Very interesting video language learning wise with a Russian guy living in China. His powers of expression in Mandarin are truly enviable I think, but like all the learners he also has some struggles with pronunciation and tones that are really interesting to study.
It makes me very curious about Russian phonology as well. For example, does Russian have a lot of reduction? That is, are vowels often pronounced in a less "clear" way in unstressed positions? To me it sounds like he is doing this in his Mandarin, with the usual caveat that I am just a struggling Mandarin learner myself.
50+ fundamental crime, suspense, & mystery Cdrama vocab words
I'm currently watching 《模仿犯》, so I was inspired to put together this list of essential vocab for 犯罪剧/悬疑剧/推理剧. I tend to gravitate towards dramas that fall into these genres.
I've sorted the words into categories. These were determined by vibes only. Definitions are adapted from MDBG, my loyal companion for nearly 10 years.
The Case
案子 ànzi - case / law case / legal case / judicial case
案件 ànjiàn - case / instance
办案 bàn'àn - to handle a case
破案 pò'àn - to solve a case
报案 bào'àn - to report a case to the authorities
命案 mìng'àn - homicide case / murder case
作案 zuò'àn - to commit a crime
现场 xiànchǎng - the scene (of a crime, accident etc) / (on) the spot / (at) the site
证据 zhèngjù - evidence / proof / testimony
真相 zhēnxiàng - the truth about sth / the actual facts
The Investigation
厘清 líqīng - to clarify (the facts) / clarification
线索 xiànsuǒ - trail / clues / thread (of a story)
细节 xìjié - details / particulars
痕迹 hénjì - vestige / mark / trace
追踪 zhuīzōng - to follow a trail / to trace / to pursue
追问 zhuīwèn - to question closely / to investigate in detail / to examine minutely / to get to the heart of the matter
排除 páichú - to eliminate / to remove / to exclude / to rule out
嫌疑 xiányí - suspicion / to have suspicions
怀疑 huáiyí - to doubt (sth) / to be skeptical of / to have one's doubts / to harbor suspicions / to suspect that
跟踪 gēnzōng - to follow sb's tracks / to tail / to shadow / tracking
不对劲 búduìjìn - fishy / wrong / not right
隐瞒 yǐnmán - to conceal / to hide (a taboo subject) / to cover up the truth
The Victim
被害者 bèihàizhě - victim (of a wounding or murder)
受害者 shòuhàizhě - casualty / victim / those injured and wounded
幸存者 xìngcúnzhě - survivor
失踪 shīzōng - to be missing / to disappear / unaccounted for
消失 xiāoshī - to disappear / to fade away
绑架 bǎngjià - to kidnap / to abduct / to hijack / a kidnapping abduction / staking
Sometimes, I look at the evolution of Chinese hanzi and sigh, while learning.
HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?? The second one isn't even a heart anymore, why does it turn pp shaped third and suddenly we've got 4 remnant strokes of what it used to be ...
Learning mandarin so I can watch more bad/low budget Journey To The West movies and add good subtitles so I can spread the cringe
The good movies get good sub titles but what about the bad movies! I’m trying to show people the movie series where The Six Eared Macaque goes back in time and adopts the child version of Sun Wukong but the subtitles get worse each movie and I’m scared the next one will be straight up auto generated!
Finally getting to INTRODUCTIONS in my language learning. 我叫陶爱君，我是二十八, 我是美国人。Need to learn a proper word for ‘nonbinary’ if they got somethin similar. At least ‘androgynous’.
Though it tried to teach me jiao without teaching me what it meant. Just introduced the word as part of a grammatical sentence without being like ‘here’s what it MEANS’ (it means call/called).
Wondering if ‘wo shi (name)’ would be grammatically correct. If shi is ‘is/am being’. Should be ‘I am (name)’. But perhaps it’s just a weird way of saying it. I can’t wait to learn grammar just so I can ignore grammar in the future. (Love talkin like someone who ignores structure).
Also. Got help with my Name in two places.
First Name Àijūn was helped via my old Chinese Culture and Asian Film Study teach from college. I considered Àidàn on my own, something like ‘lovely Dawn’, but my teacher suggested jūn instead, meaning something like ‘gentleman’. Lovely Gentleman. I really liked it! Very Gender!
The surname Táo came from XHS, because I wanted a full name. It means something like molded/cultivated. A cultivated gentleman! It’s very transgender of me. So I love it!
The Ài part of my name is my favorite to write though. Somethin tells me. That bottom part of the character that look like a folding table, could probably be stylized like a heart. 👀 Now I wanna try that. Pardon me.
