. So "he xi jiu" just means attend a Chinese wedding ceremony。duì 对 Or any wedding ceremony. duì 对 duì 对 duì 对，nǎ 哪 zá 咱 men 们 kuài 快 qù 去 hē 喝bā 吧 Ok! MORE STATS It took me like F-O-R-E-V-E-R to produce the second version, adding in the pinyin etc. It wasn't hard, just extremely laborious. Don't anyone even dare gripe about the format, pinyin it yourself! ;p Hi usr1, your Chinese friend had a hard time transcribing. Nothing to do with Jenny's Chinese. If so, then my Chinese is better than your friend's, and that's like incomprehensible! I had to pause and repeat lots of times to catch EXACTLY what John said (In English!). It's not necessary to be so exact in conversations, our minds do it in the background for us. Transcription is an art, listen for meaning. About the fog, there's a difference between 'explicit' learning, ie. thru the scripted dialogue, and 'acquisition' thru input like the banter. If you only do study, it will be hard to acquire. IMO FINALLY I believe I have at least TWO errors in my transcription, but I'm not telling. YOU listen and tell us where. If you don't know these filler phrases, you'll think Jenny's saying a lot. If you know them, you can speak 90% of typical Chinese conversations. 是是的。对不对。 j/k :) bā 吧. (What'ya think, ok?) bā 吧 Ok! méi 没 cuò 错 (No, mistake there!) duì 对 (Yup, ah huh, correct, right right right!) duì对 duì 对 duì对 nǎ 哪 (So, ah-hu, hey, mmm-hmm) nā 那 nà 呢 shì 是 de 的 (That's right, It is, yup, ah-huh) shi 是！ shì 是 ā 啊。 This helped? Didn't? Fun? Not fun? I sure hope this posts formated right...never can tell till I hit that little 'Add Comment' button....
Posted on: Chinese Wedding Customs
May 16, 2007 at 4:54 PMROUNDTABLE - At dinner tonight, I basically didn't say anything. It's not that I didn't want to, it's just that there was too much unknown vocabulary being thrown around between eight people for me to absorb, let alone think of witty things to say. My mind was pretty much pre-occupied with deciphering what was being talked about. When I wrote 'get over it' I meant to say, it's easy to attribute this challenge as people 'were talking too fast.' It's the same I think for a lot of newbies. I mean tonight, I could say I was a newbie at the table. It's easy to say 'sloooow down.' But it's not natural really. Kids don't ask adults to talk slowly, they just ignore us if we're boring them! There's a big difference I think between asking a word to be highlighted, well-enunciated, or repeated than asking a whole phrase to be slowed down. There are lots of strategies to 'hear' things, lots have posted on the various things to do. When Ken says listen to the music of the language, this really is what one should do if they are a newbie. The music changes to music with a rhythm, the rhythm starts to include pauses, the pauses then sometimes have words we recognize, sing the sounds, mimic the rhythm and pauses, listen for the tones, just study a word and listen out for it in the cacophany of sounds. If it's only a 4-second clip that gives your mind plenty to digest, then that's enough. That four seconds is better than somehow artificially understanding a whole page of 300 words. The four seconds eventually become ten, then 30, 1 minute, 1 hr, etc. Remember words are really only an artificial construct, the stream of soundwaves never really stop and pause in speech, it's only our minds that create the words. As we create them, the world slows down, the spinning stops, and images appear. As Jenny says, we all create our own worlds. Others cannot do it for us. IMO :)
Posted on: Parking Lot Rage
May 16, 2007 at 6:06 AMTHE TEN 'VICES' - of China 吃喝嫖赌抽 坑蒙拐骗偷 吃喝嫖赌 chi1 he1 piao2 du3 (set phrase) a life of debauchery 抽 chou1 to smoke (cigarettes) 坑 keng1 to defraud 蒙 meng1 deceive / cheat / hoodwink 拐 guai3 abduct 骗 pian4 swindle / abduct 偷 tou1 to steal / to pilfer 你妈有没有告诉你出门在外要小心吗还敢跟人吵架万一被人打伤了我们怎么去救你喔 ...The ten adjectives could be core components of the Cpod series "Life on the Dark Side, 黑黑生活过程 Cpod VX". Guns, taxi cab fights, cheating, spitting and cutting in line. ;p
Posted on: Lili and Zhang Liang 14: Seeking Comfort
May 16, 2007 at 4:20 AMTOO WORRIED - 你到底怎么了 I have a question for Amber, John and probably Jenny too I guess about a particular translation/association problem I have. I have a heard time creating the correct emotional feeling behind '到底' and '怎么了.' I've had it asked of me, by caring, considerate friends, but yet I still have a hard time 'using' it. And have a hard time 'receiving' it. These words/phrases are so common, however, I feel like I really need to get these down. In my mind somehow it links back or translates back to something like "Why are you doing this?" "What's your purpose?" or "What reason brings this on?" ...all of which are not necessarily great ways to express concern in English. This association somehow seeps back into my Chinese. I don't know if it's because somewhere along the way I learned to associate '到底' to 道理 or some other mis-connection. Ideas? I wish I had only first heard these phrases from Cpod and it's vernacular translation of 'What's the matter?" :l I think some poor BLCU textbook is to blame! Can you suggest some other English words or meanings that I can try to re-attach to this. Maybe even some other Chinese. Or other thoughts on this? Is my feeling unique？ Do others have this problem? Like 你有问题吗 versus 你到底这么了？ I still 'feel like' 你到底怎么了' and '怎么了' seems to impose some burden on the receiver to respond back, to get better, to 'not make trouble for everyone'. What I want to say is "Are things alright?" "What's wrong?" "How are things?" I'm concerned.
