40. Paul Rudd Got Fat

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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.

5:37 Props!

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

CONNOR GRIFFITH ON “PICK A PROP 手“

Actor with 6-fingered hands

CHAD RESSLER ON “PICK A PROP 元“

Altar. The first recorded altar in Genesis is at the beginning of the Noahic covenant.

WILL HENRY ON “PICK A PROP 亠 口 & 高“

高 Prop： Basketball Hoop

WILLIAM EDMEADES ON “PICK A PROP 艹“

Picket Fence

MAKAI ALLBERT ON “PICK A PROP 目“

I went with mike wazowski from Monsters inc

XIAO TIAN ON “PICK A PROP 了“

Timothy “Tiny Tim” Cratchit’s crutch. Dickens’ ‘A Christmas Carol’ is all about change. The crutch serves both as a visual and meaningful reminder for me.

XIAO TIAN ON “PICK A PROP 寸“

Resembles an adjustable T square or a Chinese balance scale.

WILLIAM EDMEADES ON “PICK A PROP 者 “

Kermit the Frog, as the real DO-er is the person controlling him. Other options could be a famous Puppeteer? Or even a person that is known to be manipulative?

WILLIAM EDMEADES ON “PICK A PROP 孝“

I’m imagining a soldier for

孝WILLIAM EDMEADES ON “PICK A PROP 五“

I’m going with the Samsung Galaxy S5. But Lou Bega could also be an option, as he sang the hit “Mambo No. 5”.

CONNOR GRIFFITH ON “PICK A PROP 几“

This looks like an upside down cup that has been tossed to the wayside. I imagine this to be several pieces of litter.

NATALIA BEREZINA ON “PICK A PROP 关“

Prop: Padlock

NATALIA BEREZINA ON “PICK A PROP 廾“

Looks like hands in handcuffs to me. So I chose handcuffs.

XIAO TIAN ON “PICK A PROP 下“

I picture someone a zip line. Works well for me because I use someone walking on a tight rope for 上.

IJA AMRAHI ON “PICK A PROP 石“

The wrestler Stone Cold Steve Austin, Sorcerer’s Stone (Harry Potter) or Infinity Stones / The Infinity Gauntlet.

IJA AMRAHI ON “PICK A PROP 豆“

Mr. Bean

14:39 Actors! 

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

DANIEL LÉO SIMPSON ON “CASTING CALL KU- 22/55“

Oh wow, never thought of the Initial Ku- in Kung fu. I chose the title of a poem written by Coleridge called “Kubla Khan” so as to get the nice Kooo on the initial ku-

ERIN H ON “CASTING CALL H- 40/55“

Could also use Hasan Minhaj or Harry Connick Jr.

16:30 Movies! 

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

CHAD RESSLER ON “MAKE A MOVIE 服“

Location: Childhood Home (Kitchen)

Actor: Fung Yu-Sau (Villian from the movie Kung Fu Killer)

Props: Moon, Wax Seal, My friend Aaron (Right Hand Man)

I’m hanging out with my friend Aaron in the kitchen of my childhood home having some beers when we hear a knock at the door. I answer it and it is Fung Yu-Sau. Surprised, I ask if he is here to fight me. He says no, that he is now reaching out to people to help them learn Chinese. Relieved, I let him in and he tells me he is going to show me a new way to learn Chinese (like I haven’t heard that before). He has my friend Aaron hold a giant wax seal he brought and then he pulls a big, glowing moon out of his bag and holds it up next to the wax seal. He then asks if he can CONVINCE me to study Chinese with the program he represents because these three props put together just taught me the word for CONVINCE. I tell him this looks awfully familiar and when I ask if he knows Phil Crimmins and Luke Neale, he quickly grabs his stuff and runs away as I yell at him to tell them that I’m not CONVINCED!

20:35

ERIN H ON “MAKE A MOVIE 我 “

I brought music into my scene, having my wu actor (Mrs. Weasley) dance and sing along to the Taylor Swift song ‘Me!’, singing to a giant hand holding a halberd. Every time they sing “me”, she points to herself.

The refrain is upbeat and easy to remember, and the music video to this song is very memorable, so I imagine that my scene is full of colors like the video.

22:04

XIAO TIAN ON “MAKE A MOVIE 胖“

Paul Rudd is in my father’s backyard during a Christmas party. He’s wearing a too-short ugly Christmas sweater, ashamed to come inside because he has become so fat. I ask him if he’s alright. He turns to me and squeezes his belly with his fingerless, knitted gloves to reveal that the sweater cannot cover his belly and replies, “No, I’m not ‘all right,’ I’m ‘half fat.’”

25:08

ERIN H ON “MAKE A MOVIE 息“

I have my actress outside the entrance of my null final, and her nose grows to a giant size. So much so that she can no longer breathe.

She then falls to the ground, and grabs her chest. I have to perform heart massage (CPR) to revive her and get her breath back.

My prop for 心 is a heart, but I haven’t used a literal external heart in this scene. Do you think that will confuse my brain in the future ?

27:24 Miscellaneous 

KEITH WILKENS ON “TIME TO GET REAL ABOUT SENTENCES“

Wow, yeah, I can’t describe how good this feels to be able to read these!

28:20

GARTH GRESKIW ON “LEVEL 5 COMPLETE“

The review is equally reassuring and disheartening with all its splendid order (my brain is not so well ordered)- but Phil presses the right motivator buttons.. and so I just keep the beat, the rhythm and patterns going – as he suggests.

29:47

NATALIA BEREZINA ON “NEW VOCABULARY UNLOCKED! 以上“

以上的话我只给你一个人说了

I tried to map the given translation to this line but couldn’t.

Is the translation correct?

My Chinese is really lacking, but it seems to me that it’s something like:

The said above is just me repeating to you what someone else said.

31:49

CONNOR GRIFFITH ON “LEVEL 13 COMPLETE“

It is so nice being able to look back at all the vocab we’ve learned and to be able to pronounce everything perfectly. I had so much trouble with speaking programs before with getting the tones right. This method is amazing and keeps me thrilled to learn more every day.

32:57

DANIEL LÉO SIMPSON ON “MAKE A MOVIE 飞“

It is funny how we do all have our own thoughts on what immediately comes to mind – here Phil asks, “So ‘Fly….’ what’s the first thing that comes to mind for you?” And before the guy even answered I thought, “Superman”

Funny – we all have buried in us these memories that we relate to and will ‘stick’ to the characters – love it.

34:34

DANIEL LÉO SIMPSON ON “SET THE SCENE -ANG 11/13“

If you’re like me (you’re probably not) although I do see the logic behind it, I have a hard time with PEOPLE actors and PEOPLE (reminding me of) sets. So I like to keep my ‘sets” PLACES and my actors PEOPLE. Putting in a search for “cities ending in -ang” I found a list – bingo:

“Da Nang is the fifth largest city in Vietnam”

A city with history, a name I recognize AND an actual PLACE for my set. (Not a person who reminds me of a set). Also, this has the bonus of ENDING in the Final – I do like to have names that BEGIN with the letters when it’s an Initial and END with the letters when it’s a final. Just sayin’… ?

36:22

MATTHEW FLINTON ON “SIMPLE FINAL A: YES OR NO QUESTIONS WITH 吗 MA5 & ANSWERING “YES”“

Could I say “塔爬” in response to the question – he is afraid?

37:25

NATALIA BEREZINA ON “MAKE A MOVIE 系“

I think that upper strokes in 千 and 系 are basically the same. I think I use here katana instead of curved drop as I did in 千.