Diana and Emma's group discussion
echo1
September 18, 2008, 11:01 AM posted in General DiscussionAnd so it begins!
(Actual content to follow shortly..)
dtjo
September 19, 2008, 11:27 PMHey Em,
Thanks for getting the ball rolling. So I listened to 'The Other Woman' and it seems like Lili and Zhang Liang are on some rocky territory. Basically, Zhang Liang has been working overtime and Lili calls to check up on him and show that she's thinking about him. But his mobile is off! She gets this message:
"您所拨打的电话已关机."
Now the 所 in this sentence is interesting. John and Jenny said that by adding this particle it makes the speech more formal and provides emphasis. You can do this for other verbs as well. It shows how the tone of speech can be modified just by adding in a particle, which is something our teachers are always stressing. Also, John joked around that letting your phone battery die is a big sin in a relationship with a Chinese woman. I think he's implying that Chinese women like to know what their boyfriends are doing all the time! haha
Since his phone is off, Lili calls the office. And a woman answers! Lili gets suspicious and has a fight with Zhang Tianming. She says: "你别解释了".
Here's another use of 了. It doesn't emphasise completion of action, future action or that a statement has been completed. Here it shows continuity, as in "Stop making excuses!" (when he is already in the process of making excuses).
Anyway, that's all for now. I'm sure we'll both be getting stuck into looking at our two dialogues. And maybe you can take a good look at the fourth dialogue 'A Dad Gives advice to a broken-hearted son'?
Diana :)
echo1
September 20, 2008, 06:24 AMHeya
I just had a read-through of 'A dad gives advice..', in which basically Zhang Liang's dad tells him to stop moping around and that there are plenty of other fish in the sea, etc. to which Zhang Liang replies that the older generation simply doesn't understand how he feels. There are no radically new grammar points in this one, but there were several interesting vocab things I picked up, especially the use of 过 which pops up every few sentences or so, because they talk a lot about the past- ZL's dad's romantic history and also ZL's relationship with Lili, which they seem to have already situated in the past- 过去就过去了.
ZL's dad tells him not to underestimate him, saying 你别小看你爸, which I thought was a nice succinct use of vocab; we haven't learnt this use of 小看 before but it's one of those things that after you read it just seem so obvious. 我的初恋女友可是校花- in his schooldays he went out with the 校花 (school flower, another almost literal term) and he uses 可是 here not to mean 'but', but for emphasis apprently.
I also thought this phrase was interesting: 死去活来, which means to pine away.. I was wondering if it was another example of a directional complement like qi3lai2 etc., or if it's just a set expression that you use.
I'll have a look at 'Seeking comfort' and 'Uncomfortable encounter at a bar' next and put up some summaries!
- emma
dtjo
September 25, 2008, 12:31 AMHey Em,
Thanks for providing insight into that lesson between 父子.
So I've been listening to our two lessons, trying to atune my ear to the tones and natural pauses etc.
Confiding in a conniving friend sees the return of Lili's good friend Chen Jing. Basically Lili is feeling miserable about her encounter with Zhang Liang and "the other woman". She says 我觉得自己好像看错人了 Here it's important to note that you can't just say 我觉得好像看错人了. There needs to be a subject after 觉得. But this is easy to remember as we do this in English too. We say "I feel like I've misjudged..." not "I feel like misjudged". I guess we just need to remember to put 自己 instead of repeating 我.
Anyway, Lili goes on to explain what happened to Chen Jing, and says that Zhang Liang and his co-worker were flirting. The term 打情骂俏 for flirting is interesting. Literally it means "beats emotion, curse playfulness". What a great Chinese idiom! I think it perfectly captures the schoolyard style romance where people tease each other with affection. I love how visually vivid Chinese expression can be. What do you think?
So as the dialogue unfolds, it seems that Chen Jing is defending Zhang Liang, saying he is trustworthy and that co-workers often joke around, But in the end she says that men are 不可靠. She concedes that Zhang Liang isn't a bad person, but maybe not the right one for Lili.
Ooh, the drama!
Anyway, I'll be back later with the next installment about the break-up.
Diana :)
dtjo
October 04, 2008, 04:14 AMHey,
What an awesome practise we had on Thursday. So now we know our roles: you'll be Lili in both dialogues and I get to be Chen Jing and Zhang Liang. I'll have to try to find a fake moustache and maybe wear a tie when I'm Zhang Liang hehe.
