Olympics CPod website

podster

I have a newfound appreciation for British humour. Even the queen, for pity's sake. I've been surprised to hear that many people in China thought the opening ceremony compared favorably to that of the Beijing Olympics. There has already been a lot of analysis of the differences, but I guess my two cents is that the Beijing Olympics was about celebrating history, which to the Chinese may be less interesting because they already grew up learning about Zheng He, etc, whereas the London Olympics was also largely a celebration of creativity (with such notable fictional characters as Mr. Bean and James Bond, among many others. ) Personally while I found the London opening ceremony brilliant, it did not occur to me to say that it was somehow "better" than Beijing's. I guess I felt a bit relieved for their sake that it wasn't much worse

bababardwan

hehe, yeah..well I've always enjoyed British humour, but I have a newfound appreciation for the Queen. I so wish she'd actually done the parachuting in....that would have impressed me no end, hehe. It was nicely done all the same.

I hadn't caught any of the Chinese talk of it. Are you living in China mate? I think I've had that impression before that you are. If so, whereabouts? Anyhow, it's interesting to hear their feedback..thanks. :)

yeah, I was pleasantly surprised about how good it was, very glad to see that, and I think you've put it well...a celebration of creativity.

podster

I'm not in China, just reporting what someone from China who watched it here in the US said, and this person also cited many friends in China who expressed similar sentiments by microblog, or whatever. Actually I was practising English understatement; what I really heard is that some Chinese people were saying the the London opening was "100 times better."

Wait, you mean that wasn't actually the Queen parachuting in? The Chinese should be excoriating them for fakery! (Wasn't that a common theme of the Beijing Olymics -- foreigners bashing China for fake fireworks, fake singing, etc.)

bababardwan

ok. I thought you were American but I thought you might be currently in China....you've at least been before, right? I thought I'd read stuff of yours that made me think you had local knowledge [which I don't have]. Yeah, I should read more online Chinese news articles...but as I have trouble keeping up with the lessons here, I rarely venture onto anything else. Oh well, that feedback is interesting but I don't really see the necessity for them to compare. The Beijing Games were fantastic and I don't think theres any need to detract from that...just enjoy each for what it has to offer. One hopes that each games is going to be more mindblowing than the last...leaving one with the question...how can they top this?

"Wait, you mean that wasn't actually the Queen parachuting in?"

haha, I thought someone might pick me up on that. Well I only picked up on it because her feathers were so unruffled so quickly. I didn't think anyone's hair could look that good so quick...unless there's a hairspray that I'm not aware of...in which case, maybe she did after all...forgive my skepticism.

The Chinese should be excoriating them for fakery!"

haha, very good. The concept was so good in this case that I think we'll allow it...that and her advanced years...though here's a guy who did it for his 100th birthday:

http://www.worldrecordsacademy.org/sports/oldest_tandem_skydiving_jumper_Fred_Mack_sets_world_record_112166.html

bodawei

No - you have a supporter here Baba. I have to admit upfront that my interest in sport these days does not go far beyond Rugby League and long walks, but my interest has been awoken because it is high summer here and there is not much else to do but watch the Olympics. :)

I did miss the Opening. A Chinese work mate found my nonchalance about the Opening ceremony surprising - 'but my mother watched the whole thing!' she said. Then I asked 'what was your favourite things?' and she said 憨豆先生 and 贝克汉姆. Because 'everyone in the whole world loves 憨豆先生, and all the women in the world love 贝克汉姆.

There has been a lot of coverage of the Olympics - two national channels carry it pretty much non-stop, and one provincial channel I noticed was spoofing just about everything Olympic.

I read about Chinese expectations in the China Daily. Seemed fairly realistic to me (compared to what I am used to reading about Australia). They seem to be exceeding expectations at the moment but it is early days.

Yeah - I would love a bit of a guide from ChinesePod - but I don't think that will help my comprehension of the main anchor here - China's Eddie McGuire - he mumbles and speaks quickly. And for some reason he rarely looks at the camera - who is this guy I wonder and where did they get him from?

pretzellogic

I was interested in seeing the multi-lesson Olympics link restored. My take was that even though many of the lessons wouldn't have helped with actually watching the event on TV, it would still be relevant. Unfortunately, most of the events I'd want, Cpod didn't create lessons for anyway. C'est la vie.

bababardwan

多谢你的支持朋友 ：）

Thanks also for 憨豆先生 ...I immediately realised that it would be Mr Bean from 豆先生 ...but had to look up 憨...han1...hehe, meaning silly or simple minded.

"I read about Chinese expectations in the China Daily. Seemed fairly realistic to me (compared to what I am used to reading about Australia)."

...什么期望呢？

“China's Eddie McGuire”

。。有连接？

bababardwan

“I was interested in seeing the multi-lesson Olympics link restored.”

...pretz, do you mean that whole other website that CPod set up that I was mentioning at the start of this thread? or do you mean a list of the lessons on this site? If it was the latter, then there is a pretty long list of them here:

http://chinesepod.com/library/tag/Olympics

..but that other website had so much more.

