One of the first things I noticed upon returning to the USA after my first year in China was: Wow! I can understand strangers’ conversations!

Many of my English major students get discouraged when they sat in front of two foreigners on the bus and couldn’t understand what they were saying to each other in English. I, too, once thought my inability to successfully eavesdrop meant that my Chinese listening skills still have a long way to go. But here’s the truth I’ve come to accept: my Chinese listening skills still still have a long way to go, but eavesdropping isn’t a good test.

Here’s why eavesdropping is too hard in China:

1. They’re probably not speaking Mandarin.

I’ve noticed that Chinese people prefer to speak their local language over Mandarin whenever possible. Even up North, where a lot of the fāngyán-s 方言 are close to Mandarin, there are different tones, or words, or other things that make listening difficult to impossible.

2. You don’t know what they’re talking about.

They could be talking about a májiàng 麻将 marathon and all the specific tiles they got while lamenting the ones they wished they’d gotten. They could be talking about the hanzified names of their favorite Olympians, all of whom you know and could even guess if you knew the context. But since you don’t, then don’t bother even trying.

2.5 The conversation could change topics immediately.

And then, even if you had figured out what they were talking about, it’s now back to square one just because someone transitioned from “Beijing Duck” to that “creepy guy in the parking lot.”

3. Inside Jokes.

If they’re not strangers (and even if they are), then the people you’re eavesdropping on have more in common with each other than you do with them. If they’re colleagues, they might be talking about work at the nutcracker factory or the latest internal memo about clocking-in procedures. And if they’re good friends it’s even worse.

Imagine someone trying to eavesdrop on a conversation between you and your best friend about that one time at Disneyland when Jonno had that inflatable Oscar Mayer wiener that he shoved into the mouth of that animatronic crocodile on the Peter Pan ride. “Hahaha! And Bobby was like, ‘Ticktock this!’ Hahaha! That was awesome.” Sometimes you really had to be there.

All that’s to say:

4. Native speakers can easily ditch non-native speakers

Never underestimate your ability to leave a non-native listener in the dust when you’re talking to a third person who is a native speaker. Conversely, native speakers of Chinese can lose us any time they really want to. Imagine Superman (or that kid in The Incredibles) jogging along with a normal person and then suddenly throwing it into high gear. That seems to be what native speakers can do to non-native listeners at any moment (and not always intentionally).

I’m not just talking about talking faster (although that’s part of it). They can use a synonym, slang, or idiom, or worst of all a chéngyǔ 成语 that we’ve never heard of and immediately change the course of the conversation. Sometimes words that we actually know have meanings we don’t know about. And then there’s the whole context issue again. We don’t have the kind of background in the language that someone has who’s grown up here, gone through the whole education system, watched all those TV shows, listened to all that music, and seen all that news over the years.

On the one hand, it’s comforting to know I’ve probably got a way to communicate a secret message to a native speaker of English in front of a non-native speaker if I need to. But on the other hand, all messages between native speakers of Chinese have the potential to be baffling. Especially if…

…and here’s the point:

5. They’re not talking to you.

If someone really needs to communicate a life-or-death message to you, regardless of your listening level, they’ll probably find a way. But without the context, avoidance of inside jokes, and simplification of vocabulary, etc., I’m afraid odds are against understanding.

So by all means, try to tōutīng 偷听 as much as possible (within reason). Just don’t beat yourself up if it’s not working.

• Learning Mandarin in Cantonese Land III: Grammar
• Learning Mandarin in Cantonese Land II: Vowel Shifts
• Parrot People Help My Tones
• Why Is Nǎlǐ 哪里 Written Wrong?
• Words That are Their Own Palindromes

One way to improve listening is to understand every word being said.

In this case, that involves listening to the “recording” and reading the transcript.

I’d like to apologize for the terrible audio quality and promise that I’ll hopefully have a chance to get a better recording in the future (although this one is from Changsha when we were doing our ridiculous challenge 14 and I don’t know when I’ll be back there again). If anyone else has an audio recording of the local bus announcement, please tell me and we’ll add it here.

