URLLesson Introduction
A little shady, perhaps? Yet, it is David Beckham and the Galaxy, and this kind of a chance doesn't come around often in these parts... Hmm, there was that black market money exchange man that showed up at your office on a motorbike with a shopping bag full of cash--he was pretty reliable. Maybe the scalper can be trusted. Buyer beware and trust at your peril. Listen to this podcast in Chinese on the scalpers of China and be forewarned!
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bduckie says
July 14, 2008
这个黄牛真会吹牛.
bingge says
July 14, 2008
Hi guys, great lesson as always.
Before the dialogue started, you were talking about the 黄牛 and Jenny said "我也gao不清”. (about 1:05) What gao is this, I wonder? Can anyone tell me?
pcmi2 says
July 14, 2008
@bingge:
搞 gao3 is used to mean "grasp" or "clarify" in this sense.
jameswang says
July 14, 2008
This dialog is not a standard written Chinese. In fact, it is daily conversation and includes many slang. Personally, it is difficult to study for beginner.
jennyzhu says
July 14, 2008
bingge,
Like pcmi2 said, 搞 gao3 means "grasp" or "clarify" here. 搞不清 means 'can't grasp or understand'. 搞得清means the opposite. It's a casual and colloquail expression.
pcmi2,
Thank you!
pcmi2 says
July 14, 2008
Am I missing the way to type Pinyin in the comments?
shalmaneser says
July 14, 2008
我享受關於“時間來不及的再”的解釋。
謝謝
henning says
July 14, 2008
Culture-related expansion question...
Is the:
再不好好学习，就让你去放牛。
a common threat?
Are Chinese parents really threatening their children to turn them into cowboys...
And if they still do not 听妈妈的话 maybe even astronauts?
d1438 says
July 15, 2008
not that common.
some parents would threaten their children to turn them into peasant or migrant worker or teacher,or send them to africa,etc
sometimes,jokingly
wheatley says
July 15, 2008
Dear ChinesePod Team,
The 3rd exercise (inserting the word one hears using pinyin) does not seem to work. The score does not show up correctly. This happens in other lessons too.
Can you please help?
Thanks
Annette Wheatley
yase says
July 15, 2008
Does anybody know the derivation of the word 'scalper' - presumably an American term ? Not so commonly used in English - a ticket tout is more commonly used.
Also, why 'huangniu' in the putonghua ?
changye says
July 15, 2008
牛黄 (niu2 huang2) is a kind of Chinese medicine. You can see a lot of 牛黄解毒片 (detoxicating tablet) sold at a pharamacy here in China. Be careful not to buy them from 黄牛.
http://image.baidu.com/i?tn=baiduimage&ct=201326592&cl=2&lm=-1&pv=&word=%C5%A3%BB%C6%BD%E2%B6%BE%C6%AC&z=0
rainzy1021 says
July 15, 2008
Hi, changye!
"黄牛" is different with "牛黄". Just as you mentioned, "牛黄" is a kind of Chinese traditional medicine. Which comes from "黄牛".
pinkjeans says
July 15, 2008
我刚刚去看 Elton John 的音乐会来。我买的当然票是真的。在这儿没有可能买到假的，因为所有的票是在一个中央卖票社 买的。除了网上拍卖网点，没有什么看到有黄牛。
wǒ gāng gāng qù kàn Elton John dė yīn yuè huì lái。 wǒ mǎi dė piào dāng rán shì zhēn dė。 zài zhèr méi yǒu kě néng mǎi dào jiǎ dė， yīn wèi suǒ yǒu dė piào shì zài yī gè zhōng yāng mài piào shè mǎi dė。chú lė wǎng shàng pāi mài wǎng diǎn， méi yǒu shén mė kàn dào yǒu huáng níu。
clay says
July 15, 2008
wheatly,
if you are talking about the neutral tone, you must type a "5", and for the "er" 儿， it would be a "r".
you can verifty by going to the matching section, and change it to pinyin, and you will see the appropriate pinyin mark.
shi3ma3ke4 says
July 15, 2008
Hi Clay,
Thanks for the clarification on using "5" for the neutral tone for the fill in the blanks... I always got that wrong in the past because I couldn't figure out how I should enter in the neutral tone. Maybe you could have that posted as instructions on that page?
bingge says
July 15, 2008
pcmi2 and Jenny - thanks for the explanation!
changye says
July 15, 2008
票贩子 (piao4 fan4 zi) = 黄牛 (huang2 niu2)
standuke says
July 15, 2008
@yase
Some tribes of American Indians would 'scalp' their victims after a battle--cutting the skin and hair from the top of the head and collecting the trophies. I don't know how widespread the practice was but obviously people talked about it a lot and you didn't want to be 'scalped'.
