Takeaway Chinese where you can take some Chinese away and experience progress day by day Take away Chinese.
We will promise you a difference You welcome to take away Chinese I'm new home in with Steve Hatterley in the studio.
Hello Steve Hello, thanks for having me back great to see you again.
Great to have you in the studio quick question You speak three different languages.
I do! What triggered you into learning those languages?
Is there a specific reason?
Which languages do I speak?
In my memory, English...
...which is your native language.
I think basic needs for food and stuff triggered you into learning that.
Haha! It's true! And then we've got Korean...
Oh yes, yes. ...and Canadian people speak French. Yes.
mhm. So what about those?
Uh, yeah Korean, English, and maybe a tiny bit of French. So what was your question?
Why did I want to learn them?
Hmm, well English wasn't really a want, it's just, you know, grew up in Canada.
Korean... I was inspired to learn Korean.
This is... I don't know.
My co -workers when I was living in Korea for my first year were from other countries, not from Korea.
And they were significantly older than I was and they had been in Korea for a long time, but yet they couldn't speak Korean.
And they would always talk about it like, Oh, I can't speak Korean.
Ha ha ha. I can't speak Korean.
And I thought, Hmm, I don't want to be like that where I live in a country for a long time and don't bother to try to learn the language.
So that's what inspired me to start learning Korean.
You can learn to read Korean in about two hours.
It's really, really easy to learn but the thing is you don't know what you're reading right You should be teaching me Korean by the way.
Yeah I can if you like yeah sure but don't get me wrong no offense to those people who didn't learn because when you live in a foreign country sometimes you don't know how long you're gonna be there right and it's very easy for one year to turn into ten years all of a sudden also there's a tremendous amount of time that you need to invest and money and energy.
Maybe not money so much anymore with the Internet but yeah energy and time, so a lot of people don't have the time nor the energy and they don't realize that they're gonna be staying in a place for a very long time but yeah that's what inspired me to learn Korean.
And now you're learning Chinese because you're here.
Gosh, you know, but it's the things that I just talked about, it's the time finding time and finding energy isn't it to try to fit it into your schedule, which is why Takeaway Chinese is such a great benefit to me because I'm here with you and I can learn whilst I'm still in the office.
Yes and actually people all around the world are learning languages for different reasons.
Yeah, what about you?
You speak multiple languages as well?
Not so much, I speak Chinese and English, a little tiny little Cantonese, Oh, wow, it was just for fun.
Yeah, and it's getting less and less fun and more and more challenging the deeper into the lessons that you go.
Yeah. Well, maybe we can have a mini conversation in French. Oh, really, really many.
But the thing is, I realized that previously for English, I learned it in school and for Cantonese, it's not that difficult because it's not that far away from Mandarin.
Yet for French, it's purely for curiosity, because of curiosity.
Yeah, just for fun.
Just for fun! I don't see myself using it.
I don't see myself living in France or in Canadian, French -speaking area, yet I just find learning a language fun.
Yeah, I found the biggest benefit to learning another language.
For me, I learned French, but I didn't live in a French -speaking area.
Nova Scotia in Canada has a certain percentage of French citizens but it's quite small.
So I grew up in an entirely English environment.
So when I learned to speak Korean that was the first time that I had learned a foreign language or a second language or a third language and been in the environment of the language that I was learning.
So that was a totally different experience, right?
And what I discovered was that the greatest benefit to learning the language was not just knowing the words.
It was being able to interact with Korean people on a whole other level.
Because you can get by with, like, piecing together English words with Korean words and deliver your point, right?
But when you can actually converse with someone in their language...
I mean, just the way they treat you changes.
I'm not saying that they treat, treat you poorly before that, but it's just a different level of communication.
It's a different level of understanding.
It's a different level of potential friendship.
It's just different.
It's just different.
It's a very powerful tool.
It's beyond just language.
And that is why when it comes to learning Chinese, we also occasionally once a while wanted to know why people around the world are learning Chinese.
And we did a little survey on the internet and in today's episode, we're going to talk about how netizens and friends all around the world reply to these questions.
And we want to also talk a little bit about how the Chinese language actually evolved through time.
New words emerged and fun expressions happen on the Internet first and then move slowly or really quickly into the society, into a daily conversation.
Question about Chinese and I wonder if it's similar to the other languages that I learned.
