URLLesson Introduction
Fabric markets, little shops, department stores, Taobao... cheap and cheerful clothes abound in China. You're feeling like a knock-out in your knock-offs, and now that you're going to be looking so pretty, better learn how to accept a compliment. In this podcast, learn how to comment on clothing, and how to respond, in Mandarin Chinese.
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mikenotinjubei says
September 1, 2008
Hi QC Dept. of CPOD
I think the second sentence in the expansion section for "很" in the text is missing "可爱" for cute. The dialogue is correct the text is missing.
chris says
September 1, 2008
I'm so with you Ken! I'm a shave-it-all off type of guy, so I'm in and out of my local barber here in Shanghai in about 60 seconds flat. Even with it all shaved off they're still trying to offer to wash and dry it as I'm running out!
Chris
johns says
September 1, 2008
Getting "gussied up in saloons!' That was really cute, Jenny. Ken was laughing because the term is salon. Saloons were bars in the wild west and you would not want to get gussied up in there! I'm glad that you left this in but, Ken, you are a scamp for not correcting her! Too funny.
light487 says
September 1, 2008
Hehe.. John likes to get "gussied up in saloons"? :) I'll remember that one. :)
jennyzhu says
September 1, 2008
johns,
Thank you for giving me the word of the day. BTW, are both of those words outdated?
macallus88 says
September 1, 2008
A Saloon is also a car, although that may just be a british word.
patmethenywesmontgomery says
September 1, 2008
Hi Ken,
We parents of small kids could use more lessons for speaking with our 4 year olds in mandarin. This dialog is especially difficult to come by, as most sites still just teach business or travel related terms. CPod has plenty of decent content on dealings with offspring, but i'm looking for a elementary or intermediate lesson like:
Dad: Mike, time to wake up. You can't oversleep like yesterday.
Mike: Ok
Dad: i mean now! please get up and put on your clothes. Your sisters are already having breakfast.
Mike: ok. can I wear my new Air Jordan shoes?
Dad: I thought you said you weren't playing basketball today. You can only wear them for basketball.
Mike: but Dad, all the kids are wearing Jordans even if they don't play basketball!
Dad: please just put on your clothes and get into the kitchen and eat!
Thanks.
johns says
September 1, 2008
Jenny,
Salon is a commonly used word here and the proper term.
Saloon reminds one of a Cowboy's bar in a wild west movie. Here in Texas, a Saloon would be a western themed bar. It is not an outdated term but does refer to a specific type of place found in an earlier time period."Gussied up" is sometimes regarded as an old fashioned term used by country people or cowboys in the old West. However, the way you used it was charming.
Macallus, I have never heard of a Saloon car.
macallus88 says
September 1, 2008
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sedan_(car)
houban says
September 1, 2008
I have to say that the getting "gussied up" here really (真的 zhende) does show.Women still dress feminine here. In the US it is diffuclt to tell where the mens clothing (衣服 yifu) department ends and the women's starts.
johns says
September 1, 2008
Good article, Macallus. I also see that a "boot" is part of a "Saloon" in England. I thought Mandarin was difficult!
chiongzibide says
September 1, 2008
Johns,
The "boot" is the rear end of sedans in Australia as well, and I assume other countries. You wear a bonnet on the top (front end) and boots at the bottom (rear end) - hence the imagery.
vice2008 says
September 1, 2008
Question:
Expansion 部分的第七個問題 爲什麽不是：“他真的會說漢語嗎“ ？現在，句子 後面沒有那個“嗎”， 但是如果沒有的話，意思不會變成不一樣嗎？ 請讓我知道。謝謝你們！！！！
chanelle77 says
September 2, 2008
I expected a question particle at the end: 他真的会说汉语？(Can he really speak Chinese?). Because 会 is used you don't use it or can you add ma?
mikenotinjubei says
September 2, 2008
This is very strange I checked to see if you fixed the bug in the expansion sentence
"I think the second sentence in the expansion section for "很" in the text is missing "可爱" for cute"
It is fixed for about one second and then disappears. Our tech savy people how is this done?
amber says
September 2, 2008
hi mike,
So strange, I've tested it a few times and it works fine for me!
amber says
September 2, 2008
hi vice and chanelle,
The ma 吗 question particle is sometimes omitted. The context and tone of voice would indicate that it is a question.
checkingoutchina says
September 2, 2008
I've got a question that's not related to this topic but I need help.
I've been trying to figure how to say the comparison question, "What's the difference between........?"
