First Episode 9: 家有儿女

[roddy]

A part of the Grand First Episode Project -- See this thread for more info.

30th April: 家有儿女: Family comedy. Husband and wife remarry, creating a chaotic and fairly easy to follow household.

家有儿女 emule - youku - youku2

Episode Guide - Transcripts - Vocabulary

I've never really sat down and deliberately watched 家有儿女, just caught bits of it on TV and the bus, but it's always struck me as a lot more enjoyable than any show with more child actors than adult ones should be.

So basically our plot for the first episode is: Two single parents, 夏东海 and 刘希凤 remarry (don't know if we ever find out what happened to their first spouses, perhaps there's a murder mystery in there) and set up household with their two sons - 夏雨 (young podgy one) and 刘星 (older naughty one). They decide to have 夏雪, the dad's daughter who grew up with her grandparents while he and his son were in the US, move in, and the substance of the episode is her 'adjusting' to the household, ending up with an inappropriate boyfriend being brought home.

Fairly simple stuff - you could turn the sound down and still be able to follow the plot perfectly I think. Found a partial transcript on the net, will attach it here in case it's of any use. There are bits missing, and probably errors.

家有儿女1.doc

Edited March 6, 2012 at 02:15 PM by renzhe

[imron]

宋丹丹 character's ex-husband makes an appearance in some of the later shows, so no murder mystery there. I've not seen much of the show myself, just bits and pieces while flicking channels. It never really appealed to me all that much, and so I probably won't be watching the first episode.

[roddy]

Right enough, he does - I've seen him, just forgot about it. Unreliable no-hoper, I think.

Yeah, I was kind of dubious about watching this one myself, but at 20 minutes I figured it couldn't hurt.

[muyongshi]

There is a point in one of the more recent sessions where 夏东海's ex is around...

I've watched the random episode when I stay in hotels traveling (no TV in my house) and found it mindless enough but it is one of those it can get boring really easy type of shows.

For being a first episode wasn't to impressed with it actually however the one thing it did well was set up the characters personalities... Other than that...boring.

[roddy]

I've never really sat down and deliberately watched 家有儿女

I've not seen much of the show myself, just bits and pieces while flicking channels

I've watched the random episode when I stay in hotels traveling

You'd think we were all embarrassed or something. Come on lads, lets admit it. We're fans!

[renzhe]

I've seen bits and pieces of this in hotels too, and it is (very) easy viewing.

The positive thing about this one (compared to most others in our list) is that it's a sitcom, so you can dip in and out, watch them out of order, whenever you have time.

It's kind of like "full house", but far less moralising and annoying. Harmless entertainment for the masses.

EDIT: Here are some elementary / intermediate level words from that transcript:

瞧 qiáo - look at

跟亲兄弟似的 like own siblings

轰 hōng - explosion / bang

品位 pǐn wèi - rank / grade / quality

增高 zēng gāo - grow taller

打扮 dǎ ban - to decorate / to dress

朝夕 zhāo xī - morning and night / all the time

相处 xiāng chǔ - get along with each other

咯 lo (final particle similar to 了, indicating that sth is obvious)

心理准备 xīn lǐ zhǔn bèi - mental / psychological preparation

战斗准备 zhàn dòu zhǔn bèi - battle preparation

虫子 chóng zi - worm / insect

咬 yǎo - to bite

蚊子 wén zi - mosquito

概率 gài lǜ - probability (math.)

头奖 tóu jiǎng - first prize

编排 biān pái - to arrange

节目 jié mù - program

观念 guān niàn - notion / thought

螃蟹 páng xiè - crab

污染 wū rǎn - pollution / contamination

标识 biāo zhì - mark

正宗 zhèng zōng - traditional / old school

闸蟹壳

主见 zhǔ jiàn - one's own opinion

祝酒 zhù jiǔ - to toast

衣食住行 yī shí zhù xíng - clothing, food, housing and transport / people's basic needs

各方面 gè fāng miàn - every aspect

保持 bǎo chí - to keep / to maintain / to hold / to preserve

个性 gè xìng - individuality / personality

不容置疑 bu róng zhì yí - cannot be doubted (成语 saw) -- see 无容置疑

勿 wù - do not

委屈 wěi qū - to feel wronged / to nurse a grievance

哭 kū - to cry

道歉 dào qiàn - to apologize

不像话 bù xiàng huà - unreasonable / shocking / outrageous

教育 jiào yù - to educate / to teach

主意 zhǔ yi - plan

狠毒 hěn dú - vicious / malicious / savage

忍 rěn - to endure / to tolerate

通情达理 tōng qíng dá lǐ - to be reasonable and understanding

善解人意 shàn jiě rén yì - (set phrase) considerate

难道 nán dào - don't tell me ... / could it be that...?

