Death by Appliance

Elementary: Death by Appliance

In this podcast we hear a tragic tale of a homicidal non-cooling appliance. This lesson also marks another experiment with our recording format: rather than focus on the dialogue here we focus on the theme: heating and air conditioning. As such, we review the core nouns, adjectives and verbs related to this central theme. If you learn well by practicing grouped words together, this is the podcast for you. Take a listen and let us know if we should produce more of these.

nadasax

said on

May 28, 2009

think the format is good but would still like at least a quick once through line-by-line of the dialogue...also i think the vocab section should be more complete, you left off 哥们儿，温度，低。。。i think since they are part of the dialogue it would be helpful to be able to find them on the vocab list since they are not talked about in the lesson...if its in the dialogue it should probably be on the vocab list becuase no telling what word might be new for a learner...

also including some of the "head" sample sentences to see the form, not neccesarily writing out each version of the substitution but at least one example for each form discussed in the lesson...

also...i REALLY don't like the commercial...one reason is its going to be there every time i want to listen to this for EVER...also, next month, if a new student comes to 泡泡中文 they will still be hearing a commercial that speaks to "the end of this month" so its going to be "this month" forever...what are you going to do? take this lesson down at the end of the month and re-record a commercial free version?

I strongly disagree with the use of lesson space for advertisements...put the publicity in other places please!!!!!

toneandcolor

said on

May 28, 2009

补充例句 Supplementary sentences for this lesson:

Using 了 to indicate change of state

空调坏了。 [kōngtiáo huài le] The air conditioner is broken.

我的电热毯不热了。［wǒ de diànrètǎn bù rè le］My electric blanket isn't warm.

电扇不转了。［diànshàn bù zhuàn le］The electric fan doesn't turn.

暖气坏了。［nuǎnqì huài le］The heater is broken.

我没有暖风机。［wǒ méiyǒu nuǎn fēng jī］I don't have a heat fan.

冻［dòng ］freezing; frozen

烫［tàng］scalding; boiling

Using ADJ + 死了 as a superlative

我要冻死了。[wǒ yào dòngsǐ le] I‘m freezing to death.

我要烫死了。[wǒ yào tàng sǐ le] I‘m roasting to death.

我冷死了。[wǒ lěngsǐle] I‘m freezing to death.

我热死了。[wǒ rèsǐ le] I‘m hot to death.

Using 把 with Verbs (*Note: Verbs in this bǎ construction cannot be simple monosyllibic verbs. They must contain a directional or resultative complement:)

把空调打开。[bǎ kōngtiáo dǎkāi] Turn on the air conditioner.

把暖气关上。[bǎ nuǎnqì guānshàng] Turn off the heater.

把电扇修好。[bǎ diànshàn xiūhǎo] Fix the fan.

把电热毯插上。[bǎ diànrè tǎn chāshàng] Plug in the electric blanket.

把暖风机打开。[bǎ nuǎn fēng jī dǎkāi] Turn on the heat fan.

Additional Sentences

我朋友快冻死了。

太冷了！把空调关上。

我太热了！你什么时候能把电扇修好？

我要冻死了！把电热毯插上。

空调坏了。把它修好。

暖气坏了。把它修好。

太冷了！把温度调高一点儿。

太热了！把温度调低一点儿。

maxiewawa

said on

May 28, 2009

You know in Taiwan I think they say 空气 instead of 空调.

toneandcolor

said on

May 29, 2009

@maxiewawa - I haven't heard that, but I have heard 冷气 which I believe is a Taiwanism...

maxiewawa

said on

May 29, 2009

对对对 that's it! lol... they do say 空气 too of course! But not in place of 空调。

Echo

said on

May 29, 2009

@toneandcolor,

Very good 总结 for this lesson :)

@maxiewawa,

In the main continent, some people would say 冷气 too, but mostly it is 空调.

--Echo

richard

said on

May 29, 2009

toneandcolor,

thanks for supplementary sentences with pinyin and translation

doubt616

said on

May 29, 2009

@Echo - Will you be sticking with this new format?

trevelyan

said on

May 30, 2009

@doubt616 - what did you think? I think we'll probably produce a few others like this (I personally like the idea and think it could be an effective way to get vocab clusters on the site). We want to experiment so that people don't get bored with one particular format. Doesn't mean the old format is gone at all.

