Hi, everyone welcome to ChinesePod. My name's Fiona and here we have today with us
"Hi, I'm Constance" and today we have a very special guest with us would you like to do a quick introduction for everyone?
Sure, hi, everyone. My name is Caleb. I'm a sophomore right now
I'm majoring in computer science
And then I'm minoring in Chinese. Would like like to give us an introduction in Chinese Caleb?
Would you like to me give an introduction in Chinese?
Hi, I'm called Caleb, but my Chinese name is Bai Zi Chen.
I'm a second year student.
I major in Computer Science and I minor in Chinese.
I've been learning Chinese for three years
I started learning in high school and I continued learning at university
Wow, you've only been learning for three years and it's that great! I'm sure there are loads of Poddies out there that are super jealous.
super scared!
yeah, super impressed. That's excellent Caleb!
So, the topic we are talking about today, I think it's quite an interesting one.
it's also very worth sharing with other people that are learning Chinese.
Today, we are talking about ... the TV show Han Yu Qiao
so we are talking about
a TV show that is
Actually let me.. I want you guys to have an opportunity to hear it in Chinese first
And then I'll do the translations. So Constance, could you tell us about the TV show - Han Yu Qiao?
Han Yu Qiao is a Chinese language competition for university students learning Chinese around the world
and they have also made this into a TV show
so if you can win this competition (locally), you can go to China to compete in the semi finals and finals.
you can also go on TV, simply put,
it's an international TV competition for university students learning Chinese
So, put simply, its a TV show, it initially was a speech competition or speaking competition for people that were learning Chinese as a second language
now it's turned into quite the event.
It's a big TV show but as well as that you get to have the opportunity to a travel to China
In the process hopefully when loads of different scholarships as well to learning Mandarin. It's a pretty serious thing and
It's something that Caleb is interested in participating
So I guess that leaves on to my next question
Caleb why are you interested in entering into Han Yu Qiao, this TV show, this competition?
mmm, I, well, I
I've always been interested in Chinese
I also think it's great fun to be in a competition
so once I saw this show, I thought this sounds quite fun
I thought it sounded super interesting and fun
so it combined a lot of your interests
you like attending competitions, you like speaking Chinese
so it's like the perfect combo
yes, so, are you preparing for this competition? How are you preparing for it?
yeah, so, I am attending Chinese classes at university
so, i'm also studying with...
there are loads of international students at my university
there are more Chinese students. So I have a lot of opportunities to chat and socialise with them.
so...You go ahead, sorry...you go first..
I can practice Chinese with them
But I feel that I need...
to practice other aspects of Chinese
mmm....competitions...I think that you have taken a great first step
First, socialise with your Chinese classmates.
Because a very important aspect of the competition is popular culture
and national knowledge
so a very big part of the competition is
Popular culture, right, what's going on in China?
it could range from which hip-hop singer is doing this, to a very old singer back in you know the
70's or 80's, so it's not just an exam or just speaking good Mandarin
You have to know what's going on, so I think
now would be our first suggestion to anyone that's interested in participating is
watch loads of TV listen to loads of podcasts
ChinesePod obviously, but you want to be a well-rounded learner that rather than a very specific
You know very high level vocabulary in a specific area. It's about kind of filling out that base of your Chinese
So that's step one and I think you've done a great job with that
so I feel that with any kind of exam or any kind of competition
we can always go look at past exams and past competitions
we can go see what questions have been asked. With Han Yu Qiao you can go check out their website or (find the show) on YouTube
all you have to do is type "han yu qiao" and you'll find plenty of videos. Some are quite funny.
some you get to see the contestants struggle with the questions
or, see them get tricked by the questions, it's really quite cute. But there really are some contestants that are very good.
the past shows, the first and second seasons feel more...
Serious. Yes. I was a bit more serious. I feel like in the first season and the second season.
But now, it's definitely more... the questions you get are very creative
So I think is as much about thinking on your feet in a different language
Other than anything else so it's definitely worth checking them out mmm
the earlier shows felt more like
felt like a final presentation for your Mandarin course.
everyone has great mandarin, so let's add questions to this final presentation
but now it really feels like a TV show
So, first tip, add to...
Increase your knowledge on popular culture the second is to look at past questions
And then also very important thing Constance you discovered. Is that you need to have a talent Mm-hmm.
Yes, you need to do a talent show.
Constance: so...
Caleb: I don't have a talent
Oh no, what do we do if we don't have a talent
Caleb, you should start practicing a talent
Have you thought of what you would do on the show as a "talent"?
mmm, I've been thinking about learning Chinese calligraphy...
that's great
I feel that the characters I write now are...
very ugly.
Don't worry about it, a lot of native Chinese speakers have very ugly hand writing too.
but writing calligraphy is a very quiet talent. It might be a bit difficult to show case.