Recording 1: Bus Starting

Listen now:

[See original post to listen to audio]

Download

Full Transcript for Both Audio Files:

chēliàng qǐbù.

车辆起步。

The vehicle has started moving.

qǐng nín zuò hǎo, zhàn wěn, zhuā hǎo fúshǒu.

请您坐好，站稳， 抓好扶手。

Please sit properly, stand stably, (or) grab the handrail firmly

qǐng nín zhǔdòng wèi shēnbiān de lǎo, ruò, bìng, cán, yùn, jí dài xiǎoháir de chéngkè ràng gè zuò

请您主动为身边的老，弱，病，残，孕，及带小孩儿的乘客让个座。

Please take the initiative to give your seat to the old, weak, sick, disabled, pregnant, and passengers with children

xià yí zhàn: Yáolǐng Běi

下一站：窑岭北。

Next stop: Yaoling North

Recording 2: Bus Stopping

Listen now:

[See original post to listen to audio]

Download

Full Transcript for Both Audio Files:

? ? ? ? ? ? tíxǐng nín: Yáolǐng Běi dào le

？？？？？？提醒您：窑岭北，到了。

(? the name of the bus company ?) would like to remind you: We’re arriving at Yaoling Bei.

qǐng dài hǎo suíshēn xiédài de wùpǐn zhǔnbèi xià chē

请带好随身携带的物品准备下车。

Please take all your carry-on things and get ready to get off the bus.

chéngkèmen, shàng chē hòu, qǐng wǎng chēxiāng nèi zǒu yǐ zhàogù hòumian de chéngkè shàng chē.

(乘)客们，上车后，请往车厢内走以照顾后面的乘客上车 。

Passengers, after you get on the bus, please move to the middle of the compartment to help the passengers behind you get on the bus.

xièxiè

谢谢。

Thank you.

Things to Point Out

• I’m also not happy that they used “chēliàng” 车辆 and “chēxiāng” 车厢 instead of just “chē” 车. But that’s kind of the point of this exercise: to see the formal words used so we can understand them next time we hear them.
• That list of “lǎo, ruò, bìng, cán, yùn, jí dài xiǎoháir” 老，弱，病，残，孕，及带小孩儿 passengers is pretty common on most buses in most cities I’ve been in (the order might even be the same)

• That “jí” 及 is just a formal word for “hé” 和.
• “suíshēn xiédài de wùpǐn” 随身携带的物品 seems to me to be a very wordy way to say “your things.” Can anyone explain why the “suíshēn” 随身 and “xiédài” 携带 are both necessary or is it just a frozen form?
• I translated “yǐ zhàogù” 以照顾 as “to help” because “yǐ” 以 here means “in order to” and “zhàogù” 照顾 means “to take care of / show consideration for”. Better translations welcome.

• Stuff You Might Be Hearing: ATMs
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• Pinyin Chart
• Pirate This: Music of the Laowai

I was shopping for Shèngdàn lǐwù 圣诞礼物 in a big shopping mall in Guangzhou. I found a little silk scarf I was considering and the shopkeeper came over to convince me it was exactly what I wanted. I explained (just for the chance to speak Chinese) that I was looking for Christmas presents and especially one for my mom. She and her shopkeeper friend were thrilled to learn that and started pointing at other things in the shop. One picked up a decorative fan and said (ready for the imaginary listening practice?):

Zhè ge sòng nǐ hěn hǎo.

I was shocked. I transcribed it in my head to be these characters:

这个送你很好 = I’ll give you this for free, that’s good.

I thought, “Really?! You’d just give this to me. Just because I’m shopping for Christmas presents? It looks kind of expensive though. I mean, it’s a really fancy fan.”

So I clarified:

Zhège sòng gěi wǒ ma?
这个送给我吗？
You’re giving this to me for free?