If people hate something we're hoping they'll tell us though. We don't need to keep producing those....

doubt616

said on

May 30, 2009

@trevelyan - I thought it was tremendous to be honest. I was just left wondering about a few elements of the dialogue. I haven't come across 把 for example. I trawled back through my beginner and elementary shows but I couldn't find any examples of it. I have a lot of trouble with the particles 了，的，得 etc. I can add one more to that heap now.. I guess it's normal to be this confused when your a newbie. :)

richard

said on

May 30, 2009

@Echo, bǎ..+ verb

don't quite understand significance/necessity of bǎ in above sentences or for that matter in the following > wǒ bǎ tāde míngzi wàngle – i forgot his name

nadasax

said on

May 30, 2009

@paar72

把 is used to indicate what a subject does to an object...because you have the verb 忘了 occuring after the object <他的名字> you indicate that the subject <我> took the object <他的名字> and did the action <忘了>...

you couldn't write the sentence as 我他的名字忘了，it must either be 我忘了他的名字或者我把他的名字忘了。。。明白？

trevelyan

said on

May 30, 2009

@doubt616 - glad to hear it. : ) Nadasax has a good explanation. As he points out, both 我忘了他的名字 and 我把他的名字忘了 are valid constructions.

The sentence with the 把 construction places more of an emphasis on the object and the action performed to it. 他把我的蛋糕吃了. He took my cake and ate it. Otherwise, I think perhaps Echo and Gail can chime in here.

Echo

said on

May 30, 2009

Hey Guys,

Thanks for nadasax and david's explanations ! They are both very good.

I'll just add a bit: The main structure of 把字句 is "subject(sth/sb who makes the movement) + 把＋ object(sth/sb who takes the movement) + verb + the result". It is not confusing if you would follow the structure. Note: not any verbs can be used in 把字句. Please check toneandcolor's post above.

Here are some examples:

我把作业写完了。

他把窗户打开了。

妹妹把她的小狗带来了。

你把事情做完，就来找我吧。

--Echo

echo@popupchinese.com

richard

said on

May 30, 2009

@Echo & all,

following your word sequence structure

if i want to say: 'afterwards they end up losing all their money'

hòulái(afterwards) bǎ(took hold of) tāmen de qían(their money) dōu(all) ?(end up) dìaole(losing > verb+result) correct?

i'm making a list of (every day) useful sentence structure > this is not one of them is it? how many (approx.) do you think i should have

regarding pronunciation: how do i know if it's 'an' or 'en' sound > 'u' or 'ou' in a new word when reading pinyin

ex: xian(first) xuyao(need)

i've just started using 'adsotrans'

Echo

said on

May 31, 2009

@paar72,

The sentence should be :

后来，他们把钱都丢了。 The subject was missing in your sentence, other than that, it was good :)

If you are making a list, 把字句 definitely should be in it. It is very a useful sentence structure which people should handle.

I am not quite sure if you mean how many sentence structures you should have in total or everyday in your list. There are a number of structures. Like 是字句，得字句，被字句，是...的句,etc. Not to mention those sentences made by associated words.

I do not quite understand your last question. When you read pinyin, just read what you see. For instance, if you see "han", then it must be "an" sound. When you see "hen", it must be "en" sound. For "u" and "ou" are the same.

--Echo

echo@popupchinese.com

richard

said on

May 31, 2009

@Echo, sorry my questions are ambiguous.

>i have 6 in my list + examples shì...de / yīdìng..ba / yòu...yòu... / xiān... ránhòu... / yībiān...yībiān... and

now bǎ.. as a beginner/elementry which important ones would you add?