What if you buy a giant calligraphy pen?
I think that's a great idea!
then you can play some Chinese music
you can write as the music plays
I can write in a "messy" font
You could start with a small brush, then go to the giant brush, and add some magic
that would be awesome! You'd win immediately.
yeah, and you'd have music with the characters your wrote
yeah, sounds like a great talent to show case.
but I really feel that calligraphy is something that anyone learning Chinese could consider
because in my opinion, practicing calligraphy is also a way to train your temperament.
some one that can sit down and concentrate in silence usually has a good temperament
for those with bad temperaments, you could consider calligraphy
then I should practice it!
You look like you've got a very gentle temperament!
For those learners that aren't interested in learning Chinese calligraphy, you could consider some Chinese instruments.
yes, instruments, like Er Hu, Gu Zheng,
Yeah
You could also sing.
but with singing, it might be harder to grab people's attention.
tougher to leave a lasting good impression.
but with instruments, dancing, or martial arts
How about dancing with writing calligraphy?
Caleb, can you dance?
Hip Hop Calligraphy!
yes, I hadn't thought of that!
let's not tell anyone!
Caleb: I'll be the first. Fiona: the first hip-hop calligrapher perfect, okay, we've done that
alright, so apart from figuring out a talent to perform
We have some general advice for anyone that's thinking of participating in a speaking competition
Especially one that you're showing off a bit right. So Constance, isn't learning Cheng Yu very important?
Learning Cheng Yu will definitely help...
because once you get to a certain level of Chinese speaking you have to be able to use Cheng Yu
at the very least, understand Cheng Yu when you hear it
what tough about learning Cheng Yu is that there nearly always are stories attached to Cheng Yu
So learning Cheng Yu usually isn't a quick process
So have you started prepped your Cheng Yu knowledge, have you thought about how to improve your Cheng Yu skills?
Actually, last summer when I went travelling in Cheng Du for six weeks
I bought a Cheng Yu story book from China
but I haven't learnt too many of them yet
Can you show everyone the book you bought?
yes, sure, this is a book for kids
while it looks super simple, it's actually
quite difficult for those of us that haven't learnt Cheng Yu before
so I've only gone over the first, second and third Cheng Yu in the book
but I feel that if I were to study more of the book..would I see it on TV?
what I'm not very clear about is, do people actually use Cheng Yu?
Is it very formal if you use it, or do people actually use it in conversation?
We use Cheng Yu in day to day conversation. Especially in a performance setting.
also, in certain settings, when you need to use lots of words to express a certain feeling or opinion
but you know you can express that feeling or opinion in four, six or eight characters
you'd chose that because it's an easier way to express yourself quickly and accurately
this is why we use Cheng yu in daily conversation too
I think that's an excellent question Caleb, so do people actually use Cheng Yu when they're communicating and the answer is absolutely yes.
It's a very elegant and efficient way to portray a very specific emotion a very specific
circumstance. You'll find that the people that communicate most effectively often use Cheng Yu because
If we are speaking, and Constance used a Cheng Yu, I know exactly the backstory and why she's (chosen that Cheng Yu), there's so much implied context
And that's actually where a lot of learners get caught out because, even I, I'll find myself
You know speaking with loads of people and suddenly, there will be a Cheng Yu thrown out
and I'll...It's like I'm following the conversation, and woop, it's like I've slipped
Because I completely don't understand the context of why this thing is, and what it actually means, and it's four characters
It's so effective. It's like it's very effect way
I feel like to communicate compared to other languages.
Ah, another thing is that, isn't there a part of the competition that has to do with what's going on in China?
So you have to follow the news, you'd also have to follow more news to prep for the competition.
so Chinese official, or those who have received higher education,
often like to use Cheng Yu
or even use ancient Chinese poems
classical poems
to express how they feel about a certain issue
so if you can...
so they use ancient poem to (express themselves)?
yes, very often.
cheng yu or poems
so if you can understand those, you can better understand how Chinese people actually feel about something
and it also reflects how educated you are, so it's an important step to take, especially as you move past an intermediate level
if you want to break your intermediate plateau, and move to advanced, this is a necessary step to take
for example, in our upper-int and advanced lessons at ChinesePod, in a dialog, we often include at least one or two...
Cheng Yu or idioms
because it's really what native speakers use in conversation, so I think it's well worth learning
use it to show off how good your Chinese is
So you should learn one a day, or one a week
three in a week!
give you a proper challenge
you should learn one or two a week. As your Chinese improves, new ones will be quicker to pick up.
