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2010年1月16日星期六

Elementary Chinese: Getting Taller (Not Fatter) #3

We've been dissecting the ChinesePod elementary lesson: Getting Taller (Not Fatter). So far we have covered:

豆豆,这是叔叔,快说叔叔好
Dòudou, zhè shì shūshu. Kuài shuō shūshu hǎo.
Doudou, this is Uncle. Hurry up and say hello to Uncle.

叔叔好!
Shūshu hǎo!
Hello, Uncle!

豆豆,真乖!一年没见,长高了很多!
Dòudou, zhēn guāi! ī nián měi jiàn. zhǎng gāo le hěn duō.
Literally: Little Bean, truly obedient. One year no meet. Grow tall (completed action marker) very much.
Doudou, so well-behaved! I haven't seen you in a year. You've grown taller!

Chinese-to-English translation involves a word-for-word step that exists but isn't so pronounced when translating most languages of European origin into English. In other words, when we convert a sentence written in a romance language such as Spanish to its literal equivalent, the subsequent conversion to its figurative or practical English equivalent doesn't usually involve a great leap. This is not true of Chinese.

Uncle says Dòudou, zhēn guāi! Doudou, so well-behaved! Obedience as the Confucian hallmark of the authentic individual is emphasized from the earliest stages of childhood.

Next, Uncle says ī nián měi jiànOne year no meet. This is a standard way of saying that I haven't seen you for a yearzhǎng gāo le hěn duō, Grow tall (completed action marker) very much. le is an oft-used marker to indicate that an action has already happened. It's often the only way to tell that the speaker is referring to something in the past. So this translates to You've grown taller.

Linguistic grammar is a good example of one of the differences in the ways Eastern and Western cultures think and communicate as a result of geographic separation during the early millennia of their development. The Chinese language lacks many of the words that Western languages use to express subtleties, so context is an important component of translation.

I frequently mention that I embrace the no pain, no gain approach to learning and success. When one is striving for excellence in an area as difficult as the study of Mandarin Chinese, it is necessary to exercise self-discipline, study relentlessly, write characters repeatedly until you've internalized the ability to do so, develop self-tests rather than relying on passive activities such as reading or listening, and most important of all: practice, practice, practice.

Pronunciation, word details, character dictionary, animated writing, stroke order, radical, number of strokes, etc (mdbg.net):

zhēn

再 见!(zài jiàn!)

James

2010年1月15日星期五

Elementary Chinese: Getting Taller (Not Fatter) #2

Today we'll continue analyzing the ChinesePod elementary lesson: Getting Taller (Not Fatter).

豆豆,这是叔叔,快说叔叔好
Dòudou, zhè shì shūshu. Kuài shuō shūshu hǎo.

Doudou, this is Uncle. Hurry up and say hello to Uncle.

Literal translation: Doudou (nickname), this be Uncle (diminutive). Hurry say Uncle good.

The second sentence: Kuài shuō shūshu hǎo, is interesting for a couple of reasons. First, the speaker doesn't really mean that the child should hurry and say hello, but adding the word hurry (kuài) implies that the child should demonstrate eagerness, as a sign of respect for Uncle. Culturally, it's important for Chinese children to be well-behaved and to show respect for their elders. Secondly, saying hello to Uncle: shūshu hǎo (uncle good), might sound odd at first, but it is really just related to the way one would say hello to a person of equal position: nǐ hǎo.

Word Details, from mdbg.net
dòu
hǎo
kuài
shì
shū
shuō
zhè

再 见!(zài jiàn!)

James

Visit ChinesePod.com at ChinesePod.

This lesson can be found at http://chinesepod.com/lessons/getting-taller-not-fatter.

mdbg.net Chinese dictionary: http://us1.mdbg.net/chindict/chindict.php.

Elementary Chinese: Getting Taller, not Fatter #1

I have found the Shanghai podcast website ChinesePod to be an invaluable resource over the years. In this post, I'll begin a dissection of an elementary lesson called Getting Taller (Not Fatter). For this lesson, I'll assume that the reader has a basic understanding of Pinyin and pronunciation.



豆豆这是叔叔说叔叔

Pinyin: Dòudou, zhè shì shūshu. Kuài shuō shūshu hǎo.



Translation: Doudou, this is your uncle. Hurry up and say hello.



Literal translation: Doudou (nickname), this be Uncle (diminutive). Hurry say Uncle good.



The literal translation demonstrates much of the difficulty in learning Chinese. I'll cover some of the cultural considerations at the root of this translation in subsequent posts but for now, this is a statement from a parent to a child, Doudou. It's common for Chinese to address their small children by nicknames; Dou4 () means "bean," and a syllable is typically repeated to add emphasis or to make it cute. In this case, Doudou would mean "little bean" or "cute little bean."



The term Uncle could refer to a literal uncle, or it could be a polite title for a man of an uncle's generation.



Well, that's it for today. I'll resume this lesson with the next post.



Jim



There’s an excellent Pinyin entry tool at http://de.mdbg.net/chindict/webime2_pinyin.php. Just enter a syllable in hao3 format. The editor converts it in real time to hǎo.



Visit ChinesePod.com at ChinesePod.

If you're a ChinesePod member, this lesson can be found at http://chinesepod.com/lessons/getting-taller-not-fatter.

Mdbg.net is another excellent resource for students of the Chinese language.