When you watch for example a historical Chinese drama is the style of speaking totally different from how people use the language today?
It's funny that you should ask because ancient Chinese language is really different from modern language.
Too different that if you use the exact ancient language to, let's say, make a TV show or movie people won't be able to understand fully.
It's that different.
Which is why we learn about ancient Chinese language, we call it gu han yu or gu wen.
Gu wen? Yes, meaning Ancient and then is passage.
When John or ones the words and Gu Hainou is ancient, high ancient Chinese language.
And we learn about those in primary schools, middle schools, high schools.
And if you are a Chinese major, you would most definitely learn it in universities as well.
Yet we do not use that language in historic TV shows.
However, the style of speaking, if it's a really good production team, if they want to respect that period, there is this elegant and historic and also cultured way of speaking.
So you can still sense certain words and certain expressions.
It can be much more elegant than what we used to speak these days.
But it's definitely not ancient Chinese.
Yeah, I guess English is kind of the same.
For example, if you read Geoffrey Chaucer or even Shakespeare, Shakespeare is a good example, Native English speakers can read Shakespeare and not understand what's going on, right?
There's some similarities there, but there are plenty of differences too.
So yeah, I kind of get what you're talking about.
It's something that you kind of have to learn, but you don't really have to learn it unless you have some interest. Yes, but if those of you who are learning Chinese want to have a taste of, I don't know, ancient Chinese, if you're at that level, definitely it's something very different, but...
It would probably be like the final step in your Chinese language learning rather than the first step.
But for those of you who are interested in Chinese culture and for those of you who want to get a grip on the Chinese language, then this is a 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 Livestreams. But now let's see what are some replies of the question, Why do you want to learn Chinese?
We published this question on multiple social media platforms and we're going to keep asking that question.
So if you're interested in answering it, if you want to share your Chinese learning stories with us.
You can find Youn You Chinese or send your answers to Learn Chinese Facebook page that's CRI Learn Chinese Facebook page and also you can just comment under Takeaway Chinese.
I'll answer this question first because I talked about French and Korean before I want to learn Chinese because I'm here which is kind of in line with what I had spoken about before and I see plenty of other expats around and I watch them, right, because I'm curious, how good is your Chinese?
How not good is your Chinese?
Some are very good at Chinese speaking.
I'm shocked actually, yeah.
I'm shocked. And then you go on television and you see like videos online and they might as well be Chinese people, I swear, I swear, they're Chinese is so good.
But yeah, so I see them interact and that kind of gives me a little bit of hope, I guess.
Hope isn't really the right word but for lack of a better word. Confidence?
In a sense because because even though I don't know how long they've been in the country, because I don't know who they are, but I still see that they can do it, right?
And internationally I think Chinese is known to be, Mandarin is known to be one of the most difficult languages in the world to learn, but when I see people who have learned it and they're using it then that kind of inspires me and gives me a little bit yeah confidence might be the right word that I can do it myself too you definitely can do it and what are some answers we've got from our friends online well let's check first with Dania I hope I'm saying your name correctly Dania Dania Grimaldi Dania says because I dream of traveling to China so it would be great to be able to speak a little Mandarin short
because I'm fond of Chinese dramas and also because Chinese history and culture fascinate me a lot.
This is actually multiple answers.
So traveling in China would be Lai Zhongguo Lu Xing, So come to China Lu Xing traveling.
Lu Xing, Lu Xing so Lu, code the meaning of going to foreign or strange places and the Xing is just to walk around or move around.
So Lu Xing the word means travel, to travel around.
I'd like to go travel instead of working all the time something like that.
Yeah that's a great reason also you know fond of Chinese dramas.
Yes. So many people learn a foreign language through tv shows or sitcoms or dramas or films or what have you it's just such a great way to do it right?
The funny thing about the word drama in Chinese is that now if you talk about Chinese dramas I would assume you're talking about TV series and TV series in Chinese would be D 'ian shì zhì.
D 'ian shì zhì. D 'ian shì is television, zhì is just a series of shows, so a drama.
Television shows. Television shows.
D 'ian shì zhì zhì. However, the direct translation of drama is xi zhì.
Xi zhì. Yes xi zhì is again the direct translation of drama.
Yet see you in today's China Actually means those kind of stage shows more So if you say well you can see I'd like to go see a drama like a theater perform like a theater performance It can be a dancing drama It can be a why did you why'd you meaning of just a stage show and who?