I want to add an additional point
the more cheng yu you learn, as we often say at ChinesePod, you'll be more primed to get a "Chinese frame of mind"
coming from a different cultural background, it's really not that easy to jump into another culture and really understand that other culture
but the more cheng yu you learn, the more history you learn, you'll get a better idea of why we feel this way about something
So I think learning Cheng Yu is almost like a shortcut to
understand, I mean learning languages, there's no shortcuts guys, but it's an easy way to
Really understand how the culture values a particular action, a particular
Way of thinking, what is seen as good what seen as bad?
and what stories go with, what stories that led to that opinion, so I think honestly every advanced learner...
I'm like learn Cheng Yu, because it's the biggest thing I regret. I think that's something I'm really trying to work on
so it's better to start early!
so are you able to read those Cheng Yu stories?
if you can, it's a great way to improve quickly.
okay, so I feel we've covered most of the points of how to prep for the competition.
check past competition questions,
familiarise yourself with popular culture, national knowledge and history
my gosh, that's already so much...
follow the news, learn Cheng Yu, prep a talent to preform..
that's too much!
Caleb, mentioned before that he wanted to give himself one year to prep for the competition right?
That's about right, but if i'm not ready
I can always go the next year or the year after
So do you have a small goal for now?
a small goal?
well, that would be to win the competition
first attend the American qualifiers ?
yes, that's right. My friend and I have already checked out the rules to enter. Is that the word for rule?
yes, their rules, then..
they first have, they have pre-contests or they have contests in America
Then after that you can go if you're like the first or the second person, they'll recommend a certain number of people to go
on to the
competition in China
Excellent. I think this is a great point to learn some of the terms for different levels in a competition
Definitely for the TV show is a very international competition, most of the Chinese embassies
host the initial competition, so it's probably best if you're interested to go on their website find out what's going on?
the Confucius institute..
so there's loads and loads of different levels
So let's learn what you call like a pre-competition. A pre-competition is yu sai.
The yu for pre-stduy, the yu for doing some first, a competition before the real competition
Pre-competition mmm. I just realized something as well, when native speakers, when we're trying to explain a character we are always drawing in the air
but it's completely useless for you, right? We're like yeah, you know that one, you know that character?
i've been teaching Chinese for so many years, I still do that!
So next time, someone asks you which characters are in your name
you can just draw it in the air
then all that person can do is nod
Haha, alright, so the native speaker will just have to go Mm-hmm
Gotcha, you've done the funny hand thing
we've gone off topic
so we've got pre-competition
and then if you go in to the main competition
But maybe you're in like the semi-finals, what would that be?
that's fu sai
ah the fu from revision.
so again competition, so we've got the pre-competition, the again competition, and...
how about the finals? Finals is jue sai. Which jue? Jue for to make a decision.
so the competition that decides the winner, that's what we call jue sai.
so three phases
so how about the people competing in a competition?
we can call them xuan shou or can sai zhe
xuan shou I feel like probably leans towards like athletic performances
And then people that are participating in the competition is - can sai zhe
can is to participate. so the person that participates in a competition. zhe is a type of person
like writer, reporter
so can sai zhe
so you might hear, xuan shou,
xuan is the word for "to select", it's this xuan
ah that's the traditional version, it's easier in simplified
xuan shou, or can sai zhe, so if you would like to be a can sai zhe for han yu qiao
you'll have to do loads of preparation
okay, at this point Caleb, I feel that we need to let you get to your studies. We shouldn't chat anymore.
you have one year to prep
yeah, I need to start studying!
tell us what the first cheng yu is!
it's....
euthanasia?!
安居乐业
Okay, we misheard you.
安乐死 is Euthanasia, so we were like what?
I didn't remember it properly
an ju le ye, a very good cheng yu
I know it's probably not the best recommendation but this is what we've got in our office. Haha that it's a chung yu dictionary
I know, it's like
Oh my God Fiona is getting us to read through a dictionary
But what is useful is what I asked my sister to do is
Just to go through
the beginning like
and she would just go through my sister would just go through and tick the ones that she thinks that I should know were the
most important ones, so maybe if you have something similar to this
It'd be useful to get a chinese friend because I mean there are definitely obscure
and it is a dictionary right, so of the purpose of it to go find some more bizarre ones, but
There's definitely loads that are very commonly used in conversation and maybe you can bribe a friend with a coffee
a beer, and just be like, hey so i've got this dictionary
I was wondering
if you could pick out the
most important cheng yu
ones you can use in a spoken language.
