57. Zero Days Off

欢迎光临! Welcome!

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The Mandarin Blueprint Podcast focuses primarily on The Mandarin Blueprint Method online curriculum. Creators Luke Neale & Phil Crimmins answer questions and comments, discuss topics related to China and Mandarin learning, and have special guests.

08:25 – Updates

10:00 – ePub readers for PC/Windows

https://www.ofoct.com/viewer/epub-reader-online.html

http://fviewer.com/view-epub

11:00 Props!

This blog post explains the theory behind props and Chinese character components.

RIVER NIXON ON “PICK A PROP 皮“

This character looks like an animal hide tanner so I went with a
giant one.

ALINA DANA COROIAN ON “PICK A PROP 走“

走 Johnnie Walker (walking and saying “Keep walking”)

DEV CHEN ON “POST PICK A PROP 寸“

Re: Pick a prop to represent 寸 = basketball hoop with a drop
falling through the net

SANJA KRAJNOVIC ON “PICK A PROP ?“

Looks like a hammer to me.

ALINA DANA COROIAN ON “PICK A PROP 不“

I’ve read this character is actually a pictograph of a flying
bird – a bird that rises, flapping the wings straight towards the
skies.

I went with prop: Paradise BIRD FLYING FREELY INTO THE SKY
(saying NO to all cages)

ALINA DANA COROIAN ON “PICK A PROP 门“

the gates of Hell (Bleach anime)

16:12 Actors!

This blog post explains the theory behind actors and Pinyin Initials.

DEV CHEN ON “CASTING CALL JU- 30/55“

JUstin Trudeau ?? ?

DEV CHEN ON “CASTING CALL YU 27/55“

Ü (yu) – Yuna Kim (27/55) (World Champion Athlete)
nü – Ne-Yo is an American songwriter, singer, dancer, recording
producer and actor
lü – Leo DiCaprio is an American actor, film producer, and
environmentalist.
ju – Justin Trudeau
qu – Qu Yuan (340–278 BC) was a patriotic poet and a loyal
official of the state of Chu during the Warring States Period

DEV CHEN ON “CASTING CALL CU- 32/55“

CU – CURRY (Steph) … point guard for the Golden State Warriors

SANJA KRAJNOVIC ON “CASTING CALL RU- 6/55“

Raj from The big bang theory

ALINA DANA COROIAN ON “CASTING CALL ZU- 42/55”

Zangetzu ( from Bleach anime)

18:58 Movies!

This blog post explains the theory behind Movie Scenes and learning characters.

SANJA KRAJNOVIC ON “MAKE A MOVIE 入“

I remember the scene from Friends where Ross was in the bathroom
and couldn’t put his leather trousers back up. I need to enter
the bathroom, but Ross is trying to pull his trousers back up and
it’s just not working. He is too embarrased. He has tried oils,
body lotions and nothing is working. For some reason, there is a
banana on the washing mashine. He has nothing to lose, so he
takes the banana and rubs on his legs. He throws the banana peel
on the floor. He wasn’t paying attention, so he slips on the
banana peel and falls down. Then he starts his well known,
why…oh why me!!!! As I keep banging on the door, and yelling
how I need to enter, he sees there is no way out. Leaned on the
closet in the batroom is a samurai sword. He cuts the leather
pants to get them off of him. Since he was furious, he cuts them
to pieces and then holding them, opens the door from the
bathroom, with an ashamed look on his face, and lets me enter it.
I am dying from laughing, but quickly enter the bathroom, because
I am in a hurry.

22:22

ALINA DANA COROIAN ON “MAKE A MOVIE 肚“

This week my native Chinese teacher from Confucius institute
said : many words regarding body parts have in the beginning the
月 (Moon) character because Chinese people used to believe that
Moon is connected to human body and influences greatly the
functioning of the body parts.
(Don’t know more on this right now but thought sharing it might
be of help for others too…)

24:36

ALINA DANA COROIAN ON “MAKE A MOVIE 法“

Comedian Louis de Funès (my F actor) is in the Living Room of
Adrian’s apartment(-a location) where depressed Pokemon GO
Pikachu (prop for 去) wants to commit suicide. Adrian (location
owner) is trying to reset Pikachu’s wish to live by throwing on
him “3 drops of water from the magic Water of Life Fountin”(prop
for 氵). It is said that 3 drops of water from the magic Water of
Life Fountin can bring to life dead persons but it seems the
METHOD has no result for depressed pokemons that have decided to
commit suicide. Than comedian Louis de Funès says : let’s try my
METHOD now ! And he begins to make his well known comedy faces
and gestures and sounds so Pokemon GO Pikachu begins to laugh
louder and louder until all the living room is vibrating with
laughter. It seems Louis de Funès’ METHOD worked well.

27:16

ZACH MORGAN ON “MAKE A MOVIE 美“

I have my “M” male actor standing in the living room of my -ei
set. Clifford The Big Red Dog enters the room and all of a sudden
my actor starts loudly exclaiming how ugly he thinks Clifford is.
After a few moments of this, I suggest to my actor that he tries
dressing Clifford up so he doesn’t have to see him. After making
Clifford put on a sheep costume, my actor asserts that Clifford
now looks beautiful.

28:11

IJA AMRAHI ON “MAKE A MOVIE 族“

Keyword: Tribe
Actor: Zazu from Lion King
Props : Russell from Up (方）& A quiver of arrows (矢)

The tribal council has taken place in my childhood kitchen and
Zazu was reading out the contestant’s name one by one. Russell
was voted off the island.

