URLLesson Introduction
With the chorus of cell phones belting out staticky Chinese pop songs and Crazy Frog remixes, identifying your ring tone can be a challenge, at best. In this podcast, learn how to identify whose phone is ringing, in Mandarin, and save your already half-deaf ears from the mad cacophony. Or, better yet, put on the vibrator alert. It makes for a nice back pocket massage.
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daliabloom says
October 17, 2007
Actually my Lăoshī at the Seattle Language Academy explained that the "băn" probably refers to an old board-member.
changye says
October 17, 2007
The best way to make identifying your ring tone a lot easier is to select most ordinary old-fashioned ringing sound for your phone.
sweatyballsonyah says
October 17, 2007
this is a good lesson...
deathblade13 says
October 17, 2007
Good lesson! Possible additions for supplementary vocabulary could include "Your ring tone is very annoying" and "stop texting for the love of god."
artkho says
October 17, 2007
This lesson made me think of the movie 手机。Perhaps the dialogue could have gone this way: A: 谁的手机在响？ B: 老板的。 A: 哪个手机在响？ B: 绿色的。 A: 红色的手机是老板的老婆打得。蓝色的是他上海女朋友打得。绿色的。。。绿色的。。。 B: 啊！是他香港的女朋友。。她英文名字叫什么？ A: Turqouise! 老板！ Turquoise， 打电话给你。 C: 噢，好的！ I have been listening to too many Chinesepod-produced Soap Opera lessons.
lunetta says
October 18, 2007
I'm continuously amazed at the high quality of your lessons. The newbie lessons have to be short and yet you manage again and again to produce little snippets that seem taken directly from normal everyday interactions. I can just imagine this taking place at the Cpod factory. :-)
mikenotinjubei says
October 18, 2007
Hi CPod Team In reviewing the expansion dialogues I laughed at one of the sentences because I thought it was the ultimate in the trendiness of upscale Shanghai yuppies. The sentence was 你的手機號碼是多少？ (What is your cell phone number? I translated this in my head as: Your cell phone number how much? Thinking it was someone who went and paid BIG RMB's for a number with lots of lucky "eights". So since this is not the case how DO you say "Wow your cell phone number how much " Do you just add (simp) 钱 [錢] qián Mike Now in Tokyo
bona says
October 18, 2007
这情况下 “老板，你有电话！“ 跟 “老板，来电话了！” 意思不一样吗？
Kyle says
October 18, 2007
都一样.
bazza says
October 18, 2007
My ringtone is the Lost computer alarm when it goes to system failure. ;)
rjberki says
October 18, 2007
Does "ban" also mean this type of board as in board member? If so, this makes sense, but I was thinking it just means the old respected guy with the serious expression. (blank face)
goulniky says
October 18, 2007
chairman of the board is 董事长 (dǒngshìzhǎng) and so board of directors would 董事会 (dǒngshìhuì). I guess you can also have 理事长 (lǐshìzhǎng) board chair and 理事会 (lǐshìhuì) board of directors. Not sure where 班 (bān) or 板 (bǎn) fit, if at all.
rich says
October 18, 2007
So I guess goulniky's description throws the notion that 板 in the case of 老板 has anything to do with a company board, as they just use 会 which means "assembly" in this case. Interestingly though, I did learn from Rjberki that 板 can mean someone with a blank, serious face. I wonder when and where this is used in that way. From dictionary: n. board, plank; adj. hard, stiff; unnatural; v. to stop smiling, to look serious However, further investigation shows that the traditional form of 老板, which is 老闆, has a completely different 闆 that was lost when simplified Chinese took away that character and used 板 which is both a simplified/traditional Chinese character (板originally having the meaning of the dictionary entry I wrote above). The traditional character means 品 products in a 門 doorway, thus the one who manages or sales them. So my verdict is that simplified Chinese simply killed the original meaning (as usual) and we are just left with a phonetical character.
nelfie says
October 18, 2007
please could people writing Hanzi add a translation for the newbies and early ellies. thanks.
azerdocmom says
October 18, 2007
I second nelfie.
mora says
October 18, 2007
Hi. I saw that 接电话 jie dianhua means answer the telephone. So, if I want to ask someone in a crowded room to answer a phone call can I say: "请接那个电话啊 qing jie nage dianhua a"? Or "谁能不能接那个电话 shei neng bu neng jie nage dianhua?" ? Btw, is 个'ge' the classifier for telephone or a phone call? Tks in advance.
goulniky says
October 18, 2007
I try to add pinyin along with Hanzi, sorry if I miss the occasional transcrition, 对不起 :-)
mei9 says
October 18, 2007
today's lesson is very useful:)
Kyle says
October 18, 2007
@ mora he 那个 is unnecessary unless there are two or more phones ringing in the office and you want specify which one needs to be answered.