I’ve never heard so many “bù-s” in such a short time span, and coming from such smiling faces as one said:

Bú shì “sòng nǐ,” shì “sòng nǐ.”

and she made some hanzi characters on her hand.

Have you figured out the problem yet?

Thankfully, I’ve spent a lot of time down here in the South teaching Chinese students English majors, many of whom have the same pronunciation problem. I sorted it all out by saying:

O! Nǐ de yìsi shì “sòng lǐ”–sòng lǐwù de lǐ–bú shì “sòng nǐ.”
哦你的意思是”送礼”–送礼物的礼–不是”送你.”
Oh! You mean “to give as a gift”–the “li” of gift–not “to give you for free.”

The delight in the room could have lit all the Christmas trees in Tiānhé 天河!

The old “n/l” switcheroo is just one of the many widespread pronunciation problems we have to deal with in the South, and seems to be especially prevalent in Guangdong. The sounds are allophones in many fāngyán 方言 (including, apparently Cantonese) and so this sort of thing happens all the time. Many times you can figure out what it was supposed to be (“Nǐ qù lǎlǐ?”). This was just one of those times when both variations were possible and only one could be true.

• Free Gift from ChineseTeachers.com
• Musical Gifts for the Holidays
• Learning Mandarin in Cantonese Land
• Northern vs. Southern Vocab
• Stump the Laowai: wúnài 无奈

Listen Now

[See original post to listen to audio]

Download the MP3

Transcript

1. qǐng qǔ xiànjīn 请取现金.

Please take (your) cash.

2. jiāoyì wánchéng hòu, qǐng qǔ huí kǎ 交易完成后,请取回卡.

After (you’ve) completed your transaction, please take back (your) card.

3. qǐng qǔ huí kǎ 请取回卡.

Please take back (your) card.

The ATM says other stuff too, but this is all I personally encounter when I withdraw pinkies. If anyone has any recordings of other (non-China Construction Bank) ATMs that are different, I’m sure it would be interesting to compare. Yeah right! Who records ATMs?

• Northern vs. Southern Vocab
• Stuff you might be hearing – Restaurants
• Colored Tones on MDBG
• Terms of Endearment
• Language Learning is Messy III: Learn What You Need

Me: nǐ jǐ suì le?

Boy: shí suì bā suì.

Me: shí suì ma?

Boy: shí suì bā suì.

Me: (looking confusedly at the mother) tā jǐ suì le? bā suì háishì shí suì?

Mother: tā yǒu bā suì…(something I couldn’t understand)…shí suì.

Me: suǒyǐ…tā…um…yǒu bā suì…le…ba…de…ma…ne…qǐlái?

Ok, so I might be exaggerating with that last line, but the point is: I was grasping at straws! I was shocked that I could be so stumped by such a simple question. It’s one of the sure-fire ways to commandeer a conversation: ask a question that requires a simple number as the response. The problem was they seemed to be telling me that the boy was both 8 years old (bā suì 八岁) and 10 years old (shí suì 十岁 ).

OK, no doubt you’re all pointing at your computer screens laughing at me because you know all about the traditional Asian age reckoning system that counts a child as being one year old at birth. Well I did too. But, as so often happens in Chinese, there was yet ANOTHER way of saying it that I didn’t know, thus adding to the nightmare of listening comprehension.

The Chinese Wikipedia sorted it all out for me:

• xūsuì 虚岁 = traditional Asian age system where you’re born and you’re already one year old (Wikipedia article).
• zhōusuì 周岁 also known as shísuì 实岁 = system where you’re born at zero years old (Wikipedia article).
  

So they were saying “according to the system where you’re born at zero years old, this boy is eight years old.”

That clears it all up except for one little thing: why would they think that I, a laowai in China, would want that extra information? I guess they were just being very thorough with their answer? But the kid himself said it to me first. Is that how he and his friends talk on the playground at school?

Kid 1: How old are you?

Kid 2: Eight

Kid 1: Earth years?

Kid 2: Yeah, so?

Kid 1: Which system of age calculation?