熟悉 shú xī - to be familiar with / to know well

周边 zhōu biān - periphery / rim

环境 huán jìng - environment / circumstances

耐心 nài xīn - patient (adjective)

宽大为怀 kuān dà wéi huái - generous

枕巾 zhěn jīn - pillow cloth

擦脚 cā jiǎo - to wipe one's feet

狂野 kuáng yě - coarse and wild

不满意 bù mǎn yì - disatisfied

Edited July 2, 2009 at 12:47 PM by renzhe

[gougou]

No need to come out of the closet, as this must be one of the most omnipresent series on Chinese television. I never watch TV myself, but I've seen this pop up at least half a dozen times while my flatmate was channel flicking. Never got to see more than 3 seconds of it though as said flatmate doesn't watch Chinese television.

[roddy]

I've seen bits and pieces of this in hotels too

I never watch TV myself, but I've seen this pop up at least half a dozen times while my flatmate was channel flicking.

Yeah, yeah. You've got the boxed set, haven't you. DVD9 as well, with commentary and special features . . .

Certainly fairly easy viewing, and another advantage is that at 20 minutes or so an episode it's much more bite sized than the more usual 40-45 minute length.

[imron]

Come on lads, lets admit it. We're fans!

Nope, definitely a non-fan. I don't think I've even seen a full-episode.

[ajax]

Also unwilling to admit to being a fan, but I have watched at least parts of quite a few episodes.... Wish there were more Chinese shows that don't require sequential viewing.

The first two minutes of this episode cleared up my confusion regarding the 3 kids. From the (few) Chinese sitcoms I've seen, I get the impressing having a large family is the thing to do. Guess single child families just aren't funny.

[renzhe]

Yeah, yeah. You've got the boxed set, haven't you. DVD9 as well, with commentary and special features . . .

.....and the poster and the special edition underwear, I confess, I confess sob sob

[Meng Lelan]

So basically our plot for the first episode is: Two single parents, 夏东海 and 刘希凤 remarry (don't know if we ever find out what happened to their first spouses, perhaps there's a murder mystery in there) and set up household with their two sons - 夏雨 (young podgy one) and 刘星 (older naughty one).

I don't understand - are the sons from the previous marriages? So they would be stepsons? Are there Chinese terms for stepfather? Stepmother? Stepson? I thought divorced mothers can't remarry in China, or can they?

[muyongshi]

I don't understand - are the sons from the previous marriages? So they would be stepsons? Are there Chinese terms for stepfather? Stepmother? Stepson? I thought divorced mothers can't remarry in China, or can they?

Yes, from a previous marriages (two in fact- mom and dad were both previously married then they to each other 再婚了).

继父，继母. And yes divorced mothers CAN remarry in China. Don't know where you would have got an idea like that...

[yonglin]

I'm a die-hard fan...! Had it not been for the fact that my university blocked all p2p internet activity, I'd be watching it every day for breakfast on PPLive. Does anyone know a website where they've got a good number of episodes up?

[imron]

Check the very first post. There's a link to the Youku episodes. Youku uses a streaming Flash player.

[Radial]

I often watched this when I was traveling.. short and funny... but never saw the first story... explains a little bit about the family... The show has been around for a while... and they are much older in the current show...

[renzhe]

宋丹丹 character's ex-husband makes an appearance in some of the later shows, so no murder mystery there.

Both of the ex-spouses show up in the first episode of the second season. So there is no murder mystery there (unfortunately).

The naughty kids develop a secret plan which involves getting new year's money from both sides of the family in order to execute the "CC计划". Then, in the end, you find out that the "CC计划" involves buying hearing aid for their grandparents -- get it, "C" looks like an ear!

That's when I figured out that this either this is too innocent, or that I'm too hardcore, and that I'd probably enjoy a different show more......

[dbanderson01]

Hello everyone,

My teacher recommend this t.v. series to our class today as a good way to practice our tingli and increase our vocabulary.. While we can find all the episodes pretty easy, we are having a hard time finding a website that will provide us with the actor's lines. The transcript document provided by Roddy for the first episode is exactly what we are trying to obtain for the other episodes.

I did a baidu search on "家有儿女的经典台词" tai(2)ci(2) being actor's lines, but having a hard time finding anything that will give me the line's for each episode.

If you can recommend any website, or offer any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated..

Take care.

Edited July 22, 2008 at 07:57 AM by dbanderson01
added additonal info. provided by Roddy.

[roddy]

Can't be sure how thorough I was, but I would have searched for transcripts when setting this up, and if that's all the first post has got, that might be all that's available. You could try searching on distinctive phrases from a particular episode - I think that's what I had to resort to in this case.

[renzhe]

....aaaand a BUMP for this one too, now with a vocab list from roddy's transcript (see post #6).

This is one of the easiest shows for the beginners and elementary level learners, so having a vocabulary list is probably useful. Hope it helps.