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Welcome to Take away Chinese!
I'm You Honor Lin and I'm with Ta -dah...
Steve Hatherly! Hello!
People are going to start thinking my first name is Ta -dah and my middle name is Steve.
Well, if you really think about it, that is a pretty good first name and middle name.
I kind of like it. My favorite name that I've ever heard.
Do you know the the little game you play with babies?
I'm sure you probably do it as a parent here in China.
You hide your face.
There was an Olympian, an American Olympian, she was a skier, downhill skier, and her name was Peekaboo Street.
That was her name. Her parents named her Peek -a -boo.
I'm guessing because she loved the game Peek -a -boo when she was a baby.
Are you going to name yourself Tada Steve?
I'm thinking about it.
Thanks for having me back.
It's great to be here.
I'm always glad to have you on the show.
And that's why I say Tada.
I don't think it's entirely for the listeners.
It's partly for me because I know there will be a good show.
It'll be fun talking about interesting stuff that excites you, both the theme and the language.
Yes, and today we are doing one of my favorite topics, and that is sports.
Yes, is that why you mention the Olympian?
No, that was a total coincidence.
By the way, how do you say coincidence in Chinese?
Jiǎo hù. Jiǎo hù? Yes, I think Jiǎo itself cares for the meaning of textile or flexible or carefully designed.
It's like you have two legos or two pieces that are very cleverly and incidentally match with each other.
Oh, OK. The kind of, ah, happy coincidence.
Yeah, right, right, right.
Or delicately designed kind of feeling.
And hǔ actually means match.
Hǔ chiaohu is a coincident.
I see. Happy coincidence.
Yes, no, that was a chiaohu, that was a coincidence, that it happened to be related to a winter time sport.
Yes, but I do know you love sports and you're a sport fan not in the sense that you, well, not only in the sense that you play a lot of different sports, but you watch, uh, for example, different games, the Olympic games, or in this case, maybe have you ever watched Asian games since you've been living in Asia for quite a long time?
Well, being in the media for a couple of decades, I've always kind of reported on the Asian games and followed along with them.
And yeah, from time to time, I've checked out some events on television, but I've never been lucky enough to see them in person before.
Oh, that's interesting because, yes, when it comes to the Olympic games, of course, that's the most exciting.
Yet, actually here in Asia, we are very much familiar with a lot of the, let's say, athletes who represents our countries and attend to, for example, the Asian games or Asian winter games for sure.
So to start with, let's learn to say, yeà yùng hỰ yà yùng hỰ Yes, so ao yùng hỰ is the Olympic Games and yùng we know is stands for yùn dong.
That's sports or exercise and hỰ is a meeting.
We talked about this before, a yùn dong hỰ would be a sports meeting.
You meet up do sports find who's best at watch and that is a sports meeting even don't wait So you don't wait would be a sports meeting Olympic sports game would be oh you or Olympic which is Olympic Way so oh you wait would be Olympic Games and yeah, you would be Asian games Yeah, you know what yes because yes dance for ya Joe Asia uh -huh Yeah, yu, hui.
Same logic goes to ao yu and hui and dong ao hui.
In English, Olympic Winter Games would be Olympic Games, and it's in Wintertime, so Olympic Winter Games, and in Chinese, dong ao hui, dong tian winter, ao Olympic hui, and hui, mi ting.
So, you kind of always want only three characters in this word.
So you chop off some of the syllables from the other words?
Yeah, to chop off some of the characters, and put them together and using only one character to represent this whole entire idea.
Is that exclusive to this kind of thing when we're talking about major events, major sporting events, or can we see that logic applied in...
Everywhere. Oh really?
The only problem is that you cannot really make up your own abbreviation - Your own rules?
No, no, never create something by yourself especially when you're not that fluent in Chinese just yet.
Always use the ones that you've heard other one using, otherwise no one would ever understand you when you put random characters from words and put them together.
Yeah, I mean this is one of the, I'm sure it happens in English, I'm sure it happens in every language, but it is one of the challenging things, isn't it, for a learner of any new language.
I know it happens in Korean a lot, this type of thing.
But if you don't know, then you don't know because it's not really something that you're going to learn in a textbook in a classroom somewhere.
This is kind of the thing that you get from having discussions with people on specific topics.
