48. 1500 Characters Coming Soon!

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.

03:40 Props!

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

WILLIAM EDMEADES ON “PICK A PROP 方“

SpongeBob

WILLIAM EDMEADES ON “PICK A PROP 采“

Giant tweezers or a vulture

WILLIAM EDMEADES ON “PICK A PROP 巴“

Krusty the Clown from The Simpsons

WILLIAM EDMEADES ON “PICK A PROP 巴“

Toast, or the Earth.
I’m giving my toast a healthy serving of Marmite, a delicacy here in New Zealand!

JAMIE MILLER ON “PICK A PROP 小“

stuart little for me!

CHAD RESSLER ON “PICK A PROP 其“

The idea of a tool rack is good. We have what we call the “A-Frame” at my garage that looks like this with wheels on the bottom, so that is what I will be using.

WILLIAM EDMEADES ON “PICK A PROP 垂“

Windmill, the character kinda reminds me of the classic windmill blades

CONNOR GRIFFITH ON “PICK A PROP 穴“

Hole Puncher

WILLIAM EDMEADES ON “PICK A PROP 亦“

I remember seeing an Axe/Lynx Body spray ad a while ago that illustrated this prop quite perfectly!
https://youtu.be/vQqpCnilpBs

CONNOR GRIFFITH ON “PICK A PROP 分“

A curtain, or a mosquito net

GREGG REED ON “PICK A PROP 手“

The Infinity Gauntlet
Thing from The Addams Family

KATHLEEN GANS ON “PICK A PROP 旦“

I actually still chose the sun rising above the horizon for DAYBREAK, even though you caution against it. My -an set is the South Pole science research station in AN-tarctica. Daybreak at the end of the winter after months of no sun is a very memorable vision of the sun peeking above the horizon for the first time. It is quite an event for those there to experience it.

CHAD RESSLER ON “PICK A PROP 厂“

I went with a sickle. Sort of looks like the component, but, also, in a roundabout way it ties to Factory: hammer and sickle—>Communism—->The Proletariat—–>Factory Workers.

09:40 Actors! 

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

GREGG REED ON “CASTING CALL BU- 36/55“

Buzz Lightyear

10:13 Sets! 

This blog post explains the theory behind sets and pinyin finals.

MATEUSZ STRZELECKI ON “SET THE SCENE -ANG 11/13“

Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge, UK where I did my undergrad ?

11:40 Movies! 

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

XIAO TIAN ON “MAKE A MOVIE 周“

Zh Jack Black
冂 belt
土 Soil
口 Rolling Stones mouth

I won a charity raffle so for an entire WEEKEND Jack Black is gardening outside my front entrance. All day he’s up to his elbows in SOIL whilst BELTING Rolling Stones tunes.

13:30

JACK BRADY ON “MAKE A MOVIE 四 “

I had my actor scoring a try in rugby league, worth “four” points. He was facing off against my mouth prop and my legs prop who were defending. The legs came out from inside the mouth.

Main idea is the ‘four’ points for the try, I was having trouble coming up with a solid, memorable ‘four’ then I read through the wikipedia page for ‘4’ and rugby league is one of my favourite sports so it jumped out at me.

14:43

WILLIAM EDMEADES ON “MAKE A MOVIE 应“

Actor: Yoko Ono (yi-)
Set: Bathroom of my -eng set
Props: Bus Shelter (广), Statue of Liberty (⺍ – because to me it looks like a hand holding something up by the fingertips), Razor Blade (一)

Yoko Ono is lying unconscious on the bench in the bus shelter hooked up to a heart monitor showing an irregular heart rate and a large tumor on the side of her body. Lady Liberty (wearing a doctor’s uniform) is desperately trying to wake her up. She tries the static pads to jolt her awake, she even tries slapping her in the face. Still no RESPONSE! “Urgh! Why isn’t she RESPONDING!?!“. Running out of time she grabs a nearby giant razor blade and hastily cuts off the tumor, making Yoko jolt awake taking in a deep breath. She then hugs Lady Liberty for saving her life.

