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We don’t know if you heard but, (if not—were you on Mars?) Beijing’s got the Olympics here in 2008. So we thought we’d make sure you can hold your own in a conversation with a Beijingerrrr (those “r’s” will make sense when you come)—or anyone, for that matter—about all the excitement. In this podcast we teach you Olympic terms in Mandarin Chinese…and if you’re lucky, Jenny will be honest about her “shot-put” background.
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Nice Newbie lesson. Perhaps as the Olympics draw nearer, you could do an Elementary or Lower Intermediate with additional vocabulary that one might hear when watching the games--e.g., diving, swimming, close race, parallel bars, etc.
Daryl, Over the next two years we will try to cover a broad range of Olympics related themes. We also plan to provide useful lesson for people who will visit at that time - travel, hotels, taxis, etc. Of course we'll give yo uthe key sports vocabulary - as you pointed out. Ken Carroll
Great Newbie. Looking forward to the supplementary vocab - particularly around discussing form at the woman's beach volleyball competition. Unbelievable that there are literally rules that mandate that the women were an outfit not exceeding a certain size.I watch it purely for the sporting skills of course. A lesson on anabolic steroids would be good too. That way I have a shot at arranging free accomodation in the Olympic Village. David C.
[...] We don t know if you heard, but Word on the Street (shameless co-promo there) is that Beijing s got the Olympics here in 2008. So we thought we d make sure you can hold your own in a conversation with a Beijingerrrr (those r s will make sense when you come) or anyone, for that matter about the Big Games. In […] More … [...]
Loved that lesson! Of course it was really all too easy for me (I just started my 3rd year at the university learning Chinese...) but I actually learned some new words :) I have to admit that I'm not a paying member (oh the shame... lol) and I actually just use the lessons for listening practice. At the moment that is enough for me, because I have three 90 min. lessons in Chinese every week. At the moment we are studying Chinese texts and we have lectures in Chinese conversation. I am thinking of subscribing to all the additional materials maybe next year, because after I have finished the courses that I'm on now I can't get any further teaching at the university. :( I'm coming to China in a few years and I'm afraid I'll forget everything if I don't practice. I have noticed that many of the members here are strongly oriented towards using electronic and technical stuff for learning. That is absolutely fine, but I like to do things in a more old-fashioned way. I have a paper dictionary, and most of my writing I have been doing just with a pen and paper. I started using my computer for writnig Chinese just this week... lol And I actually think that writing characters in the "traditional way" (meaning with pen and paper) helps me remember them more easily. And in our first year we had a "hanzi ben" meaning a character book where we practiced writing. Our teacher was quite strickt about getting all the strokes correct and it really helped make my writing look better. That is one thing that is hard to learn here. I also have some topic suggestions... First would be "A good business gift". What would be an appropriate gift for your future business partner/s? I have heard that giving knifes is not a good idea. Or giving four items. And what would be a good gift for new friends? This will be an issue for me when I come there. It would be great to get some advice on that. I love to hear all the cultural stuff, that is always great. 谢谢! 开心
I think they should add Powerising to the Olympics. :)
bazza, powerising, wazzat? Just looked back at my contribution earlier this morning. Clearly was too early in the morning in London, because judging by my spelling I need English lessons, not Chinese ones.