Exactly. For example, have you ever watched The Avengers?
Oh, sure. So in Chinese, the official name of it is Fu Chou Ju Lian Meng, so fú chó chú literally means the Avengers or those who seek revenge.
And liỏn moung is like alliance.
liỏn moung. liỏn moung.
Yes. And in Chinese, we sometimes put them together.
We take the first character fú.
Fú. From fú chó chú, and the first character liỏn from liỏn moung and put them together, it's fú liỏn.
Fú liỏn. Yes. Fu liỏn.
And people are now accepted and if you say it to other moviegoers, they understand and everything yet at the very beginning fù liàn this abbreviation belongs to women's association because fù is fù nǔ yǔ women and liàn méng association.
Oh, I see. So was that confusing then in conversations if people were asking if you've seen The Avengers or not and they might have misunderstood.
Depending on which generations of people you're talking about.
For those who have the context, yes, they understand and I'm not even sure if it's a happy coincidence or funny coincidence or they did it on purpose.
That's the thing about abbreviation in Chinese.
Yes, so now we know that's the Olympic games, that's the Olympic winter games.
That's the Asian games and that is the Asian Winter Games.
So Asian Winter Game is going to be the theme of today's takeaway Chinese.
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 for takeaway.
way we've already provided you with the Chinese which is so we already know yeah yeah Joe yeah Joe Asia and Meijou for example that's America Oh Joe that's Australia and a fae Joe that's Africa so So now you know, Zhou is a continent.
So, yeah, Zhou, that will be Asia.
Got it. And, dongzhi, winter season, literally.
Dongzhi. Dongzhi, winter season and, yun donghui, sports meeting.
So, yo, Zhou, dongzhi, yun donghui.
Yeah, donghui. Yeah, donghui.
So do you know a lot about the history of the Asian winter games?
We know the Asian winter games are an international Maori sport event, much like the Winter Olympics, but focused specifically on athletes from Asia.
We've touched upon that.
The games were first held in 1986, in Sapporo, Japan.
And since then they have become a major event for athletes across the continent.
Yeah, still relatively new.
I think we can say, right?
Young is a better choice of word there.
only since 1986 and they started out in Sapporo.
they're organized yeah you might think oh well maybe this is a totally separate event from the Olympics and that is true but yet at the same time they are organized by the Olympic Council of Asia and then there's a lot of really great winter sports in there skiing of course my favorite ice hockey is in there my sister's favorites ice skating and snowboarding too.
Yeah, it's actually a very interesting, uh, phenomenon because previously before having the privilege of reporting the 2022 winter Olympics here in Beijing.
I was not a huge fan of winter games.
When I think about for example, Olympic games or Asian games, I think about the summer ones.
I think about the sports that I much more familiar with track and field, those types of things.
Now I find them not as exciting anymore.
The summer ones? Yeah, now I feel like the winter ones with all these different activities with this beautiful cold backdrop, the snow and ice.
I find Asian games more interesting.
And if you really think about it during summer days, yes, you can go watch the Olympics or the Asian games, but you have many, many, many other choices.
Yes, for winter days.
If we think about winter -day recreational activity, if you think about the kind of places you can go, actually winter sports is a very important part.
And if the city is lucky enough to be the city who is hosting the winter games, definitely you can go enjoy the sports yourself, watch the games, have some winter time activity, including the ones we've talked about, appreciating the beautiful ice lanterns, hot spring in winter days, these are all very nice choices, all combined together.
Absolutely true, yeah.
And these games are not held very often, they're only, just like the Olympics, only every four years.
Although with the Olympics, it feels like it's every couple of years, because it is with the Summer Olympics and the Winter Olympics, they have them staggered now, but these Asian winter games are every four years.
And like you said, this is the platform, isn't it, for Asia's top winter athletes to showcase their skills.
And it's a celebration, not just really about athletic achievement, but also the cultural ties that bind or bond these countries in this part of the world together.
Definitely. So when we talk about winter games or specifically winter Asian games, let's also learn a little bit more Chinese here.
So when it comes to athletes, do you know how to say athlete in Chinese?
Athlete, I don't. Yuen Dong, remember.
Yuen Dong is sport.
Okay. Yuen person, sport person.
Oh, Oh, okay. It makes a lot of sense.
