Takeaway Chinese, where you can take some Chinese away and experience progress day by day.
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你好,欢迎收听随行汉语。 Welcome to Takeaway Chinese.
I'm Nian Honglin with Steve Hatherly in the studio.
Hello, Steve.
Hey there.
Thanks for having me back.
As always, great pleasure having you in the studio.
We never discussed how to say studio.
Oh, yeah.
How do you?
You say studio?
Well, studio in our case, because we're doing a radio slash podcast show.
We are in a studio designated for recording voices instead of shooting for both voices and the visual, But we do that occasionally with Takeaway Chinese as well, when we have something special happening.
And I think recently we would have something special happening.
Quite exciting.
Yes.
Quite excited for that.
Are you going to reveal it already?
I'm not, I'm not, I'm not.
You have to really listen to the show and pay attention and figure out when is the special episode.
We'll do it a bit later.
You'll drop little Easter eggs.
Just a little.
But the idea is that we do it in 播音间.
播音间.
Yes, 播 carries the meaning of broadcast.
音 is 声音, that's the sound or the voice.
And 间 is a room. a room that has a certain function.
You can use something, something to describe that room.
And I recently realized that there are many, many Chinese characters related to the concept of rooms houses apartments, and yet they all are a little bit different from each other, which is in the gene when they are created in the very first place.
I mean, when the character is created from the very first place.
And that is leads to the fact that certain rooms, different rooms, different houses, different places here in China have different names related to those characters or different words related to those characters.
Do all the rooms of the house have 间 at the end?
Depending on the kind of rooms.
So 播音间 is a recording room or a recording studio.
You can also call it 录音间 because 录 has the meaning of record something.
That's 间. But for example, if we're talking about an operating room, it'll be 手术室.
手术室.
手术 is a surgery.
And shi is another way of saying a room.
But that's only in a hospital.
That's in a hospital.
Because I don't have an operating room in my house.
No, in your house, you would have a... Your mom, Mike, she's a doctor.
Yes, she is a doctor, but she's a physician.
And also, no doctors would have an operating room in their home.
Unless they really love their job.
Come here.
You should not be operating at home.
You can only operate in a hospital.
I'm in the mood for a surgery.
Oh, that's creepy.
That's not doctors.
That's serial killers.
Right, right, right.
So shoushu shi, is that only for like official buildings that have shi, meaning room?
No.
Okay.
Because we talked about 间 and 室 already.
So 间 carries the meaning of separating things.
Or it does not carry the meaning.
It's more like it suggests that you are separating your homes into different function areas.
Okay, I understand.
Yes, and that is a 间, And the reason that 间 and 室 are a little bit different is that, when it comes to, for example 储物间,
储物间.
储物 means to stock something or to put something in.
So a 储物间 would be a room that you keep your stuff.
Stock room?
Yes.
Okay.
Or a closet?
A closet as well.
Yes, a little bit.
Or if we're talking about the arrangement of an apartment.
Some apartment has one bedroom, some apartment has two bedrooms, but some apartment is like with One bedroom and also a entry area as well as living room area.
But it's not that of an, They're not separated.
They're not entirely separated.
And they'll call it 开间.
开 cares the meaning of open.
开间.
开间.
It means that your living room and your bedroom are basically together.
They're not separated enough.
Like a studio.
Yes.
And 间, and also if we're talking about staying in a hotel, then a 套间 would mean that Tao is like one thing outside of another thing, or a package or a set of something.
So if you're in a hotel, then usually when we're staying in a hotel room, the hotel room itself would be the bedroom.
You don't really have a living room separated.
True.
But if you do, that's a taojian.
It means that they are separating the area separately into a bedroom and also a living room, and it's already a set.
It's not a solo room.
So 间 is suggesting, or if you see the character 间, you know that it's separated because of certain arrangement or certain function, like 播音间 or 录音间.
And shi is also interesting because if you see the Chinese character shi, take a look at it, you would see that the part of the character is kind of like a roof top.
And the lower part of it is another Chinese character meaning stop.
So when you enter the room and you stop your activities, you rest in the room.
Bedroom.
Bedroom.
That is why bedroom in Chinese is 卧室.
卧室.
Yes.
So what about living room?
I'm curious.
So that was my question before, right?
So 间, it doesn't apply to every room in your house.
No.
Uh-huh.
It's funny in English.
This makes no sense to me.
And this has been bothering me for years.
Living room, bath room, bed room, dining room, kitchen.
I have never thought of it that way.
So annoying, right?
