Elementary - Preparing for the Heat

The timing off this lesson might seem a bit off, but actually we're just thinking of our Aussie/Kiwi friends (and everyone else in the southern hemisphere)... :)

Thank you Chinesepod! Can anyone out there please recommend a site for learning how to write the characters-stroke order and maybe some helpful tips to remember them... Thanks!

In the following expansion sentence, could you substitute 什么 (shénme) for 哪些 (nǎxiē)? 明天去看比赛，我得带哪些东西？ (míngtiān qù kàn bǐsài, wǒ děi nǎxiē dōngxi?) What things should I bring to go watch the game tomorrow?

John, 你忘了！Henning和我在夏威夷. 有大会 ... 我今天看见他了。Small world (-: Bill

sparechange: I think it's ok to substitute "shenme" for "naxie". "naxie" means "which" and also implies a plural context So maybe it represents a small diiference in meaning ie: which things vs. what thing(s) ??

http://www.cchar.com/download.php david- this is a great animated stroke order dictionary but it is not free.

Thanks, PaulC. I thought that was probably the case, but wanted to be sure.

Bill， Enjoy the sun, smile and sea. Say 'aloha' to Henning. The timing isn't off, we are planning ahead for the grueling August heat.

Anyway, I have NO guts (or money, time) to go to Beijing to see the Olympics in summer. By the way, it is very cold today. 零下摄氏273度… minus 273 degrees C (ling2 xia4 she4 shi4) 华氏32度… 32 degrees F (fua2 shi4)

Sorry, correction to pinyin. 华氏32度… 32 degrees F (hua2 shi4)

Hi Jenny, Enjoying the sun for sure. Something pretty funny happened at the hotel restaurant tonight. We always take our daughter, and her family with us to Hawaii, and our grandson who is 3 took his superman family and dunked them in his 冰淇淋 ！Gave them a cold swim so he said. The 服务员 really laughed. Very laid back here. OK. I need to practice 我的中文 (-: Bill

According to BBC temperature never hit 40°C in Beijing in August. In June, though, there's a 43°C record. For me your timing is perfect, just as the weather has been here, down in South America. this concept of preparing for the heat is a bit odd to me. though I never endured a sandstorm, drinking a lot of water, staying in the shade and having a fan ready are all part of a "steady state" living in Brazil.

RJBerki thanks for the hanzi writing link. The animations are great. Before I make the investment I will keep on looking for a site with a bit more information about the actual characters in addition to the stroke order. Maybe helpful ways to remember them or a little history about them... I don't know if such a site exists, yet? If anyone can give me other suggestions, I would really appreciat it...Thanks!!

davidhshanghai, Try: http://www.mdbg.net/ Use their online dictionary and follow your "nose" so to speak. Look up a character to begin. They animate each character and draw the radical in red. Full definitions are given. 这是免费! But, remember, the Chinese Pod dictionary gives usage examples. I can't find an equivalent on the web. Incredibly valuable learning resource. Bill

Speaking of 防晒, two questions: 1) What's the Chinese term for the welder-mask-like face shades commonly seen on the street? (Oh, and how about the cute lil' sleeve extenders for women with short sleeves, also worn for sun protection, too?) 2) What's the measure word for 扇子? 谢谢！

Hi ChangYe Minus 273 degrees C ! Wow, that's the temperature of liquid hydrogen and you would be a frozen stiff pillar that would break into thousands of pieces at the slightest touch. I suggest you have another look at your thermometer. And John, In my early days people who carried a sun sreen that resembled an umbrealla were known to carry a parasol. Is this word still in use or has it too gone out of vogue?

not sreen but screen

Not umbrealla but umbrella. Bad typo fingers.....

Thanks for thinking about us John. The outlook for tomorrow is 33 deg. C. For Thursday 41 deg.C and Friday 40 deg. C. All that with a chronic shortage of water. Nothing to be envious about !

