Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Getting back into it

I haven't had much time to post recently, as I've spent the last few weeks preparing for, and going through with my move down the street. That's all finished now so I can get back to working on my Chinese.

Good timing too! In just over 2 weeks we will be heading to Beijing. We made some adjustments to the original schedule, and it now looks like this (all flights booked):

- Beijing: 7 nights
- Xi'an: 4 nights
- Chengdu: 5 nights
- Hangzhou: 2 nights
- Suzhou: 2 nights
- Shanghai: 4 nights
- Taipei: 5 nights

Most of the big arrangements are sorted out, but we still have a lot of little details to plan through.javascript:void(0)

Sunday, August 8, 2010

Free chequing account

It's been too long between posts, so here's a quick one.

This commercial is done by an SFU Mandarin professor (retired). I found myself repeating the first line the last couple of days so I thought I'd translate the spot:

免费户头太完美
miǎn fèi hù tóu tài wán měi
"A free account is just perfect"

谁不喜欢免费
shéi bù xǐ huan quán miǎn fèi
"Who doesn't want something that's free..."

广东人说???
guǎng dōng rén shuō ???
"In Cantonese free is what you say..."

台湾朋友说"man jing"
Tái wān péng you shuō "man jing"
"My Taiwanese friend says Free this way"

英文更容易说"free"
Yīng wén gèng róng yì shuō "free"
"English is even easier, say free!"

免费的说法有好几
miǎn fèi de shuō fa yǒu hǎo jǐ
"There are different ways to say free"

怎么说怎么看都是"free"!
zěn me shuō zěn me kàn dōu shì "free"!
"But however you say it or look at it, it doesn't require any money"

A few things I don't understand:

1) The word I know for "account" is hù tóu, but both times it is said in the clip it sounds like hù kóu. Am I missing something?

2) Is 全 the correct character in the 2nd sentence?

3) I have no idea what Cantonese is for "free".