TV challenge for elementary-level Chinese learners.

[daofeishi]

After having seen yet another post that complains about the leap from textbook material to material created for native speakers, I want to try something. Inspired by feihong's challenge for the more advanced students of Chinese, I've tried to create a challenge for the newbies/elementary students that draws upon native level material, in this case a TV show for children. Hopefully that will illustrate that working native level material into your own learning routine is both possible and advantageous early on, and if you start off easy, transitioning into native level Chinese material doesn't have to be that hard. I can't promise that I'll turn this into a regular thing, but if it generates any interest, I'll try to at least make a few more.

Instructions

1. Have a look at the vocabulary list. Look up the words you don't already know in your dictionary of choice
   
2. Watch the video (approx. 8 mins). Remember, the point is not to understand 100% of what is being said. (They will be speaking very fast sometimes.) Try to get a gist of what is happening, and make out as much of the dialogue as you are able to. Don't look at the questions yet. Write a very short summary of the main events.
   
3. Answer the questions. Go back to the video and replay parts of it if needed.
   
4. Give some feedback on how you liked the exercise and how difficult it was.
   

Video: 大头儿子小头爸爸 ep. 1 YouTube, Youku

Vocab list: 鸽子 (gēzi)，抱 (bào)，发抖 (fā dǒu)，害怕 (hàipà)，就算 (jiùsuàn)，挂 (guà)，瞧 (qiáo)，大概 (dàgài)，脖子 (bózi)，痒(yǎng)，迷路 (mílù)，受伤 (shòu shāng)，表演 (biǎoyǎn)，晒太阳 (shài tàiyáng)，舍不得 (shě bù dé)

Questions:

Fill in the blanks in the dialogue

儿子：小头爸爸，窗外有[1]。

爸爸：哦？大头儿子，快到窗口去看看

儿子：呀，是只小鸽子

爸爸：是只小鸽子

儿子：爸爸，我们把它［2］回家。你看，它都冷得［3］了

爸爸：好。来吧。

儿子：小鸽子，［4］，我们是[5]

6: Why are they attaching a note to the pigeon's leg?

Fill in the blanks

爸爸：瞧，小鸽子［7］

儿子：那不是小鸽子，［8］

爸爸：大概是小鸽子的［9］吧

10. How does 大头儿子 address the pigeon keeper?

11. Talking to the pigeon, 大头儿子 uses a grammatical structure that means "try and VERB"/"VERB and see". What is it? Translate the following sentences into Chinese:

"This bread is delicious. Try it! (lit: try and taste)

“I think you will like this song. Listen and see if you like it"

12. What does the letter say?

[Zeppa]

Thanks for the link, daofeishi. There are a lot of other videos of that programme. It looks very promising for practice.

I found it very useful that you listed some of the vocabulary.

I tried to do the exercise but I would be happy just watching for myself. I did not write a short summary of the main events but if you want to do something like this with students, I can see you might want them to tell the story themselves.

Comments: I couldn't get no. 1 acoustically - sounds like shengyin. 2, 3 and 4 OK

6. Maybe their address?

7 - 9 I haven't located where these come in the 8 minutes. 8 minutes is a long time for a listening exercise!

10. Can't catch it. It sounds like shoushuo, but that doesn't make any sense to me.

11. 'Try to'? I can't locate it.

I think the whole thing depends on people's level. The fewer characters you know, the more the test becomes a reading exercise. I am sure you have picked out only a few of the many potential language points. Which language points make an impression depends on what I already know.

I would like some help with the introductory song, which I suppose comes up every programme.

Thanks for this!

[maiqiu]

daofeishi-

this is great stuff- thanks so much for compiling this into an exercise!

I too feel there's a big gap between the elementary stuff out there and full-speed native dialogue, especially for those who have taken about a year of Chinese and might have about 500+ character vocabulary but aren't at the point of listening comprehension in native dialogue. Generally, children's media is a good way to bridge that gap since the vocabulary is limited and a lot of it is visual. I won't have access to internet for a few days but I will definitely follow up and let you know how it goes!

[daofeishi]

Zeppa, I tried to send this as a PM, but since you're a new member and can't use the messaging system, I'll have to post it here instead

Comments: I couldn't get no. 1 acoustically - sounds like shengyin. 2, 3 and 4 OK

6. Maybe their address?

7 - 9 I haven't located where these come in the 8 minutes. 8 minutes is a long time for a listening exercise!

10. Can't catch it. It sounds like shoushuo, but that doesn't make any sense to me.

11. 'Try to'? I can't locate it.

1. Correct. It is 声音

Did you get 5 as well?

