Takeaway Chinese, where you can take some Chinese away and experience progress day by day.
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Hello, I'm Steve. Thanks for having me back.
Really happy to have you back and in the meantime I feel like I should start a program named observing Steve's Chinese learning process and just inviting you back generally yeah a little bit you know is that your way of asking me what I learned this time yes.
Was I subtle? Yes okay Lai Lai what is that?
Come here or come in?
Yes right yeah right yeah.
I was walking down the street and I was actually coming to the radio station and there was a man there who was walking with his infant child.
Ah, that's why. He was using the sidewalk as a chance to kind of teach the baby how to walk better or like you know come come to me come come to me and he kept saying in a very kind of different kind of way like la la la, and then so I asked what does la la mean and it means come here yes please do not use it in your everyday scenario because it's a little yeah yeah please explain because there's a little bit of baby talk and a little bit of the kid might be just learning how to speak so the dad is simplifying everything for the kid so lie actually means come and And come here, but that is a very
direct, almost impolite way of saying come over here.
Like a command. Yes, exactly.
And if you say would you please come here a bit.
So we know that is a little bit or once or just tiny little that is used to soften the tone.
It's like I'm not giving you an order, I'm just saying would you please come here a little bit, Like come over a little bit.
So it's soften the tone, but lie in itself means come.
And if you're talking to a kid or saying, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, come, come, come, come, because you're trying to teach the kid how to pronounce the character lie.
The word lie question.
If someone delivers something to my house and I want to ask them, Please come in, like, bring the thing inside, and maybe put it down wherever.
I'm going to surprise you.
I want to say to them, come in, please.
So, would I say, lie lie?
No, you would say, qīngjīn.
Qīngjīn. Yes, it has nothing to do with lie, right?
Okay, so you actually can say, qīng lie.
So, qīng cares the meaning of enter, and lie is to your direction.
So, qī is go somewhere, lie is calm.
So Lai is the action that's towards you, you're inviting them to your direction, to the speaker's direction.
Jin Lai. Jin Lai, so Jin is coming in or enter and Lai is, you know, enter the door and walk to me, it's kind of like that.
Okay. But Jin Lai is also a bit too direct and too, like, an ordered or a command.
So Jin. Jin Lai. Yes, Jin Lai would be good because Jin, we know it's please, And we add that character in front of a lot of different Chinese verbs to show Please to show your polite.
So it's sheen. Sheen light Please come in or sheen.
Sheen. Please enter my house.
Do you want to hear cute side story?
Yes I hear you know when you're saying please or thank you in Chinese you hear thank you and you're welcome all the time very like she's here yes good she uh -huh but because those words are are new for me and they're not difficult to understand it's just that I hear them both all the time and it still hasn't registered like it hasn't rooted in my brain yet like I hear it and I know what it means so sometimes I get confused so I was on the floor the other day and someone held the door for me and I meant to say see she it mm -hmm but he held the door for me and I said I'm sure he understands like
what an honor for you to hold the door for me I said I said you're welcome welcome oh my goodness so silly but you know mistakes like that will happen when you're trying to get used yeah back to the front door situation where I want to invite somebody in so if I said Lyla that's That's the equivalent of me saying to the delivery man, come on.
Yes. Come on in. Yes.
I'm talking to a puppy.
Oh, I get it. Ching Ching Lai.
Okay. Please come in.
Please come in. Thank you.
And that is Steve's progress of Chinese learning for today's episode or before today's episode.
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But now let's provide you with some free Chinese for takeaway.
So for today's Takeaway Chinese, the words and expressions we're taking away are actually related to something that echoes the weather that we're experiencing during our recording.
Because, you know, there are hot days and cold days.
But now currently, while we're doing the recording, Beijing is welcoming some really, really cold days.
I disagree. It's not that bad.
Because you're from Canada, and you're used to cold.
You have higher thresholds.
It's true, but we're in fall right now and I'm starting to get the feeling that fall in Beijing, autumn is a little bit shorter than perhaps winter and summer are, which probably means spring is shorter as well, but I guess I'll figure that out when I get there.
But no, these temperatures, it's warm in the daytime when the sun is shining, it's a little cold in the morning but nothing too unbearable and then at night, well admittedly at night, it's starting to get a little bit colder, but it's nothing, it's nothing from what I understand compared to what we will be experiencing in a month or two.
That's true. So let's use this episode as a preparation for the really cold winter days.
So by that time, after listening to the show, you get to practice the words a little bit so that when winter actually comes, you know how to express the feeling of, Oh, I am frozen.