Kid 2: Zero years old at birth?

Kid 1: Oh, OK. I’m only five, but that’s in Martian years.

Kid 2: OK, so I’ll call you gēge 哥哥.

I mean, it just seems a bit overly clear for an eight-year-old unless he’s used to dealing with both systems.

So, my questions for dàjiā 大家 (especially my two Chinese readers):

1. Which system of age calculation do you use most often?

2. When stating your age, do you also usually state whether you’re talking about xūsuì 虚岁 or zhōusuì 周岁 or is one of them tacitly understood as the default?

3. How often is the other system of age calculation used? Only in special situations? With certain generations of people?

But mostly:

4. Why would this kid (and then his mother) tell me that they were talking about shísuì 實歲.

Thanks for your help.

*BONUS* If you’ve got Quick Time installed, you can find out how old you really are on Mars.

• Happy 50th, Pinyin! Happy 102nd, Creator!
• Eavesdropping is Too Hard
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• Language Learning is Messy II: Talk a Lot

1. Minimal pairs (only one difference)

The other day I was invited to a colleague’s house to eat some home-made, zhèngzōng 正宗 Chinese food (as if the rest of the food available at Chinese restaurants here is all jiǎde 假的!). While I was in the kitchen not helping, the chef asked if I had a better apple.

Me: Apple? Why do you need apples?

Chef: No! Not an apple. A flat-bottomed pan silly!

Check out the minimal pair:

• píngguǒ 苹果 = apple
• píngguō 平锅 = flat-bottomed pan [flat pan]

I was tricked because “apple” is a much more common word and when listening to the chef’s rapid-fire speech, I didn’t have time to analyze all the tones. It just sounded like “apple” to me. Also, I’d never heard “flat” and “pan” put together like that before (although it makes perfect sense).

2. Actual homonyms (sound exactly the same)

The list of single-syllable homonyms is endless. Here’s one example:

Soldier 1: I don’t want another arrow stupid! Give me a sword!

Soldier 2: What do you mean you don’t want another sword? Let’s use measure words, maybe that will help. Or better yet, write the hanzi.

Single-syllable homonym:

• jiàn 箭 = arrow
• jiàn 剑 = sword

Chinese gets away with way more of those than any other language I’ve ever encountered (Spanish) because they’ve always got that hanzi safety net to fall back on. Also, I’m almost certain that measure words arose (at least partially) to help people differentiate between homonyms (the measure word for arrow is “zhī” 支 and the measure word for sword is “bǎ” 把).

But occasionally you’ll get snookered by a multi-syllable homonym. That’s when it really gets fun:

• shōufèizhàn 收费站 = tollbooth [receive fee station]
• shōufèizhàn 收废站 = trash dump [receive waste station]

It makes you feel sorry for the poor guy who explained to his girlfriend that he works in a tollbooth, but when she told her parents they assumed it was a trash dump. How homonyms killed a blossoming romance.

Or:

• yòuguǎi 诱拐 = kidnap
• yòuguǎi 右拐 = turn right

I can just imagine some gang leader giving directions, “…and then, turn right at the tollbooth.” Later that night, his minions walk in with some ragamuffin in handcuffs.

Boss: What’s this?!

Minion: You told us to go kidnap at the trash dump. This was the only kid there.

Anyone else know any multi-syllable homonyms or minimal pears…oops…I mean pairs? Do share.

[Update: 2009-09-17

The following comic strip was based on this post. Pinyin below. Click image to see original site.]

A: kuài​! gěi​ wǒ​ jiàn​! mǎ​ shàng​! 快给我剑!
B: shì jiàn​ hái ​shì​ jiàn​? 是剑还是箭?

• Unnecessary Measure Words
• Reductions: Missing Sounds
• What’s that “zi” 子 thing?
• How Hard Is Chinese to Learn, Really?
• Words That are Their Own Palindromes

It’s so hard to use the TV as listening practice, I thought I’d try to help stack the deck in your favor. If you can get to where you recognize these really common words when they come up, that’ll free your brain to listen to what else is being said, hopefully. It’s still a kind of magical process (and truthfully, the TV is often WAY to fast), but maybe this’ll help.