-273.15 deg C is absolute zero, the coldest possible temperature.

hi scotts23, 遮阳帽 (zhēyángmào) is the welder mask thingy for blocking the sun 自行车披肩 (zìxíngchē pījiān) is the sorta cape thing they wear that has the sleeves, to block the sun. 袖套 (xiùtào) are the ones that the ladies just pull up like gloves to cover their arms. The measure word for fan is: 一把扇子 (Yī bǎ shànzi )

Hey Amber, "thingy" is such a useful word. :-) or non-word.

Bill- Thank you!

Enjoyed the lesson. Can anyone tell me what the "fen" is about in "ba yuefen"? I thought August was just ba yue.

penang: "yue4" by itself can mean either moon or month "yue4fen4" more precisely means month

Hi ingmar, by the sound of your weather forecast we're about to stew in the same pot. What part of Melbourne ni zhu zai ma?

Many thanks PaulC

Hi Changye (and CPod technicians) Today's lesson did not appear on my e-mal IN screen and once again Patty guided me to it, saving me the trouble of checking all the lessons from Newbie to Advanced. She is The Priceless Pooch to me! BTW sashimi lost its h on my laptop but not in my head for Google and Wikipedia guided me unfailingly to it. I have to hit the keys much harder than on my old keyboard. To be on topic for a moment: the temperature here is 7 degrees C, warm for the time of the year (but like a few previous years). I pity the schoolchildren, who no longer get afternoons off for skating. I remember these as the one occasion where pupils and teachers were in full agreement, for the teachers, too, liked skating.

dà jiā hǎo The fan reminded me of a little poem quoted in Haenish's Classical Chinese course. I replaced only class. ěr by nǐ in line 1 and 2; in line 4 yě is an untranslatable final particle. Though I typed in columns (perhaps not preserved), read from left to right. nǐ wèi wǒ liáng yǒu jīn zàn yǔ nǐ bié dài míng nián xià shí kě zài xiāng jiàn yě . Addressing an object in a friendly way has a charm of its own. Columns preserved or not, it looks very much nicer in characters!

word by word translation: you for me cool friend now for-a-while from you part wait next year summer time can again each-other see []

Amber, Thank you. I always wondered what to call those! I think "thingy" is the perfect, um, umbrella term for these items in English.

Great lesson and great conversation - as always! Thanks, Bill, for the weblink - it's a good site. I'll have to check out the Chinesepod dictionary - haven't been there yet. And thanks aert for the poem - any chance of getting it in characters? To continue the weather report, it's very springlike in upstate New York -- recording-setting highs in Albany (over 60 degrees F) and also here in my neck of the woods a little further south. All the snow is melting and next thing you know we'll have buds on the trees -- not good for January. So, how do you say "buds are busting out of bushes" in Chinese?

YES!!! Finally a lesson where we can fully explore the talents of our gifted friend, a certain Chicago native, Michael Jordan admirer and one who's talents have in some ways surpassed those of his idol! That's right Mr. D. Wade! The Flash!!! 閃電俠 We can also explore the disturbing situation of the waning talents of the biggest of all BIG MEN, the one and only BIG ARISTOTLE...the Diesel... none Mr. Shaq Daddy Superman himself SHAQUILE O'NEIL 俠客！ The greatest of all South Florida professional basketball teams! And their hall of fame coach, the greatest motivational speaker in the NBA....what?.... You say...we're talking about LITERAL HEAT here? you mean like...it's HOT outside and some junk? We're not talking about ... the HEAT heat? ... Just hot heat? Oh ... never mind...

Thanks for such a practical lesson with so many essential vocabulary chunks. I found the expansion especially helpful in this lesson.

Hi Penang You are correct and found me without a GPS. The exact location is FerntreeGully.