Okay. Got it. Okay.
So the very simple and very basic one would be Yes, that is a third tone and it means cold.
Okay. Third tone meaning down and up.
Down and up. Okay. So And that is cold.
And there is another one because you talked a little bit about autumn not being that bad, actually another word that can also be translated as cold is Yes.
Yes, so you can understand it this way.
Lian is hotter or warmer than l quit.
That is why we have words like Lian chef.
So Lian it's like it's a little bit cool and chef is the kind of feeling you have if in a really hot summer day you have a sip of cold soda and you're like, that's chef.
So your pores are opening a little bit in a good way.
That's chef so Lian chef would be cool.
and nice. So Liang is less cold than Long?
Okay, most occasions.
Okay got it. So then Long would refer to cold, meaning an uncomfortable I want to wear more like I'm feeling I don't like this.
Yes. Okay. Whereas Liang could be the equivalent of the English, maybe chilly.
Or brisk, perhaps. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
It's already a little bit cold, and for some people, maybe Liang is already cold, but it can also be talking about the kind of cold, like you said, brisk, or cool.
Got it. Yeah, kind of cold.
Okay. So that's these two, and of course, in English we say, I feel it's freezing.
Yes. In Chinese we say that too we say don't don't don't don't means precisely freeze okay mm -hmm and Mostly people would say for example, I would you don't jump whoa that's I yeah don't it's like I am Freezing young is like it's a little bit numbing I cannot feel my fingers So long it means chilly or brisk whereas young means is freezing to the point of your numb.
Yes. Okay. But you have to put them together.
It has to be dongjianle.
If you're precisely just jianle, then it may because you're sitting on your hand for too long.
Okay. Got it. Got it.
So dongjianle. Dongjianle.
It's so cold that I feel like I'm a little bit stiff.
Frozen. Frozen solid.
Frozen solid. That's what you say in English?
In English, yeah. I have no idea how to say it.
I am frozen solid. That is a perfect translation.
And the at the end of the expression shows that the state is complete.
So you're already there, cannot move.
Got it. Got it. That's a really useful expression for when the weather gets cold.
Yes. You can use this.
Now do I have to be outside in frigid temperatures to use this expression?
Or if I'm sitting on the sofa at home and I'm feeling, actually, I'm just feeling a little bit cold.
You can use it. But I can still say, oh, dongjanglu.
Yes, we can say that.
Gosh. And we know that Chinese is the language with a lot of interesting expressions, including some idioms.
And when it comes to idioms, mostly we're talking about the ch 'angyu, the four -character idioms.
For these idioms they can sometimes be very literal, or sometimes paint a vivid picture with words, or sometimes be a little bit extreme or extravagant, or...
Like overexpressing?
Exactly. To show your feeling.
Yes, that is why for winter days, for example, we would sometimes describe the weather as RSSD.
But in daily life, we do not say, 他� Sendián, 他活任, people might understand you but it's just not what we say.
We would say 他活任, the day, the weather is cold.
So, 添 we know that's also cold, and 他 we've already talked about 他活任 so 他 meaning freezing, it's really cold.
So, 他活任 it's like saying it's really, really cold.
The sky is cold, the earth is cold, everything is cold, and it's just you know, cold.
it's cold. It's just cold, cold, cold.
It's just cold, cold, cold.
Up is cold, down is cold, left and right are cold as well.
Tian Han di dong. And also you know, the d, the solid land, it's not just cold, cold is freezing.
Yeah, I understand.
So this is just another expression, another way to express how cold it is outside.
yes, but this the difference between dōngjian elementary and tien han the dong is The first expression is about me how I'm feeling the second expression tien han D dong is about the conditions our environment.
Yes and Also, if you are talking about really extremely cold weather again also the outside There is another Chinese idiom you can use D shui Cheng Bing Di shui chong bing.
Uh -huh so di means drop or drizzle.
Shui is water. Chong means become.
And bing is ice. Yes.
You know bing. Yes.
Okay so it's like if there is a tap with water drops, the water drop would turn to ice the moment it falls.
Okay. Got it. So, again that's the literal meaning of this expression.
But the everyday use is simply a way to show how how cold the environment and condition is.
So the thing about using Chinese idioms is a bit tricky.
You have to learn by remembering each and every example mostly, because a lot of the Chinese idioms are used independently.
For example, if I am a primary school student and I am writing a article, I would say, the winter is coming, It's really cold everywhere, it's cold.
My mom asked me to wear more.
See, what I'm saying, I'm using it independently, in the sentence.
You can also say for example, the winter in Beijing is really really cold, using the as a way to describe how cold it is.
