Laowai Chinese 老外中文

2 New Songs: Rich Girl, Tuífèi 颓废

2010 June 13 – 1:57 pm

Categories: Songs | 2 Comments »

I’m delighted to announce that my sister Marie has just finished recording two Mandarin songs here in my little studio.

1. Rich Girl

I wrote the song with our college’s hip hop dance team in mind (I haven’t heard from them whether they like the song or not yet). I invented a character (I imagined a Shànghǎi rén 上海人 for some reason) and recorded the “voice” of the ATM here on campus to mix in.

Download the MP3

Lyrics

2. Tuífèi 颓废

Kicking off our new Chinese cover song album, Marie played the piano and recorded all of her own vocals while I was in class. I must say, I like this piano sans-harmonica version even more than the original recording by Xián Zǐ 弦子, but then again, I’m piānxīn 偏心.

Download the MP3

Lyrics

Any help with the translation of Tuífèi 颓废 (including the title) would be appreciated. I’m really not sure I’ve captured the ethos of the song correctly.

Wanted: Cantonese Materials For Foreigners Who Already Know Mandarin

2010 June 11 – 10:18 pm

Categories: Resources | 5 Comments »

I am not even close to committing to trying to think about beginning to learn Cantonese. It’s Mandarin all the way for me (for now). But the fact is: I’m finishing my 3rd year in Cantonese Land (where I happily use Mandarin, by the way) and I really should at least know about the báihuà 白话 here. (Oh! The peer pressure!)

According to this thread at Sinoglot, it’ll be easier for me to learn Cantonese (if I ever decided to) by comparing it to the Mandarin that I already know than it would be for someone starting from scratch (seems obvious, but it’s complicated, apparently). I won’t be able to ignore the Mandarin I already know so I’ll be comparing no matter what happens.

What I’d really like to find is some materials that outline:

1) The different Romanization systems of Cantonese (and which one I should learn)

2) The tones (including how many there are: a shockingly difficult question for any of these native speakers to answer).

3) The phonemes

4) Anything else that would be helpful in getting the “discount” based on the Mandarin I already know.

I realize the target market for this resource is (can it be true?) even smaller than the target market for my own book, but I was wondering if these things exist anywhere (outside of the comments section of that thread, of course).

Anyone (including you in that thread) have any ideas?

Up North Chant

2010 June 1 – 10:17 am

Categories: Child's Play | 6 Comments »

In honor of Értóng Jié 儿童节, this is the first post in a series designed to bring us foreigners up to the level of Chinese elementary school children (not including their studies of hanzi, but if you want that, see Randy Alexander’s project).

For those of us who have mild dyslexia, here’s a little kǒujué 口诀 to help you keep the compass points straight:

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  Directions Chant (146 hits)

Shàng Běi, Xià Nán, Zuǒ Xī, Yòu Dōng
上北, 下南, 左西, 右东

Translation:

Up North, Down South, Left West, Right East

Of course, if you have no idea where left and right are it’s not going to be that useful.

Anyone else know any children’s chants for remembering things? Please share.