Posted on: Cold Beer
May 16, 2007 at 4:02 AMVERBS - Is just saying 'two more' wrong? Or is the verb necessary? For example, No verb "多两杯.“ Verbs ”要多两杯“ ”来多两杯“ I hear lots of spoken Chinese and they of course have shortcuts in saying things, but what is still kind of unclear in my mind is about verbs. Is it 'technically/grammaticaally' wrong to leave out verbs or does it just make things very ambiguous and unclear in Chinese? Ken, a "hollarcrastic" sentence???? Between you and Jenny I feel like my English really is unworthy. ;p 真佩服你们两！ Hi Q-tip, 你要一杯可乐，要不要冰块？ Note: I'd put in the pinyin/English but adso seems to be offline at the moment. Most of my hanzi though is from the lesson!
Posted on: When the Taxi Takes the Long Way
May 16, 2007 at 3:36 AMHi Mark, DUKING IT OUT - My own ability to actually curse and mock in Chinese has been getting better and better, but I find this might not be so good in real situations. Things sometimes slip out of my mouth a little tooooo easily. The fine-line distinction here seems to be that one should never actually touch another person or disturb physical items that are not your own. One can talk the talk as much as one wants, but one little poke, and things easily lead to real altercations. IMO :p
Posted on: When the Taxi Takes the Long Way
May 16, 2007 at 3:28 AMHi nicolas, IMO (in my opinion) it's not necessary because people are adults, at least most of us, and can easily figure out that Jenny and Amber will be giving us the most accurate interpretations and opinions, and that others are learners. If they are confused about who is who, they should just listen to the podcasts and read a few comment threads to familiarize themselves with who is who. Everything else people say, IMO, is opinion, and in no way is meant to refer to any real or actual persons, and/or attach any due cause or liability for said upon use by other persons such as yourself or those like yourself acting as the agent thereof, with limited durability in a vested-cycle prorated over a future period of between three minutes and the rest of your life. Jenny, 如果没有你就没有我啊！！
Posted on: Chinese Wedding Customs
May 16, 2007 at 3:09 AMHey BigToe! (Man2Toe) Follow the below to go to the level assessment, Study - Take a Test to Check Your Level Hi Al Wingate, I guess my dig and reaction is from a HUGE fear that Cpod (and Jenny) will diligently respond and ask Jenny to slow down. I struggled for so long while learning Japanese with the Japanese (people) because they have a very strong tendency to slow, enuciate and talk 'foreigner speak'. It comes up in their training materials and with their teachers too. Japanese students (when learning Chinese) also typically ask the teacher to slow down, and they go thru every hanzi with excruciating detail. I found this a less common 'problem' with Chinese learning materials and speakers in general and it has made my learning EASIER!! I guess from my own experience I'm actually trying to get some elementaries to change their mindsets--in an attempt to make life easier for them!! It's like I'm some super-critical non-smoker (who was an ex-smoker) asking people not to smoke. Kissenger talked like an old distorted vinyl set on 20. :) You just made an evaluation that he WAS SLOW. Never said he wasn't bright. I compare Jenny to a friend of mine of comparable age who in essence talks like a (Chinese) California Valley girl, I need to physically throw food in front of her or distract her in some way to make her pause for a breath. She truncates, slurs, adds ad-hoc adjectives and is like some stream of consciousness Chinese-speaking machine. It's like a lot of stuff in life, you know it when you see it. Just yesterday actually somebody gave me this analogy, lots of us have eaten pork and never actually ever seen a pig. We know however when it is or is not pork! Where's the beef?, I say. Hi Henning, Sigh, I can go thru 8 conversations with 8 different people and be told 8 different opinions on my level! It takes about 15 compliments to get me over the 1 or two disparaging comments about my tones and ability. ;p I watch a lot of media but there's PLENTY I don't understand of it. For example, almost all of the vocabulary in this podcast is unknown to me. I didn't understand those particular words when Jenny said them. I imagine for the user who commented things are 'too fast' she/he also didn't understand all the words around the vocab words either. But with all the words, Jenny didn't say them 'fast'. :) I guess here there's something I'd like to say about talking to people, much like the poster I have also, and still do somethings ask people "Please slow down, talk slower." But I guess I don't really mean that. (Jenny, 请别说的太慢，你可以亭一下，等一会儿，不过真的不要你改变你的口语速度，我觉得你的随便聊聊的话题真的有趣，也能帮助我的学习！） What