Okay so there are different ways to use different idioms.
Yeah I understand, so the idiom can be used personally as a way to kind of over -express how cold you are or how cold you think it feels outside, but when you're actually speaking literally, almost like a news reporter talking about the weather in Beijing, then you can use this expression in there as well.
Yes! But in In that case, it becomes more real.
Yes, but it's like you're exaggerating it, but everyone knows you're exaggerating it, so it's not used in an exaggerating way.
Got it. And I'm not really sure because if only been here in China, not too long for several months, and you haven't experienced a lot of different type of cold in different places.
I've been warned. I'm a little bit nervous.
Don't be nervous, it's fine.
Beijing's code is actually acceptable.
Because my feeling is that, again, we talked about China being a huge, huge country.
You personally talked about China is huge.
And because it's huge, the land is fast and different places actually enjoys a little bit different sub temperature or the climate situation can be a bit different for different places.
So in general, we would describe the country based on the northern part of the country and the southern part of the country.
And the southern part is famous for its cold and wet weather.
So in the northern part, it's like, it's kind of dry.
So yes, the wind is cold, the outside sometimes it feels like the sun shining is not even warm in certain occasions and sometimes we say Han Fong Su Gu.
Han is cold. Fong is the wind.
It's like a prick or a stick.
Gu is the bone. So it feels like the wind is so cold, and when it blows at me, it's like thousands of needles sticking or pricking at me.
And also, it's not Not only to my skin, it's to my bones.
It's really, really cold.
Yet, in southern part of the country, the overall temperature is a bit higher than the northern part.
In the wintertime? In the wintertime.
Yet, it's because it's very moist, is really wet, and it feels like your clothes can be a bit less dry after you - Yeah.
After you are in the outside area for a while.
So the kind of cold is surrounding you and immersing you and attacking you like magic.
We're like moist and that's why some people would describe the kind of cold in northern part of the country as uli gongji.
It's like physical, it's physical attack, it's like you're playing a video game.
The physical attack would be the attack you see people attacking you with a knife or with even with a gun or with a sort again playing video games.
And that's the magic attack that would be a Wizard, casting a spell on you and certain mist suddenly appear around you starting to eating you alive subtly.
It's just a different kind of cold, but still cold nonetheless.
I was wondering. you've been to different places traveling around.
What kind of cold do you hate the most?
Where I'm from in Nova Scotia, where I went to University Halifax it's the capital of the province and it's next to the Atlantic ocean.
It's literally on the Atlantic ocean.
So in the summertime it's gorgeous, but in the wintertime the wind coming off of the ocean is sometimes so strong that you have to lean into the wind so that you can continue to walk without it without it blowing you over that's not every day but on the extreme days it's like that and on those extreme days when it is that windy it feels like it doesn't matter what you wear because we have we have an expression in English similar to the one about the stick kind of like pins and needles.
We say the wind is so strong if it cuts right through you.
Ah. Like a knife. Yes, yes.
So that wind is so strong that it just goes through all of your clothing.
It doesn't matter how many layers you're wearing.
Yes, we have that too.
Actually, of course, the more elegant and sophisticated way would be called cold wind -like needles sticking through your bones.
But in colloquial Chinese, We say, 줯거 소야 비 좋에.
So, 좋에 is blow. 좋 is like cut right through.
It's like you feel like you're transparent.
Yes. Or it feels like you're full of different holes and the wind just go right through.
And that's the kind of cold I don't like.
If there's no wind and it's cold then, OK.
You know, when you can see your breath, I'm used to that.
But when the wind cuts through you, I don't like that at all.
hmm, let's see, how do you react to more fà the magic attack in the southern part of China a bit later.
If you have the chance, I would highly recommend you to visit these southern parts of the country.
It's beautiful. It's fun.
It's cold and you can experience that cold.
Look forward to it and you're listening to Take Away Chinese with myself, Neil Hongli and Steve Heatherly.
We would love to hear from you.
Send us your thoughts via email to learncinese at cri .com .cn coming up next.
Let's talk a little more about how weather is affecting biodiversity.
Don't go away, so you will take some Chinese away.
Welcome back, Takeaway Chinese!
I am Yuhong Lin, joined by Steve.
So today, the reason we're talking about biodiversity is because COP 16, which begins on 21st of October, is going to be around for around two weeks.
and we see government experts, environmental activists and indigenous groups tackle pressing global challenges in biodiversity protection are attending the event, talking to each other, figuring out best ways and methods and policies that can be implemented in different parts of the world, so that we can have a better environment not only for ourselves but for all different of creature in the planet.
