Chengyus and Suyus as magical spells
henning
October 15, 2007 at 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?
bababardwan
October 25, 2010 at 11:09 AM
thanks for bumping this RJ. A brilliant Henning post I hadn't seen. Love it. :)
pretzellogic
October 25, 2010 at 09:36 AM
If this is how chengyus are used, then I'm beginning to think that i'm not missing much after all.
jlswedberg
October 16, 2007 at 11:37 PM
Of 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. ;-)
goulnik
October 16, 2007 at 02:20 PM
henning, 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.
man2toe
October 16, 2007 at 01:33 AM
ＬＯＬ， 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．
man2toe
October 16, 2007 at 01:31 AM
Ｈｅｎｎｉｎｇ ｉｓ ａ ｂｌｅｓｓｅｄ．
Ｈｅｎｎｉｎｇ ｗｏｕｌｄ ｙｏｕ ｇｉｖｅ ｕｓ ａｎ ｅｘａｍｐｌｅ ｏｒ ｔｗｏ ｔｏ ｇｅｔ ｕｓ ｒｏｌｌｉｎｇ？
ｐｕｌｏｓｍ， Ｉ’ｍ ｎｏｔ．
goulnik
October 15, 2007 at 10:32 PM
pulosm - 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
kimiik
October 15, 2007 at 09:55 PM
Bazza,
Do you intend to propose on air ?
That could probably leave a trace in the "history" of Cpod. ;o)
lunetta
October 15, 2007 at 08:29 PM
Well, Henning, are you sure you want to mess with the dark side....? ;-)
pulosm
October 15, 2007 at 08:23 PM
Side question: Is there anyone here studying Chinese who is NOT married to a Chinese person?
RJ
October 25, 2010 at 09:14 AMBump - it seems at least some Chinese do use Chengyus and suyus in every day speech, sort of. (see title post above)