Intermediate - Godzilla in Shanghai

This "newscast" was a little fast... it was a pretty exciting situation. Anyway, we won't be regularly making other dialogues this fast in the future...

John, you indeed kept promise. Business is surely extremely important, but life has other facets as well. For example oversized monsters that tear down buildings. :) But you should have turned this into a 奥特曼lesson, because that cheap Japanese monster/superhero show is extremely popular among the kids here (I think the show is called "power rangers" in the west).

how would you say, "Godzilla has just caused me to crap my pants?"

Awesome lesson! Full of useful media vocab. Thanks guys! CPod just keeps getting better and better : )

Japan Self-Defense Forces can never beat Godzilla on screen. You cannot destroy the monster even with nuclear weapons because Godzilla was originally spawned by an atomic bomb testing in the Pacific Ocean. But I guess there is some possibility Chinese People’s Liberation Army may slay Godzilla with their secret biochemical weapons!! Could it be that Godzilla is waving a Rising Sun Flag…?

hi lvbin, They don't usually use that expression in Chinese, but they do say: 吓得尿裤子 (Xià de niào kùzi.) 'So scared I peed my pants'

Why does Godzilla come from Japan? Xenophobia? Or was Godzilla originally some kind of manga? Don't know much about this monster but I'm really enjoying these inventive intermediate lessons.

darylk, Godzilla was invented by the Japanese. Godzilla was a mutated creature that resulted from underwater nuclear testing, representing the nuclear fears of post-war Japan.

Godzilla is under contract by The Mori Company from Japan (builder of the New International Trade Center in Pudong) to assist with Shanghai Urban Redevelopment by knocking down all the old buildings. btw I never saw Godzilla eat anyone in his movies. I am in Tokyo, so during lunch I brought this up and we think Godzilla might have been a vegetarian. In the final movie they were able to get him out of the city by leaving a trail of fish. There is also a statue of Godzilla in Ginza in Tokyo.

It's adorable how Jenny says, "吞下去比较不痛“ I would imagine that's true, no crunching...heehee : )

If Godzilla isn't enough you should go to the Expansion Section, the sentences include, grandpa's death, smuggling, car accidents, inflation, typhoons, ecological disasters, ruined plans...... Who had a bad day in the academic team? On a brighter note my daughter who just graduated from Law School and is now the AAG in Saipan had to sit in on her first autopsy. Naturally they waited until they had a body that washed up on shore after two weeks at sea and undiscovered on a beach rotting. As soon as they opened the body, she rushed out and puked. Of course they all had a big laugh. Today a volcano erupted ! Stuff does happen!

In the supplementary vocab you have: 怪物 guàiwu for monster. I know from the comic books of my nephew that 奥特曼 always fights 怪兽 guàishòu Are 怪兽 and 怪物 synonyms or do they refer to different kinds of monsters? Is there a monsterologist here who knows the answer?

I love Jenny and John~^^ You guys have real nice voice~^^ Godzila~ was fun and short~

Godzila looks like a toy.

henning, Still commenting on holiday! 怪兽 guàishòu refers to monstrous animals, as denoted by the word 兽, which means animals. 怪物 guàiwu is more general, could refer to animals or humans or any forms of creatures.

jenny, You said, "Godzilla looks like a toy." Have you seen the old Godzilla movies??

Jenny, thanks for your answer! Now that you say it: I think I actually heard 怪物 before - as a way to describe people who look and/or behave a bit strange ("weirdo"?) And yes, learning about monsters in Chinese here is exactly my kind of holiday. :)

Great lesson guys! John, I thought the speed was good, its fun to try and keep up some times to challenge our listening. Have you guys ever done any 'speed drills' or 'rapid fire' lessons? In a previous class the teacher used to give us a series of sentances that were not stretching the vocab but were very fast, it was a fun challenge. Anyway, good fun lesson, THANKS for all the hard work.