I’ve left out anything related to specific sports or events. You’re on your own for those as well as the ubiquitous (and often baffling) country names.

Venues

• niǎocháo 鸟巢 = The Bird’s Nest (the main stadium)
• shuǐ lìfāng 水立方 = The Water Cube (the swimming venue)

Medals

• jīnpái 金牌 = gold medal
• yínpái 银牌 = silver medal
• tóngpái 铜牌 = bronze medal
• kuài 块 = (measure word for medals)
  • yí kuài jīnpái 一块金牌 = 1 gold medal
    
• bānjiǎng 颁奖 = to award a medal
• guànjūn 冠军 = champion

Ceremonies

• Àoyùnhuì 奥运会 = The Olympics (abbreviation for Àolínpǐkè yùndòng huì 奥林匹克运动会)
• kāimùshì 开幕式 = opening ceremony
• guānzhòng 观众 = audience
• nǚshìmen, xiānshengmen 女士们先生们 = ladies and gentlemen
• qǐng qǐlì 清起立 = please stand
• guógē 国歌 = national anthem

Teams

• duì 队 = team
  • zhōngguó duì 中国队 = China’s team (in whatever sport)
    *They don’t say in sports it’s “China v. America” they always say it’s “China’s team v. America’s team” (I guess so people don’t think those players out there ARE the whole country. Whew! Thanks for the clarification.)
• dàibiǎo tuán 代表团 = delegation [represent group]
  • zhōngguó dàibiǎo tuán 中国代表团 = The Chinese delegation
• xuǎnshǒu 选手 = contestant [choose hand]
  • shíwǔ hào xuǎnshǒu 十五号选手 = contestant/player number 15
  • míng 名 = (classifier for famous/honored people)
  • yì míng xuǎnshǒu 一名选手 = a contestant
• duìshǒu 对手 = opponent [against hand]

Matches

• chǎng 场 = (measure word for sports events)
  • zhè chǎng bǐsài 这场比赛 = this game/match/race
  • bànchǎng 半场 = halftime
• lún 轮 = round (of a sporting event)
  • dì yī lún 第一轮 = first round
• juésài 决赛 = final round
  • bàn juésài 半决赛 = semifinals
• zàntíng 暂停 = timeout
• shīwù 失误 = mistake/fault
• fēn(r) 分(儿) = point/points (score)
  *a lot of commentators are from north where that “-r” gets added

Exclamations (by commentators)

(In alphabetical order. Of course, some of these will be appropriate for some events more than others.)

• chūsè 出色 = outstanding [out-color]
• hǎoqiú 好球 = good shot (in any ball or “ballish” sport)
• piàoliang 漂亮 = beautiful
• qiǎomiào 巧妙 = clever
• jīngcǎi 精彩 = brilliant / spectacular
• kěxī 可惜 = too bad
• shǎnshè 闪射 = shining
• yíhàn 遗憾 = too bad / regretful
• jiāyóu 加油 = Come on! (cheering someone on)
  *I had to add this, even though it’s not really the commentators who say it

If anyone has a suggestion for something that belongs on this list that isn’t here, please feel free to share (I may add more as the weeks go on too).

• Why does Chinese have measure words?
• Unnecessary Measure Words
• Which measure words do they really use?
• Stuff you might be hearing – Restaurants
• I Work in a Trash Dump

The reduced sound on the other side of the “->” arrow is my own approximation of what it sounds like to me, and is not standard pinyin.

bǐjiào 比较 ->bǐyào

Here’s a link to an audio file (you’ll need Quick Time) and PDF transcript where this reduction happens in the first sentence. This resource, Working with Spoken Chinese, headed up by Professor Hongyin Tao at UCLA would be great if it had English translations on the transcripts. But, it doesn’t.

