Takeaway Chinese, where you can take some Chinese away and experience progress day by day.
Takeaway Chinese, we will promise you a difference.
Listen, please. Welcome to Takeaway Chinese.
I'm Yohon Lin, and joining me today Steve Heatherly.
Hello Steve. I'm back!
Thank you. It's been a while.
It's been a while. I didn't know if I was getting invited back or not, but when I got my message on my phone, I was delighted, and I'm happy to be here today.
Ah, I should keep you as a special guest, so keep you on the nerve, so you behave well.
Now I'm just kidding, you're doing really good already.
Awesome, I'm looking forward to it.
Enjoyed the first episodes of Takeaway Chinese, of course.
It was a little bit, can I be honest?
It was a little bit stressful for me to do those episodes because I know nothing about the Chinese language and when you welcomed me in you knew that I knew nothing about the Chinese language.
I try to be nice, did you feel it?
You were lovely but at the same time it's a little nerve -wracking because you know when you learn Chinese you have to think about the tones and you have to think about so many different things when you're speaking but you really helped me through it and I did pick up a little bit and I'm excited to pick up a a little bit more today, if possible.
Yes, definitely. And I'm very glad to hear that, because I do not want your China impression to be something...
you know, a little bit scary because the language is just complicated.
But I'm glad to see that you feel happy about doing the episodes and also learning the language.
I think learning the language is definitely one thing through or into the culture and the essence of the society and everything.
Of course. Yes, but besides that, we still do have a lot to offer.
China has a lot to offer, which is why when we started this very special event of My China Impressions, it received a lot of different comments.
So the China Impressions event started around August on 2024, because 2024 marks the 75th anniversary of the establishment of the People's Republic of China.
Now, so it has been quite a long time.
A lot of things have happened.
A lot of transformation have actually happened.
So that we want to know, for those of you who are coming to China for the very first time or who have been here several times, what would be your China impression be?
And that's when we started the campaign, and we're very happy to see that a lot of comments, a lot of pictures and even videos coming in, Sharing their China impression and now we've designated a special episode for that special campaign I think it's fun.
You know, even if you're from China to hear people's Impressions people who aren't from China their impressions about what it's like to be here in the country What the food is like what the weather is like how big the country is But I think it's fun for people from China to make those types of comments as well, right?
Like what are their impressions of the country?
Again, I'm excited to hear what other, I know what I think so far.
I'm really excited to hear what other people think too.
That's precisely the idea of this campaign.
So for our dear listeners, if you're interested in Chinese culture and you want to get a grip on the Chinese language, then this is the show for you.
Stick with us for 30 minutes and you soon see the rewards.
And for more fun Chinese learning, follow our Facebook page, Learn Chinese, to watch many fun videos and live streams, but now let's provide you with some free Chinese to take away for this special segment usually we would provide some Chinese sentences and expressions and words and all these different things to take away and we're doing the same thing but we do it in a relatively special way.
That is, actually we provided or we prepared some Chinese words and phrases that can be used to describe someone's impression of a place here in China.
And those are the words that we selected today.
But before doing that I want to ask you Steve, what is your word or if you get to describe China, what is your China impression?
Yeah. Big, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge.
I learned that word recently.
Well, I'm not joking because it is a huge country.
Before I came here, especially to Beijing, I didn't expect it to be such a green city, and I think for people who have never been to China or to Beijing before, you might think, okay, well, I know that Beijing is one of the biggest, most populated cities in the world.
It must be a concrete jungle, correct?
Correct, but also incorrect at the same time.
I've never seen so many trees in one city, as I have here in Beijing, which is a really, really wonderful thing.
It makes it feel so calm, it makes it feel so peaceful.
There's 21 million people living here, 21 million plus, but at the same time it doesn't feel overly crowded most of the time.
You have a mix of the old and the new.
You have the history of China in Beijing, but you also have the modern side as well, so there's a mix of that.
And the other thing that is really it's not a surprise at all But it's also very lovely to feel how welcoming and how friendly Chinese people have been to me So I've been enjoying my experience.
I'm very happy to hear that and in the meantime Actually, you checked a lot of boxes when it comes to the word.