Yes. And one thing that I didn't use to know quite so much about is that extreme weather, climate change, actually has an effect on biodiversity as well, quite so much.
So it's kind of like understanding the world in the perspective of a traditional Chinese medical physician.
That is, instead of treating one problem, we see the entire world as a whole and using a holistic approach to deal with everything.
Because yes, we are looking at more extreme weather disasters, and also when it comes to climate change, many people say that they've experienced really hot summers and sometimes both a cold enough winter, and a very cold winter can be bad signs.
Yeah. So at a conference like this, they're talking about things like protection, and restoration, and probably pollution management, and again, dealing with illegal wildlife trade, and it's kind of all bunch together, whole bunch together, within a one or two week period, and they deal with all of those issues.
Yeah, really interesting, and always curious to see what comes out of these types of conferences.
Well, what decisions are made.
Yes, and in the I was wondering, do you know how would extreme weathers or climate change would affect biodiversity?
How climate change would affect biodiversity.
There are different areas or different aspects.
For example, one is that climate change can alter fragile ecosystems.
Leading to the local extinction of some species, which will in turn change the entire local small ecosystem for other species and other creatures as well.
So that's definitely one thing.
Yeah. Also, if weather patterns changed where, for example, certain species live or have existed due to the climate or the temperatures, but if the temperatures change or ocean temperatures change, then those species would be forced to maybe not become extinct, but will be forced to move to areas where those temperatures were still friendly for their existence.
Definitely. And that in turn would also affect their relationship with some other local species.
For example, if we're talking about a particular mountain flower, depending on a specific insect for pollination.
And if the flower booms while the insect is still in hibernation, it will miss the opportunity, the period for the pollination.
And that is due to the change of, weather, the change of temperature.
So these things are really, really closely intertwined.
And sometimes I feel like animals and, um, plantations, they are quote unquote, smart in their own way.
After thousands of years of evolution, they have found out the perfect timing to do things.
Yes. And they know how to interact with things and trees and grass and insects around them.
Wind and the sun and rain.
And they know exactly, it's human beings that come along and mess it up for them.
We are ruining things for them.
And one last thing is actually, there is the possibility of loss of genetic diversity.
Even if a species survives, populations adapted to specific cold environments may decline due to change of temperature, due to climate change, and this leads to the loss of genetic diversity which is essential for long -term adaptability and survival.
So we see that actually climate change has a lot to do, or has a lot of effect on biodiversity and protection of biodiversity.
It certainly does and that's why it's important that we do what we can to reduce our own carbon footprint, not only as individuals, but governments need to be making policies that head in that direction as well, because we share this planet with the animals and all the birds and bugs and bees that live here, and we depend on them for our own wellbeing.
yes actually I have been to Yunnan province might personally and I've been to the rainforest natural reserve area it was really beautiful and I was told not to mess with anything and I also was taught a lot of different knowledge about the plantation about the animals there and that's why when I say China is rich and biodiversity actually have felt it.
I'm feeling it every day.
I've seen it. I've seen it.
And the Chinese government has formally established and practiced the concept of that lucid waters and lush mountains.
It might sound a little bit strange in English or a little bit unfamiliar in English, yet in Chinese, we call it lu shui qingxian, so lu is green, shui is water.
Qing is also green, but it's like a little bit darker, blue, green, green.
Shen is mountain. So it's like saying the water is green, the mountain is green, darker green, shy green and the entire environment is beautiful.
It's natural. It's preserved well.
And we say lu shui xin shan, zhuchen xin shan, lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets.
So they're very important and that is also the reason that the country has entire system.
entire sloughs of plans, and regulations, and laws protecting the environment, making sure that carbon emission is limited in different ways, and also definitely biodiversity is protected, and ecological protection is there in all different systems and all different industries.
That's why again these meetings are really important.
And it's good to know that these meetings are taking place and all of these groups are represented there.
Because everybody will have their own initiatives, their own prerogatives, and to hear people's different ideas about what they need for the areas where they're from, that's how we can make policies that are best representing everyone.
Yes. And think about it.
We live on the earth together if one place is not protected and everyone is using all of the resources, it definitely will affect other areas, other countries as well.
That will snowball quickly.
Definitely. So a holistic approach, having everybody sitting together, talking about the issue and having different countries come up with their own best plans is actually the best method to a healthier and happier and more beautiful in a sophisticated way, Beautiful Earth.
And that brings us to the end of today's takeaway Chinese.
I'm Yoho Lin with Steve here in the studio.
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