Zazu extinguished his torch and said – “Sire, the tribe has
spoken”.

Russell then surrendered the quiver of arrows on his back and
waved goodbye to everyone as he walked away from the scene.

31:11 Pronunciation

JESSIE JOHNSON ON “MANDARIN TONES: 3RD TONE“

The only time I can recall hearing the full down-up tone was in
a Taiwanese webseries, where a guy was picked to be put into a
volleyball game and he turned to the coach and said 我？！ with this
really exaggerated 3rd tone. lol

Thanks for the clarification!

33:06 Miscellaneous

ALINA DANA COROIAN ON “NEW VOCABULARY UNLOCKED! 几(个)“

Regarding sentence : 你的家里有几个人？
Is “几口人” also correct?

34:00

KATHLEEN GANS ON “ANKI DECK(S) INSIDE – LEVEL 25 COMPLETE“

Hi Connor,
Thanks for the links! I am looking for nu without umlaut, lu with
umlaut, and pu.
The pinyin chart shows both a lu and lü, nu and nü. Are they
being used interchangeably? Also, the last casting call in level
24 is for character 52/55. I can’t find characters 53, 54, and
55.

35:23

BEN METCALF ON “LEVEL 5 COMPLETE“

Zero days off!

38:42

DEV CHEN ON “LEVEL 8 COMPLETE“

你的兴奋使我兴奋!

39:21

EVELYN RIEDEL ON “ (BONUS) THE LANGUAGE LEARNING TRIPOD PART 3: TIME“

I find it helpful to set daily, weekly, and monthly goals. If I
have it down in writing what I want to accomplish that day, then
I am much more likely to set aside time to accomplish that goal.
After a week, I see if I have achieved my weekly goal, and if I
haven’t, I see where things may have gone wrong on a particular
day and figure out what I need to change to improve. Even if I
don’t quite do everything I wanted for my monthly goal, it still
is significant progress, which is extremely encouraging and makes
me want to do more. Putting it in writing is both inspiring and
holds me accountable.

42:28

JAMIE MILLER ON “START “SHADOWING“ IN PHASE 4“

Great idea on the shadowing – but was wondering if you guys or
anyone else had any pointers for where to acquire material for
this stage of the course?

43:55

ASHLEE O’DELL ON “(BONUS) CHARACTER ANALYSIS OF 习 XÍ“

Wow, this is a great video. It’s really helpful for remembering
meaning of words to have them broken down by characters. And even
though it’s hard to learn new words without seeing the
characters, I think in the future it will be possible to guess
the meanings of words I hear on the street with this kind of
background. Thanks so much!

45:39

AUDIBLE GAIN BY EMAIL

Hello Luke,
Well. I was completely flabbergasted with your response. I firstly didn’t think a human would read my message, and I certainly didn’t expect a personal video response…. From the guy in the videos!
Thank you. I can appreciate automation errors as well as human errors, and I’m pleased you took the time to say “hey” and let me know what the scoop was.Your method rings so true and easily to me – I have a degree in Speech and Hearing Science, and two further degrees in Audiology – so I immediately was able to understand my errors in Mandarin once place and method of articulation were discussed.
It’s the speech pathologist in me, and glory be you speak my language (so to speak) so I could then easily understand what I need to do or listen for to hear the differences in the sounds… Complete genius.I have to say, after ONE day of working with the Pronunciation Guide, I waltzed into work and asked my colleague who had been helping me learn bits of Chinese – 你饿了吗
And with a big smile on his face and said – Woah, your accent has improved so much! I didn’t have the heart to tell him that it was due to a British and American duo, and not solely to his efforts!I leave for Suzhou tomorrow evening, so I have some remaining cram time to go. I still wish there were a streamlined solution to learn as much as possible before I go.
As an aside – The Duolingo owl has been haunting me since I found you guys, it’s a bit creepy. The owl sends emails and texts too, I think he can tell I’ve “defected” to a new method… I just wish I’d found you when I found him, I’d be so much further along!
Darn exchange rate made the purchase very dear since it was in USD, but it’s an investment I’m not taking lightly! I look forward to traveling to China and spending the next 4 days learning as much as I can. I wish it were longer…Thank you again for your response. I really appreciate it.Have a lovely weekend!
Kind Regards,
Anne

48:14

MICHAEL ROTCHFORD BY EMAIL

I absolutely love MB! I might be a long time out of school and probably no where near as smart as most of your clients but I am amazed at how much I have picked up from just the pronunciation program already. I listen to Mandarin radio on my commute to and from the office and am able to pick up now on so many things. In a month I’ve gone from hearing what might as well have been birds singing to each other to picking out tones, words and even simple sentences. I study at least an hour each day (I think you need to change the word study as that has so many negative connotations). The Anki cards are outstanding asset and they really do work! I was disappointed at how often I would have to click again but after several days I would start clicking easy because I was learning. Sure wish I had that during my school days.

I have no time table to learn. I just have the excitement of discovering this new language and can’t wait until I can have a discourse with someone in Chinese.

I enjoy the short videos as it keeps things from being overwhelming and have filled notebooks up with my notes.

I try to review each unit every day spending more time on the newer items while being able to fly thru the older ones as they become ingrained in me.

I could just spout out tons more to say!

Thank you for your outstanding program!

Mike Rotchford

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