> not what i meant

take 'xian' i hear promounce xien

same for xiàtiān i hear xiatien

but xǐhuān i hear pronounce xihuan the 'an' sound how do i differentiate a new word like diànyǐng

thanks for your patience

nadasax

said on

May 31, 2009

@paar72

remember that just because pinyin is romanized that doesn't make it "americanized"...you're placing the american english expectation of phonetic representation onto chinese phonetic pinyin...in order to learn what sounds the romanized pinyin for chinese represents you need to free your mind from the pre-conception that the roman letters "an" or "en" or "u" o "ou" only have one associated sound, ie the american pronunciation...if you read those same roman letters in french or spanish or german they wouldn't represent the same sound you expect from american english...the same is true for pinyin...you're just going to have to listen and then realize that roman letters are just visual representations for the approximation of a variety of sounds...chinese phonetics are pretty consistent so just listen and learn...

guo, duo, luo...dian, mian, lian...etc...the phonetics will be consistent within chinese but certainly won't correspond one for one with what the letters would mean in american english...its just part of the learning process...more time studying and a closer relationship to the language will bring the answers to all your questions...

there's no finish line to learning a language...

imron

said on

May 31, 2009

@paar72 just to build upon what nadasax said, the trick is to view the words as Chinese see them. So rather than seeing pinyin sounds as made up of letters it is much more useful to think of them as initials and finals (which each initial/final being either a single letter, or a combination of letters). See here for a great pinyin table. The finals are along the top and the initials are along the left.

Each initial/final has a unique sound, and looking at the table you can see that there are three different sounds containing the "an" combination (although actually there are four due to a special case for the j q x and y initials - see below). These are:

-an

-ian

-uan (this changes to -üan when preceded by the j, q, x and y initial although the umlaut is always dropped when writing it).

Click on the different links to play the sound for each one and you should be able to hear a clear difference.

So, the way you tell the difference when you see a word with "an" is first to familiarise yourself with the initials and finals, and then when you come across a new word you break it down into its initial and its final. From that you will be able to get the correct pronunciation of 'an' as either -an, -ian, -uan or -üan.

nadasax

said on

June 1, 2009

@imron

awesome link, thanks for sharing

richard

said on

June 1, 2009

@nadasax, imron

thank you both for explanation/insight

and with the link > wo zhidao le

borneoherbs

said on

June 2, 2009

in our pig-farming village we say 冰橱，冷气，风扇.. you geeks.

Echo

said on

June 2, 2009

@borneoherbs,

I think this is the first time I heard 冰橱... May I ask where your village is ?

--Echo

echo@popupchinese.com

daphne

said on

June 2, 2009

I enjoyed the format and the voice acting too:)

Echo

said on

June 2, 2009

@daphne,

谢谢 :) I am really glad to hear that.

--Echo

echo@popupchinese.com

wldavis

said on

June 2, 2009

I liked the lesson -- but I don't really want to learn to kvetch in Chinese. That will come naturally, but thanks for guarding the eloquence of kvetching in Chinese.

Echo

said on

June 3, 2009

@wldavis,

From my perspective, I think sometimes knowing how to complain is necessary. Imagine you get into a cab in China, and the driver wants to save some pennies from 空调 in the car. So you sit in the "little iron box" in the hottest summer time in Beijing without a 空调...At this point, you got to make your strong demand : 我要热死了！把空调打开！

Besides, it isn't really rude. The important thing from this lesson is knowing what to call 空调 and 暖气. :)

--Echo

echo@popupchinese.com

Gail天堂的声音

said on

June 3, 2009

@Echo,

亲爱的，you are sooo 猛！！！usurally i put a 吧 at the end.................

Echo

said on

June 3, 2009

@Gail,

嘿嘿：）

--Echo

echo@popupchinese.com

Lunetta

said on

June 11, 2009

I really like this lesson format. Fleshing out the pattern in this way makes it very clear to me but to parrot Nadasax it would be nice to get a breakdown of the dialog. My suggestion would be to do it at the end of the lesson, after playing it the last time so the student can hear if he or she got it right.

jyh

said on

April 18, 2010

One odd thing in this podcast (for me): Both times Echo says "I am freezing to death" she ends up saying 我要凍死了。 For 熱，冷，燙 both times she just says "我XX死了". Is this just a coincidence (and I am "reading" too much into it) or is it one of those "it sounds better that way" speech patterns.

lazer85

said on

December 1, 2011

hahaha thank you Brenden for fighting the good fight. The best women understand this. Echo, you will too someday! :-D

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