It does make sense.
Yeah, right. One more time, please.
And if you're talking about, for example, Asian Winter Game athlete, then it will be perfect.
Alright, so now if you are a really good athlete you might win some metal okay and that is Jiang Pai.
Yes, so Jiang means reward or a word and Pai is a little plate so right?
Yeah it totally makes sense I'm not laughing because it's silly I'm laughing because the logic is so clear and it makes perfect sense.
I like it because what I can actually explain the logic behind the forming of words, the forming of phrases and sentences it's actually easier for people to understand and remember.
100 % and when we compare it to English, for example, a medal.
What's a medal? Right?
What does that mean?
It's not there's nothing in the word that explains to you what it is but when you say an award in the shape of a plate that tells you exactly what it is.
Yes. So 凳減, and in Chinese we also have names for champion 2nd place and 3rd place.
So for the first place it would be 也減, and the second place 也減, and third place 也減, yes that's the third place.
But actually I feel like ever since well actually in recent couple of years because previously Seriously, we care a lot about how many medals we get, who got the largest number of first plays.
Now it's getting a little bit different.
I think for the previous winter games, we started to or the actually the Paris Olympics, more and more people started to focus on the kind of effort athletes put in training and in attending the games instead of only, who's the first place.
I mean it's the case with the Olympics and i'm sure it's the case with every major sporting competition where the best in the world are competing the difference between first place and second place and third place or even fourth and fifth or even 20th it's just so minuscule right that all of these people are really the best in the world you don't need to name just one person as the best in the world all of these athletes are the best in the world and one athlete might win on a Tuesday and if they had the same race with the same group or the same competition with the same group on Thursday somebody
else might win on a Thursday right because they're just so almost equal in terms of their abilities their incredible abilities yes in Chinese we have a saying Fung Mao Linziao it's a Chinese idiom it means the tip of the feather of a phoenix and also the tip of the horn of a Lian Qilin that's also a mythical Chinese creature and it means like the tip of the tip, the very best tiny little thing you can get from the world.
And Feng Maolin Zhao is used to describe those great great talent who are already the best.
And I think those who can attend the olympic games, or the Asian games or the Asian winter games, they are feng mao lian zheng.
The best of the best.
The best of the best already.
And actually the 2025 Asian winter games, officially known as the 9th Asian winter games, is taking place from February 7th of 2025 to February 14th.
In Harbin, heilongjiang, China, this marks the second time Harbin hosts the event, and And the third time, China has organized Asian Winter Games.
So Harbin is having its ice festival at the same time.
Right? Yeah. That's the best combination.
That's the place I want to visit.
I'd be able to enjoy the games, enjoy a lot of winter activity, and also, the bingshui daxia jie, the ice and snow huge world is like the biggest… It's not like it is the biggest Snow and Ice theme park.
Yeah, lots of media outlets are covering the Ice Festival in Harbin, and I just saw some reports on television.
It looks really fun and really exciting and really cold.
Yes, really, really cold!
You know the model of the 2025 Asian winter games?
It's dream of winter, love among Asia.
In Chinese it is bing shi, tongue mung.
So we know bing is ice, shi is snow, and Tõng is the same, and Meng is dream.
So bing, she, Tõng, Meng.
Ice, snow, same dream.
Yes, I think it's more romantic than dream of winter.
Yeah, it's somehow more poetic, isn't it?
Yes, yes. And then, yà zhù Tõng, xiõn.
So yà zhù is Asia, we already know that.
Tõng, same, xiõn, heart.
Asian same heart. Yes.
Mm, talking about the unity in the bond between all of the countries in this part of the world, That's really quite lovely.
You get to learn several key words or characters, that's Bing, Eye, Shoe, Snow, Tong, Same, Meung, Dream.
These are the collective models of the Asian winter games for this year.
Yes, so Bing, Shoe, Tong, Meung, Ya zhou, Tong, Xing.
Bing, Shi, Tong, Meung, Ya zhou, Tong, Xing.
Yes, Bing, Shi, Tong, Meung, Ya zhou, Tong, Xing.
So that is the 2025 Asian Winter Games.
Lovely. You're listening to Take Away Chinese with myself, Neil Han Lee and Steve Heather Lee.
We would love to hear from you.
