Popular Post michaelS Posted February 15, 2015 at 04:40 AM Popular Post Report Share Posted February 15, 2015 at 04:40 AM Another show that I would strongly like to recommend to the Chinese-forums community: 好奇实验室 The Experiment Zone In this short, online-only show, the crew takes a well-known social trend, or stereotype, or curiosity, and then puts it to the test, filming experiments with (usually) unsuspecting members of the public or (sometimes) volunteers. The first example which I’ve posted below is about hiring a fake girlfriend for Chinese New Year. One episode ranges from 5-15 minutes, and the format of the show is typically like this: Presenter speaks to camera (with subtitles). Shen Yang introduces the topic and explains why it is worth investigating. Voiceover (no subtitles). The topic is explained in more detail, often with some statistics or wider social commentary, and today’s experiment is outlined. Experiment (all dialogue has subtitles). The crew put the hypothesis to the test, and then summarise the results. Level: I’d say this is Upper-Intermediate, purely because about 10-20% has no subtitles. The language is generally fairly easy and conversational, and each episode has a clear narrative, often repeating the same experiment with various participants. Even if you speak no Chinese I think you would get the drift of what’s going on. That said, there are also some great expressions to be found, especially those annotated on the screen rather than included in the dialogue. These annotations are often the funniest part of the show. [n.b.] I’ll post all episodes in the same thread to avoid clutter. 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michaelS Posted February 15, 2015 at 04:41 AM Author Report Share Posted February 15, 2015 at 04:41 AM Episode 195: 租个女友回家过年 靠谱吗？ Hiring a girlfriend for Chinese New Year: acceptable? http://my.tv.sohu.com/us/215404934/78435773.shtml http://v.qq.com/cover/c/ctt5x12oxo51bap.html?vid=h0147c8f9pg I’m sure everybody has heard about this phenomenon, in which to avoid parental nagging or disappointment, young Chinese men – and, increasingly, women – hire or persuade someone to stand in as a supposed partner. In this episode of The Experiment Zone, the programme investigates this phenomenon, and tries to find out who the women are who hire themselves out, why they agree to it, and what it actually entails. First minute translation Presenter： 欢迎收看今天的《好奇实验室》，我是沈洋。马上就要过年放假了，可是对于单身屌丝而言，回家这个词可是喜忧参半啊。 Welcome to today’s edition of “The Experiment Zone”. I’m Shen Yang. Chinese New Year will soon be upon us, but for those of us without a partner, going home can be a cause for worry just as much as it is a reason to be cheerful. 像我，就想好好陪陪爸妈，尽情玩耍. 可是就算爸妈不提，串门的亲戚也会随口问一句：“什么时候把女朋友带回家啊？” For people like me, who want to be with their parents, and spend an enjoyable time back home… even if our parents don’t bring up, we just know that some friend or neighbour will pop in and casually ask: “When are you bringing your girlfriend home?” 这个时候爸妈的脸上一定是挂不住的。好像自己的儿子做了什么亏心事似的。我就常常想，能不能租一个女友回家过年呢？说真的，在网站发帖求租女友，能不能租到一个漂亮又大方的妹子呢？说不定还能有一段令人心动的浪漫之旅呢？ That’s when our parents’ face will turn grave, as if their precious child had committed some kind of heinous crime. So I often wonder: could I not just hire a girlfriend for the holiday period? And from all those online ads offering this service, might it even be possible to meet a beautiful girl with a great personality? Maybe it could be the beginning of a romantic voyage? 今天我们的《好奇实验室》就来试验一下 So, let today’s experiment begin! Voiceover (no subtitles, so red means I’m not 100%) 租女友不是新闻。可现在关于租女友的新闻都是骗局，骗局，还是骗局。真实的情况真的那么撒野吧？ Hiring a girlfriend for New Year is hardly a new story. But all the recent articles about it just say scam, scam, scam. Is the situation really that dire? 在社交网络发达，心思潮涌前的今天，你在网上能够租到什么样的女友？ [not 100% sure about this part] … what kind of girl are you actually going to hire? 这些女孩儿真实的想法又是什么？他们能够接受怎么样的定制服务？有没有可能与你有逢深入的发展？ 今天我们将以完全真实的社交为你打开这个令人惊喜的空间。 