Tied you stage show literally and also we're talking about Guo Ju or a singing drama or a singing performance.
So if you talk about Kan Shi in today's China people would understand you're going to a theater.
But Dian Shizhi is TV shows, TV dramas.
So I think yes we understand that translating is really simple in these days because of technology.
But you still need to know these little nuances because Chinese dramas would be easily translated to zhongguo xi ji but I think the Dania actually means Chinese TV shows.
Probably right. And also the point about Chinese history and culture you have an interest in that too, Dania.
Yeah, and now I'm learning more about that as well.
It's really quite funny, right, because now that I'm here and I'm starting now to ask a lot of questions, and I'm starting to ask questions that even my Chinese co -workers don't know the answer to.
Yes, you do that that it totally makes sense.
Because if you ask me anything about Canadian history I wouldn't know the answer, of course, but I'm so curious, and I'm starting to ask a lot of questions these days, and being here, Dania in Beijing, a 3 ,000 year old city, there's just, it's just non -stop history, non -stop culture, centuries of it.
Oh, a quick question.
Sure. Going back to historic language and when it changed.
So at the end of the 1800s and the beginning of the 1900s you had the final dynasty in China, right?
You had the Ming dynasty and then after the Ming dynasty was the Qing dynasty.
Qing dynasty was the last one right?
Yes. The last feudal dynasty here in China.
And that was around 1911 or so when that finished up.
Is that when language started to change from a historic kind or a historic style into a more modern day style?
My question is when when did that shift occur?
Oh to start with the changing of language styles has always been there so it has been evolving with time passing by for sure.
Yet, during that period of time there was a movement of allowing people to speak essentially an easier language.
So if you know ancient Chinese, ancient Chinese is more difficult to understand because it includes a lot of allusions.
It includes a lot of historic backgrounds.
And also it's actually quite dense with just one or two syllables.
It carries more meanings.
So it was kind of like a privilege for those highly educated.
But during that period of time, scholars wanted to make sure well, I mean, ordinary people would be able to speak for sure, but it's hard for them write, to be literate, and that is why during those period of time there was this kind of a movement allowing people to speak easier language and to use easier language in writing as well.
That must have been a controversial time, definitely, right because the scholars would have thought how can you do this to such a beautiful language?
Why are you dumbing it down?
Exactly, but actually if really think about it, allowing more people to be able to read, write, and to express their ideas not only through spoken language but also through forms of publication.
That highly improved the level of intelligence, of education, of the literary level of the entire society.
So, that was quite an important move, I believe.
Interesting. Yes. And moving on to some other interesting answers, we have a friend, Mistislav Skorobogatov.
Thank you! That is really hard to pronounce, but thank you!
That was my best effort.
I apologize if that was wrong, too.
This comment says, the most ancient nation in the world, huge respect, window to eternity.
That is the answer to the question, Why do you want to learn Chinese?
Yeah, that's a good answer and actually many answers echo that opinion.
For instance, we have Stefan saying Chinese culture is vast and better to understand through the language lenses.
So again having interest in culture and also have Melissa saying I love everything about China is culture, its history, food, ancient poetry, nature, beautiful cities, entertainment, drama fan again, and it's bold ideas for the future.
Learning Mentoring seems daunting but essential to love the country.
Daunting is a good word, Melissa.
You've hit the nail on the head there, challenging.
But yeah, it is a beautiful language in a beautiful country with beautiful cities in a rich, deep culture.
All the things that you just said are very, very true.
Yeah, but for those who are learning Chinese, it's easy for you or it's obvious for you.
If you are lucky enough to be the one who's learning a language and then traveling to the country, you might already realize that the language that you learn from textbooks are quite different from the language people are actually using.
Of course. You know, it's the easiest example of English in English is, ''It's raining cats and dogs.'' Yes!
I was thinking about that too.
Yeah, nobody says that, but every English textbook has that expression, right?
It's raining cats and dogs, it's raining cats and dogs!
Of course, everybody knows what it means, but you don't hear people say that so much anymore.
I think a textbook Chinese I can think of is ma mā hù hù.
Ma mā hù hù. Yes, so it's ma, it's the horse, hù is tiger.
But ma ma hù hù, putting together to start with, you should pronounce it as ma ma hù hù.
Mā ma hù hù. What's the hu hu part?