Send us your thoughts via email to learntchineseatcri .com .cn.
Coming up next, let's learn more words and expressions related to the winter Asian games.
Don't go away, so you will take some Chinese away.
Welcome back to Take Away Chinese.
I'm Nihon Lin, joined by Steve Hatherley.
So, one thing that I have always enjoyed about winter games...
Well, I think that's partly because I'm not a hardcore sports fan because I'm pretty sure, for you, you would focus on the sports.
Boy, what are you talking about?
I'm talking about Ji Xiangwu, mascot.
Oh, the mascots. They're always really cute, aren't they?
Yes, and in Chinese, they are...
The Chinese name for mascot is Ji Xiangwu.
Yes, so ji xiang actually means auspicious.
Good luck. Wu is an object.
So the thing that brings good luck.
Good luck object. Yes.
For example, the mascot of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics is bing -dwen -dwen.
Do you still remember bing -dwen -dwen?
Bing -dwen -dwen was a panda.
Yes. Yes. Yes. It's a giant panda with a suit of ice, a heart of gold, and a love of winter sports.
So, we know that Bing means ice, but what does Duen Duen mean?
Actually, Duen Duen represents children in the sense that Duen cares the meaning of chubby and kind of solid in the way that the child is very strong, Strong but very huggable, lovely and cute.
So duen not exactly is a, I think it's more of a adjective used in the form of a noun in this case.
To mean chubby and strong.
Yes. So can you refer to your boyfriend or husband as duen duen?
I think. Can that be a nickname?
I think if you're talking about kids, it's better.
Okay, so it's like chubby and strong, but in Chinese, sometimes we say Duan Shi.
Duan Shi. Duan Shi means the kid is growing in a very healthy and strong kind of way.
It's very nice. But it's still a little bit of talking down to.
That's why I do not suggest you to use that to describe your boyfriend.
Yes! And also Bing Dong Hexen wears a full -body shell made out of ice.
That kind of look like an astronaut suit, right?
Yes! Yes. And of course there's also Xiu Rong Rong.
Xiu Rong Rong. Yes.
Xiu Rong Rong is for the 2022 Winter Paralympics in Beijing.
It's also a very cute, very kind of still chubby because the original figure was a lantern.
So you can understand the roundness of the chubbiness of it, The shape.
Yes. And the mascot of the Harbin 2025 Asian Winter Games are Bien Bien and Ni Ni, a pair of Northeast China tigers.
Ah, very nice. Yes, tiger, by the way would be Laohu.
Laohu. Tiger. Laohu.
Yes, Laohu. So Bin Bin represents the ice events while Ni Ni represents the snow events.
And their names embody the game's mantra.
Welcome to Har Bin.
Bin Bin Ni Ni... So Har Bin Huang Yin Ni Ni Ni Ni.
That's very cute. Yes.
I haven't seen the images.
Is there any connection to Bing Duan Duan or do they look totally different?
They're not the same.
It's more like - I know we're talking pandas versus tigers.
Yeah. And also Bing Bing shows off his winter sport wear for sure, as well.
Bodlei donning a red scarf and blue gloves and sharing his joy in ice dancing.
And the Ni Ni is snowboarding, wearing a traditional Chinese red cotton jacket with a warm fluffy color and snowflake patterns, that display a festive look.
So you still get the festive, like shi rong rong, you still get the of course winter element with bing bing.
but I think they're just a little bit different and different style and different direction.
It's different times and they're bundled up for the winter sports.
Yes so that's mascot Ji Siang Wu and also another thing that we focused before the events would be the torch.
Have you ever noticed that these days at the very beginning of course it's a real torch and you do the relay of the torch which in Chinese is jiu li.
Ji li is a good one because ji occurs the meaning of take or take over and li is strength.
So you can think about when you're doing a relay it's race.
You're kind of handling not only the deck but also the strength to your next.
You're passing it on?
You're passing it on.
Okay ji li. Yeah. So the entire team, for example, a team of four, when you run, it's not you personally run for yourself, it's run for the team and it's the strengths that carry forward through the four people.
Yeah. That's always a fun thing to watch in any major sporting event that has the torch, right?
Just the running of the torch, the passing of the torch, and then finally, the lighting of the flame.