Oh did I pass the test already?
Okay, the idea here is that because you talked about big and I think big if we use that that's like the, I'm not going to say the easiest, I'm going to say it's the most common word you use when you want to describe something as big.
But if you are being a little bit more specific, if you're talking about a magnificent structure, a architecture, or a very beautiful, again, magnificent, for example, mountain, then you're thinking about the Chinese word Zhuangguan.
Zhuangguan. Zhuangguan.
Zhuangguan is the word you are looking for.
Okay. Yes, yes that can directly be translated as magnificent and Zhong means big, Guan means look so it's really big and you can look at it So if you're talking about China, yes, China is big but technically speaking you cannot really look at China directly with your eyes So you cannot really say Zhongguo and Zhongguan, it does not work But for example, if we're talking about the Forbidden City Gugong or Zi Jinchong Then it can be zhuanguan.
A jianzhu can be zhuanguan, so an architecture can be zhuanguan So the key is, if I'm going to use that word zhuanguan, then it has to be something that I can look at comfortably Yes.
If I can't look at it comfortably because it's beyond my scope, it's too huge like the country, then you're not going to use zhuanguan No, not zhuanguan.
Yes, so that's easy to understand and in the meantime actually one little fun anecdote We're not anecdotes, just stories about the Chinese character Zhong, the character is formed by two parts.
The left part is actually a bed, but the right side is a person.
The character itself suggests that the person in bed is with his weapon, so if you're sleeping with your weapon, then you feel safer, then you feel… I'm not really sure if the right expression is you feel like a bigger person, but the idea is that you feel more comfortable.
Figuratively bigger.
Because you feel safer, I guess.
Exactly. So that's the origin story of that character.
So I think now you can understand the character a little bit better and remember it a little bit better.
So Zhuangguan, magnificent.
You mentioned China being a huge country impressed you quite so much and yeah not only the country is magnificent it's huge.
Actually a lot of the scene is also Zhuangguan.
So what about Don't talk in a restaurant.
I know, because I'm always at a restaurant, that's why.
So I always want to know how to talk in a restaurant.
If they bring out a dish, and it's a huge portion, which as I mentioned here in China, it often is, can I say Zhuangguan?
Please don't. Why? We're talking about magnificent.
Well, if the food is in a big dish, if it's a large portion, and it's a beautiful… saying if you're using juanghuan to describe for example a burger then you're being a little bit sarcastic or a bit humorous so it might be taken negatively negative it's more like you're joking about it you're saying it's too big I understand yes so if you're going to use juanghuan it literally means that thing has to be really big and huge and magnificent not just not Not just that you feel like it's big, like a three patty burger or something like that.
I also say that's really zhóng gòn, but not in the way you think!
I understand that. So that's the first word we're trying to explain.
Zhóng meaning big and zhóng gòn.
Big, huge, magnificent.
And the next word that you also mentioned a little bit is you talked about the city being very green, the country being very beautiful, so I think beautiful is definitely the word a lot of people would look for when it comes to describing their China impression.
And that the easiest one or the most common one would be mi, li.
Mi, li. Yes. Mi, li.
Mi, li. Okay. Uh -huh.
I can use this to describe anything that's beautiful.
I just learned that Jarang Kuan, I can't use it to describe anything that I feel is big, it's only for things that are literally huge, but can I use this word, mi, li to describe anything that I feel is beautiful?
Anything you feel is beautiful.
You can use it to describe a scene, a picture, a person, even a heart.
Food in a restaurant.
How beautiful is the food?
It can be. Well, yeah, but when I say, you can use it to describe a beautiful heart.
I literally mean for a very kind heart, and you can say it's a beautiful heart and you can even kind of transfer that beauty into the whole person.
For example, we would say, The most beautiful teacher.
It's not a teacher pageant contest.
It's talking about the teachers who are really kind, who give their entire life devoted to the teaching and caring for kids, it's talking about their heart.
So beautiful, can be used in that sense.
Can I use this word only without putting it in a bigger part of a sentence?
New language learners, new Chinese speakers.
Always trying to make things as simple as possible.
So let's say that we go to a park together, and you ask me what my impression of the park is.