16:49

ABIGAIL ON “MAKE A MOVIE 词 “

My C actor is shouting words (in the kitchen of my childhood home) through the megaphone and getting kids to pick up the magnetic letters (which you find on fridges) to make these words in their toy dumper trucks.

17:42

MATEUSZ STRZELECKI ON “MAKE A MOVIE 吃“

My friend Hung Chang-Chen sees a beggar at the entrance of my childhood home. He takes pity on him and wants to give him some coins. He notices though, that the beggar has a chattering teeth toy (prop for mouth) through which he needs to put the money into his hat. He tries to slot the coins through those chattering teeth toy but he ends up being bitten and the chattering teeth toy starts to EAT on his arm. ?

18:38

ZACH MORGAN ON “MAKE A MOVIE 寺“

A giant temple (I imagine a Tibetan Buddhist monastery) has been mysteriously constructed in the backyard of my childhood home. As I walk towards it, I notice that in front of the entrance, there is a passageway leading underground. I peer down and see Samuel L. Jackson creeping around a small room under the temple. In the center of the room is a pedestal with a pot of soil on it. Samuel L. Jackson is eyeing the pot as if it is some long-lost treasure. He pulls out a ruler to check the dimensions of the pot. When he is satisfied, he nabs the pot and sprints up the passageway (Indiana Jones Temple of Doom style) as the walls begin to crash down around him.

19:42

CHAD RESSLER ON “MAKE A MOVIE 某“

Location: Joe and Ryan’s House {Living Room}
Actor: Matt {Friend}
Props: Christmas Tree and Kit Kat Bar w/arms and legs

We are at my in-laws for Christmas and my friend Matt has come along this year. All of us are decorating the tree and, as we are about to finish, Matt climbs up and puts a big Kit-Kat w/arms and legs on the top of the Christmas tree in place of the angel. He climbs back down and looks up and proudly says “Isn’t that SOMETHING”!. All of us, not wanting to hurt his feelings, look up and say “Yea, that’s SOMETHING, alright”!

21:08

ALINA DANA COROIAN ON “MAKE A MOVIE 句“

Script : Ju Shou the Dragon Spirit of the West is hiding in the bathroom of my childhood home to eat the wrapped-up burrito he has just stolen from the supermarket. His huge MOUTH is drooling because of the lust . The moment his MOUTH is about to bite the wrapped-up burrito, Sky God appears and SENTENCES Ju Shou for stealing: Ju Shou has to write again and again for a long period of time a SENTENCE affirming he will never steal again. Ju Shou remains petrified with the open mouth and the wrapped-up burrito near his mouth.

Actor: Ju Shou the Dragon Spirit of the West – set of Chinese mytology

22:38 Miscellaneous 

JAIME MALAGON ON “YOU DID IT!!!“

Hey guys!. Just finished the course today and I feel blessed and very happy that I invested in Mandarin Blueprint. Thanks for the excellent content! You guys rock!!

23:48

CHAD RESSLER ON “NEW VOCABULARY UNLOCKED! 其他“

According to the progress bar I am at lesson 1007 of 1999, so a little over halfway finished with the course. I want to encourage anyone who has reached this point to KEEP GOING. There are some who fly through the course and there are some, like me, who desire to take it slow and enjoy the journey. As the slower type, do not feel the need to rush because others are going faster than you. Take this course at a pace you want and a pace you are comfortable with. If you haven’t done so already, create your own Chinese learning environment at home. Add Chinese movies and TV to your Netflix list, Chinese songs to your Spotify list, subscribe to Chinese learning channels on YouTube, and join Chinese groups and pages on Facebook. You will hear, see, and interact with many of our vocabulary words on a daily basis in contexts other than your Anki flashcards. Let people you are comfortable with hear you read out loud, and practice out loud as much as possible. Keep on your flashcards every day, and if you need to, go back and add more sentences to your daily routine.

25:37

WILLIAM EDMEADES ON “NOW JUST LOOK AT HOW SOLID THAT FOUNDATION IS!“

Hard to believe this is the end of the course! Not bad for 4 and a half months worth of effort I reckon! Can’t wait for the expansion!!