I am waiting for the Chinesepod version of King Kong vs. Godzilla. John, get to work and start writing some cheesy Chinese. Since Chinesepod started a category of Japanese topics, how about a lesson on Astroboy? Last year, I came across a Shanghai shop selling Astroboy paraphernalia. One request for Jenny, how about starting some lessons on stories from 三国演义？

jennyzhu says "Godzila looks like a toy.' Jenny, Every now and then -- this other side of you comes out! Did you play Australian Rules Football with the boys when you were in school ? Have you whipped John in a game of 1 on 1 basketball? Happy Friday

Excellent, shame there's no video for this lesson.

Oh my god... ... recently I applied on an internal job offer to go to China for 3 month. But with Godzilla in Shanghai, I am a little bit scared... How safe is it at the moment?

Well, there goes Shanghai. D: ;_; Beijing is next.

I hesitate to say this, but there is another famous monster “GAMERA” in Japan. Can you imagine the ultra giant turtle monster flying very fast? Fortunately or unfortunately, Godzilla and Gamera have never fought each other till now, so nobody knows which is stronger.

Yes, growing up watching Godzilla movies, Hong Kong Kung Fu movies and old Horror movies on Saturday afternoons and nights...... And don't forget Blue Oyster Cult's "Godzilla" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiHRm2DioMA Those were the days......

Changye- Interesting background on Godzilla.

oh, here's a better one with Godzilla for those who've never seen him: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVKySmZ-nPk

I'm waiting for Godzilla to attack the Internet in an Anime film. Could be a sequel to the "Lain" series which is excellent by the way. What brings this to mind is the once possible "Godzilla Gram." In the early 80's when the Internet was still in the craddle so to speak, it was possible to send a datagram addressed to every computer on the Internet. Everything one sends on the Internet is a well defined sequence of small messages called datagrams. This datagram to everyone was apply named the "Godzilla Gram" since the results of unleashing such a beast would have been a disaster. More or less Godzilla eating the Internet is the image, or really, trillions and trillions of very small ones gobbling away at the speed of light. While the Godzilla Gram is no longer possible (it was stopped in its tracks way back then), one can imagine a rather fun film - Godizilla vrs the Internet Wizards - lots of hackers and people freaked out because they can't download the next cpod lesson all banding together stop "Godzilla Gram." Hmmm ... time to get up I think. It's 8:30AM here in California. Perhaps all of this is inspired by the current renovation of our home. Tractors just ate half of it. Bill Bill

BillyBob- 'history shows again and again how nature points out the folly of men'--Classic!

Hi billybobjoebobwilly and Bill, Your Blue Oyster video and Godzilla Gram episode are great fun. It seems that Godzilla is much more famous, or otherwise notorious, overseas than I’d imagined. I have been wondering why Mozilla and Godzilla sound so alike. Was Mozilla named after “Godzilla Gram”? Ironically, Mozilla is often misspelled as Modzilla! Godzilla-like Mozilla Mascot http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Mozilla_Mascot.svg

Hi changye, 我的好朋友是 Mozilla 北京 的 主任。他可能知道. 我要请他 ...

Hi 大家好你们过中秋节怎么样呢?

在这里下雨，我要出去。。

http://www.sinosplice.com/life/archives/2007/09/10/big-brother-godzilla Hm, I wonder who wrote this lesson...

Hi danjo, tks good job! Hi John, a good research! I have never been aware of what the name Godzilla implies in English, though of course I know the name ゴジラ is a blend of ゴリラ/くじら.

On the origin of "Mozilla:" From the Wikipedia: Mozilla was the mascot of the now-disbanded Netscape Communications Corporation, formerly called Mosaic Communications Corporation. Initially, the mascot took various forms, including that of a helmeted astronaut or "spaceman", but the eventual choice was a Godzilla-like lizard thought to go well with the Godzilla-like name. It was designed by Dave Titus in 1994.

Hi Bill, Thank you for your posting! In short, Mozilla=Mosaic+Godzilla. Mozilla is fighting with his eternal rival, another giant monster "Internet Explorer."