Can I simply answer with one word and say mei li?
That's perfect. Oh, perfect.
Okay, good. That's easy to remember.
Yes, and if you also want to remember the character Mei, there are different theories when it comes to the origin of that character.
One theory is that the upper part of mei is actually a sheep or a lamb and the lower part of mei is something you're familiar with.
Bá. Huge. Yes. So if we're talking about a really huge, really big, really fat in a good sense kind of lamb, it's something we consider beautiful.
Your theory about beautiful food happening here.
Aw, oh. Fat lamb was the inspiration for this character.
Some people believe that's the origin of the character.
That's awesome. Some other people believe it's about a lady with a lot of hair piece on her head.
So, a lot of hair piece, a lot of decoration, making the lady beautiful.
I prefer the fat lamb story.
Whichever one you want, you can use that to remember the character.
Got it. So that's mei.
mainly is the another word people usually associate with China, or their China impression.
And the next one I have is also, coincidentally, happened with your story or your impression about China, especially about Beijing, because they talked about the country as well as the city being a place, being a mixture of modern and ancient and history.
So, the word modern is quite often mentioned, and that word is 시다.
시다, yes, modern days.
So, 시, meaning present, now, and 디 is generation.
So this generation, the current generation would be the modern one.
Ahhh, so this is a combination of two different things then?
A little bit, yes. That's the thing.
When it comes to creating a word, because we already know that each and every character actually has different well one or two or three or even a little bit more than that times or that many meanings for the character already and when you put two characters together and forming a word sometimes the relationship between the characters would be different to there you would have for example both May and Li would carry a little bit meaning of beautiful and you put them together they're beautiful yeah and Xi 'an is current, Dai is generation, the current generation so modern and you would also for example
chiffon you love food I use food as an example chiffon would be eating meal so together it's actually half meal so have food so it's kind of like you've got a verb type of character and a noun type of character and you put them together and you get to the meaning of that word yeah that's one of the I guess one of the mind opening or eye opening things that I learned when I got here and I started doing take away Chinese as a matter of fact.
When you look at Chinese characters and you don't have any context or you don't have any background knowledge on what they are, they look very, very pretty.
They look beautiful but it's also very confusing because it feels like you're looking at a painting type of thing, but to know what I learned from you is that they're pieces, they're building blocks, almost like Lego blocks that go together and each one has their own meaning, but when you put them together then they create their own meaning.
That's really cool to know and the more words that I learned I'm seeing it over and over and over and over again.
Chinese is a really really cool language that way You've got a really good starting point because if you can understand it as building blocks Actually for each and every character there are character component in radicals and they can be Understood as building blocks you put them together you form a character you put character together you form words, you put words together, you have phrases, you put phrases together, you have sentences.
And paragraph and speech, and all of a sudden you are really sophisticated and a master of the Chinese language.
Are you gonna do anymore?
Can I practice what I learned so far?
Go ahead. Okay, ask me in Chinese please.
Steve, what do you think about China so far?
Steve, 你 simplified p Good enough?
Almost there, yes! Those are the three words.
And I have one more word that you didn't mention but actually came a lot in our friend's comments on the Internet and I want to know whether or not you feel the same way.
That is friendly. friendly yǔu hǎo, friendly yǔu hǎo, friendly yǔu hǎo Yes.
A lot of people talked about the fact that they feel Chinese people are very friendly to them when they ask for help they get a lot of help and when they try to be nice and say simple Chinese sentences or even words just like nǐ hǎo people appreciate it and even say wow your Chinese is really good when they feel like that's the only word they know.
That is a sign of yǔu hǎo The character Yeo, actually the origin, well now you can not really see it quite so much with that character because we know that the Chinese character has evolved with the time passes and original look of the character Yeo is a little bit different than the one that we're using right now in current China but it was the form of two hands holding together.
So two hands together helping each other that's sign a friendship.
Mmm, that's the yo and then the how.
How is good. How is good?
Yes. Like how -da. Yes.
Okay. So, that's the sound.
Good or very, yes. Okay.
So which is the same how as you're finding in Three How?
Yes. Okay, all those those locations.
