general expressions used by Jenny in her explanations
huibert
April 16, 2007, 03:50 PM posted in General DiscussionI really like all the talking by Jenny in the lesson, even if I often understand less than 30% of it. She gives a good idea of the work rhythm, prosody and sentence structure in Chinese. And she just has a beautiful, very musical vocie. It would be nice, however, if someone - maybe she herself - explained a few of the returning sentences that she uses in almost every lesson. With these 'anchors' it would be easier to guess the rest.
bababardwan
January 29, 2009, 01:50 PMAh,thanks heaps mate.I was jumping about all over the place [and it's late and losing focus ] but you've put me on track [and I can sleep well now].That looks really useful.Just what I was looking for.Cheers :)
helandou
November 11, 2008, 06:04 AMI was surprised to hear it too, cause in my chinese class the teacher always just said: xianzai women yao ting yi xia duihua (现在我们要听一下对话) I'm not sure about the meaning of 'look' here. Maybe she suspects we'll look at the text from the dialogue while listening to the conversation?
goulnik
November 11, 2008, 06:52 AM∼∼看 (kàn) : [follow a verb or verbal cause to indicate a pending action, with preceding verb: often in reiterative locution] try and see :
用在动词或动结构后面，表示试一试(前面的动词常用重叠式)
想想看 xiǎngxiǎngkàn think it over, think about it
试试看 shìshikàn to have a try
找找看 zhàozhàokàn let's try to find it
等一等看 let's wait and see
量量看 liángliáng kàn to try to measure
闻闻看 wénwén kàn to try to smell
问问看 wènwèn kàn to try to ask
this is according to 现代汉语词典 The Contemporary Chinese Dictionary [汉英双语 Chinese-English Edition] with some Wenlin examples
[重叠 chóngdié reduplication]
bababardwan
November 11, 2008, 09:26 AMthanks Goulniky;lots of good examples
sebire
November 11, 2008, 10:38 AMWow, I've been wondering that for months. I just ignored it and assumed it meant "let's have a listen".
bababardwan
January 29, 2009, 12:48 AMah great;found it.This thread is so useful;thanks to all who contributed.I knew there was a post on what Jenny frequently says in the Intermediate lessons but wasn't sure how to find it as I knew the last post was a couple of months or so ago.[I recalled that Sebire had posted on it and that it was a couple of months ago so I ended up finding it by tracing back her posts.Forgot I'd made a comment or two myself :S].I hope when the new search feature comes,it will make it easier to find posts such as this and not just the lessons.Anyway,I'll have to get organised and bookmark important posts like this.Or maybe make vocab lists.I've never gotten round to working out how to go about that.Anyway,does anyone have any more of the words or phrases Jenny commonly says in these Intermediate podcasts? Even the simplest may help.
bababardwan
November 11, 2008, 05:54 AMhelandou,
thanks for that.Very helpful.I had picked up on the ting ting kan but wondered if I heard right.To me it meant listen listen [no surprise here;the often found reduplication in Chinese] look.It was the look I was not sure of ,but now I see your character I see it is look.So it's like ,now let's just listen [and take a look ?].Perhaps a more vague translation of look [like in English when we say we'll look into something ] than the literal.
bababardwan
January 29, 2009, 01:36 AMThanks heaps Sebire.I didn't know words such as dong4ci2 [though I knew both characters separately ] so at speed and with a limited vocab I may have attributed it as dong1xi1... things... though I realise that not only the tones are different but also ci2 and xi1 are quite different.Actually the breakdown of dong4ci2 makes a lot of sense...dong4 ..to use/to act/to move..and ci2 for word or phrase...so dong4ci...is a doing word...a verb [and dong even sounds a bit like a contraction of doing].ming I know from name,so ming ci ...a naming word...a noun.So thanks for helping connect the dots.If I get the time,I'll have to try and work out some of the bits I'm not quite picking up on in the latest intermediate lesson.
bababardwan
January 29, 2009, 02:07 AMActually at 11m48secs in the latest intermediate lesson on making dumplings which I just listened to again I think Jenny did say dong1xi1 [or am I mistaken here?] which is what I had in mind in my above comment on this particular occasion,but I'll look out for dong4ci2 in other intermediates,so thanks again Sebire.
sebire
January 29, 2009, 11:19 AMI think 东西 turns up a lot, probably more than 动词, though I have definitely heard it. It probably comes in the form of 一个动词 (assuming that's the right mw!)
In that dumpling lesson at that point, I think Jenny says "另外一个yong(?)重要的东西", which I think means "there is another important thing (in addition to dumplings and rice cake)".
Another word that turns up a lot, particularly in the intro, is 事情 (shìqing) which means "thing, matter, affair".
I notice in the dumpling lesson at 2.32, Jenny says (I think) 我们就要看一个词： "馅儿", so I guess "词" is a useful one to look out for!
I ought to attempt to transcribe the talking as some kind of exercise really.
mikeinewshot
January 29, 2009, 12:45 PMIf you are interested in transcribing the talking, you might like to look at some of the early intermediate lessons where I would go through the chat and pick out the words they used and post it. (Unfortunately, when the site was upgraded at some point, the layout of the posting was scrambled - By the way, at that time Changye used to post his Chinese as rectangles and his English comments are ever increasing length lines! All that was lost in the revamp) Now, I am from time to time going through some of the upper intermediate, posting words from the chat...
bababardwan
January 29, 2009, 01:04 PMThanks for that tip ,but I'm not having much luck with it.I went back to the first Intermediate lesson which was 43 [I think] and couldn't see anything there so skipped ahead to a few more but no luck.Then I also went back through some of your first posts on Intermediates but no luck.If it's not too much trouble,do you recall specifically any lessons I might find it in? Thanks.
Sebire,
谢谢
mikeinewshot
January 29, 2009, 01:41 PMbababardwan I have take a quick look. I have posted on lesson 0054 (City Comparison) upto at least 0544 (It's over). I may have missed some but I checked in the middle of the series and found comments both for 0248 (Bank transactions) and 0256 (Tai Chi). Hope it helps! In the early days, some people did actual post transcripts of a few lessons - I will see what I can find
sebire
January 29, 2009, 01:20 AMHaha, I had totally forgotten I'd commented on this. Good memory bababardwan!
One I looked up recently because I swear I've heard it several times was 题目 (tímù), which means "topic".
Also "verb" 动词 (dòngcí), "noun" 名词 (míngcí) and "measure word" 量词 (liàngcí) come up fairly frequently.
You end up hearing lots of words that you recognise as a unit, but don't actually understand, until you get your dictionary out and look them up. Then suddenly it just sticks in your brain. I looked up 清楚 (qing1chu) recently because I was certain I'd heard it a lot. It means "clear, distinct" or "to understand clearly, to know".
helandou
November 11, 2008, 05:47 AMAre there no posts in this section yet? Or is there just something wrong with my computer again?? Anyway, I'll point out some expressions, so I'm sorry if they were already posted!
-没错：mei cuo = litterally: not wrong, means that's right.
- 我们常常说。。： women chang chang shuo = we often say
-今天我们会听到。。。jintian women hui ting dao = today we're going to listen to
-现在我们就听听看（吧）。。xianzai women jiu ting ting kan (ba) = now let's just listen
- 意思是一样的：yise shi yiyangde = it has the same meaning
-是很有中国特色 (not sure about these characters!) shi hen you zhongguo tese = it's very typically chinese