I like the dramatic elements that we've come up with to make the performances more dynamic with the props (chocolate bar, hanging pictures, mobile phones etc.). We'll have to surprise everyone with what we do on the day.
Anyway, I thought I'd give a run through of the interesting points we came up with on Thurs about 'The Break-up'. It's a pretty heated phone call between the two lovers. Zhang Liang finally gets through to Lili, but she is very stand-offish. She doesn't believe that Zhang Liang and his co-worker were just working and not flirting. Then Zhang Liang fires back with an accusation abou Liu Xiang. In the end, they breakup (as the title suggests lol).
There is some really practical/useful vocab in this lesson such as 短信 which means "text messages" from the sentence 发了无数条短信. That would definetely come into handy when using a mobile in China. Another useful term is 不理 which means "to ignore".
Again, we have another interesting Chinese idiom with 腳踏兩條船 (which roughly translates to straddling two boats)...this is used to describe two-timing in relationships. It is definetely the right image, I think of someone with each foot in a different boat trying to stand upright - it's a rocky situation! hehe
Diana :)
echo1
October 06, 2008, 04:44 AMHeya
Yup I am still set on the idea of a dartboard, but that means we have to find a dartboard.. I will look into it.
As far as character analysis goes for our lovebirds Zhang Liang and Lili, it seems like neither of them is really willing to put in a lot of effort to make their relationship work. Zhang Liang is a little more conciliatory than Lili (who just likes yelling) but they're both much more fans of hurling accusations than talking about their issues rationally. Tsk.
Lili's just one of those girls who always wants what they can't have; last semester when ZL was all lovey-dovey she kept telling him to shut up, and now that he has his own life, she reminisces about the good old days when he was always at her beck and call. I guess this is a good indicator that their relationship would never work out, because her expectations are fluctuating and unrealistic. And while it's clear that ZL really loves her, he can't really handle her- he doesn't understand where she's coming from, why she does what she does, or how to defuse the situations he finds himself in.
Doomed to fail! At least Lili has Liu Xiang and Zhang Liang has his creepy coworker.
Emma x
echo1
October 09, 2008, 04:21 AMSo just a quick summary of the rest of the dialogues:
Seeking Comfort: surprise, surprise, Lili catches up with Liu Xiang our favourite internet billionaire and tells him the whole story. LX takes full advantage of her emotional state and remarks about what an excellent boyfriend he would be, and how Lili used to be such a pistachio (pistachio= happy nut = happy person,) and she could be again with him by her side!
Then in Uncomfortable Encounter Lili and Liu Xiang run into Zhang Liang and Zhenhua and it's all very civilised until Zhenhua puts two and two together and tells Zhang Liang to give up on Lili. He and Liu xiang exchange a couple of unimaginative insults, and then Zhenhua and Zhang Liang leave.
It's Over! Zhang Liang and Lili put aside their differences and sit down for a civilised discussion and muse over their impetuousness in getting together. Zhang Liang is mopey. He has experienced the bitterness of love that was not meant to be. Lili is engaged. They resolve to be friends and meet up although Lili is emigrating to Australia.
And then It's Over, again. This is the alternate ending.. it's not nice. Lili says Zhang Liang is only good at being jealous and he in turn accuses her of being a gold-digger. Real classy!
dtjo
October 09, 2008, 12:45 PMAh, I can't believe our favourite two lovers come to an end! We've certainly seen the ups and downs. In "It's Over!" it's quite strange to think that after everything they've been through they end up apart, and Lili and Liu Xiang end up together.
I really liked this sentence:
哎，别人老说“有缘无分”，现在我总算体会到了
It's quite wistful, as if it's both a good and bad thing that they've now experienced what everyone else has alluded to.
Anyway, we'll keep working on our dialogues until performance day!
Diana :)
echo1
September 18, 2008, 11:16 AMHeya
So the dialogues we're doing:
http://chinesepod.com/lessons/confiding-in-a-conniving-friend/discussion
aand
http://chinesepod.com/lessons/the-breakup/discussion
I'm sad that they break up, break ups make me sad. Read them over the weekend and discuss more next week? There are 3 characters, and one of them's a boy, so your dreams of fake moustaches may come true..