duōshao qián 多少钱 -> duō’ao qián

I don’t have any recordings to prove this (yet) but, watch for it. That “sh” just drops right away.

bù zhīdào 不知道 -> bù rīdào

The “ri” there more resembles the actual Chinese pronunciation of the “ri” combonation (like in rì 日). I’m sure it’s not exactly the same, but that’s kind of what it sounds like to me. Regardless or what it is, it certainly doesn’t have the hard “d” sound at the beginning of the “zh” that it usually does.

bú è 不饿 -> bè

Interestingly, the “be” combination doesn’t appear on the Pinyin Chart, but I’ve heard it clear as day when someone wants to say quickly how hungry they aren’t. Other common phrases starting with “bù” 不 seem to leave out the “u” just like this (for example, “bù hǎo” 不好 sometimes sounds like “b’ hǎo” to me when it’s said fast).

For Listening Not Speaking

I’m not suggesting we talk like this, because there are probably various little subtleties to saying these reductions “correctly” that we don’t know about. I’m still going to try to say everything as clearly as possible (although, I must confess that I do try to use the reduced forms of these from time to time, just as an academic experiment to see if I’ll be understood). Identifying these is mostly to help with our listening.

If anyone else has noticed these or other reductions that I haven’t mentioned, please feel free to leave a comment identifying the phenomenon. Also, if anyone comes across any recordings that demonstrate these, for example at Chinesepod, please leave us the link and what time (approximately) in the file it happens at, so we can hear it for ourselves.

• Beijing Sounds – My Review
• We Are Ready: Beijing Olympics Song
• Free Gifts
• Stuff You Might Be Hearing: ATMs
• Why Is It So Easy to Rhyme in Mandarin?

Read Chinese (yuèdú zhōngwén 阅读中文) is available in simplified characters or traditional characters online. Or you can download the whole set to your computer in a nice 6 MB zip file.

Pros

• complete hanzi transcript and audio file for each lesson
• English translation for each lesson
• no special plugins required (as far as I know)
• downloadable version in case you don’t want to use them online
• occasional little cultural notes
• generally useful vocabulary

Cons

• no pinyin (but you can dump the whole hanzi transcript into an online dictionary to see the pinyin)
• Interface is a little counter intuitive. For example, you have to use the link called “Text Plus” at the bottom of the screen to find the audio and English)

If you’d like to check it out, I suggest starting with “A Self -Introductory Note“

• MDBG Online Dictionary – My review
• Stuff You Might Be Hearing: On the Bus
• ChineseTeachers.com – My Review
• Organize your Vocab: Hanzi Web
• The Quest for “Anyway” II: Success!

• Literal, word by word translations appear in [brackets].
• Optional words appear in (parentheses)
• Notes appear with an asterisk (*in parentheses)
• Measure words are translated in {curly brackets}.
• Alternative translations are separated by a slash (/)

First words

nǐ xiǎng/yào mǎi diǎn shénme? 你想/要买点什么?
= What would you like to buy? [you want buy little what]

nǐ xiǎng/yào mǎi diǎn shá? 你想/要买点啥?
= What would you like to buy? [you want buy little what (*northern dialect)]

nǐ yào shénme? 你要什么?
= What would you like? [you want what]

mǎi shénme? 买什么?
= What would you like? [buy what]

Time to pay

shōu nǐ bā kuài qián 收你八块钱
= Received your 8 yuan

zhǎo nǐ yí kuài qián 找你一块钱
= Here’s your 1 yuan change [find you 1 yuan]

Please wait

(shāo) děng yíhuìr 稍等一会儿
= just a moment [(little) wait a moment]

(shāo) děng yíxià 稍等一下
= just a moment [(little) wait a moment]

See also Stuff you might be hearing – Restaurants

• Stuff you might be hearing – Restaurants
• Hey, That’s Cheating! OK?
• Stuff You Might Be Hearing: ATMs
• Looking Forward to Your Love
• Which measure words do they really use?