And what will their opinion be of this line of work? What ‘services’ will they actually agree to? Is there any possibility that it will all lead to some deeper connection? Today we will use a 100% genuine social network [advert] to open up this surprising phenomenon to our viewers. Before you watch, predict the answers to these questions 1. How much do you think this service costs a day, if you go through an agency? 2. How many potential ‘fake girlfriends’ will reply to the advert in 24 hours? 3. What will the women’s attitude to this kind of practice be? Vocabulary 靠谱 acceptable 参半 in equal measures 串门 pop round, drop in (someone’s house) 挂不住 ashamed 亏心事 a terrible deed 骗局 a scam 诚意 sincere 帖子 a post, something posted online 应征 to reply to an ad, to apply 兼职 (here) moonlighting, to earn some extra cash on the side 成家 settle down, get married, have kids 底线 bottom line 好歹 in any case, at any rate 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michaelS Posted February 15, 2015 at 06:24 AM Author Report Share Posted February 15, 2015 at 06:24 AM Episode 153: 香车美女高速借钱更容易？ Is it easier for a pretty girl to borrow money from strangers? http://www.iqiyi.com/v_19rrh8724f.html my.tv.sohu.com/pl/7047842/76354456.shtml This episode is all about borrowing money from strangers, and is divided into two parts. In the first, the team take their editor and dress her up in shabby clothes and see how she gets on asking other motorists to lend her some cash. In the second part, they repeat the experiment with a glamorous younger girl, with an expensive car. Will other motorists trust her more? Will they be more generous? Watch and find out… First minute translation Presenter: 每个人一生中都有最尴尬的事。在网上有一位私家车主法帖说，他呀，上高速临近收费口的时候才发现自己的钱包没有带，而且当时手机还没电了。 Everyone gets into some awkward situations sometimes. Recently a driver posted his story online, saying that on the approach to a motorway toll booth he realised he had left his wallet at home, and his phone was out of credit. 有网友就回帖说他们还真碰过这样的囧事。如果这时在外地，这可真的很尴尬，真的很无助。有网友就说啊，如果这种情况下，你去找陌生车主借钱的话，人家肯定会把你当成骗子的。 Other users replied saying that they too had been in similar predicaments. Especially if this occurs a long way from home, it can be truly embarrassing and distressing. The online comments suggested that, in this type of situation, having to ask strangers to borrow money, you would inevitably be taken for a scammer. 这是真的吗？今天我们的好奇实验室就来见证一下。 看一看，如果你遇到这样尴尬的情况，有没有人伸出援助之手呢？ Is this really the case? Today’s experiment will put it to the test. If you were in this kind of scrape, would anyone lend you a helping hand? Voiceover (no subtitles, so red means not sure) 这是我们好奇实验室编导李雪。今天她遇到了一个难题：出门忘带钱包了！而且油也快开光了。进去过当今日的收费站，她要厚着脸皮请其他陌生的车主借钱才会有。 This is the Editing Director of The Experiment Zone, Li Xue. Today she is in a spot of bother: she left her purse at home, and is running out of petrol! Pulling into the toll booth entrance, she has no choice but to put aside her embarrassment and ask strangers to lend her some cash. 李雪今天的打扮有点土气，而且她开了一辆？？的小面包。拦车求助的对象，不分男女 – 她能成功吗？ Li Xue has been dressed in slightly shabby clothes, and the van that she is driving is also fairly done-in. She will have to flag down other male or female drivers – how will she get on? Before you watch, predict the answers to these questions 1. How many people will stop for Li Xue in three hours? 2. How much money will people be willing to lend her? 3. How will a glamorous 美女 fare? 4. How will a man get on asking to borrow money? Vocabulary 收费站/收费口 toll booth 尴尬 embarrassed, awkward 囧事 awkward situation 把。。。当（成）骗子 take someone for a scammer 拦车 to flag down a car 厚着脸皮 (lit.) thickening up your face – ignoring embarrassment. 脸皮薄 would be the opposite, meaning getting embarrassed or losing face at the drop of a hat. 