I need your help with a listening exercise

[makeluo]

Hello everybody,

I have a big problem with my listening chinese exercises, I am studying Chinese and I have a problem with the understanding of a listening exercise. Please, somebody could help me? I am very desperate

The exercise is associate to this message. Thanks for your aid

listening.mp3

[xiaojiang216]

王朋, 你的新公寓怎么样?

WangPeng, how is your new apartment?

还不错, 很安静，也很方便，还在家具。

Not bad, very peaceful, also very convenient. It also has some furniture.

房租贵不贵？

Is the rent expensive?

还可以。

It's okay.

厨房怎么样？

How is the kitchen?

厨房小一点儿。

The kitchen is a little small.

你现在有了自己的公寓，可以自己做饭了。

Now that you have your own apartment, you can make your own food.

对，你知道我不会做饭。可是从明天开始，我就自己做饭。

Right, but you know I can't cook. But from tomorrow forward, I will just make my own food.

别忘了请我吃你做的饭。

Dont' forget to invite me over to eat "the meals you made".

没问题。下个周末我请你来我的公寓吃饭。

No problem. Next week I will invite you over to my new apartment to eat.

太好了！你言没底。

Very good! Something something something something.

I'm not sure about the last four words of the recording. Sounds like some sort of proverbial phrase. I'm also not sure about the name. Is it 王朋, as in 朋友?

But I hope what I could decipher of it will help! However, you might want some more input, because my Chinese isn't very good.

[makeluo]

Thank you very much, with your aid I have deciphered the words that I

needed. Thank you very much.

Without a doubt, your level of Chinese is excellent

[necroflux]

Wow they take no prisoners with this speech speed, and the male voice as usual is a bitch to understand (especially considering I'm not learning the beijing accent). Add in the terrible audio quality these programs always seem to suffer from.. whew.. don't feel bad for not understanding makeluo it. I'm glad I'm not learning from this.

Well done xiaojiang.

A few possible corrections:

厨房小了一点儿 I believe should have a 了 where indicated.

I'm still trying to figure out that last part myself.. I think the tones are a bit different than what you've got there. To me it sounds like "ni3 ye3 mei3 di4" where the ye has actually taken on the second tone due to the mei3 also having a second tone. But the only mei3 di4 I can find is 美蒂, which apparently means "American Imperialist" lol. Another possibility is that the speaker messed up her tone, and it was supposed to be 艷美 yan4mei3, or "charming".

Again the audio quality is so bad it could be either yan or ye, it's hard to tell. I'm looking forward to knowing what the heck this is.

[roddy]

一言为定 - 'settled', 'it's a deal'.

还在家具 should be 还带家具 - and it's furnished.

[Quest]

Our admin is approaching native level now if not already at.

Yes the last line is 一言为定.

Yes it's 还带家具 and 厨房小了一点儿

[necroflux]

Wow I slaughtered that one.. I have to say the last two sound nothing like wei ding to me, even after knowing that's what it has to be.

[xiaojiang216]

I too did not have a clue with that one. But even still I left out a 了 and typed 在 instead of 带. So there is no excuse for me.

[bomaci]

Wow they take no prisoners with this speech speed, and the male voice as usual is a bitch to understand (especially considering I'm not learning the beijing accent). Add in the terrible audio quality these programs always seem to suffer from.. whew.. don't feel bad for not understanding makeluo it. I'm glad I'm not learning from this

Well if you find that tough, how do you find this (which is what I'm learning from at the moment)? This is actually what real beijing accent sounds like, or pretty close anyway.

beijinghua.mp3

[roddy]

Is that a TV show? I think I can just about follow it first time, but I'm not sure I'd like to be quizzed on it. I've been listening to some of these podcasts recently, and they've been really challenging me both with some new vocab and the speed of delivery. This one (look for the 下载 link, but you'll need to register and I'm not sure what speed you'll get outside of China) is perhaps one of the more accessible, as it has a minute long impersonation of a slow talking politician in the middle. These ones I generally need to listen to three times before I feel I have a grasp of it.

[Quest]

要做文明人，请说普通话。

My imperfect attempt:

=================

咱爸今天怎么回事儿啊？

怎么啦？

我看他一回来就打烟儿了，饭也没吃到楼底下溜达去了，这大冷的天儿的。

可能是贴儿什么心事儿了。是不是今儿跟单位巧遇哪位中年丧偶的女同志。 咱妈个儿去世两年多了，咱爸论条件，论身体，要为这儿事儿烦恼，那还不是要夺正常...

[bomaci]

要做文明人，请说普通话。

北京话多酷呀

This is from a tv series called "我爱我家". It can be listened to in audio format or watched (if you have pptv) at www.3xia.com. At that site you can also download the scripts for all the episodes. According to the script this is what they are saying:

咱爸今儿怎么回事儿啊?

怎么啦？

从单位一回来就打蔫儿饭也没吃到楼底下溜达去了，这大冷的天儿的。

可能是添什么心事了. 是不是今儿跟单位巧遇哪位中年丧偶的女同志。 咱妈妈去世两年多了，

咱爸论条件，论身体, 要为这儿事儿烦恼，那还不要多正常有多正常？

[imitation]

hahah I recognise these voices from beijing language and culture university press collection I am on book 2 now in my second semester at zhong shan da xue in guangzhou. The speed has been like this from the start of the second book which we have done 10 chapters from, which is this from??

The accents are so strong and the pronunciation often seems completely different compared to our majority guangzhou local teachers (they started with very good pronunciation but obviously as we all become more comfortable in the class room their local accent slips in a little more). For example on this tapes 汽水 was pronounced something like qi4 shua3.

These things are also only available (as far as I know) on cassette and the tape players here although seemingly a modern set up seem to play the backside of the tape at the same time meaning we get the scratchy quality you hear here along with some background noise like another conversation going on in the background coming through on our headphones.

Listening class is by far the most painful I have each week

[Quest]

For example on this tapes 汽水 was pronounced something like qi4 shua3.

Are you sure it wasn't your own listening problem?

Also, in that clip, the speed wasn't that much of a problem, but the Beijing slangs, and part of it due to poor recording quality.

[imitation]

I agree the recording speed is not the problem it is the quality as this stuff is from cassettes. And yes I am sure about the qi shua thing because our teacher said oh I guess no one got this because it is beijing pronunciation.

[Quest]

And yes I am sure about the qi shua thing because our teacher said oh I guess no one got this because it is beijing pronunciation.

I think what you heard was midway between shui and shuai, and that's a very common pronunciation/slurring.

[imron]

Could it just be 儿化? Here where I am (Hebei) 汽水 is often subject to 儿化, and qi4 shui'r3 sounds pretty much just like qi4 shua3