"Unfortunately, most of the events I'd want, Cpod didn't create lessons for anyway"

which ones would you like to see covered? I think CPod may be receptive to creating some new ones as it's quite topical, though I'm not sure how far ahead they produce them these days. Maybe they have some in the pipeline already....ok it's not Beijing, but it is a huge world event...also China seems to have got off to a good start and so I'm sure there'd be pretty strong interest and much discussion in China currently.

pretzellogic

Actually, I was thinking of the website that existed for some amount of time during the Beijing Olympics that no longer exists. But for my current purposes, the link you produced is fine.

I was struck by how many Elementary lessons there are. The lesson breakout (if i'm not miscounting):

21 elementary

3 advanced

2 intermediate

1 Newbie

The topics were somewhat ok. My complaint around sports has always been that there isn't really much detail behind these lessons that would help a person understand the TV commentary. I will say part of the problem is that when I want TV, the commentators are speaking Chinese so fast, that sometimes they're saying something I understand, but need about 2 minutes to digest. I also get it that some of the dialog I need comes from other, non-sports related lessons ("he's under great pressure to win!" for example).

But generally, as i've mentioned in other places on this site, the sports lessons are basically the sport name, and then something along the lines of i like/don't like/understand/don't understand that sport. Basketball is a notable exception.

One of the greatest things about watching the Olympics in China is i'm not forcefed gymnastics (which I am not a fan of). The Chinese go for everything so far, 10M Air Rifle, Swimming, Judo, Archery, sports that hardly get a mention back in the States. It would be nice if Cpod would delve into the details around that the way they did a bit with basketball. Kobe Bryant's interview on CCTV was translated into Chinese. I understood a bit of it (typical speed problem with my understanding). But i'd love to watch the triathlon, marathon, 10K meters, 5K meters and others with the details behind them.

bodawei

1. 什么期望呢?

2. 有连接?

1. It seems to me that Australia approaches every Olympics with high expectations about our medal ranking - there are numerous articles in the press reinforcing this, but just for example the two prominent Australian swimmers who were shocked to miss out on medals had 'already ticked off these events as gold medals' according to the SMH - my ever reliable source of the Australian 'mood' ... :)

There was an article which had every event matching Australia's expected performance. There should be nothing wrong with this; I'm sure that it is potentially well-based, but I can't help but feel that we are always over-optimistic. Well, sporting achievement is a great source of pride in Australia - small population and all that. We have almost everything on our side too (wealth, good climate, generous govt. subsidies). But for me the hubris is over-powering (I'm from another era.)

2. The events are on CCTV1 and CCTV5 Sports -

try http://tv.cntv.cn/live/cctv5 (I note that it says that the video only works on IE and Firefox so I haven't taken the time to check it.)

I have only watched on TV -

The guy in question - I think he is on the sports channel and in Beijing. (I just went to check and of course he is not on at present. But I also noticed a program for CCTV7 so it seems that there is some there as well.) The anchors in London are easier for me to understand.

Maybe there is an avid watcher in China who can give you a better roadmap to Olympic programs.

conmando144

Locals worry every Olympics whether the rest of the world has understood their opening ceremony. The fact is that most of the rest of the world are just looking for entertainment, and don't care too much about the meaning of the ceremony.

mikeinewshot

I agree. But I am not sure whether it was entertainment!

pretzellogic

I didn't understand the ceremony because I didn't catch about 90% of the words in Chinese. I remember some dude that after the 2nd time seeing the opening ceremony in full, and then remembering that dude was Kenneth Branaugh. After I remembered Branaugh, I recognized the transliteration of his name into Chinese. I thought the segment around the guys in the top hats were the robber barons (or is that us Americans), but I understand the pretty video very well. I recognized the nu3wang2, but not the Elizabeth part. Fortunately, I know what she looks like :-)

What I was struck by was how many non-white faces were in the opening ceremony. I remember some Brit like JK Rowling remarking that London is really the only multi-cultural city in Britain; that Manchester, Birmingham and other big cities are really overwhelmingly white. But that same person remarked that it was the chickens coming home to roost from all that Empire building.

bababardwan

Mike,

Well there are non Brits and then there are non Brits. As an Aussie we have close ties with UK, especially historically and so it was easily understood and all very familiar. Then there is the rest of the British Empire [or ex British Empire] .... I reckon would also likely be quite familiar though I'm not as sure. I'm sure the Indians would have loved the cricket scene, hehe, but it would be interesting to know how much of the rest of it the average Indian followed. Then there is the rest of the English speaking world, and then there is the rest of the world [ though some things would no doubt be more familiar than others. How many languages has JK Rowlings Harry Potter been translated into...I know it's in Chinese for example]. I guess it would depend on the level of education, but also on the quality of the commentary. For those familiar/connected a celebration, and for the rest an education...so something for everyone. Oh yeah, I thought the olympic flame was absolutely inspired. I heard rumours that Beckhame was somehow going to light the flame by kicking a flaming soccer ball in which would have been uber cool, but I guess that would have had shades of Barcelona with an arrow shot in, and the concept..the symbolism behind this was the best yet...loved it.