土气 coarse, unrefined, peasant-y 小面包（车） a van 被无视 to be ignored 斜眼 to cut your eye at someone 瞟 to stare 大量 to weigh up carefully 难以置信 incredulous 现场 on the spot (i.e. the programme-makers gave the money back straight away) 支付宝 Alipay 郁闷 miserable 撒娇 acting helpless or miserable or scolding in a supposedly flirty way 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michaelS Posted February 15, 2015 at 11:37 AM Author Report Share Posted February 15, 2015 at 11:37 AM Episode 137: 崇洋媚外 Preferring Foreign Things http://www.iqiyi.com/v_19rrn5ggwk.html http://my.tv.sohu.com/pl/7047842/74856844.shtml In this episode the team investigates the widely-held belief that preferring slogans written in ‘foreign’ is a phenomenon peculiar to China (anyone who has stopped by our wonderful tattoos sub-forum knows that this is not the case). They conduct a series of experiments with various different items and participants from both 国内 and 国外, to see whether people really do prefer exotic languages to their own, and if so – why? First minute translation 任何一件商品只要印上洋文我们就觉得高大上，有品位。这种现象我们通称为崇洋媚外，文化奴才。 Any time a product has a foreign name and non-Chinese letters stamped on the packaging, we immediately think, wow, this must be quality stuff. This phenomenon is often referred to as崇洋媚外 (a chengyu meaning obsequious worship of foreigners). 这顶帽子能不能就这么简单扣上？我倒是觉得还真不好说，因为我们不知道这种现象是不是只是中国人的专利呢。这些老外，是不是也会认为中文非常好看？今天，我们就来试验一下。。。 But should that label so readily be applied? I actually don’t think so, until we find out whether or not Chinese people have a monopoly on this type of behaviour. Wouldn’t people from other countries think that Chinese labelling was beautiful? Today, we put this to the test… “金种子化肥种田不用愁”。这样的中文T恤估计很多国人打死都不愿穿吧。用百度翻译成英语，西班牙语，德语后，情况会不会改变呢？ “Golden Seed fertiliser – sow your crops with no regrets!” You would think that most Chinese people would rather die than wear a T-Shirt emblazoned with this slogan in Chinese. But if we use Baidu Translate to render it into English, Spanish, and German, will the outcome be different? 好奇君来到一家语言培训学校，申请中国学生们来做一个实测。他们不知道四款T恤上是一个意思。 The Experiment Zone team headed to a language training school, and invited the Chinese students to take part in an experiment. What they don’t know is that these four T-shirts all mean exactly the same thing [just in different languages]… Vocabulary 洋文 foreign script 高大上 a very new adjective, short for 高端，大气，上档次. Meaning top-of-the-range. Since learning this word I have heard many people say it! 崇洋媚外 literally, worship foreign things and be obsequious to foreigners 文化奴才 cultural slavery 专利 patent (although I think here we would better translate the idea as ‘to have a monopoly on something’) 化肥 fertiliser --- 俗 tacky 简洁 concise 土 again, tacky/ shabby/ peasant-y/ crass 洋气 exotic 嫌疑 suspicious 直觉 intuition (I LOVE how the girl says this) 格局 layout 有意无意地 whether consciously or not 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michaelS Posted February 16, 2015 at 04:28 AM Author Report Share Posted February 16, 2015 at 04:28 AM Episode 175: 当上乞丐 月入过万真的不是梦？ Is it really possible for a beggar to earn a fortune? http://my.tv.sohu.com/us/215404934/76788186.shtml A slightly weird episode this one, a little tasteless, but actually with a fairly positive message. The phenomenon that is being tested is the online rumour that beggars in China earn loads of money and live like kings. Two of the crew take to the streets and see how much they can earn in an hour. First minute translation (red means not sure) 欢迎收看今天的《好奇实验室》，我是沈洋。乞丐 月入过万的生活让很多人愤愤不平。最近值有媒体爆料，说一名职业乞丐上午乞讨，下午就跑到奢侈品店去买了一块名表，下班以后还大吃大喝，活得比谁都自在。 Welcome to today’s edition of The Experiment Zone, I’m Shen Yang. The supposed fact of beggars earning more than 10,000RMB a month has made a lot of people irate. According to a recent exposé, one beggar in particular spent the morning asking for money and then in the afternoon went to buy a luxury watch, and then in the evening gorged himself on fine dining, a life that almost anyone would envy. 想想我们这种屌丝，白领，上班族什么的真是情何以堪。今天我就跟摄像大哥小勇去当了一回乞丐，感受是，受虐匪浅啊。 Thinking about this leaves us hard-working suckers at the end of our tethers. So today myself and our cameraman Xiao Yong are going to become beggars, to experience it for ourselves, to suffer a little. “封下面子，挑战自己，成功离你不远”。这句 而。。。俗呼你能逃在乞丐的？？。