Discussion
Whether you've headed to this lesson because you're feeling a little lethargic in your study efforts, or because the idea of a cheerleader egging you on brings you some sort of post-jock high school flashback comfort, you're sure to gain a little spring in your step. Listen to this podcast when you're feeling down--Jenny will wave her pompoms and teach you to study Mandarin and not give up. Jiayou everybody!
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congrats to Zheng Jie for reaching the semifinals at Wimbledon!
鄭潔, 加油！加油！
They keep mispronouncing her name on the radio 1 news here.
It's not really fair to expect everyone to know how to pronounce Pinyin correctly. If my name were Zheng Jie and I wanted non-Chinese speakers to pronounce it as accurately as possible, I would definitely not write my name in Pinyin.
Accorigan
I don't agree at all. Pinyin is the way to pronounce Chinese names and the media should learn it - it is not very difficult!
I think it is an insult to a nation not to bother to find out how to pronounce their names correctly.
Is it really such an insult? I don't feel particularly insulted being referred to as 安德鲁 instead of "Andrew" (as a native speaker of American English would pronounce it).
If it really were so insulting, people in the media would be obliged to learn to pronounce names in every major language correctly. Is that practical?
That's not the same though 安德鲁 is the Chinese transliteration of 'Andrew' and the only way it can be written in Chinese characters, it's not a mispronunication.
The pronunication I heard wasn't even close either, it was something like 'zang gee'
Maybe not insulting, but lame...my local paper still inverts Chinese first and last names (Get a clue!) and I agree that pinyin should be standard though not everyone is going to have perfect pronunciation.
In Canada anglo media use heavily accented French pronunciation for French names and in America I think most people know to pronounce J in a Spanish name like H even if they can't roll their rs properly. Pinyin is not more difficult.
Sushan,
Do you mean, for example today at Wimbledon: Jie Zheng and or Zheng Jie....with the zh mispronouced in both cases? Not to mention ji vs. jie?
(just read the comments above, and yes I may be working on a 2 day delay, but we're going to have fun with the US media's ....how can I put this politely....total meltdown with the Chinese Language.
This troublesome/grumpy Auntie's personal take on it is: What is so unreasonable about expecting a newsreader or anchorperson or event "MC" or commentator to get somebody's name right (or at least close to it)? Especially since nobody is expecting them to tackle the tones?
Unlike languages such as Thai or Cantonese or Korean, Mandarin Chinese has a near-universal, very very consistent, romanisation system. Even if the networks were to focus only on giving their front-line staff a few tools to avoid falling into the trap of pronouncing pinyin like their native, non-Chinese, language, it would make a huge difference.
Auntie,
They are going to fall in deep...it's going to be a field day...and we'll sit back and chuckle in disgust.
They could avoid a lot of this by spending a few hundred dollars per on air personality....but they are going to go right over the cliff with it.
Just to add to the 'get it right' lobby. Actually I think that in the UK the media usually do try to get the pronunciations of foreign names correct. I am pretty sure that the BBC does train their announcers. For example, Russian names are usually basically pronounced correctly, albeit often with the accent on the wrong syllable...
So that is why it is so irritating to hear her called Zang ji or something like it. I wouldn't expect them to get the tones right but something more like jie would be appreciated ;-)
aporidgegame - perhaps there is not the same attention to this in US media?
This has to be one of the funniest dialogs on Chinesepod!
Regarding the phrase 不一起 in one of the expansion sentences:
The tones of 不 and 一 are altered by the tones of what follows. So do I assume that the 起 turns the tone of the 一 into a 4th tone, which in turn changes the tone of the 不 into a second tone?
desluo919：
Good question.
According to the rules you're right. But since that is a special phrase so we just pronounce it as "bù yīqǐ".
你好, 我们怎么说:
"The fans cheered for the home team."
"The crowd is going nuts!"
I see "qiúmí" in the earlier posts, is that the term for the average pacific fan or is only used to refer to the lunatic ones, like the hooligans?
谢谢!
Sorry, one more please, how would we say:
"The fans booed the visiting team"
Thanks!
changye,
火上加油 is a great idiom, I wrote it down, thanks!
@carlos_in_irvine,
"The fans cheered for the home team." “球迷们为主场队加油” Qiúmí men wéizhǔ chǎng duì jiāyóu
"The crowd is going nuts!" “那群人疯了” Nà qún rén fēng le
Exactly, 球迷 is the word, but for hooligans, I'm not sure if there are hooligans in other sports, but for football "足球流氓” Zúqiú liúmáng
HELLO CPOD MY NAME IS ASEGAL THE LESSON FOR ME WWAS BAD I AM SORRY
@Asegal, Why do you say that the lesson was bad?