Hi all, I have a simple technical question. Sorry if it's a dumb one -- I'm totally new to chinesepod as of this last weekend. Today I tried to use the search feature to find any lesson containing the chinese word 差点 (almost). I hear this word used pretty often on da4shan1's daily show on CCTV and wanted to get some additional context. Strangely, no lessons were returned as matches. Am I using the search feature incorrectly, or are there really no lessons that contain this word?? Much thanks for any words of advice, David

dubya I think it's "差一点" http://labs.chinesepod.com/node/4&search=%e5%b7%ae%e4%b8%80%e7%82%b9

A question about Chinese humor vs. western humor. Jenny mentions in the lesson that 庞大 might be used to describe an open space or some really huge location. It seems us western folk like to use exaggeration to get a laugh and might say that something is HUGE, if it really would only fall in the the "large" category. Does this form of exaggeration for the sake of humor exist in Chinese as well, or does it tend to be more literal where words like 庞大 are ONLY used for things that are truly huge, and would only sound confusing and wrong when applied to things like a person who just happens to be tall (sorry John) or a big belly.

Very fast reading & very fast (& difficult) expansion lesson. But text is great way to introduce some useful constructions & vocabulary.

Such a dramatic lesson awesome! ^_^

I am enjoying the drama in these recent Chinesepod lessons. You guys are doing a great job with sound effects and acting. I also like the idea of continuing story lines. Kind of like a soap opera (though I never watch those) you don't really have to know any context to listen, and you can pick up anywhere along, but gives the long-term poddies some extra fun.

run its godzira!

da4shan1 ? who is da4shan1 ? :-)

大山 (big mountain) is just the guy that every taxi driver in the country will compare you to for as long as you speak Chinese. http://www.dashan.com/en/index.htm

Has never happened to me, Thank God! Maybe in the Southwest he does not figure as the bench mark for Chinese speakers.

大山是个加拿大人，可是比Peter 超级酷。忍者不敢伤害大山。

chinese pod你好。 有时候我练习的中文跟chinese pod。 非常非常好的页。 谢谢。 现在我找到啦有趣的方式。 一年以前我做了画跟ゴジラ。 这个比你们的差不多一样。 http://www.spoilermusic.de/?p=18 抄吗。 88， k

我有一点儿晚把我的评论留下来，但是我今天早上才听了这个播客，真的好玩儿啊！Jenny说的都很可以，尤其是开始的时候我觉得有一点奇怪她最爱这个动物，哈哈。 我的问题： 经过 vs 穿过 我还不知道什么时候用经过、什么时候用穿过。最近我说了我怎么"pass through a city"，中国朋友说我已经说“穿过“可是这个课文里面说经过。我从来不能记住哪个是哪个，或者有没有区别。谢谢。 I still don't understand when to use 经过 and when to use 穿过. Recently I said how I "passed through a city", and my Chinese friend said I should say "穿过“, but it this text it said "经过.“ I can never remember which is which, or what the difference is. Thanks.

according to 现代汉语词典(汉英双语) : 穿(chuān) ③通过 (tōngguò) find one's way through; pass through (a hole, a crack, or open land): e.g. thread a needle, pass through a forest, go through the alley. 经过 (jīngguò) ① 通过 pass; go through (place, time, movement, etc.) : A trip from Beijing to Guangzhou by train goes through Wuhan, The room was much cleaner after being swept, The matter was carefully considered by the leadership. ② process; experience Wenlin has : 穿过 pierce; pass through 经过 j①pass; go through; undergo ②stop at So I guess 经过 is more general, 穿过 is more literal.

ahhh.... thanks goulniky. I also forgot there was 通过 which seems to work the same as both of the others? Interesting... guess I will have to remember that the "wearing"穿 is more literal (as is putting on clothes) and the "experience“经 one is more general.

Apparently, Godzilla （ゴジラ) is a combination of two Japanese words, gorira (ゴリラ) transliteration of 'gorilla', and kujira (クジラ), 'whale'. So I guess it could be rendered in Chinese as 大猩鲸 (dàxīngjīng) from 大猩猩 (dàxīngxing) gorilla and 鲸鱼 (jīngyú) whale :-) This doesn't reflect the divine connotation in Godzilla though

I like how Godzilla was just a transliteration, but it worked so god damn well! Best. Transliteration. Evar.

I like godzilla, it's a great lesson! Keep up this great work.

interesting podcast.  i thought it was "hen hao xiao (shao)".  zhe ge ChinesePod hen you yi si.  Xie xie ni men.

I really like the part about Godzilla wreaking havoc in the studio.