22. The MB Community

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.

6:29 Announcements

June 1st, 2019 is the deadline for getting Pronunciation Mastery for Free!

7:36 Props!

WILL HENRY ON CHARACTER #74: 上 SHÀNG PICK A PROP

I decided to use one of those foam hands that you see at sporting events holding one finger up in the air to make the number #1 gesture.

JULIAN LAFFEY ON CHARACTER #325: 工 GŌNG PICK A PROP

I had trouble fitting an I-beam into subsequent movies. I instead went with a dumbbell or barbell, which is also connected to ‘work’.

MARILIA NESTOR ON DON’T PICK A PROP FOR 三 – LOOK HOW EASY THAT WAS!

Easy: Wolverine blades

CHAD RESSLER ON CHARACTER #187: 可 KĚ PICK A PROP

Rob Schneider’s “You can do it” from The Waterboy

WILLIAM EDMEADES ON CHARACTER #20: 儿 ÉR PICK A PROP

Kangaroo’s tail and legs from side view

WILLIAM EDMEADES ON CHARACTER #50: 舌 SHÉ PICK A PROP

There’s also the Pokemon, Lickitung ?

13:21 Actors! 

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

MARILIA NESTOR ON CHARACTER #5: 干 GĀN CASTING CALL 2/55

High School Musical’s Gabriela kkkkkkk’ Couldn’t think about anyone else that easily

MARILIA NESTOR ON CHARACTER #6: 半 BÀN CASTING CALL B- 3/55

Beetlejuice! Very good for special effects

LINNEA ON CHARACTER #7: 人 RÉN CASTING CALL R- 4/55

My dad, Rick

CHAD RESSLER ON CHARACTER #194: 内 NÈI CASTING CALL 46/55

Niè Yuǎn: Chinese actor. I liked his character in Brotherhood of Blades.

17:37  

LINNEA ON CHARACTER #5: 干 GĀN SET THE SCENE 2/13

My set for -AN is somewhere with lots of sANd.

18:54

LINNEA ON CHARACTER #7: 人 RÉN SET THE SCENE -EN 3/13

My ovEN

20:33

LINNEA ON CHARACTER #8: 从 (CÓNG) SET THE SCENE 4/13

Piano (sONG)

ONG will be a church, with lots of sONGS. Thanks for your help as I learn this method!

20:56

LINNEA ON CHARACTER #9: 个 GÈ SET THE SCENE 5/13

Exercise, setting: gym

21:33

MARILIA NESTOR ON MAKE A MOVIE 半

In this case, is there a difference between choosing the props 丷, 一, and 十, and choosing 丷, |, and 二?

22:48

LINNEA ON CHARACTER #5: 干 GĀN MAKE A MOVIE

I am outside my childhood home, and the landscape has been decimated by drought. There is sANd everywhere. Garfield the cat is my personal companion. Suddenly 10 vampires appear and I hold up the crucifix. The lead vampire hisses and flings a sword toward me, which embeds itself in my giant crucifix. But the crucifix emits a shining light, and the vampires crumble into DRY dust.

25:32

LINNEA ON MAKE A MOVIE 半

I’m in my desolated dry backyard with lots of sANd. Suddenly a devilish mummy with large spikey horns appears. Brandon Fraser rushes in with a crucifix and a sword and slashes the devil mummy in HALF.

28:18

JAY WEST ON CHARACTER #127: 吐 TÙ MAKE A MOVIE

You mean spit (tu3) not vomit (tu4), right?

30:02

WILLIAM EDMEADES ON CHARACTER #36: 况 KUÀNG MAKE A MOVIE

This one’s a good one. So in my Grandma’s house, my older brother actor is having a nice relaxing bubble bath, when all a sudden Kramer BURSTS into the room holding an icicle in his hand! Needless to say, there was a lot of shock and confusion in that SITUATION hahaha

32:39

LINNEA ON MAKE A MOVIE 人

Rick slowly enters the kitchen. The lights are flickering and all is quiet. He holds his Scimitar aloft, ready to strike. He is hunting the fierce HUMAN-eating Bananas. He sees the Banana bunch, sitting quietly on the ovEN, pretending to be normal bananas. They jump to life but Rick slashes with the Scimitar, spraying bits of banana all over the kitchen. The HUMAN race has been saved!

34:18

LINNEA ON CHARACTER #8: 从 (CÓNG) MAKE A MOVIE

Christian Bale sits down at my piano to sing a beautiful sONG. Suddenly it begins to rain and he opens 2 umbrellas. He wonders where the rain is coming FROM?

35:16

LINNEA ON CHARACTER #9: 个 GÈ MAKE A MOVIE

Gary Busey is trying to protect himself from a gang of hungry people wielding staffs and umbrellas. He flees into a local gym and finds refuge in the bathroom. He is able to lock the door since it is an INDIVIDUAL bathroom

36:06

LINNEA ON CHARACTER #10: 入 RÙ MAKE A MOVIE

Ross is hiding in my childhood home from the man-eating bananas. He is very nervous and has to use the bathroom. While he is sitting on the toilet, the giant banana ENTERS and Ross slashes the banana with his trusty scimitar.

37:23

WILLIAM EDMEADES ON CHARACTER #50: 舌 SHÉ MAKE A MOVIE

Sean Connery and the Rolling Stones mouth in the kitchen of my -e set. Sean drops an acme 1 Tonne weight on the Rolling Stones mouth which causes it’s long tongue to hang out (and other cartoonish stuff like the raised bump forming, with the dizzy birds flying around it).

38:19

ABIGAIL ON CHARACTER #68: 过 GUÒ NEW VOCABULARY UNLOCKED!

Why does the order of characters sometimes change? (rìzi guò/guòrìzi ) – does it affect the meaning?

41:21

LAUENT ON (BONUS) HOW TO FIND & FIX PRONUNCIATION PROBLEMS

Does waichinese still exist? Seems not be available now

42:19

MAKAI ALLBERT ON NASAL FINAL UEN (WEN): 问 WÈN，问题 WÈNTÍ，滚 GǓN

Definitions of the words here are different than those in the PDF>.?

42:50

KRIS FROM EMAIL

Hey Luke!

How are you doing? I’m about halfway through the pronunciation course now and also finished the free trial. The pronunciation course has been outstanding, it helped me correct a lot of the mistakes I was making. Because of that, I decided to take the plunge – I signed up for the course (annual) even though I had been studying traditional characters.

Anyway, I’m several characters in, trying to get comfortable with the method. I had been studying for just over a year and I am quite comfortable reading the Level 2 books of Mandarin Companion now. Still though, sometimes, my memory for characters could be better, and I always forget what tones actually are! Hoping that this method will help me remember tones better.Do you guys have any students who have used your course but was learning Traditional Characters? Luckily, I already have the “Remembering Traditional Hanzi” book that you guys recommended, although I never really used it before.

If any of your previous students have done Mandarin Blueprint while learning traditional characters, perhaps you guys can talk about this on the next podcast? And if not, maybe just general tips / recommendation of the best way you guys think I should go about it? I did try editing the anki flashcards from the pronunciation course and updating the hanzi to use traditional. It’s a little bit of added time, but not too bad, to be honest so I will be continuing to do that. Also perhaps you guys can talk about whats the best way for students who have been studying chinese for a while now to take advantage of the courseAnyway, really enjoying the course so far! Thanks for all your hard work and I’m excited to see how this will grow in the coming years!

-Kris