Nathan struggled to make sense of the mugshots. The young banker could remember countless details about the previous evening: the costumes, the songs, even the taste of exotic milk-based dishes. But how could he ever pull the criminals out of a line-up? Almost everything about the evening had been designed to draw attention away from their individual appearances.Learning Chinese? This is one of our easier lessons at the Intermediate level, since we go light on difficult vocabulary, but if you're used to the slow and artificial pace of textbook Chinese you may still find it quite a challenge. So why not take a listen and see how much you understand? And let us know what you think by email at service@popupchinese.com.
ambi_sinistrous
said on October 19, 2012
Is it impossible to reduplicate 幸福 because it can also be a noun, whereas 健康／开心／奇怪 (as far as I know) can't?also I'm not gonna say it 'cause I don't wanna spoil the punchline for people innocently looking left, but I died at the Canada/Japan part. Actually, do Canadians in particular get a bad rap here, or do we just sort of fall under the blanket of dumb Westerners/whatever other ethnicity we look like?
Echo
said on October 20, 2012
@ambi_sinistrous,健康 can also be a noun....--Echoecho@popupchinese.com
孔瑞
said on October 22, 2012
我有一些80年代的PRC课本。。。发现小民族肯定没有坏人。其实小民族是单纯得不得了，每天挑来跳去，一面唱歌一面跟汉族同志实现四个现代化。温哥华岛肯定是从古时候属于中国的！1418年郑和找到了温哥华岛，好多华人搬到那里。其实，大部分的印第安人文化是从中国借的，因为华人帮助他们现代化，建立和谐社会。它的名字有“华”的字，华人那么多－故事肯定是真的。中国温哥华是没有印第安人的，中国的岛被英帝偷了。同志们，小加拿大占领中国神圣地－我反对！哪里有加拿大车？David呢？我会证明，有一张地图：http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/01/0118_060118_chinese_map.html If I could only attach an image… I would draw a 10-dotted line with a really big dot stretching to Vancouver Island. Maybe I will if I'm really bored. It’s a shame all the maps out there now are an imperialist fiction.
sodomized.by.satan
said on October 25, 2012
Is that really a Japanese song? "sukida~ron, kurita~kon" doesn't make sense in Japanese...
Echo
said on October 27, 2012
@sodomized.by.satan,I don't know Japanese, but when our voice actors did this dialogue, they were thinking about the song in 灌篮高手.--Echoecho@popupchinese.com
trevelyan
said on October 27, 2012
Yeah. They could be saying something horribly, horribly offensive, but we would have no idea. I suspect if Andy's Japanese is anything like Tiansen's English, someone Japanese could listen to it and have no clue what's being said though.
minghan
said on October 28, 2012
Wait, did they seriously close the chuanr stand at BeiWai? Wow, I was just there this summer. Why did it close?
Echo
said on October 29, 2012
@trevelyan,Lol@"I suspect if Andy's Japanese is anything like Tiansen's English, someone Japanese could listen to it and have no clue what's being said though"... Poor Tiansen, he thought you understood everything he says when he comes for recording.--Echoecho@popupchinese.com
sdoodli
said on November 5, 2012
@Echo,the 56 minorities was created using a model from the Soviet Union after 1949. Before the revolution there were only five nationalities in China. If you look at China's flag "Five-colored flag" (used between 1912-28) by the founder of the Chinese nation, Dr. Sun Yat Sen, the colored stripes in the flag represent: red for Han Chinese, yellow to represent Manchus, blue as Mongols, white for both Huis and Uyghurs, and black for Tibetans.However, it became convenient for political reasons, to talk about 56 minorities, instead of these original five nationalities.Is this something that is taught in Chinese schools? It seems you are not aware about the situation of "minorities" in China, and the systematic discrimination of "minorities", particularly the discrimination in Xinjiang and Tibet.
Echo
said on November 6, 2012
@sdoodli,Really??? This is the first time I've ever heard of the five nationalities thing!I heard of a little bit about the situation of minorities in China, but I'm never sure if it's real or just rumors. I don't think anyone I know that have the discrimination in minorities, so I'm not sure if it's really common in China.--Echoecho@popupchinese.com
sdoodli
said on November 6, 2012
@EchoWikipedia contains some more information on the Chinese "five-colored flag" (五色旗) and its background, here:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_Races_Under_One_Union and in Chinese Also there is a blog in Chinese which has much more details on the flag:lihlii.blogspot.com/2012/05/blog-post_2184.htmlI also don't know if the discrimination is rumors as I have only heard it from Tibetans living in Tibet, but there are certainly policies in Tibet which are not appreciated by the Tibetans. Woeser, a Tibetan blogger who lives in Beijing says that if a Han Chinese travel to Tibet, only need to show ID, but a Tibetan living in nearby provinces must answer questions and also show certification from local security office.http://woeser.middle-way.net/2012/10/blog-post_22.html
aubrietarin
said on January 11, 2013
no clue
Dawei4454
said on August 28, 2014
I'm still coming to grips with some of the subtleties of tones. When Echo says 'shushufufu' the second shu is maybe neutral? Or maybe a lower pitched first tone? I think I have also noticed this tendency to pronounce successive first tones as different pitches in other places. And sometimes the second of two successive first tones or fourth tones as neutral. Are these just a speech habit?