Tiger. It's the tiger character.
Horse horse tiger tiger.
Horse horse tiger tiger, but actually it means Meh.
It's like just so -so.
It's not that precise.
It's basically it's I'm getting bi kind of feeling.
Okay. If you say, Nǐ zhì jìn zhì mì yǎn tāo How are you these days?
And if the reply is mā mā hu hu.
It's like it's okay.
So do people say that?
It's just so so, the thing is people still understand it greatly but I haven't heard anybody using it for at least 10 years so wait what if Chinese definitely not wrong and I won't even be that surprised if people say mama who to me it's like it's still okay it's not ancient language it's not something that grandpa would say it's not like that this is not common anymore my mom who it's okay okay I'm gonna start using that one you should use that It's not a bad one, yet it's a textbook Chinese.
Sure, but it sounds cute too, doesn't it?
Yeah, it sounds cute...
How are you doing? It's just OK.
Yeah, right. And I think now a more popular answer would be hǎi xíng.
Hǎi xíng. Hǎi xíng.
So, hǎi is still, xíng is OK.
So it's just OK. It's not really great, but it's not bad, it's OK.
Hǎi xíng. Hǎi xíng.
Just OK. Just OK. So here's a language culture question In English, it's quite commonly known that you know when you ask someone, how are you?
You're not really supposed to answer the question.
Mm -hmm, honestly Now how are you?
Hey, how are you a terrible?
It's not a culturally right just lie.
Yeah. Yeah good. Good.
Good. Good things But a Swedish friend of mine once asked hey, how you doing?
I said, yeah, good.
Thanks they said, oh really?
Seems like not so good.
And they explained to me...
I don't know, this was just what they said...
In Swedish culture, when someone asks, how are you?
They are truly asking, how are you?
So to answer in a negative way is completely acceptable.
So I wanted to ask that about Chinese language culture.
If someone asks, you know, how are you doing?
Is it just kind of the way English goes?
Like you just answer, yeah good thanks.
Even if you're having a terrible day.
I think it depends on who's asking mmm it's a close friend you can share your true feelings co -workers co -workers that you're not really that close no right okay so you're right it's a cultural thing yeah and a possible yet to not very probable answer would be fate chong ba fate chong ba fate chong bong fate chong bong it means excellent nobody nobody answers that stop your You're teaching me plenty of things nobody says this is great!
But you can use it for other occasions for example if you're in a restaurant How was the food?
How was the food? C 'est fay chung bam It's really great and also if you're having a new beverage and you want to recommend that beverage to your friend you can say c 'est fay chung bam This is really good I highly recommend so it's really just really good fei chang means very.
and good, bang is good.
and this is also a textbook chinese but it's the kind of textbook chinese that are actually right.
but when people ask how are you doing today nobody usually answers fei chang bang.
do you say that in english?
um hey how you doing today?
yeah excellent thank you.
if you're in a really good mood i guess that would be okay, it's not that common perhaps?
i think it's because fei chang bang even we translated as very good really great.
It actually is kind of like 99 % to perfect, kind of great.
It's too great. And another too great Chinese is zhue zhue zhue zhue zhue.
Zhue is a Chinese character.
It's like, it's amazing.
It's absolutely amazing.
And zhue zhue zhue is kind of like an online slang.
It's the kind of word that you only started to use in these couple of years here here in the Chinese society, yet it is used to describe absolute great.
It's amazing. It's incredible.
It is the best. So if you're recommending something to your friends, like, take away Chinese, yes.
You say you have to try this.
Take away Chinese. How do you say is in Chinese?
Oh, you don't. You don't say it.
unless it's a noun is a noun like a horse is an animal kind of is then you say okay but if you want to say the animal is cute so now is adjective then you don't say the is so the literal translation to english would be like horse cute horse cute or horse very cute got it so take away chinese yes take away chinese there you go you got a new slogan for the show Yeah, also I think these are the kinds of words that nongzheng would like to use.
Thick people. Thick.
What do you mean thick people?
Is it stupid? No. Thick is the kind of, well, or it's dense.
So for example, if it's coffee and you put in multiple shots, then it's heavy and thick.
But if you put in just half a shot and a lot of milk, for example, it would be thin.
It'll be light. It will be less strong.