Same character. Same character.
Yes. Got it. So, yo -hao.
Yo -hao. Yes, that's friendly.
Besides that, we also have words such as, 你尓你, that means with a really long history.
你尓 is history. 乎 is long and profound.
And that is relatively a little more complicated than the previous ones.
And after 你尓你 there's also a word like 旧頭跻 No, that's harder.
That's harder. 旧頭跻 means full of vitality.
旧頭跻 means full of. Filled with.
你 is like lively and 並 is energy.
So the lively energy that would be you know vitality and another one would be 你們 that came yes 你們 is open up.
So is it the same meaning is friendly?
No no these words are with different meanings yes.
Same context yes. They came up quite so much when it comes to the answer of the question what is your China impression?
That's why we picked them, yes.
These are the Chinese characters as well as words that I feel would be helpful when it comes to describing the country at least according to our survey campaign event.
Nǐ yǎohǒ. Wǒ hà yǎohǒ.
Yes, I am. So, that is the words.
And the funny thing about this day and age is that we care about people's opinion, And at the same time, we're a little bit curious about artificial intelligence opinion.
So we did a little experiment by asking artificial intelligence the same question.
What are your impressions of China?
Yes, come up with several words.
Take a guess. What would the words be in your guessing?
If you were asking AI, I would say Great Wall, probably near the top of the list.
Everybody knows about that I'm assuming AI knows about that as well.
I would say the terracotta warriors is another thing.
Yeah. I think you've got already two for two on the list.
How many are on the list?
10 on the list. I got two.
You got two already.
Do you want me to keep going or am I stealing these from you?
It's okay. Go ahead.
Okay. I would guess T.
T is a good one. Okay.
Is it on the list? It is on the list because T is generated in China.
and a lot of people like tea, and tea is actually the second most consumed drink in the world.
Guess what is the first one?
Water. So, in my opinion tea is already number one.
I almost said coffee.
You cannot count water.
Water doesn't count.
Water is a cheap win.
Well, water is in tea.
Water is in tea to be fair, yes.
One more. One more that's on the list.
Hmm. Thinking about China.
Thinking about China.
Well, I would say food, but food...
It's a bit too general.
It's so broad, right?
It's too broad. So something more specific.
Or maybe you can take a little break and learn to say tea in Chinese.
Cia. Yes, you know how to say tea!
That's so great! Yes, because you know why I know how to say that.
Before I came here, before I came to the country, I used AI just for maybe 15 -20 minutes.
Oh! I think I was at the airport, and I just got on the Internet to see what I could learn.
And the first lesson that it gave me, the first word that the AI gave me was tea.
I said, oh, okay. Okay, we'll start here.
It said tea in English and it said cha.
I said, oh, that's quite easy.
That one just stuck with me.
That was the first Chinese word that I ever learned outside of things like nihao, which is what everybody knows anyway.
So back then, if I ask you, what is your China impression, your answer would be cha.
Yeah, well that's what I learned from AY at that point but actually in China there are a lot of different types of tea as well We have Lu Cha, Hong Cha, Wu Long Cha, And also my personal favorite nai cha.
So a lot of different types of tea you have to explore That's the beauty of a country with a really long history and also a very modern xian dai spirit The idea is that you have a lot of traditional things But you can explore those traditional things and event based on it.
With the modern things, Cian Dai.
Cian Dai, yes. Cian Dai, yes.
The idea, you were a good student.
Speaking of the Great Wall, can I ask you, because I was wondering where to visit.
I know, we know, it's super huge and it's really really long.
I'm not talking about visiting the whole location.
But being here in Beijing, I was curious to know is there a good spot to visit?
I've heard that some of the locations are really touristy but other locations are a a little bit more quiet.
Would you have a recommendation, or what would you suggest doing?
Usually, when it comes to a tourist destination, or when it comes to a tourist, let's say, travel, idea, I would recommend the places that are less commercial, but Great Wall is a different example.
Great Wall is simply too magnificent, like you said, and it's too huge, and literally it's a Great Wall, and it's even the same in Chinese.
In Chinese, we call it cháng cháng.