6. This one is difficult, but you were almost correct. In this part, dad tells his son to give the bird some extra food since it has needs the energy to fly off. The boy gets surprised and saddened. He doesn't want to let go of the pigeon. His dad tells him:

爸爸：那，它爸爸找不到自己的孩子会急成什么样子的，你说呢？ (Well, when his dad can't find him, how anxious do you think he will be, huh?

儿子：我不管，反正我要它留下 (I don't care, no matter what I want him to stay)

爸爸：就算你把他留下，那也要得到它妈妈的同意啊，对不对啊？(If you want him to stay, you have to get his mother to agree, right?)

儿子：那我们。。。写封信挂在他脚上带给他妈妈 (Then we... will write a letter, fasten it to its foot and bring it to his mother)

爸爸：好！(alright!)

7-9: this is at 4:10, when they are walking in the park.

10: Yup, it's 叔叔 (shu1shu, uncle), a very common way for children to address grown ups.

11: When 大头儿子 is playing with the pigeon, he asks it to 走走看：try to walk (since its foot was hurt)

12: Have you tried to translate the letter?

Admin Edit: Added

tags

Edit: Thanks for the spoiler tags. I forgot all about them.

[daofeishi]

I would like some help with the introductory song, which I suppose comes up every programme.

大头儿子，小头爸爸

一对好朋友，快乐父子俩

儿子的头大手儿小

爸爸的头小手儿很大

大手牵小手走路不怕滑

走呀走呀走走走走

转眼儿子就长大

啦啦啦。。。

转眼儿子就长大

大头儿子，小头爸爸 big-headed child, small-headed dad

一对好朋友，快乐父子俩 对 here means a pair. 一对好朋友: Two good friends. 俩 is a measure word for pairs of people. 你们俩: you two. Ordinarily, the measure word comes before the noun, as in 俩父子, but having it come after the noun is a very common literary structure (and can often be seen in newspapers). 快乐父子俩: Lit. happy father, son, two of them. I.e. Two happy people, father and son.

儿子的头大手儿小 The son's head is big, his hands small

爸爸的头小手儿很大 The dad's head is small, his hands big

大手牵小手走路不怕滑 牵 means to tug or pull, here it means to hold hands. The big hands are holding the small hands, when they're walking they are not afraid of slipping

走呀走呀走走走走, Walk, walk, walk, walk, walk

转眼儿子就长大 一转眼 or just 转眼 is a very common expression which means suddenly/all of a sudden. Lit. "in the roll of an eye". All of a sudden our child has grown up.

[laurenth]

Here's my take:

Fill in the blanks in the dialogue

儿子：小头爸爸，窗外有声音。

爸爸：哦？大头儿子，快到窗口去看

儿子：呀，是只小鸽子

爸爸：是只小鸽子

儿子：爸爸，我们把它抱回家。你看，它都冷得发抖了

爸爸：好。来吧。

儿子：小鸽子，别害怕，我们是好人。

6: Why are they attaching a note to the pigeon's leg?

After repeatedly listening, I'm still not entirely sure. I think they want to ask the pigeon's mother whether she'd agree to the pigeon staying at 大头儿子's home.

Fill in the blanks

爸爸：瞧，小鸽子回来了。

儿子：那不是小鸽子，是大鸽子。

爸爸：大概是小鸽子的姐姐吧。

10. How does 大头儿子 address the pigeon keeper? 叔叔

11. Talking to the pigeon, 大头儿子 uses a grammatical structure that means "try and VERB"/"VERB and see". What is it?

No idea. I think I hear this: 小鸽子,你的伤快好了。快，走走开 (?)。喂(?)你要当心，要慢慢地走，知道马? 嗯，还要多晒太阳。 这样身体才会好。etc.

Translate the following sentences into Chinese:

"This bread is delicious. Try it! (lit: try and taste) “I think you will like this song. Listen and see if you like it"

12. What does the letter say? This pigeon belongs to the person(s) who love it most.

Great thread, I hope there'll be more like that. Thanks daofeishi.

[Zeppa]

Great, thanks very much, daofeishi. Yes, I wanted to change my online name, but as a beginner I seem to be a kind of leper in the forum. I've been reading for a long time but had no need to post.

By the way, many thanks for the suggestion of reading Yu Hua's To Live. I managed the whole thing, but only by using pleco.com dictionaries on an iPod Touch. It was (even) better than the film, I thought.

I'm glad you can put a spoiler message in. I thought that I should have written 'spoiler' myself.

I know the word shengyin as characters, but I'm just not used to listening and I didn't put two and two together. Probably a matter of practice.