Kyle says
October 18, 2007
Blah, hit the wrong key and posted that before I was finished writing. Anyway... So, 接电话 (jie1 dian4hua4) would suffice. I can't ever see any of my colleagues asking 谁能不能接电话 (shui2 neng2bu4neng2 jie1 dian4hua4)? They're much more likely to just yell 电话! And, yes, as far as I know, 个 (ge4) is the measure word for 电话. In fact, when in doubt as to which measure word to use, you can always use 个 and your meaning will be understood.
nicolas says
October 18, 2007
If it's a phone call (not the telephone itself), no need for a measure word in 99% of the cases, IMO. However if there is a need for a measure word, looks like it's 通 (42) yi tong dianhua (一通电话; 'a CL (putting through) phone call') http://cache.baidu.com/c?word=measure%2Cword%2C%B5%E7%BB%B0&url=http%3A//journal%2Edyu%2Eedu%2Etw/search/download/cv12n207%2Epdf&p=8e67d154cd904eac5bbfc4710f64&user=baidu May I reiterate my request to Chinesepod that somebody near the level of a Chinese local person (like Amber) steps in more often to answer questions when they relate to the correct use of Chinese by Chinese people ? thanks ! ?
amber says
October 19, 2007
hi mora, The most common way to ask for someone to answer the phone would be: 谁能接一下电话？ Shéi néng jiē yīxià diànhuà？ Who can answer the phone? 接一下电话。 Jiē yīxià diànhuà. Answer the phone You don't have to use a measure word when talking about phone calls... its optional. 个 (ge) and 通 (tōng) are both acceptable measure words for phone calls. 你有(一个)电话。 Nǐ yǒu (yī ge) diànhuà. You have a call. 有三个电话找你。 Yǒu sān ge diànhuà zhǎo nǐ. There were three calls for you. 一通电话 yī tōng diànhuà
qingyin1986 says
October 19, 2007
老板,经理,董事长,行长...这些词真让我头疼
rich says
October 19, 2007
哈哈qingyin,我也是。我认为"老板"平时在商店用的或者是你为谁工作的(boss)。经理是manager，一个人的称为。 董事长(board chair)和行长(bank president)很少用。 Qingyin, ha ha. I'm the same way. I think "老板"(lǎobǎn boss) is used at a shop, or when it's someone who work for. 经理(jīnglǐ)is a manager, a person's a title. 董事长(dǒngshìzhǎng board chair) and 行长(hángzhǎng bank present) are rarely used.
mora says
October 19, 2007
kyle, nicolas, amber, 谢谢你们的帮忙! xiexie nimen de bang mang.
antoniov says
October 20, 2007
This is a nice newbie lesson.
zuanshi says
October 20, 2007
I loved the format of this lesson. Very informative with just the right amount of chit-chat. :)
a1pi2 says
October 20, 2007
The etymology of "lăobăn" is interesting only because it illustrates that many Chinese really do not know their own language. Even though teachers and Seattlites are unusually certain of their opinions this rule applies to them as well.
goulniky says
October 21, 2007
Rich, I spent the day at my company's branch office 分公司 (fēngōngsī) in Shanghai last week, and I heard 你的老板… more than once from assistants 秘书 (mìshu). This is a multinational company, not your local family shop, so I guess 老 (lǎobǎn) is also used to mean 'boss' in a casual sort of way when refering to one's manager / director 经理 (jīnglǐ).
meetrain says
October 21, 2007
老板,经理,董事长,行长 老板 always used in a informal way to express that the leader of a company ,no matter whoes porsion high or low and also means the leaders who just have a small firm . this kind of person we call 老板 经理 also means the leader of company , but the different is that 经理is more formall than 老板。 In years ago in china ,ppl would say 刘老板，陈老板，王老板，but now days ppl more likely to say 刘经理，陈经理，王经理。 董事长，is more formall than 经理，at the same time ,the porsion as a 董事长 is higher than 经理，the 董事长 control the whole company , the 经理 just have the rights to contorl the department of the different part of company . 行长 , there is a 行 letter. we always call bank in chinese 银行。so the leader of a bank we will call 行长。 the letter 长 to espress the porsion of a ppl , normmally means leader .like , 部长，局长，首长，团长，校长 and so on .
woolap says
October 21, 2007
I believe this is a prototype of a perfect lesson! Having "real" characters with some emotion makes the learning go that much faster. My favorite lesson so far. 谢谢你
user43825 says
October 22, 2007
Why is the pinyin word xiang3 the same for the word ring and missing?
yingying83 says
October 22, 2007
user43825, there are many Chinese words that have the same pronunciations but mean different things. And these words often take different forms in writing, too. for example, 想念 (xiǎng niàn) miss (someone) 门铃响了 (mén líng xiǎng le) the doorbell rings I believe you will catch it soon.^_^
Kyle says
October 22, 2007
@ user43825 I read somewhere that Mandarin has only around 500 individual sounds with tonal variations. Therefore many words have similar pronunciation, thus making context very important. =)
heruilin says
December 13, 2007
哇! 这么好的课程! Wa1, zhe4 me hao3 de ke4 cheng2 (Wow! Such a great lesson!) I especially loved the way the female dialog performer say "Boss, you have a phone call." because what I think she is really saying via her intonation on top the normal tones is "Hey Boss!, answer up your darn phone cell already ... its driving me freak'n crazy!" Maybe its just me, but I am in office where this happens all the time and some of the ring tones go well beyond annoying. 再见， 和睿林
dan1601 says
December 29, 2007
For some reason I can't download the Pod casts. Why is this?
tajram says
February 29, 2008
I wish the "Expansion" section included the supplementary vocabulary. Is it possible for you to add sentences using this vocabulary?
jackfrombelgium says
May 4, 2008
Hallo, Someone said "kai shenme" instead of " jie dian hua" Jack
marcdevincentis says
June 13, 2008
Would it be appropriate, under any circumstance, to call my wife 大老板 (da4 lao3 ban3)? I will try it anyway and let you know how it goes.
clay says
June 15, 2008
marcdevincentis,
my money is that she will just laugh. i dont think one would get offended with this.