Mandarin Podcast listening.

I started to listen to podcast programs for Mandarin Chinese several month ago. I was trying to find on iTunes store amd listened to a few of them.  And right now I still listen to Mandarin Chinese Lesson with Serge Melnyk and World Learner Chinese.

World Learner Chinese

They have three styles of lessons.  But I only listen to Vocabulary note book, which two people just keep mumbling for like 10 to 20 words with tone.  You know, Mandarin is the most well-known Tonal Lanauge.  Me as a Japanese, I have a lot of fundamental knowledge of Chinese Characters by naturally.  It’s easier for me to read and write than most of Americans, but Tone is still very difficult.  I told my friend about how World Learner Chinese do the session a few days ago.  It goes like this:

• (Chinese Native Girl’s voice) 怎麼樣
• (English Native Man’s voice) What’s up?
• (Girl’s voice) zěn
• (Man’s voice) Third tone
• (Girl’s voice) me
• (Man’s voice) Neutral tone
• (Girl’s voice) yàng
• (Man’s voice) Fourth tone

For each session, they do around 10 to 20 words and do it for three rounds, around 20 minutes.  My friend asked me would it be a bit sleepy?  I said no.  I need to listen carefully.

Mandarin Chinese Lesson with Serge Melnyk

I really like this.  At very beginning, the teacher Melnyk 老師 has kind of characteristic way of speech, and that was a little bit disturbing me.  But I like the way he does and the way he prepares.  I even started the premium subscription ($60/half years) in order to get Lesson transcript.  But I would say this is very helpful.  For each lesson transcript, he has both Traditional (繁体字) and Simplified (简体字).  And the most importantly, Melnyk 老師 is still doing it.

So, from now on, I tried to write a lesson review, every time I listed to the lesson.

Lessonn 31: How does it taste/smell?

vocabulary

英文	漢字	拼音
[noun] taste / smell	味道	we4i da4o
[measurement word] dish	道	da4o
[adj] sweet	甜	tia2n
[adj] salty	咸	xia2n
[adj] sour	酸	sua1n
[adj] spicy	辣	la4
[adj] bitter	苦	ku3
[adj] good smell	香	xia1ng
[adj] bad smell	臭	cho4u
[verb] to try	嚐（一）嚐	cha2ng (yi4) cha2ng
[adj] good taste	好吃	hao3 chi1
[colloq] … is bad	不怎麼樣	bu2 ze3n me ya4ng
[adj] disgusting	惡心	e3 xi1n
[verb] to smell	聞一聞	we4n yi1 we4n
[colloq] … extremely	…極了	ji2 le
[noun] flavor	風味	fe1ng we4i
[noun] chinese food	中餐	zho1ng ca1n
[noun] western food	西餐	xi1 ca1n
[noun] special	特別	te4 bie2
[noun] favorite	最愛	zu4i z4i

Note

• I just realize that to use measurement word is just another way of expressing gender! Oh well, by looking at Wikipedia::Measure Word, it just says no. But it’s still in the same numeral classifiers. I guess that’s what I wanna say.
• In this lesson transcript: 糖是甜的。鹽是咸的。and 酢很酸。I’m not quite sure here… the former two are saying “A candy is sweet, Salt is salty” with “(Noun)是(Adj)的” structure. The later is, I guess quite commonly used, “(Noun)很(Adj)”. Is is just a colloquial difference? Or is there anything else I don’t know yet?
• 嚐嚐 (cha2ng) and 常常 (cha2ng) is actually the same exact pronunciation…
• 請問(qi1ng we4n) “excuse me” and 親吻(qi1n we3n) “kiss” sound very similar but mean very different.
• 極了(ji2 le) and 死了(si3 le) can be remembered as a pair.