羡慕从何而来，月入过万，买名表，两套房，年年出境游俗呼哇塞了成功的标签 。 “Ignore embarrassment, take a risk, and success is not far off.” This expression … Wherever this envy comes from, huge income, designer watches, two-bedroom flats, and regular trips abroad would represent incredible success by anyone’s measure. 《好奇实验室》今天要验证的话题可能有点儿出格，却让人充满好奇。如果你真的当上了乞丐，就能活下去多人梦想的生活吗？ Today’s experiment may seem in poor taste, but it is a subject that people are certainly interested in. If you yourself became a beggar, could you really achieve this dream lifestyle? 沈洋和小勇就是今天的实验员。他们的任务很简单：做乞丐。不管以什么样的乞讨方式，尽可能讨到更多的钱 Shen Yang and Xiao Yong are today’s guinea pigs. Their task is simple: convert themselves into beggars. Any method of asking for money is acceptable, they just need to see how much they can make. Questions: How much do you think the following methods of begging will collect in an hour? 1) Asking politely at a train station 2) Accosting people in the street 3) Approaching people outside Alibaba’s head offices 4) Sitting/ lying/ kneeling on a bridge 5) Asking tourists at Hangzhou West Lake Vocabulary 乞丐 A beggar (slightly formal; 要饭的 is used more in conversation in my experience) 月入过万 Simply means that every 月 your 收入 is more (超过) than 一万块钱 愤愤不平 Indignant 爆料 Expose (in the media) 大吃大喝 Eat and drink like a king 情何以堪 Indignant, Unable to bear 受虐匪浅 This is not really an expression (12 results on Baidu), but a play on words from 受益匪浅 which means to reap the benefits of something. The character 益 is switched with the character 虐. 受虐 means masochism or sexual mistreatment. 出格 Beyond the pale 卖唱的 A busker 拭目以待 To wait and see 落魄 Down on one’s luck 老乡 From the same hometown 绕着我走 Walk around me, avoid me 被驱赶 To be driven away, made to leave 出乎意料 Better than expected 首富的公司 The company of the richest man, i.e. Jack Ma’s Alibaba nani? Japanese – 什么？ 大批 A load of 梦想还是要有的，万一实现了呢 “You need to have a dream, just in case it comes true” – quote from Jack Ma 座右铭 Motto 凄凉 Desolate “我现在把钱给你，我转了一圈回来你还在这里，那不好意思我把钱拿走” “I’ll give you some money now, but if you’re still here when I get back, I’ll take that cash right back.” 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Radical Mandarin Posted February 16, 2015 at 03:03 PM Report Share Posted February 16, 2015 at 03:03 PM Thank you michaelS - great series, and valuable teaching material. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michaelS Posted February 17, 2015 at 07:43 AM Author Report Share Posted February 17, 2015 at 07:43 AM No problem. I could envisage a dozen or so of these episodes developed into a nice little curriculum, much more interesting topics than the typical textbook. Now that I've been flicking through the episodes a bit more (the first few were those specifically recommended by a teacher), I've noticed that lots of the 200 or so episodes are pretty rubbish - they don't follow the format of testing a belief or theory on the public, but rather just involve the crew testing a new product or something themselves. So if people find other interesting editions, please recommend them in this thread - no pressure to post up vocab or anything like that, just that it would be good to sort the wheat from the chaff a little In another thread I recommended this episode, where a group of foreigners are experimented on, to find out what is the most unpalatable food. I haven't written it up, for two reasons: lots of the dialogue is in English, and lots of the content is names of dishes. It's quite a fun watch though. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Takeshi Posted February 24, 2015 at 06:57 AM Report Share Posted February 24, 2015 at 06:57 AM Wow, this is pretty interesting! I like that the episodes are short and quick to watch too. I only watched the first two ones posted in this thread. Indeed, many of the titles seem to be not so interesting, so I'll see if anyone still posts anything here. I like the social experiment ones. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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