That's what I've done with my sister who is also in her second year of uni, and studying at university
ah, university days are so far from us
Alright Caleb, do you have any final questions for us? Any problems you've found most difficult while learning Chinese? Perhaps we can help?
or give you some suggestions
yes, I feel like now
I have too many problems
but I feel like sometimes when I am listening to native speakers speak
I feel as though I still haven't properly learnt Chinese tones
for example, if I hear some one speak Chinese and they use a piece of vocab I've never come across before
if I still don't understand it
I can look it up on my dictionary, but I can't look it up if I'm not sure about the pinyin or tones
I can refer to my dictionary but...
yes, it's hard to look up the word in the dictionary if you're not sure about the tones or the pinyin
so coming across new words is something you find more difficult in spoken Chinese?
this is difficult to avoid
I feel like with this, well, Gwilym has hand writing input on his phone
So instead of pinyin, he has like the handwriting input on his phone.So if he is
speaking with our friends. He'll just ask them to write it
Okay
but in Taiwan we have another problem, and that's most people in Taiwan use Zhu Yin
So most people use zhuyin as an inout method in Taiwan, and Gwilym uses pinyin, so they wouldn't know the pinyin for that
But most Chinese people should know and you could just ask them quickly
But I find the hand writing input vert handy because then they can just quickly write it down
And then you've got the character on your phone. That's one way
Mmm to solve it.
The other is that if you hear what seems to be a new word
you can try and repeat it. If you can repeat that bit of sound
then, well, first, you can ask the speaker immediately.
secondly, if you can mimic what they just said again
in principle, your tones won't be off, and there shouldn't be a problem
perhaps, you'll find that while your brain hasn't figured out the tones yet
your mouth already knows what to do
so it's more important that you mimic properly, because when we are speaking a full sentence
often, us native speakers
our tones are often not as clear, because there can be some changes to tone in a full sentence
Just like in English
I can't read each word out overly clear
But if you can just copy the the part you don't understand, you're able to ask, and then
if you copy it right it means you get the pinyin or the tones right
so just try and do that, just copy it, this is one method
okay, I noticed that when I speak English
I've become self-conscious now after studying Chinese like how I've I'm not speaking clearly or I think like that, okay?
I feel like the thing to remember when learning a second language
is that, first, get a good understanding of the language
then later once you understand
It's about refining
But I think once you have those key concepts, like when I speak English not every single word is
separated. And whilst Chinese is a one-character one sound language
Most most words, most pieces of vocab, are two characters put together, so those two are definitely going to be linked sound wise
and a Chinese speaker
Actually we're going to do another episode on a chinese we hear in movies. That's what most actors get wrong
they-always-speak-Chinese-like-this-one-word-at-a-time
you have great Chinese fluency
it's kinda in the flow, so it's pretty good
Another thing, a way to reduce your nerves
often, native speakers from different places
they will have their own accent
so a reason that you might feel that you aren't hearing things correctly
might be just that they are speaking "clearly", not that you aren't hearing it right
so for example, in southern China, we don't clear distinguish between -an and -ang or -en and -eng
in the north, there can also be be issues with -an and -ang
so they might be saying...
an jing (安静 quiet) but when you hear it you might hear an jin, so is it jin or jing?
for a Chinese learner, there is a huge difference, but for a native speaker there is not much difference
so when you can't hear it, it might not be that you haven't spotted it
rather, they might not be speaking so clearly
so just like I said, mimic what you just heard, repeat it and ask them what they said.
Or give it to you in another sentence, or just ask them to say it another way
can you say it another way?
can you say it another way? This is one way to learn a language quickly
use this language to learn this language
Like when even if I see the characters it like because they have the subtitles on
on the screen and I
listen to the, like I would say well
What what tone is this character and what tone is that character. And it goes by too fast, and I can't really
like oh
I I don't really know
exactly, like if I wanted to use a dictionary, I could like pause the video and I could I could like write out the character
But I couldn't say okay. They just said
like Ma where they said Ma or they
said, because when the normal conversation is just all kind of flows together and and for me
That's I think I guess I you know just something I have to you know.
Like sometimes when Gwilym comes home, he'll just read it to me in all the tone combinations
But I'm like tell me the contact and then he'll like try all the different combinations, and then one will be like okay
She's probably saying this because you were in a car shop
but it doesn't matter if you can mimic
you don't have to know all the tones. because when I am speaking Chinese,
I don't consider what tone I am using for this word
but that's because I learn a piece of vocabulary as a chunk
so now you are going from a
intermediate learner to a high level learner
so you'll need to slowly start getting used to
so it's not like you aren't trying to figure out what sound you are hearing, rather, start being confident with what you hear and then say it
then you can go look up the tones and improve your pronunciation
okay, so at this point we want to say 加油 good luck!
and if there is anything we can help you with just let us know
and we hope that we will get to see you next year on han yu qiao
you'll be the champion of the American championships
we'll be cheering for you, and if not next year, the year after
the second year, and we we hope that we'll get to see your, uh, what was it...hip hop?
yes, we hope we get to see your hip-hop calligraphy
hip-hop calligraphyco
so many things to practice Caleb
yes, we hope that you continue your Chinese studies, and become an excellent learner of Chinese
okay, so here we say bye to Caleb and bye to all of you! Bye!
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