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Why is it so hard to understand: going to the local police station

Posted by Jonah Lopin on Sat, Mar 22, 2008 @ 02:16 AM
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It amazes me that after studying Mandarin for 10 years I still can't understand basic sentences spoken at a "normal" rate in "standard" Mandarin by people in Beijing. This recording is a single sentence on repeat:

 


 

This was said by a Beijing cop in my apartment in 2002. He didn't know I was recording him... in fact I didn't even know my mic was on. Sorry!  Anyway, I had no idea what he was saying until I played it back at super slow speed and translated it.

The Chinese is:  Ta1 jiu4 yi3wei2 wo3 gan4ma2 ne? Wo3 shang4 fen1ju2 le... n'n' nar3 you3 gong1 fu40r (time) a?

The translation is: What does he think I was doing? I went to the local police station. How [the f***] do I have time?

Anyone who can understand this without the pinyin and translation is a pretty hardcore Mandarin speaker. This aint no textbook Chinese.

Comments

There's no doubt learning any foreign language requires effort, time and commitment. This holds true even more, especially when there's a big difference between the native tongue and learning a new language.Most people think that it is difficult to learn Chinese. Actually, it is easy. I find a rather nice site called Chineseclass123, not only can you learn Chinese easily here, but also you can save much money,good luck,guys, ^_^
Posted @ Monday, December 15, 2008 10:15 PM by sunshine2008
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