27:08

ABIGAIL ON “IT’S A WORD! 问“

Why are there two 问 in 你过去问问她 ?

28:21

FRED SNYDER ON “SIMPLE FINAL I (YI) QUIZ“

This is probably the best explaination of tones and tone pairs I have ever seen(heard, I guess!). I have been studying Chinese for quite awhile now and spent a lot of time over the years visiting many places. Have heard many variation on “standard” Mandarin. One thing I’ve thought about is: how does a native Chinese speaker hear Mandarin? It seems to me that the older people hear a mostly tonal speaking whereas the younger, sometimes with more education are more tuned to syllabic pronunciations. Thoughts? Also do you still have a WeChat?

Greetings from Philly, Phil. Miss those cheesesteaks?

30:40

ABIGAIL ON “MAKE A MOVIE 司“

I’ve watched your commentary on Xiao Tian’s movie scene, and I’ve had an issue before where I’ve used the wrong English meaning for a word. Eg. for ‘interval’, what first came to mind was an interval in a show, but I don’t think 间 has this meaning in Chinese? Would it be an idea to make the keyword more clear? Thanks

32:43

JACK BRADY ON “IT’S A WORD! 中“

you guys need to be sponsored by the 中国 government.

32:54

DANIEL LÉO SIMPSON ON “BONUS: HOW TO NEVER FORGET THE CHINESE CHARACTERS YOU LEARN“

Wow! The first 22 seconds – so true! It’s great to hear this ‘validation’ of what I had thought as well. Struggling to learn abstract lines , even writing rows of them on paper, all seem to ‘evaporate’ even if several days goes by without reviewing them. But with the Hanzi Movie Method, even when you don’t remember, you recall your scene and find out why – maybe a weakness in an actor, prop or association of some sort – you refine it – reinforce it – in other words, YOU HAVE A CHANCE. It still takes effort, but the effort pays off – whereas with no method of association, the effort just falls to the ground wasted – like Phil says here, “You have to start all over again” – with associations, you have a chance – you have hope – it keeps you going because you do see the progress is being made.

34:37

ERIN ON “REQUIRED SENTENCES VS. OPTIONAL SENTENCES“

This looks like something very new. I downloaded my anki decks before this update, and don’t have the red marked cards. Is there a way to update the deck to be able to see the required sentences marked, without losing all of the work done on previous cards ? Thanks ?

36:08

NATALIA BEREZINA ON “MAKE A MOVIE 请“

I saw your reply in the podcast and decided to explain what I meant because I believed it could help to improve the course by correcting some minor inconsistences.

The 主 component in the writing order of 请 character above is in question here. Namely what to write first: the horizontal line in the middle or the central vertical line. Check out the writing scheme in your post to see what I mean.

As far as I know in Japan when they write kanzi 主 they write the vertical line first, but in China the second horisontal stroke is written first.

I know that Japanese kanzi came from Chinese hanzi, that’s why it’s so strange and confusing that for some characters the strokes order actually differs.

38:12

SANDY ON “我应该改变吗？“

I can’t believe I understood all this paragraph XD .
yaaaAaaAAaaaay !!

38:30

JEFF JOHNSON ON “THE FINAL “FAKE I“ SI: 四 SÌ“

I am finding it interesting that the anki deck connects to this lesson for a discussion on the word for death. I wonder if that was in a previous version of this video presentation. I had no idea how to answer that card when it first came up.

39:17

RICHARD KRAUSE FROM EMAIL

Dear Luke and Phil,
I am enjoying your course very much and already have gone much farther than I might have thought possible.In Level 13 you have dropped pinyin and I think that makes perfect sense.  However, I am wondering why you do not include sound files in each lesson, or better yet, Annie speaking the sentences as in the Pronunciation course.  It is very helpful to see her facial muscles and expressions and how the “tone sandhis” are expressed.  (Yes, I understand that I can find the sound files in the Anki cards.)
Please do not take my message as a criticism.  I’m sure that you have a valid reason.
Thanks again for creating a wonderful course.