I got no. 5 even before I read the questions. I have heard shushu too but not often, so didn't know it would be that. I didn't get zou zou kan, but I did get the following with man.

I haven't read all your characters yet, will try later. I haven't tried to translate the letter - something about 'love him'.

I must say I find it a bit sexist how the mother plays no role at all!

Thanks for the song details too.

[daofeishi]

laurenth:

1-5: spot on

6: Correct. The dialogue goes:

爸爸：嘿，让它多吃点儿，等会儿飞起来啊，有力！

儿子：飞？它要飞到哪儿去啊？

爸爸：让它飞回它自己的家里去啊。

儿子：不行，我不让它走！我要它留下，长胖，做我的孩子。

爸爸：那，它爸爸找不到自己的孩子会急成什么样子的，你说呢？

儿子：我不管，反正我要它留下

爸爸：就算你把他留下，那也要得到它妈妈的同意啊，对不对啊？

儿子：那我们。。。写封信挂在他脚上带给他妈妈

爸爸：好！

7-10: Correct.

11: Excellent transcription. What is said is 小鸽子，你的伤快好了，走走看！ 诶，你要当心，要慢慢地走知道吗？嗯，还要多晒太阳，这样身体才会好。 The structure is VV看.

12. Correct.

[Manos]

I am sad to say that i understood very little of this despite my hopes when i first saw this thread.

Who does this video adress to? For example i am on lesson 30 of New Practical Chinese Reader and i am totally aware of everything i should be till Lesson 30 including hanzi, vocabulary, grammar.

So taking into consideration the above and the fact that this video adresses to Elementary students, i m quite dissapointed Is it normal or is it just me not understanding this?

Is there anything i can practice my listening skills on given my level?

Thank you in advance!

[icebear]

#8 - You need to compliment the text book studies. I'd suggest browsing through the TV Suggestions thread and choosing one of the lower level ones. Watch an entire season of a series. For at least the first episode transcribe the whole thing (not SRS everything!). This will be slow and painful, with lots of pausing and rewinding. Then watch the next episode normally - if you feel like you're still not getting enough at full speed, transcribe the third episode. Continue until you are following enough of the content to feel comfortable with the main plot points. From then on just watch episodes and pause as needed for unknown words which are popping up over and over.

I mention the transcribing and watching in ignorant bliss because I think that ensures you don't just take a fully academic approach to it - which would be the reason you aren't getting anything in natural content by now. You need a lot of exposure to native content, at full speed, to be able to understand it. That's true of pretty much any language.

Remember, you're not watching the show for pleasure. You're watching it to train yourself to follow Chinese at native speeds. It will be painful at first, but it will get better.

[daofeishi]

I am sad to say that i understood very little of this despite my hopes when i first saw this thread.

That is not something you should be sad about at all. The first exposure you have to this kind of native-level material will always be disheartening unless you know exactly what to expect. And few people do, because text-book publishers like to stroke students' egoes by convincing them they are learning "advanced Chinese" when they in reality wouldn't be able to match the all-round language skills of a pre-schooler.

I remember when I, after a year of studying text-book Chinese, memorizing hanzi regularly and feeling fairly (over-)confident about my conversational Chinese, picked up a newspaper for the first time. Boy was that a huge blow to my ego. The paper might as well have been written in hieroglyphics for all I knew. Novels? Pretty much the same. Children's books? Even those posed a challenge. TV-shows? No dice. Cartoons for children? Couldn't pick out a word.

I felt like an idiot. I was reading so-called "advanced textbooks", but reading illustrated stories for children felt like wading through treacle. However, I decided to face the challenge head on, dictionary in hand, and started reading and listening to native-level material knowing that I would not be able to understand everything at the outset. I'd just have to get from it whatever I could. I started watching shows like the ones above, and reading 小人书，漫画 and simple books for children like 十万个为什么. Even though it was painful and I understood next to nothing when I started, that gradually changed. Once I got got the snowball rolling, more and more material became accessible, and I could progress through simple TV shows and online blogs, until one day I could pick up a newspaper and understand my first article without a dictionary, or listen to a CCTV newscast without it sounding like a single stream of unintelligible gobbeldygook. It took years, but it was worth it.

The exercise is meant for people at your level. The questions are hard, and if you find that you can't answer a single one, that is absolutely OK. Realize that understanding even 50% of what is being said is a lot of exposure away, and conversely: exposure is the only way of getting there. What you should do is focus on the gist of what is happening and pick out as many words as you can. I'll venture a guess and assume that the word 鸽子 is new to you. Watch the episode above and see if you can hear whenever the word 鸽子 is used. Can you pick out any other words you have learned?