Can someone answer this question for me please? I'm getting a headache trying to think out the sentence.
cagster says
September 2, 2008
I don't recall a past lesson with 还好 hai2 hao3 used as "not bad." It's new to me.
Someone at my office greeted another coworker with this phrase once. He said the phrase with a bit of dramatic emphasis, with a big sigh. That sigh confused me since I assumed he was describing how something was "still good," which was my translation. I thought how could something be "still good" and yet cause such a big sigh. I guess he was saying "not bad." Huh, go figure.
light487 says
September 2, 2008
@checkingoutchina:
I do remember there being a lesson on this.. I just can't seem to find it now. The old cPOD lesson search allowed you to search by specific function as well as keyword. Now it's all lumped into one big mess of lessons, vocab, glossary etc making it really hard to find specific lessons in a lot of cases.
chanelle77 says
September 2, 2008
Thank you Amber!
cagster says
September 2, 2008
This has me thinking about simple one or two word phrases that I learn slowly. A previous lesson (Newbie - Wait!) taught me about "bu4 yao4" and how I was mistakenly thinking it meant "not want" instead of a command of "don't" as in "don't do it."
Today at the grocery story, while I was in a checkout line, a lady's kid was running about up to no good, and I believe the lady was telling the child to do something. The lady at one point was firmly saying "yao4." I wonder if that meant "do as I say." Or it could be the child's name :-)
panda2 says
September 2, 2008
Guys always allow two hours for your hair cut!!! in China ..Relax and enjoy ..I love it for under $2 for the works!!! Then go have a foot massage as well!! life is hard in this country!!
light487 says
September 2, 2008
Hrmm.. Even in Australia the Chinese hair salons are cheap.. Certainly not that cheap of course but by comparison to other stores, I'd say up to 80% cheaper and in some locations where the rent is obviously a lot more expensive for the store, even 50% off what you would normally pay.. and they all do the "wash, massage, cut, style" without even asking for it. I can get in and out in no less than 30 minutes.. so definitely not the place to go if you want a quick hair cut.. but you certainly get your money worth.
There's a hair salon down the road from my new apartment that I haven't tried out yet but from the look of it, I would say I will have the same experience. I'll have to try it out and see if I can learn some mandarin there.. hehe.. the only thing is that most of the people (i'd say 90% of this suburb's population) around here are Vietnamese.. so some of them speak mandarin but a lot of them, obviously, speak vietnamese.
ingmar says
September 2, 2008
In Chengdu I once wanted to try out the hairdresser in the street, but my hosts would not let me. It would have been too embarassing and demeaning for them. Fortunately in our free thinking country we do not have such class distinctions.
tucsonmichael says
September 2, 2008
checkingoutchina, not certain, but perhaps this is an answer to your question. A gen B zenme bu yiyang?
How are (in what way are) A and B not the same? A 跟 B 怎么不一样？
chipschip says
September 2, 2008
very nice lesson :D
changye says
September 2, 2008
I get a haircut for only five yuan (= 0.7US$) here in a small city in northeast China. A barbershop is an ideal place for me to practice Chinese conversation. Let him who would like to learn Chinese for a day, go to the barber, and for all his life, marry a Chinese wife!
frances says
September 2, 2008
changye, if that's seventy cents for what amounts to hours of tutoring, then good job! I wonder, though, whether it would be safe for me to go to a salon in China. I doubt the hairdressers have much experience with my kind of hair, and the Chinese hair is all so beautiful and obedient. Even in the US, many hairdressers can't figure out what to do with my hair.
kimiik says
September 2, 2008
Do regular barbershop and "red-light" barbershop share the same chinese name (理发馆) ? If so we would have another layer in the discussions of this podcast. ;o)
jennyzhu says
September 2, 2008
checkingoutchina,
Tucsonmichael is correct. 'What's the difference' is “有什么不一样”/you3 shen2 me bu4 yi1 yang4.
jennyzhu says
September 2, 2008
kimiik,
Many "red-light" barbershops use the word 发廊/hair salon. Many new and stylish hair salons use the term 造型屋/zao4 xing2 wu1/styling house.
frances says
September 2, 2008
Jenny, does that mean that the whole sentence would be "A比B有什么不一样？/ A bǐ B yǒu shénme bù yīyàng?" I feel like there should be a 的/de at the end of that.
cagster says
September 2, 2008
changye,
Maybe wives in China would help teach their husbands, but here in my CA area of the US, I have met at least 3 people (all trying to learn) whose Chinese wives "refuse" to teach them ... I can't think of anyone who's learning from his/her spouse or gf/bf. I guess the teaching effort would be 太麻烦 tai4 ma2 fan2.
auntie68 says
September 2, 2008
@jennyzhu, frances: Could I say, alternatively：
A（跟 B／和 B 之间）（有些什么／有哪些）不同的地方？
for "What's the difference between A and B?"