I want them to do is to pause at words that I don't know and say them again. If it's a set of sounds particularly hard for my ears, like second versus fourth tone, or n versus ng, a little over-enunciating is appreciated. It's-dif----fer---ent t---han ---ta-lking like Kissenger about plu---ton---ium testing strat----gie---s. He probably used it as a strategy to defeat translators and treaty negotiators! Jenny does do this, pause occasionally, as best as one can to adapt to 1000s of individual users all at the same time in one podcast. Maybe my point is that with this kind of resource we, the listener, can hit the pause/repeat button! Hearing, practicing and enunciating at an artifically slowed pace, unless it's balanced with a higher amount of natural speed input, will IMO result in you sounding the same, not good. The problem for THE SPEAKER is that a lot of times they don't know which words YOU might know or not now. Some people overcompensate and say ALL the words they expect of classroom Chinese, but actually you already know those words. Then with the words they just naturally think of, which one never heard in class, they just whiz them by you, a wavelength that returns to the sun. I think this is why 'conversational partners' or a person that is familiar with you seems more comprehensible, they make allowances for our gaps in knowledge. Well, I'm glad to have taken this thread as far far away from marriage as possible! I'm really glad to read all the comments, both pro and con. It constantly helps me to re-define my own learning strategies, and I take support from those opinions and ideas that suit me. I hope others do the same, even if they are a 180 degrees opposite to mine. 我们一起聊聊和好好学习！
Posted on: Chinese Wedding Customs
May 15, 2007 at 3:34 PMPAUSE - The Cpod vocab test placed me at low-intermediate. I think it's an accurate reflection of my vocabulary base in terms of an academic sampling. But I also think that in terms of conversational and colloquial Chinese I probably am at a somewhat higher level, I listen to a lot of Chinese media. I bring this up because I don't want people accusing me of being advanced, and I absolutely DO NOT THINK Jenny spoke particularly fast in this podcast. How much slower do people want her to say 'dui' and 'shi de'? Get over it people, she's speaking at normal speed, if not at times over enunciating. Are listeners confusing "not understanding" with speaking fast? I do not think Jenny was speaking particularly fast at all in this podcast, but there are parts where I don't understand her, but that's MY vocabulary problem, nothing to do with her speed. The day will come when the same people will wish Chinese speakers speak normal, rather than on hearing one's 'accent' or the occasional wrong grammar start talking to you like you're two years old. I agree with all the recommendations already posted on 'what to do', plus I'd say listen to the podcasts a few times over a medium-length period of time. The other podcasts introduce meticulously a lot of colloquial Chinese. If you stick with them, I'm sure these intermediates will begin to 'slow down'. I don't want to dismiss or deny that someone else may have had frustrations or that to their ear things sounded fast, but for me I definitely don't want Jenny to start talking artificially slow at this level. There's plenty of slowed-down Chinese in the Newbie and Elementary levels. Lastly, again in my opinion, Jenny was not speaking anything more than normal-speed Chinese, however, the overall lesson is harder because it has a lot of 'marriage vocabulary' and for me I avoid that kind of vocabulary as much as possible!!!
Posted on: Chinese Wedding Customs
May 17, 2007 at 2:34 AMHi welcome to ChinesePod,Chinese on Your Term, wǒ shì zhū jì， wǒ shì Jenny. Hi I'm John. wǒ shì jiù shì quán shì zhōng wén nǎ wǒ jiù xiǎng shuo zì jǐ zhong wén míng zì hǎo. nā ，jīn tiān de kè wén yě yāo shì hěn tè bié gāo xīng de cháng gě hūn lǐ duì bā. Right, today's intermediate lesson is about weddings.hūn lǐ duì bā. Right hūn weddings. Ceremonies. hun lǐ dì yī sheng hé dì sān shēng One three，"hun li." duì。 Alright, and what exactly are we learning about Chinese weddings? wǒ men jīn tiān yāo qù hē xǐ jiǔ hē. So "xijiu，'xi'" is like happy. duì。 And 'jiu' is alcohol. shì de. So Chinese weddings are all about getting wasted! shì！dàn shì nǎ ，hē xǐ jiǔ de yì si shì dà jiā guāng fàn. shuo de jiù shì dà de hūn yāo wedding banquet, yòu chī yòu hē Al'right, so the "jiu" represents the banquet. nà duì。And the "xi" is just because wedding banquets are happy. shì ā 。 Alright “xijiu" that's two third tones, right. méi cuò . So "he xi jiu" just means attend a Chinese wedding ceremony。duì Or any wedding ceremony. duì duì duì，nǎ, zán men kuài qù hē bā Ok!