Hi, Great lesson and very topical given we all need to get in training for the Olympics, at least from a vocab point of view. I am wondering though what I should take away from this lesson as a Newbie, and indeed all Newbie lessons. Should a student at this level be trying to "own" the new vocab, -bronze medal get the tones right as well - silver medal be able to recognise and reproduce the characters - gold medal! I am wondering what others who have gone through this phase would recommend and how they dealt with the 'long jump' involved in getting characters to stick in your brain, should it be a case of brute rote learning or just trying to recognise recurring radicals but not beating yourself up trying to remember them. Finally, are there any performance enhancing drugs for learning chinese - gingko biloba for memory and ginseng for stamina perhaps? Eddie
Eddie, I beleive the newbie should focus on comprehension: listening to and understanding as many of the sounds as you can. You shoudl try to engage with as much input as you can - by going through all of the newbie lessons, for example. Certain phrases will stick in your head naturally from the beginning, but I wouldn't worry too much about memorizing stuff at this point. Exposure to the highest frequency items will do the trick. Listen, listen, listen. If you get the chance to speak a bit, then that's great. Practicing the tones is ok too, but it is unlikely that you wil lbe abe to spontaneously generate proper tones for some time in a communicative situation. The tones are just like any other part of learning the language - you acquire them gradually, through practice. Over the long term continued exposure to comprehensible input as well as as much practice as you can get will get you to where you want to be. I don't know of any performance enhancing drugs. Btw, you win the gold for the the most mixed metaphors in a single comment. Ken carroll
Supplementary vocab for this lesson: 运动会 (yùndònghuì) game, sports meet 2008 年北京奥运会 (2008nián Běijīng Àoyùnhuì) 2008 Beijing Olympics 志愿者 (zhìyuàn zhě) volunteer 看奥运会 /看奥运 (kàn Àoyùnhuì) watch the Olympics 去看奥运会 (qù kàn Àoyùnhuì) go to watch the Olympics 我要去看奥运会。 (Wǒ yào qù kàn Àoyùnhuì.) I'll go to watch the Olympics. 你想去看奥运会吗？ (Nǐ xiǎng qù kàn Àoyùnhuì ma?) Do you want to go to watch the Olympics? 最喜欢 (zuì xǐhuān) like best 我最喜欢……。 (Wǒ zuì xǐhuān) I like……best. 北京欢迎你！ (Běijīng huānyíng nǐ!) Beijing welcomes you! ~Connie
This is Powerising, or me attempting to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfa16fAq4tg Here is how it should be done: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjiugNIf6d0
The names of the Five Friendlies (the 2008 Olympic mascots) are derived from 北京欢迎你! http://en.beijing2008.com/37/03/column211990337.shtml Yingying, one of the five friendlies is the Tibetan Antelope, which Jenny and John mentioned in the Exotic Animals lesson. And I like the Olympic logo too! It is derived from 京。
It's a shame all the characters on that page are images.
Oh, just tried the Chinese version and if you click on the images it gives you title in selectable characters so you can work put pinyin for every event. :) http://www.beijing2008.com/48/01/column211990148.shtml
Ken, Thanks for that, it is helpful to get some pointers as to how a Newbie should be progressing. From my limited experience so far, I imagine the path in learning chinese is lined with tipping points - moments when seemingly unlearnable become less so. With a lot of persistence these tipping points happen- it does seem that learning chinese is strangley addictive - it must be the need to be understood that is strong in all of us. I also feel I have a increasing level of commitment cause of the time I have put into it already - can't stop now! but I do find myself using phrases like "it's impossible", "scratching the surface" when people ask me about it. I find the podcasts fantastic and the dynamic between you and Jenny really makes it. I do worry though, my chinese might be a little 'camp' learning it as I am mostly from a female native. Jenny's voice is like a violin compared to my double-bass and I wonder are there inflections and attitude in a native male's voice that I am missing. Probably doesn't matter at this level and I could listen to Jenny's melifluous voice all day! Eddie