Thanks!
orkelm says
September 2, 2008
Years ago a fellow student of mine was doing her dissertation comparing compliments between North Americans and Chinese. She taught me that Americans deflect compliments by putting the "credit/blame" on someone else:
-Nice tie.
-Thanks, my wife got it for me.
frances says
September 2, 2008
orkelm,
Yes, that's one the major ways we deal with compliments in America. It's also common to frame the thing complimented as being less praiseworthy than it might appear:
-Good job on the new site.
-Thanks, now I just have to get it to actually work!
Also acceptable, but slightly dodgy, is minimizing the value of the thing complimented:
-Nice shoes!
-Thanks, they’re five dollar knock-offs from Payless!
This one makes the shoes sound less impressive, but will also be interpreted as slight bragging about your ability to bargain shop.
If you can't provide a logical reason to deflect the comment, a simple "Thanks" is appropriate. If you deflect a compliment without any reason (e.g. "awww, shucks!") you're going to sound either a little stupid or unnecessarily argumentative. Actually, responses like "You're too kind!" or "You're so sweet!" will work if not over-used. They may make you sound a little superior, though.
checkingoutchina says
September 2, 2008
Thank you tucsonmichael and thank you Jenny for letting me know!
Finally! I think my headache has subsided.
ping888 says
September 3, 2008
it is a good lesson
bababardwan says
September 3, 2008
Amber,
Re:tone of voice indicating question.
I can understand in English how we use something akin to a 2nd tone [though we don't have tones in the Chinese sense ] at the end of a statement to turn it into a question.But in Chinese I have enough trouble with the tones as is without then changing the tone of a sentence to turn it into a question.Do you have advice for me on how I could keep the correct tones for each word in a sentence and also add in there [?where;?at the end or just the general tone of the whole sentence ?] a tone to indicate a question ? Just practice and perseverance ?
Xiexie
frances says
September 3, 2008
Bababardwan,
There is a tendency to do the same thing in Chinese as we do in English, that is, raise the tone at the end of a sentence to indicate a question. This has to be balanced with the tones of the words themselves, so it's a bit trickier. I find that the question intonation tends to be a little lighter, higher and/or more tentative. I looked around for some lessons that might be good examples.
If you listen to this recent newbie lesson, Morning at the Office, you'll hear that the last two lines have the same words, but one is a question and the other a statement. It's a good way to hear some contrast.
Each of these newbie lessons has a pair of lines ending with the same word, one is a question, and the other a statement. Try listening for how these words are pronounced differently. I noted the tone of the ending word which is up for comparison in each lesson.
bababardwan says
September 3, 2008
Frances,
What an excellent answer!That is exactly what I needed ;to be able to hear it .Even better to be able to hear the same sentence put as a statement and then the contrast of hearing it as a question.Thankyou so much for going to the trouble of finding those lessons/examples and for even putting in the links.
Xiexie ni
amber says
September 3, 2008
hi babbardwan,
Yes, the best way to learn is to imitate a native speaker. Listening to the dialogues will help expose you to this kind of intonation.
Many thanks to Frances as well! :)
auntie68 says
September 3, 2008
@bababardwan: You might find it useful (and fun, too) to listen to a few Intermediate lessons. Don't worry about understanding. The sentences are longer, the vocab is richer, so the emotions can be much "sharper" in them. Try this one for starters -- "It's over (Again)" -- about a flaming row:
http://chinesepod.com/lessons/its-over-again/discussion
bababardwan says
September 3, 2008
G'day Amber and thankyou.