What makes that so special?
You can call it cooking room, right?
That sounds weird.
And so does kitchen room.
Kitchen room is weird.
It's like if you say chicken meat.
It sounds weird together in English.
Yeah, right?
It sounds totally redundant.
Well, the thing with Chinese is that we have only mentioned two characters having something to do with rooms and houses and everything, but there are actually more.
For example, you also have 房.
房子 is a house, but 房 is...
Also carries the meaning of room in certain occasions.
I'll name some a little bit later.
And there's also 厅. For example, you mentioned living room.
Living room would be 客厅.
客厅.
Yes.
And 厅 is another character related to rooms or houses, or a room in a house, something related to that.
And there's also 屋.
Wu is a little easier because Wu Fang Wu putting together is the umbrella room for all the houses and apartments and buildings.
Fang Wu is like architectures.
Do you have a room just for your umbrellas?
You know what I mean?
The general room.
Put it in the umbrella room with the other umbrellas.
It's an umbrella word, not umbrella room.
I know.
I'm being difficult.
Well, the idea is that I didn't used to know the differences or the original purpose of creating these characters, which makes me a little bit baffling when it comes to living room being 客厅, whereas bedroom being 卧室 and washing room or restroom being 洗手间.
Literally, 洗 means to wash, 手 is your hand and 间 we talked about it.
It's a room, but so is living room is a room, bedroom is a room, Restroom is a room, but they also have different characters in the words, because these characters carry different connotation or original meaning that even sometimes Chinese people have forgotten about.
洗手间子
Okay, so we have already talked about 室 being a room.
Originally meaning when people stop moving, stop their actions at.
So 卧室, bedroom.
Which is why this is a little interesting.
Traditionally or in ancient days, Chinese people used to have one like wife, wife and several concubines or, you know, women in the house.
And I think the original meaning is that the husband should stay with the wife more, which is why the wife is also called a 正式.
正 is like straight or official or the main one.
So it's like he...
Being, the husband should be staying in the bedroom of his wife the more often and in serious occasions, in important days.
So the serious bedroom belongs to the wife.
You know what I'm talking about, right?
So 室 is there.
And we also talked about 间 being a room with a certain function.
So 洗手间, that's the restroom or wash hand room.
洗手间 Yes, and that's 洗手间.
Sorry to interrupt.
So in English, would the English translation be master bedroom, I think?
Because in a house, usually it's the biggest bedroom.
Yes, but the thing is because 正式 is already used as a way to address the wife.
It's more about the wife than it is about the room.
It's no longer about the room.
But again, it's really ancient days and now it's not a thing.
But you still see it in...
Different types of historical drama related to that period in history.
Understood.
Yes.
And there's 房.
房. Yes.
房 is also a character that is related to houses.
So to start with 房子.
Fāngzi would be a house or a building.
We talked about fāngwū being the general term for buildings, all kinds of buildings.
So does this mean like House or it can mean anything like an apartment or... Anything.
Anything.
Umbrella term.
So 房屋 is the official and also written term for all of the houses.
Got it.
And fangwu together kind of points out to the direction of shelter related meaning.
It's like because all of the houses, all the architectures are for the purpose of sheltering people.
Understood.
So that's fangwu.
But the original meaning of the Chinese character fang is shelter.
The rooms or the little houses adjacent to the 室, The little houses adjacent to the rooms.
That because we talked about the rooms being the official rooms, so we already said 正室.
Originally it's like the main or master bedroom, but now it refers to the wife.
But besides that main bedroom, there would be little rooms or houses adjacent to that main bedroom.
In historic times.
In historic times, because in historic times There would be several floors, but the first floor is usually the most convenient and everything.
So, instead of having a modern day building with so many different apartments and rooms in the building, What people used to do would be building rooms, but the rooms are also kind of like separate little houses adjacent to the main house.
And fang used to refer to the two little rooms next to or adjacent to the main room.
So these would be separate, completely separate spaces, not attached at all.
Sometimes attached, sometimes don't.
Depending on the design of the space.
Yes.
I see.
It's quite complicated, isn't it?
Yes.
The original meaning of these things are much more complicated than we thought.
They And the fang.
The reason I'm explaining this as well is because you would see our fang if you're traveling into a traditional Chinese courtyard or Beijing style courtyard.
You see the zhengwu, or the main house, or the main living room, main room area.
But you also see the fang.
The fang are usually around the main house area.
And because, if we're talking about the courtyard rooms here in Beijing, The shi would be facing the direction of south, so that the lighting and everything would be better.
