9. Scott Draper: A Chinese Learning Success Story

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.

00:37 – An interview with our friend and excellent Chinese learner Scott Draper

02:11 – Scott’s experience with living in China and deciding to learn Chinese

25:49 – Systems and methods Scott used to learn Chinese

1:10:21

DANIEL LÉO SIMPSON ON THIS COULD BE YOU IN LESS TIME THAN YOU THINK

Wow, before hitting “Start Course” one almost has to pause and consider for a moment the impact of this “single step” which begins this exciting journey – reminds me of the end of 2001 Space Odyssey: “Something wonderful is going to happen”

1:14:45

LUKE TAYLOR ON NASAL FINAL ING (YING): 请 QǏNG，请坐 QǏNGZUÒ，请进 QǏNGJÌN

At the start of the video you give two pronunciations for qǐng, so can you choose whether you pronounce ‘ing’ more like ‘eeung’ or ‘eeng’? In Anny’s ePub file it always sounds like ‘eeung’ to me, with the exception of ‘jìng’.

1:17:03

DANIEL LÉO SIMPSON ON ANNY 老师 REVIEW: SIMPLE FINAL A

I don’t hear 5th tone – I hear 1st tone BUT the pitch of the first Ta is a higher ‘pitch’ then the 2nd Ta which to my ears is clearly ‘held’ (i.e. 1st tone) but at a lower pitch. I actually hear this all the time. They don’t “go back” and try to match the ‘pitch’ of the last time they said 1st tone, they simply start on a new pitch but do elongate it (i.e. 1st tone). 5th tone to my ears is always ‘clipped’ so as not to give it a “tone”. In class this morning, a native Taiwanese actually explaining Tones on a marker board to the class using Pinyin, actually used a “dot” over the 5th tone! I’ve never seen that done (not double umlaut, but a single dot to designate no tone). Here however, I clearly hear the 2nd Ta held (1st tone), not clipped (5th tone). Just me….

1:20:05

JULIAN LAFFEY ON NEW VOCABULARY UNLOCKED!

When would you use 可是 over 但是 ?

1:21:45

RYAN SMITH ON NEW VOCABULARY UNLOCKED!

Others might appreciate this warning: Don’t use google image search for your vocab card for 下面 in public, it apparently carries the meaning of private parts in connection with the given meaning of “the lower part”.

1:24:24

RYAN SMITH ON CHARACTER #87: 身 SHĒN MAKE A MOVIE

Location: Parent-in-law’s stoop

Actor: Sean Connery

Props: Hand-held mirror (自) & Dexter from Dexter’s Lab (才)

Keyword connection: A poisoned water hole (Toy Story’s “Somebody’s poisoned the water hole!”), “poisoned” is being made apparent by it being green with bubbles breaking on the surface.

Scene:
Sean Connery notices that there’s a small pond (i.e. water hole) in my in-law’s yard. Every time he looks over, it’s getting greener with more and more bubbles, but the culprit is out of site every time he looks. Finally, he pulls out a hand-held mirror while looking away and catches Dexter silently cackling while adding more poison to the water hole.

1:29:15

PAMELA BALDWIN ON WHAT ABOUT THE MANDARIN TONES?

Hello, my question is what if you have 1st tone and 3rd tone in a word, do you think of outside the house then the bedroom?

1:31:05

DANIEL LÉO SIMPSON ON HOW TO “MAKE A MOVIE“ WITH 十 SHÍ – “TEN“

All “Make a Movie” lessons will contain a stroke order picture. “Script 2: Sherlock Holmes places a giant toothpick directly in front of TEN bowling pins, and then from the other side of the room hurls a razor blade HORIZONTALLY,”
Since the stroke order is shown above as first a horizontal then a vertical line, shouldn’t the above ‘script’ be: “Script 2: Sherlock Holmes places a giant toothpick [Horizontally] directly in front of TEN bowling pins, and then from the other side of the room hurls a razor blade VERTICALLY” ?
And thank you!

1:33:30

JULIAN LAFFEY ON CHARACTER #193: 以 YǏ MAKE A MOVIE

Very difficult to incorporate ‘by means of’ into a scene. Any suggestions?

1:36:07

CHAD RESSLER ON CHARACTER #64: 了 LE MAKE A MOVIE

Set: Father-in-law Ed’s house, on the roof
Actor: Luke Neale
Props: Dr. Spock and a Hockey Stick

Luke and Dr. Spock are on the roof of my father-in-law Ed’s house. Luke is teaching Dr. Spock how to speak Mandarin so that he can better communicate during his mission. Luke informs Dr. Spock that he may need to CHANGE his appearance to blend in. He then gives Dr. Spock a makeover complete with new hockey stick earrings.

1:37:59

JOHN HAY ON IT’S A WORD!

I know that I’m trying to run before I can walk and that, as you say, I don’t need to think about your sample sentences too much for now but, just out of curiosity, how do we know that sentence 2 can be translated in the present perfect tense? As far as I can see, there is no indication that  你的话 (i.e. your talk) has finished yet.

1:41:45

CHAD RESSLER ON SET THE SCENE 13/13

Went with my current home where I ENGaged in learning the Mandarin Blueprint. After 12 sets, I know I was struggling to come up with something that I had a real connection to. I figured since our first set was one of the very first places we lived (childhood home) that this last final could be one of the last places we lived.

1:43:08

CHAD RESSLER ON CASTING CALL 31/55

Since I went with Phil for ‘f’, gonna have to go with Luke for ‘l’.

SIDNEY GREEN ON CASTING CALL 46/55

I chose Lord Nelson for my ‘n-‘ character. There should be lots of scope for action there!

1:44:32

CHAD RESSLER ON CHARACTER #61: 句 JÙ PICK A PROP

I went with a Python since it wraps itself around its prey. Works well with my ‘ju’ actor Jake “The Snake” who would bring a Python in the ring during his matches.

JIM AWOFADEJU ON CHARACTER #101: 本 BĚN PICK A PROP

Prop suggestion: Notebook from the Death Note anime

When you write a person’s name in the notebook, that person dies.

CHAD RESSLER ON CHARACTER #64: 了 LE PICK A PROP

Having studied Shotokan karate, this reminds me of a kama.

CHAD RESSLER ON CHARACTER #66: 寸 CÙN PICK A PROP

For me, this looks just like a wheel width caliper. We use these to measure the width of a rim prior to balancing a tire.

JULIAN LAFFEY ON CHARACTER #194: 内 NÈI PICK A PROP

I went with cogs/gears for this one.