Thankyou Auntie.Great tip.I've not ventured to Intermediate level before ,but followed your advice and listened to "It's over [Again]".Just by listening ,even though I could only pick up on bits and pieces of the dialogue,I had a pretty good idea when a question was being posed by the tone.Very interesting and insightful excercise.Great choice of lesson too;loved the emotion and know what you mean by "sharper".I loved the Diary series ,and the emotion/drama/tone in the final episode where Wang Wei has been rejected and cries out weishenme,weishenme .Of course "weishenme" is a question word in it's own right ,and also the "shen" syllable is 2nd tone .Xiexie ni Auntie
auntie68 says
September 3, 2008
It's no problem. Other Intermediate lessons which I think you'd like are: “The Jealous Friend" (*you don't have to understand the vocab to know who's being the Queen Bitch of the Universe"), "Lover's Spat" (*between the same characters!) and "Parent-Child Fight". If you can handle that, you can even think of listening to the Upper-Intermediate "Saved By the Gong (SBTG)" series, where you will have the chance to get to know the Class Dunce, the Smart Aleck, and the Diligent Female Student over a few lessons. Happy listening. It's great preparation for the future transition to "Intermediate", which some people find difficult.
calkins says
September 3, 2008
Could you use "cute" for clothes?
你的衣服很可爱。
nǐ de yīfu hěn kě'ài 。
Also, would someone please give some examples of when to use 漂亮 piàoliang (pretty/beautiful) vs. 美丽 měilì (beautiful)? Or are they interchangeable?
wonglungsek says
September 4, 2008
妳的衣服好可愛喲！
calkins: I heard that phrase from my 姐姐的朋友, who is 認真的華人。
calkins says
September 4, 2008
Hi hitokiri. I always forget that 好 can often be used in the same sense that 很 is used...thanks for the answer and for the reminder!
valinor says
September 5, 2008
lol why are there more than one dialogues? its like the same... BTW this is for noobs??
wonglungsek says
September 5, 2008
Calkins: 啊啊。。。不謝不謝.：） Anytime.：Ｐ
Ｖａｌｉｎｏｒ： Ｙｅｓ， ｔｈｉｓ ｌｅｓｓｏｎ ｉｓ ｆｏｒ ｎｅｗｂｉｅｓ：
Newbie - Pretty Clothes
（Take note of the lesson category).
billybobjoebobwilly says
September 5, 2008
Since this is the only place a free account can post anymore I wanted to note something from the Hanoi lesson's comments:
Josh had posted:
Not to sound like a broken record...but,
Again, I would really really really really really really(ok, i'll stop) appreciate it if C-pod would post a basic pdf on the conversations taking place between the hosts of the podcast during the lesson. I mean, a lot of times those conversations are just as good for learning as the lesson content itself. Do this for Intermedite up to Advanced
But nobody responds to his request. I've posted before and it seems the CPod crew are selective responders.
Also, on the website it's advertised as low as 5.00 a month but when selecting a basic plan, even at 24 months, it's over 5.00 a month.
What's up CPod?
tienchinho says
September 6, 2008
I know the term 衬衫 chen(4) shan(1) for shirt. Are there ways to say "tank top" or "T shirt?"
And how about "skorts" - skirts with shorts sewn in? hooded sweatshirt？
Sorry if these sound silly. I have two girls who I am trying to immerse in chinese. It would be nice if I could use chinese all the time, but some words I just don't know.
Thanks so much!
Tienchin 天琴
mandarinboy says
September 6, 2008
Even though i love CPOD and listen to it every day i feel that it lack some deeper explanation of the chraracters. Maybe natural since the focus is on the listening and speaking parts. Anyway, I got stuck at the aiport again so I took the time to collect my own old notes about etymology of Chinese characters and write some easy explanations. The first attempt of this I published in the "study strategy" group: http://chinesepod.com/community/conversations/post/3187
Right now it is just for one word ( two charaters) but if anyone else feels that this is helpful we can continue an add more. I have done this for many years on my own since i simly must understand every part of every character, That is why I am such a slow learner;-)
bababardwan says
September 6, 2008
@mandarinboy,
I completely agree with you.I love knowing exactly where the characters have come from.I followed your link to your study strategy group ,and your explanation is excellent.I don't know where you got your info from but this was extremely helpful.Unfortunately ,as I'm a newbie, I'm not sure I can help you much in return,but I really appreciate your post.Thankyou.
calkins says
September 7, 2008
mandarinboy, I also really enjoyed your character etymology posts. What about creating a new group that focuses specifically on this? That way they don't get lost in the Study Strategy group. Just a thought.
amber says
September 7, 2008
hi tienchinho,
Tshirt: T恤 or T恤(衫) (T xù) or (T xùshān)
tank top: 吊带衫 (Diàodài shān)
skort: 裙裤 (Qúnkù)
hooded sweatshirt: 连帽衫 (Lián mào shān)