And it's also considered prosperous.
But you also need rooms that are facing east or facing west.
So you form a little courtyard with your entire designing of the horses.
Which makes the complete circle.
Yes, yes.
And those rooms are usually fang.
I see.
I wonder these types of characters and definitions were necessary because the buildings were all accessible from the outside right?
Like one fang could be entered from the outside and the other fang can be entered from the outside.
Yes.
So how are we supposed to know which fang is which fang?
So they need specific names for each of them.
Um, We kind of do because again, in ancient days, Chinese people to start with are very good with honoring traditions.
And they would designate different areas and different directions for different people.
Role in the family.
For example, if we have an ancient time courtyard, if we're talking about ancient days, the parents or those who are bringing food onto the table, the real adult in the family, would be living in the main rooms.
Whereas the daughter of the family might be living in the rooms facing the west side.
And the boys are living in the rooms facing the east side.
So each house or each area would have its own function.
Yes, I understand.
Yeah.
That's something that I couldn't have understood, I think, maybe 25 years ago when I moved to Asia.
But yeah, now through experience and I've heard that type of conversation many times like the direction that you face.
The direction that a room faces sometimes is really important.
And people will not want to buy an apartment because of the direction of the facing of the window sometimes.
That's the modern day thing.
Yeah.
And even like the direction that you put the head of your bed in the room, like it should be facing north or not.
Face never facing north or something.
I forget exactly what it is, but all of these things are very important.
Yes.
And besides the living room arrangements, if we're talking about a ancient day or traditional type of courtyard, little house, little area in Beijing.
We're also talking about a situation that Because it's a house, it's someone's home.
They do not want to reveal the entirety of their home to strangers or to guests.
So usually when you enter the courtyard, when you enter the gate, you don't directly see the main bedroom.
You would firstly see the 唐 唐屋.
唐屋.
唐 carries the meaning of a whole, and 听 is another character carries the meaning of whole.
That is why 听唐 putting together would be, you know, whole.
We talked about Chinese people like two character words and you put the two characters having similar meanings together to form that word.
So 厅堂 is hallway Hall, Not hallway, Just hall, Just a hall Hall.
Because if we're talking about a 会议厅 会议厅, 会议厅 is a meeting hall.
So if it's modern day And it's a huge meeting hall, That you can have even more than 100 people sitting there and gathering for a forum or something.
That is a hui yi ting.
And there can also be 宴会厅.
宴会 is a banquet.
So in huge restaurants, in hotels, they would have this banquet hall.
So certain activities can be arranged in that hall.
I see.
And 堂 is used with similar functions.
For example, 大堂 in a hotel is the reception room, but it's the huge reception area because usually if it's a high-end hotel it's a really large area welcoming everybody, arranging you to different rooms, the huge reception.
So that's 堂, that's 大堂 or 禮堂.
Both are okay?
No, just 大堂.
大堂.
Yes.
And 禮堂 is a ceremonial kind of hall.
People can even have...
A wedding ceremony in a Li Tang.
Okay.
Because Li carries the meaning of ritual.
Yeah.
So now, when you see these different characters in these different words, there are meaning behind it.
So it seems like Tang.
Sorry to interrupt again.
Tang has the meaning of a large space for a specific function.
Both 廷 and 堂 carry that meaning.
And if we're taking the scenario back to a traditional Chinese courtyard, 堂 is a bit close to the front gate, whereas ting is a bit closer to the main bedroom, which is supposed to be the most private, the most important area in the entire courtyard.
And that is also why, if you are in a tang, you're discussing issue that perhaps is related to the neighborhood, the community.
But if you're in a team, you are already a guest.
Of the entire household.
Understood.
Yes, it's like walking a little closer and closer and closer to the core of that courtyard, of that home.
The most important space.
Yes, yes.
And I think that's also why in Chinese we have a idiom 登堂入室.
So 登 means step into or step onto.
And 入 is also entering.
And you have to first enter a town and then enter the 室. So if you picture that.
Deng tang ru shi is like you're entering the front gate.
You step into the tang room tang wu, by the way, is a tang room and then you pass the ting area and you go to the shi.
You go straight to the core.
So it means pass through the hall into the inner chamber.
It carries the meaning of become more proficient in one's profession, being on the right track, even reach a higher level in the study, because by entering the main bedroom you are reaching the closest, the core of the entire courtyard.
It's a metaphor, by the way.
Those are the characters that are related to rooms or houses.