Chang is really really really long, and it's a really long wall surrounding the city Cheung, so Changcheng is really long and it has different parts, different segments, and it was not even built at one time.
It was built originally and then it was different parts were built or added, different parts were torn apart and then demolished and then repaired, and a lot of different stories revolving in Changcheong which means if you go to what we call Yie Changcheong wild a great wall it'll be hard for you to get up there it will a little bit compromise your experiencing the beauty and magnificence of Changcheong.
I've never heard this before the wild great wall so those are the places where you can go that are not your typical tourist destinations.
Yes. That are not easily accessible.
Not easily accessible because for the for example Bada Lin Changcheong Bada Lin is on occasion.
If you search for Ba Arichang Hyung, you would go to the tourist destination, the entire travel would be carefully planned for you and the places are relative… well, they are a little bit commercialized but in a good way, you would have cars picking you up and dropping you to the right place and you would have tour guides giving you the history of that place.
I would think that is a good experience and good choice.
But that's not just a day trip from Beijing, because you can take a little day trips from Beijing to go to the Great Wall.
But this sounds like more of an organized event.
No, it's organized, but it's also within a day or two.
So you can choose a trip there.
So Chongqeng, good place to visit for those of you who are interested in Chongqeng and want to visit.
But don't know where to start.
Now we're giving you a little bit of a heads up about that.
Thanks for the tip.
Ha, yes. That's the tip.
And besides that, another one I'm actually a little bit surprised that you didn't mention it.
Pandas. Oh my gosh.
You know, before I even considered moving to China, Chengdu was already on my list of places to go.
I've heard that there are different spots in China where you can go and check out the pandas, but Chengdu is the place that people seem to know about outside of the country.
Oh my gosh, I can't wait.
I can't wait to get there so cute just so cute They're lovely and they're actually really strong because essentially I feel like they're bears Yeah, and in the Chinese language, we'll call them Xiong Mao Xiong is bear, Mao is cat, bear cat they're not bear cats All I'm saying is my understanding is that the bear is talking about their size and the cat is talking about their cuteness It's not the official explanation of Xiong Mao just so you know but it's how I would recommend you to remember it, 为邳.
Yeah I can't wait to go to see them someday.
Should it be, here's a good question should it be 정두?
It should be 정두. Definitely.
Go to 정두, visit the pandas, enjoy the cuteness, have a bundle of cuteness and remember the Chinese word 정� Hammer.
Just lovely. And another thing, well I'm not really sure.
Are you familiar with the Chinese calligraphy?
I actually took one very brief Chinese calligraphy class when I was when I was studying in Korea.
They had a special very short kind of it wasn't an exhibition per se but they had a teacher come in and they had a he was a Chinese calligraphy teacher and it was an opportunity to practice that a little bit and it was part of the program that I was taking and when you look at it and When you look at people who are professionals doing it, it looks so easy!
It's not easy. It's not easy.
Tell me about it. These are artists, aren't they?
They're true artists.
So yeah, I tried again.
It was very, very short.
It was maybe 15 -20 minutes.
But I tried it and that was my only experience with it.
Yeah, actually calligraphy is definitely something big when it comes to Chinese culture.
I guess that's why.
Well, when we talk about these words are selected by artificial intelligence, it's the answer it gives when we ask the question, what is your China impression?
Actually, the artificial intelligence would only generate these answers based on its database, based on how, what is everybody's impression about China, what are they talking about, one day mention China and the internet and based on that it generates these questions, which is why I feel like calligraphy is a very important part of Chinese culture, of Chinese language.
So shu fai, shu means to write.
Fai means method. So the way to write, the method to write.
Shu -fai. Shu -fai. Yes, that's calligraphy.
And shu -fai. Of course there are different fonts and there are different fonts in China, in Chinese as well.
And for different generations, we already mentioned that Chinese characters actually have different ways of writing these same characters in different days and age.
and they are essentially different versions of the same character for in different dynasties.
So you get to learn also different sub -theme or category of xuofie.
Or sub styles as well.