I had ya both pegged as in or around Melbourne, having heard your recent weather reports and dreading it moving North. At least you get cooler nights down there, I seem to recall, not round the clock steady heat like Sydney. It's now 25 degrees but it's midnight, damn it, and impossible to sleep yet again. Maybe I'll try the bath. The thought of competing in sports in 40 degrees, or even being in large olympic crowds, seems bizarre. Are there any pictures of those arm coverings and face shades people are talking about?

nooooooo! Don't buy a stroke dictionary yet! http://www.mdbg.net/chindict/chindict.php This is my favorite online dictionary and it has stroke animations to boot: http://www.mdbg.net/chindict/chindict.php When you find the hanzi, there are little brush icons and when you click them you can access the animations.

DAVIDSHANGHAI Hope I'm not too late to add this link! http://www.sonicnovel.com/kanji.html very nice site to help you learn and study (reinforce with games) the Chinese Characters--Hope you like it!

davidhshanghai, Here is a related free site which lists the names of the 31 basic strokes used to write characters: http://www.bluetec.com.cn/asp/mymandarin/bishun/bihua.htm Could someone please clarify the use of the aspect marker 了 in the 1st dialog sentence: 北京八月份最熱了。 I don't see an action that has already been completed hence the confusion. Is it used as some kind of emphasis marker here? 再見， 何睿林

heruilin, In this collocation the aspect particle 了paired with the 最。。。了 and often paired with 太。。。了 and appears for emphasis. It has many different uses, not just to indicate an action has been completed. I will admit when I first started studying Chinese that was very confusing to me since the dictionary and texbooks denote it as the particle to indicate the completion of an action.

小虎， xiaohu, I thought it might be the same emphasis pattern as 太。。。了... thanks for confirming it! The huge amount of overloading both of the spoken and written language is one of great challenges in mastering this amazing language. 再見， 何睿林

hi heruilin, 北京八月份最熱了。 Běijīng Bāyuè fèn zuì rè le. The 了 (le) here is an 语气词 (yǔqìcí), which is a mood/modal particle. So it has no meaning nor does it have any grammar implications. It could be left off here as well.

for those of us in the great frozen north, how do you say a negative temperature? does "du" imply degrees Celsius?

两年以前六月份，西安有最热天气。最热的天午饭，我跟我的朋友吃火锅！外边热里边热！ http://www.eng.utoledo.edu/~wolson/huoguo.JPG

ivy0, Changge above gave you an example of minus temperatures: You use the phrase (ling2 xia4) 零下 before the number to indicate minus temperatures. For example, in Montana where I grew up, it isn't winter until it is -40 below: 零下四十度 在蒙大拿州，这不是冬天直到零下40度是！

This darn "re" word is so hard for me to pronounce correctly. I have a chinese friend that is trying to help me get it right!

Urbandweller, Check out the pronunciation guide on the site. Actually it's not really that hard, if you curl your tongue and say the word "yuh" behind the rolled tongue, then you get really close. It's the same for "Ren" 人 (person), the "R" sound is actually a "Y" sound behind the rolled tongue. Try saying "Yen" with your tongue rolled and it will get you in the ballpark. Most American's make the mistake of saying our "R" sound behind the rolled tongue and it gives you an accent.

ho a!!!

thankyou all for those sites as well.

Hey guys, I think there's a blooper in one of your sentences in 'Expansion'.  9月份 looks to me like September not August.

 

In the following dialog sentence:

有多热？ (Yŏu duō rè?) How hot is it?

1. Can the 有 be omitted? [perhaps 今天多热 (jīntiān duō rè) ? ]

2. Can we say 他有多大 (tā yǒu duōdà) ? [I don't think 有 is normally used here, so I'm asking whether it CAN be used].

3. Are there any other ways for asking "how hot" [aside from 几度 (jǐ dù) ] ?

Also, in the sentence:

大概四十度。 (Dàgài sìshí dù.) Probably 40 degrees.

shouldn't 大概 translate to its alternate meaning of 'approximately'?