I know it's a little here and there for those listeners whose Chinese level is not to the point that they already have seen all these different rooms, all these different halls, different places in a room or in another building, some kind of buildings.
But the idea is that when I am asked the question, why are you using this character and not that one?
I can't always answer those questions.
Sometimes I just know it's how a word is formed.
Yeah, But by doing Takeaway Chinese long enough, I started to realize that there are meanings behind things.
It's just sometimes those meanings have already been lost in history, in time.
And sometimes we didn't do enough research to understand the deep, deep meaning behind each and every character.
But once you do, you understand the word, the culture a bit more and you find it fascinating.
Yeah, and if i can give a tip, maybe to our audience who, of course, are chinese language learners and i give this tip as someone who used to be a teacher for a long time, not of chinese, And as a student of second and third and fourth languages.
A student's favorite question is oftentimes why?
But here's my tip.
Sometimes just don't ask.
Just learn it and move on to the next thing, because sometimes it's worth knowing, but sometimes it can be even more confusing sometimes.
And sometimes it just doesn't even matter at all.
And at a certain stage in your studying, you would suddenly understand the why that you asked several years ago.
Yes.
And that is a beautiful moment.
And maybe only at that moment, you can truly understand the reason of that why.
Yeah.
If I explain this to you a bit too early, it's still not that fun.
I remember I think I've told you before that my wife speaks Chinese pretty, pretty OK, actually.
And in the beginning, I was leaning on her.
But in the very beginning and I told this to you as well that I had never had any experience with Chinese language whatsoever.
So what that means is every little thing that you say to me, I don't know what it means at all.
Right.
So I would ask her, you know, how do I say go to the bathroom or like where's the washroom?
And she said to me, and I didn't even realize this until now, she showed Jen China.
Yes.
Right.
But my wife speaks very quickly.
So I said, how do I say where's the bathroom?
And she said, oh, she showed Jen China.
And I was like, what?
So what?
Because my ears couldn't even separate those things.
Right?
Now we're discussing it again.
And now I know she is about washing your hands.
And she is your hand.
She is about washing and shows your hands.
And Jen is about the room.
So now that you know we're able to separate those into pieces, suddenly my brain can hear those words distinctly because I can attach them to something.
And that, as to your point, just takes time.
It takes time.
So for the sophisticated out there who has been wondering how come?
厨房 is the Kitchen, 洗手间 is the bathroom, 卧室 is the bedroom and 客厅 is the living room.
They are all rooms in my house, and yet they use different characters.
Each and every one of them has a different character.
And don't forget the umbrella room.
Oh, come on.
There's no umbrella room.
But you do.
Can have a 储物间, you know, stock room anyways.
So what I'm saying here is that nowadays, here in China, when you're learning Chinese yes, if you're only learning those words, you can just remember them forever, what they are.
And if you have been learning them for quite a long time now, you know the logic between the forming of the word.
They'll start to make a little more sense.
And actually with the stories behind it, it can help you remember the words even more.
Even more, even better.
And here in...
Standard Chinese apartment, you would have all these different rooms, different functions.
Oh, and speaking of functions, in most buildings, you would also have 电梯间.
电梯间.
电梯 is the lift and 电梯间 is the separate area.
See, 间. carrying the idea of separate, a separate area for the lift in the building.
And even for some old apartment buildings that didn't used to have 电梯间.
We are looking at the kind of construction and the kind of renovation projects everywhere in the country these days so that, Especially for those elder people living in those apartment buildings, they would be able to have a lift, have an escalator installed into the old buildings to make it more livable.
And we are looking at the country giving better services.
Or more standards, more requirements for a good house or, in a plain term, haofang.
Literally a good house, a good building.
Taking into account what makes people happy and what they need to be happy in their own space.
Yes, and we're talking about the houses that are safe anquan, which means it's environmentally friendly and also nice to live in.
And you would also talking about a good community, and these standards are important gradually, step by step, met in each and every residential area, and we see the projects and we see the new elevators, we see the new material attached onto the outside wall of the building.
So the insulation of the house, of the apartment building, can be better, more environmentally friendly and also more comfortable.
And all these are also happening in all these different rooms here in China.
Yeah, that's right.
It's a new standard now, isn't it?
And that's a good thing for society as a whole.
Yes.
So, if you have any other questions, any comments about houses rooms, different rooms with different functions in different places,
Anything related to this, please let us know in the comment area or send us an email directly.
And thank you so much for being with us.
感谢收听 我们下次再见 Thanks very much.
See you next time.
