As mentioned at the start of the series, it has indeed been two years of truly R-ful content from the Beijing Sounds studios. The first year’s annual report, while glowing about the profitability of the enterprise, was sparing in its treatment of product quality (excuses and blatant denials for the most part).
Expect no better this year. But there is something new: the Sound Of The Year. If we’d had this in FY2008 it would surely have been PBS’s clarification that adding a little érhuàyīn can do way more than just change the tone of a word; the ngr/ng pair, in fact differentiates words if you speak Beijing dialect:
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tāngr gēn tāng bù yíyàng yīnwèiwei tāngr shì cài lǐ de, tāng shì zhǔ tāng de tāng.
汤儿跟汤不一样因为汤儿是菜里的，汤是煮汤的汤。
Tāngr is not the same as tāng because tāngr is in the dish, tāng is like the making soup kind of tāng.
That was so good it’s probably all downhill from there. Still, the nomination this year was, at least for director SYZ, love at first listen:
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Pīnyīn
汉字
English
1 PBS Wǒmen xuéxiào fā cán le. 我们学校发蚕了。 Our school gave us silkworms. 2 SJ Nǐmen xuéxiào fācái le? 你们学校发财了？ Your school got rich? [misunderstanding fā cán (give silkworms) as fācái (get rich)] 3 PBS Fā cán le! 发蚕了！ Gave us silkworms!
There you have it. Irrefutable evidence that two native speakers can misunderstand -an vs -ai, because the lack of N-closing makes them blend together. And it’s about silkworms. If you’ve got a Beijing sound that beats that — on BJS or off — send it in. Winning entry gets the usual red envelope award — see details below.
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Comments 8
Well I never…
Two years you say?
Many happy returns to you and all the staff.
This clip is going to take some beating. Might it have been better to hold it back till later in the week? A nice reminder for everyone that context is king, even if PBS is..er..princess.
Posted 10 Oct 2009 at 8:25 am ¶Happy birthday Beijing Sounds!
Posted 10 Oct 2009 at 9:19 am ¶Happy birthday Beijing Sounds. May you have many more such years.
Posted 10 Oct 2009 at 10:01 pm ¶I was always partial to the last sentence which comes out in about .5 seconds, in contrast to the 6 seconds for the first sentence.
Six: duì, huòzhě xīhóngshì jīdàn xiǎo miàn tiáor tāng.
对，或者西红柿鸡蛋小面条儿汤
Right, or tomato egg soup with little noodles
Nothing like children struggling to explain basic concepts. I always have a blast with DNA.
Posted 11 Oct 2009 at 2:55 pm ¶@all: our advertisers thank you for your patronage and well wishes
@hsknotes: yeah, I like that too: kids give you variability in every dimension. If I was into discourse analysis for its own sake, I would post pbs’s long monologue translation from yesterday (when we were visiting with some American friends) of some Chinese myth she’s been reading, just because the translation itself introduces bizarre new terms into English as she struggles with the naming.
Come to think of it, the standard line in language learning advice is to get a significant other who’s a native speaker, right? But maybe the best move is just to befriend a kid.
Posted 12 Oct 2009 at 6:12 am ¶I’m not hearing “學校” I’m hearing “不是要”
Posted 31 Oct 2009 at 2:48 pm ¶“你不是要“發財了？”
I just asked a friend to check, ignore me, I’m stupid ^^
Posted 31 Oct 2009 at 3:15 pm ¶小畢, well, crap, now they’re going to have to disinvite you from the I’ve-never-misheard-a-Mandarin-word club. Probably just as well, I’ve heard rumors the membership is getting pretty thin and truculent.
Don’t worry, as readers will be happy to attest, there is no shortage of opportunities to correct the work that comes out of the Beijing Sounds studios. Glad you stopped by.
Posted 31 Oct 2009 at 7:35 pm ¶