And to save everyone else doing it, here are all the events. :) Artistic Gymnastics - 体操 tĭ cāo Sailing - 帆船 fán chuán Triathlon - 铁人三项 tiĕ rén sān xiàng Baseball - 棒球 bàng qiú Table Tennis - 乒乓球 pīng pāng qiú Football - 足球 zú qiú Trampoline - 蹦床 bèng chuáng Handball - 手球 shŏu qiú Badminton - 羽毛球 yŭ máo qiú Rhythmic Gymnastics - 艺术体操 yì shù tĭ cāo Fencing - 击剑 jī jiàn BMX - 小轮自行车 xiăo lún zì xíng chē Archery - 射箭 shè jiàn Diving - 跳水 tiào shuĭ Taekwondo - 跆拳道 tái quán dào Equestrian - 马术 mă shù Canoe/Kayak-Flatwater - 皮划艇静水 pí huá tĭng jìng shuĭ Judo - 柔道 róu dào Rowing - 赛艇 sài tĭng Road Cycling - 公路自行车 gōng lù zì xíng chē Volleyball - 排球 pái qiú Wrestling - 摔跤 shuāi jiāo Hockey - 曲棍球 qŭ gùn qiú Canoe/Kayak-Slalom - 皮划艇激流回旋 pí huá tĭng jī liú huí xuán Shooting - 射击 shè jī Basketball - 篮球 lán qiú Mountain Bike - 山地自行车 shān dì zì xíng chē Boxing - 拳击 quán jī Softball - 垒球 lĕi qiú Beach Volleyball - 沙滩排球 shā tān pái qiú Athletics - 田径 tián jìng Track Cycling - 场地自行车 chăng dì zì xíng chē Water Polo - 水球 shuĭ qiú Tennis - 网球 wăng qiú Modern Pentathlon - 现代五项 xiàn dài wŭ xiàng Synchronized Swimming - 花样游泳 huā yàng yóu yŏng Weightlifting - 举重 jŭ zhòng Swimming - 游泳 yóu yŏng
I like the literal translation of BMX: small wheel bicycle.
Just pointing out a mistake by ChinesePod~Connie You translated 北京欢迎你！ as "Welcome to Beijing!", althought the meaning is similar, it is not the exact meaning of this phrase. The exact meaning should be "Bejing welcomes you!" "Welcome to Bejing!" should be 欢迎你来到北京！
Unless I missed it somewhere above, no one has mentioned the transliteration of "olympic" referred to by Jenny: àolínpĭkè yùndònghuì 奥林匹克运动会 (sim.) 奧林匹克運動會 (trad.) "Olympic Meet" Could we expect to see this form in print media and on signs, or will they more often use the 2008 年北京奥运会 2008 nián Běijīng Àoyùnhuì "2008 Beijing Olympics" given in Connie's notes?
Ben, Thanks for that correction. I changed Connie's notes to avoid leading anyone astray. Joe, It's all a matter of economy of language. "Àolínpĭkè yùndònghuì" is simply too long. So key characters are extracted—Ào for Àolínpĭkè, yùn for yùndòng, and huì as is—and you get Àoyùnhuì. The meaning is still all there; literally, "Olympics Sports Meet," i.e. Olympic Games. Àoyùnhuì is what you will hear most often. -John
Do you think we should have a special Olympics section on the wiki?
Bazza, I posted in the blog today about Wikipedia. If you get the chance, have a look. ken Carroll
Hey thanks a lot for this. I was wondering if you would be willing to produce more because i'm doing a project on the olympics and require some more information about the beijing olympics. Keep up the good work Ken! No. 1!
Oh yeah 你们可以介绍新的supplementry for the 福娃because that would be great, cos they're such cute characters~! ^ ^
I thought it was a great lesson but it would of helped me more if you could tell what each tone is that way i could know how to say it after all i am new at this stuff and am trying to learn it but it was very helpful and good thanks
Good lesson...time to start cramming 奥运会 vocab. into the brain!
Just a note, the audio doesn't match for the following expansion sentences:
她爱北京奥运会。
(She loves the Beijing Olympics.)
你们是运动员吗？
(Are you athletes?)
I like olympic game but I have been leaved Shanghai in 7/8 so I got no chance to attend it
I like olympic game but I have been leaved Shanghai in 7/8 so I got no chance to attend it
I like olympic game but I have been leaved Shanghai in 7/8 so I got no chance to attend it
I appreciate hearing Ken explain the way Cpod does the translation: clunky, direct . Jen too explained the transliteration of Aoyunhui as a sort of pseudo-abbreviation. Enjoyed the lesson immensely.
Does anyone know the word for the Paralympics?
Paralympics -残奥会/殘奧會/Cánaòhùi. 残/殘 means disabled and, of course, 奥会 is an abbreviated form of 奥运会/奧運會。
Thanks tvan!