I'd guess that 'scalping' became a euphamism for 'taking a cut off the top' in the business sense. Let's just say that being called a scalper isn't a compliment...
bduckie says
July 15, 2008
Actually the American Indians learned the practice of scalping an enemy from the English and other white settlers
maggiec says
July 15, 2008
Thanks again for a very practical lesson. The colloquial language is the kind I hear in everyday life in China so I appreciate learning it. I have often been told that the Chinese taught in text books is not often used in normal life and sounds a bit strange.
henning says
July 15, 2008
scalp = 头皮
dict.cn presents the following example sentence:
印地安人带着敌人的头皮回来了
connie says
July 15, 2008
Hi henning,
"印地安人带着敌人的头皮回来了。" 这个句子真吓人。
"再不好好学习，就让你去放牛。"
我不知道别人的父母怎样，但是我妈妈经常用这句话吓唬我。
常见的吓唬语还有：
去讨饭，去种地
你再不听话我就不要你了。
你如果不睡午觉，大灰狼会来吃你。
henning says
July 15, 2008
Connie,
谢谢你的解释！
还好我每天在办公室乖乖地午觉。。。不给灰狼任何机会把我吃掉。
;)
jinkeli says
July 16, 2008
Sorry, off topic BDUCKIE but...I am a student of history (in my own mind anyway) and have trouble with letting 'conventional wisdom' going unchallenged. ;-)
Yah, Europeans encouraged scalping but it was 'invented' in many places throughout history including the Americas.
check a few sources but: http://www.straightdope.com/columns/061215.html
leavlk says
July 19, 2008
In the expansion there was this sentence
如果你再做错的话，我也帮不了你。
but in the discussion it said that either 如果 or 的话 could be used for if.
Why are they both here? Is this for emphasis?
baillies says
July 19, 2008
leavlk
I think you may find your answer here http://chinesepod.com/lessons/two-iffy-words/discussion
weibwo says
July 21, 2008
Just got back from Da Lu. It seems that xiaojie is seldom used. They prefer gunian or xiao gunian. At least that is what I was told. I used xiao gunian and got better results when addressing women. Jenny can you confirm this?
fortunatestar says
July 21, 2008
Xiao guniang 小姑娘 is the way that you would address a little girl – not really an adult. Xiao Jie 小姐is quite acceptable in the vast majority of settings especially when the person is relatively young. Oh on this point no woman under 50 wants to be called Da Jie 大姐 by a man even if it true - hehe.
But I would be interested in how you would address a women of say 40 in a business setting when you didn’t know her name – perhaps Jenny can help. If it was me I would cough and say 请问I wouldn’t dare say anything else J
By the way if you are worried about the other aspect of Xiao Jie (prostitute) I would not concern yourself – its like when you say 同志 people know you don’t mean gay – unless of course you do J
weibwo says
July 22, 2008
As a rule I used xiao gu nian for younger women and gu nian with women older than 35 that includes women well into their 50's and 60's and they seemed flattered I must say. Unfortunately, xiao jie got little or no reponse in Kunming, Xiamen, Xian, Da li, Li Jiang etc. I was told several times by local residents that gu nian was the preferred address for women. In a business setting I have no idea what the formal address would be.
shenhe says
July 22, 2008
As for addressing women, you can either use their title (a professional title that can be used without the surname such as 医生， 博士， 经理，老师) or , if the context is very formal, 夫人 or 女士 would be appropriate. 太太 is comparatively neutral. They all can be used with the surname as well.
Since we're discussing ways of addressing, how would I(female) call a woman that's in her twenties, yet older than me? What about a man? (The setting is rather informal.)
How about a QingWen on that topic?
shenhe says
July 22, 2008
Of, course you can always ask 我应该怎么称呼您/你? to find out how someone prefers to be addressed by you.
guyfrommexico says
July 28, 2008
Jameswang
This is not the biginners section, It is actually the intermediate, I found the lesson quite interesting and resonably difficult for the level.
Cheers
quiteluckythisyear2008 says
September 5, 2008
In Beijing, we don't really say ‘黄牛'. '票贩子’and '倒票的' are more commonly used.
Is '黄牛’from Shanghai dialect too????
amber says
September 7, 2008
hi quiteluckythisyear2008,
Yes, 黄牛 (huángniú) originates with Shanghainese, however it's become quite commonly used in other areas of China as well.
stephenrufus says
September 11, 2008
I went to watch Beckham and Galaxy back in March in SH. Lots of 黄牛 around but no one was buying! (rubbish game)