Sub styles as well, so it's really actually complicated, but it is definitely art and it's something I personally do not know how to do.
so I've heard that you know China is such a big country that you have various dialects makes sense you have a lot of different types of food I've been told that there are so many dishes in China that even Chinese people will never taste all of the dishes uh that are available uh around the country but I didn't know that that applies to calligraphy as well so the style of speaking is different in certain parts of the country but the style of riding that's different historically speaking in different parts of the country too.
Yeah so it's like you said, China is a big huge magnificent country with a lot of varieties.
It's almost like many different countries within the same country almost because you have the different dialects the different foods, the different culture from cultures a little bit different.
That's the beauty of it.
It has a lot of varieties but in the meantime it has something at the core of it, it's the same thing.
It's the same core, it's the same history, it's the same culture in different ways and with a lot of different points in different places.
And also I think the essence is the same.
That's what united all of these different cultures and histories and styles together.
What else did AI say?
AI also said, for example, silk, that's silk, it also said Forbidden City.
I haven't been there yet, I really want to go but I've heard that you should go during a time that isn't particularly busy with tourists because it can be really really crowded if you visit there at that time.
And also Confucianism, definitely when it comes to the culture, again a lot of for example when it comes to our philosophy, when it comes to the ethnic or ethnicity and well Confucius is definitely one thing very important and then we already mentioned the Terracotta army and there's also Beijing.
Beijing. The last one in the list.
We're sitting in the middle of Beijing right now.
I didn't I think of that before.
Beijing is also very important.
Just very quickly on the Terracotta Warriors in Xi 'an, which is about four hours, 30 minutes maybe on the high -speed train south of Beijing, southwest a little bit maybe.
If you ever have the opportunity to go, it's a really special experience because if you watch a documentary, if you're not familiar with the history, watch a documentary, watch a show on the topic before you have the opportunity to go.
And then when you actually get there, and you see it, and you see the statues, you see the warriors, you see the army, put back together, piece by piece by piece, and they're not even close to being finished.
It's such a really cool experience to go there.
And Xi 'an, by the way, has its own food, which is wonderful.
What's the name of the little pork bun?
Oh my goodness, it's one of the greatest things I've ever eaten in my life.
A little fried pastry with pork or lamb, and the little gravy sauce on the inside, yum!
Anyway, Xi 'an, terracotta warriors if you ever have the chance absolutely don't miss it.
If you're in a different stage of chinese learning you'd be confused with the word zho jianmuo.
Why? Because zho is meat, carries the meaning of fold together and muo is the steam bun or fried pastry thing so technically speaking it's muo jianzho it's the pastry part with the meat part in between but the zho jianmuo order of the word actually makes you feel like it's the meat patching, the pastry, the meat on the outside.
The meat on the outside.
Oh, that sounds pretty good too.
It's a little hint by the way.
That is something that you might encounter during the learning of the Chinese language.
We would have certain rules, we would have different ways of forming things, but also like all the other languages we have exceptions and this is one exception.
And by the way, if you have a choice, if you go to eat one of those little pork buns and you have the choice between non fried and fried, please get the fried one.
It's much, much, much better.
The other one's good too, but it's much better.
Yeah, I think the other one is a bit healthier.
Well, I'm not your doctor, am I?
I'm just your food recommender.
I agree, the - You know, it's better, right?
It's better. Unfortunately, that's all the time that we have.
Actually, when it comes to China Impression, we started this campaign and we've received a lot of fun messages.
Some of them are text messages, sharing one of their stories.
Some of them are pictures, sharing the places they have visited.
And some of them are even videos.
Showcasing their great love for China.
So in the next episode of Takeaway Chinese, we'll be sharing all of those.
Make sure you don't miss out.
And that brings us to the end of today's Takeaway Chinese.
I'm Yohong Lin with Steve Hatherley in the studio.
For more episodes of the show, you can visit our website at Video .cgtn .com and go to the column Podcast.
You can also listen to the show and read the script there.
Find us wherever you listen to your favorite podcast.
Just search for Takeaway Chinese.
Don't forget to leave your questions, comments, and ratings.
Gan xi shi shou ting wou mens sha zi zai zien.
Make sure you don't miss the very special next episode of China Impressions on Takeaway Chinese.
Bye -Bye.