Again, this is also internet slang but people use it in daily life, that is non zhen he tan zhen, so non zhen would be that very enthusiastic about everything, very have strong opinions and also would express them in a very enthusiastic way kind of people, whereas than zhen the light people, so thick people and thin people or light people, the light people would be No, they do not care about a lot of things and they have they have lighter reactions.
Enthusiastic Chinese learners would be excited to use these types of terms. Yeah.
Yeah. That's a challenging thing, too.
When you are learning a second language, that happened to me a lot in Korea and you start to feel pretty confident about your language skills.
And then all of a sudden you're talking with a young person, like 19 years old and there's, like, 30 words and five sentences that you don't recognize because of, like, newly coined terms. It happens in every single language, doesn't it?
But these newly coined terms are also very fun, and they can be very vivid if you think about it.
If you're drawing a picture, for example, you're using these very bright colors to draw a person, and then these people in your pictures would appear very bright, very colorful, very overwhelming even somehow yet if you're using the very light colors you blend your paint with a lot of water or even sometimes some whites in it then you draw this person then this person would look quite light and relaxing and that is a really fun way to describe people with different personalities not just and and besides that is it insulting to perfectly neutral yeah and people would try to fit them into these
different categories and when it comes to different categories there are also other new ways because some traditional ways of addressing introvert and extrovert for example introverts would be Nei Xiang so Nei is inward and Xiang is kind of like towards okay so you would like to most occasionally turn inwards you want to spend more time with yourself you want to find the answers from within then you're Nei Xiang introvert Nei Xiang yes whereas extrovert would be or extroverted people vai xiang.
We know xiang is direction, you are directed to the outer space, the outer area, you like to spend more time with people, you like to find energy in socializing with others, you like to find maybe answers through asking your friends or having a conversation with more people, so that's vai xiang, extroverted these are perfectly fine, you can still use them, Yet, people now have a lot of different ways to introduce themselves when it comes to personality.
For example, a very popular pair of online slang would bebird and bird. It's very funny.
Ok, so called bird, means food, afraid of ok, and bird means socializing.
Afraid of socializing.
Introverts! Introverts!
And it's even short for shu a jiao kong zhuzheng so it's even worse than just afraid of socializing.
It's social anxiety disorder.
It's like I cannot, I have a phobia and my phobia is toward socializing.
Shi kong. So then is this something that you can say to someone?
Oh! It's not a clinic diagnosed.
No, it's just a little bit exaggerating way of describing the situation because again, everybody can be a shuokong on certain occasions and xuanyou on other occasions.
So it's not a fixed state, you can even say wo shuokong fazuo, so I am having a panic attack because of this social situation and shuanyou, we've already mentioned it, it means someone is socially awesome.
it's socially awesome syndrome.
Socially awesome syndrome?
Yes, because Ngo carries the meaning of really good at something, so shu and yo is like this person is really good at socializing with others.
Oh so they're um does this mean that they're quite socially talented?
Yes, and they enjoy socializing quite so much. Oh, so this isn't about you know they're super energetic and super happy all the time it's more about their ability to get along with other people yes so I guess Shoen you is still tiny little bit different than whysing extroverted yeah but still you get the gist how language can evolve and can have different ways or let's say cover different groups of meanings so why is extrovert Nei Xiang is introvert yes what's ambivert ambivert is in English it means half and half half introvert half extrovert or sometimes introverted sometimes extroverted do you
have a word for that we do not have a word for that but actually it reminds me of another way of describing introverted and extroverted people, that is, I and Y.
I and I introvert and extrovert?
Yes, and I is just person.
Ahh -hah -hah. And from that angle, you have ambivert people.
That is Aiyi. Aiyi.
And Aiyi is a browser.
That is why some people would say, I am a browser personality.
I have... but that actually means Aiyi.
So I'm sometimes...
Introverted? Introverted, and sometimes extroverted.
And that's easy to remember because that's just the first letters in English of the two words!
Yes, yes, so yeah, different ways in Chinese is definitely evolving.
That's cool. That is super cool.
And these are only some examples we have to showcase how come this language is getting more and more trendy and actually quite interesting.
And as you can see, I -zhen and I -zhen, the language is also communicating with other languages and merging and creating new words and that is the fun of learning Chinese 100 % true.
And that brings us to the end of today's takeaway Chinese.
I'm Neohong Lin with Steve here in the studio for more episodes of the show you can visit our website at radio .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 For questions, comments and ratings, You