Yes, and for the 2025 Asian Winter Games, actually this torch, its design, themed peng pa or serging, is inspired by the dynamic energy of nature and life.
The design takes the form of a blossoming lilac, integrating color such as China Red, the lilac purple, Snow White, symbolizing sincerity, warmth, openness, and inclusiveness of Heilongjiang province.
and the characteristics of whole city Harbin.
And I don't know if you've realized or noticed these days.
That is, when it comes to the torch, I feel like more and more games decided to have the torch ignite in digital forms instead of really...
The actual flame itself.
Yeah, it's changing.
Yeah, well, it's just safer, I guess.
More environmentally friendly and futuristic.
And you can guarantee that you won't have any sort of mishap with the lighting?
Not necessarily. You can still have some mishap.
I suppose, yeah, some bulbs burnt out or something like that.
Yeah. Yeah, we're seeing that more aren't we?
Yes. And we've already mentioned in the first half of the show, Guanjun, yeah, Jun and Ji Jun, winner runner, browse medalist.
actually they would get different not quality but material of the plate.
We've talked about jianpai it being the plate, yes, and actually jinpai the gold medal would be the gold plate yinpai.
That's the silver plate and tonpai browns plate jinpai yinpai tonpai.
Yes. Gold So final chance, if you want to learn some other words about Asian winter games, what are some words you'd like to learn about as a sports enthusiast?
Well, we talked about the games in general, but what do you call the, I guess you called the venue, right?
We hear that word a lot in English when we're talking about the Olympics or organized sporting events like which venue, which location, How do you say the venue in Chinese?
cháng guán Actually a cháng is a huge playground And the guán is a venue or an architecture with the space really really huge for people to hold a certain kind of activity Okay a cháng guán The reason I'm explaining it like this is because, for example, a football court would be zhó chó that's football cháng So a football playground, a football court.
And a basketball court for example would be Lan Xiu Ching, so basketball playground.
Yes, and Tu Xiu Guan for example.
That's Guan. So Tu Xiu is book.
A book building would be a library.
Tu Xiu Guan. Tu Xiu Guan.
Zhang Lan Guan. Zhang Lan is an exhibition.
So an exhibition building would be an exhibition hall.
So if you think about it, Guan is a kind of relatively large building that can holds many things in it.
Got it. And that is why Chang is the playground, Guan is the venue.
So together, it represents Chang Guan.
It represents the kind of venues that can hold a lot of sports activities.
Chang Guan. Yes, Chang Guan.
So, Chang Guan, it doesn't matter which sport we're talking about.
Well, in English it doesn't matter.
So, the figure skating venue, The ice hockey venue the curling venue just refers to the space same in Chinese You can use Changguan for all of those But you can also be a little bit more specific and just like lane show cha you know It's a basketball court and you can also use that kind of logic to form the different venues understood okay, how about the ceremonies that I'd like to know about that the opening ceremony and the closing ceremony ah Actually the opening ceremony would be ka 'imu shi.
So kai carries the meaning of open and mu is the curtain So you're opening the curtain a ceremony so kaimu shi and bi is Closing so you're closing the curtain bi mushi closing ceremony kaimu shi yes B mushu Oh Opening and closing of the curtains Nice, so wait, but does she always mean Ceremonious not always just in this Okay.
Okay. Okay. And one last thing I want to share with you is actually a Saying that we here in China.
We are very much familiar with that is yo E Yì dì yì bì sì dì r It means friendship first, competition second.
Yì yì dì yì bì sì dì r So, di yì means first, di r means second and put together yì yì means friendship and bì sì is competition, literally friendship first, competition second.
Yeo Yi or Yeo Yi? Yeo Yi.
Yeo Yi Di E E Tsai -D .R.
Perfect. And I think that is the spirit we always want to hold on when it comes to sports games.
I don't agree with this.
What's the expression.
Competition first, friendship second.
Do you have that expression in Chinese?
I'm not teaching that.
I mean, it's decent Chinese it's just not the kind of spirit I want you to remember That's true.
In the spirit of the games, let's stick with Yo Yee Deepi's High DR.
Yes! And that brings us to the end of today's Takeaway Chinese.
I'm Yeohong Lin with Steve here in the studio.
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가애샀서 화말 샀 수 샀샀에. Thanks.
Bye -bye.