Find another episode or show. Lather, rinse, repeat. Hopefully, the first thing that will happen is that watching native-level TV shows won't seem intimidating any more. After a while, you'll find that more and more of the show becomes accessible to you, and you can start watching them for pleasure. However, there is no hiding that massive exposure to painfully unintelligible material is what is needed to get there.

[jkhsu]

I am sad to say that i understood very little of this despite my hopes when i first saw this thread.

You should not get discouraged and think that somehow you're not doing well in your Chinese studies because this was hard. I'm well past elementary level and this was not an easy exercise if I followed daofeishi's directions of answering the questions afterwards.

One thing I want to point out is the discrepancy of typical Chinese as a foreign language levels (overseas) when compared to native levels. When I finished 2 years of college level Chinese in the US and was at the so-called "intermediate" level, I visited China and could not get through a first grade level book without looking up several words per sentence. I was really shocked and frustrated at first but realized that Chinese as a foreign language levels from typical universities tend to make you think you know more than what you really know. Recently, I visited China again and had trouble reading through 3rd grade material and this was after finishing some "advanced" level textbooks and being able to work through HSK5 material.

Additionally, I've noticed that audio/visual materials aimed for native kids are not that much easier than those for adults. They just use a different set of vocab (usually names of animals, sounds, etc.) and a bit easier grammar. So don't think that it's a piece of cake just because it's a cartoon.

Overall, I agree with daofeishi in post #10 that it doesn't hurt to dive into this stuff early and get used to listening to native level material. However, if you feel it's still way over your head then hold off and go with my suggestion below:

Is there anything i can practice my listening skills on given my level?

Yes, one suggestion is to start by listening to podcasts such as Chinesepod, etc. If you do this consistently and daily, you'll see a huge improvement in your listening comprehension. If you can get to upper intermediate level in Chinesepod, you should be able to work through most native level a/v material. I say "work through" meaning you still won't understand everything but you shouldn't feel like it's way over your head.

[Manos]

Wow thank you so much for all the help guys!

I did feel very frustrated but after reading your replies i am only determined to get there!

I will take everyone's advice and start listening to such videos and see what happens.

Icebear is this the TV suggestions thread you re talking about http://www.chinese-f...d-index-thread/ or am i looking for a different one?

daofeishi you are absolutely right! 鸽子 is a new word to me. after seeing what it means in the first post i could spot it wherever it showed up.

Also lets say, i watch the video above over and over and i guess i will be improving as the time goes by, but since there is no written dialogue somewhere, how will i be able to ultimately understand/transcribe everything?

非常感谢

[imron]

Something that can help is working with transcripts. I outline a technique that I use in this post here, which itself is based on ideas presented in this thread here. There isn't much native material around that has full transcripts, however there's a great TV show called 锵锵三人行 which provides them (links to content and transcripts are in my first link). If you find that show a little overwhelming, you might also check out a new podcast mentioned here, which also has full transcripts.

The others are correct in that you just need to start getting exposure to this stuff, and you need lots of it. The more you do it the easier it will get.

[jkhsu]

Also lets say, i watch the video above over and over and i guess i will be improving as the time goes by, but since there is no written dialogue somewhere, how will i be able to ultimately understand/transcribe everything?

The above video does not have subs but most Chinese shows have subs burned in. What you can do is:

1. For each scene, don't look at the subs and try to transcribe what you hear

2. Look at the subs and correct your mistakes

3. Do this for the whole show

4. Go over what you've transcribed and look up any words you don't understand

5. Go back and watch the show again

This is tedious but you'll improve your listening comprehension for sure.

The above video is a challenge so I think daofeishi specifically picked one without subs. If you're using these videos to improve listening comprehension, you'll need to pick one with subs so that you can correct what you've missed and fill in words you don't know.

[imron]

Subs are useful for helping lookup vocab, but the flipside is they can also act as a crutch and you end up picking up a lot of content from reading rather than listening (assuming you aren't covering them up or whatever). This is not necessarily a problem, especially if you are just starting on native material, but it's something to be aware of. Videos and other content (radio etc) without subs really make sure that your listening comprehension is up to speed. That's another reason I like 锵锵三人行, it's subtitle free.

[laurenth]

Again, thanks daofeishi. So the answer to the other questions could be...

"This bread is delicious. Try it! (lit: try and taste)

这个面包很好吃，试试尝。

“I think you will like this song. Listen and see if you like it"

我觉得你会喜欢这个歌曲。听听看。 (uh? sounds weird)