Chengyus and Suyus as magical spells
henning
October 15, 2007, 07:46 PM posted in General DiscussionActually I hate Chengyus and Suyus as they at least double the amount of relevant vocab - and they are really hard to get into long term memory. But I am thankful that CPod puts much weight on them in the Advanced lessons.
I myself occasionally need them for bolstering my position in family politics: My wife uses Chengyus exactly like spells in a Harry Potter novel. If she doesn't want to give a rational explanation anymore for a decision, she recklessly throws an evil Chengyu at me. "What it means? It means exactly that I am right" (which of course is usually indeed true, but that shall not to be debated here).
Once in a while now I indeed immediately understand those spells now. That is Phase 1. In Phase 2 I will come with counter-spells. As for each Chengyu or Suyu there is at least one that says exactly the opposite...
So Chengyus and Suyus are always welcome. Give me the counter-weapons and I am even happier...
Anyone else with similar experiences?
RJ
October 25, 2010, 09:14 AMBump - it seems at least some Chinese do use Chengyus and suyus in every day speech, sort of. (see title post above)
pretzellogic
If this is how chengyus are used, then I'm beginning to think that i'm not missing much after all.
RJ
Well, I think John would agree with you.
bababardwan
thanks for bumping this RJ. A brilliant Henning post I hadn't seen. Love it. :)
trevelyan
October 15, 2007, 08:43 PMAmen.
bazza
October 15, 2007, 09:43 PMpulosm, I'm not but I'm planning on proposing to Jenny hehe. ;)
kimiik
October 15, 2007, 09:55 PMBazza, Do you intend to propose on air ? That could probably leave a trace in the "history" of Cpod. ;o)
goulnik
October 15, 2007, 10:32 PMpulosm - here's one person, and no such plan, thus less incentive to learn more than 一些成语。 I find 俗语 easier, less historical references I think
lunetta
October 15, 2007, 08:29 PMWell, Henning, are you sure you want to mess with the dark side....? ;-)
man2toe
October 16, 2007, 01:33 AMＬＯＬ， ａｌｌ ｔｈｅ ｐｅｏｐｌｅ ｗｈｏ ｃｏｍｐｌａｉｎ ａｂｏｕｔ ｒｅａｄｉｎｇ ｂａｄ Ｃｈｉｎｅｓｅ ｉｎ ｔｈｅ ｄｉｓｃｕｓｓｉｏｎ ａｒｅａ；ｓｅｅｍｓ ｌｉｋｅ Ｉ ｃａｎ’ｔ ｗｒｉｔｅ ａ ｃｏｒｒｅｃｔ ｐｏｓｔ ｉｎ ｅｉｔｈｅｒ Ｅｎｇｌｉｓｈ ｏｒ Ｃｈｉｎｅｓｅ：（ Ｈｅｎｎｉｎｇ ｉｓ ｂｌｅｓｓｅｄ．
goulnik
October 16, 2007, 02:20 PMhenning, there are tons of books to help kids learn chengyus as you probably know. I was looking for 漫画 versions of 西游记 (Journey to the West) and other 四大名著 such as 三国演义， only found a few which didn't meet my needs. But I did come across 中国成语故事，图文本 a series of four picture books (漫画） published by 浙江文娱出版社。It was in a discount bookshop though, so they only had vol. 1 and 4. Two pages for each 成语 with 4 drawings and a short text, looked pretty simple to me.
jlswedberg
October 16, 2007, 11:37 PMOf course there are people here studying Chinese who are not married to a Chinese person! My husband is from Alabama, which is about as far from that as you can get, I think. ;-)
wenwang
March 31, 2008, 02:47 AMSome people aren't even married~
man2toe
October 16, 2007, 01:31 AMＨｅｎｎｉｎｇ ｉｓ ａ ｂｌｅｓｓｅｄ． Ｈｅｎｎｉｎｇ ｗｏｕｌｄ ｙｏｕ ｇｉｖｅ ｕｓ ａｎ ｅｘａｍｐｌｅ ｏｒ ｔｗｏ ｔｏ ｇｅｔ ｕｓ ｒｏｌｌｉｎｇ？ ｐｕｌｏｓｍ， Ｉ’ｍ ｎｏｔ．
pulosm
October 15, 2007, 08:23 PMSide question: Is there anyone here studying Chinese who is NOT married to a Chinese person?