A couple of years ago, I wrote a post entitled "Who's on First?" - which made reference to the famous Abbot & Costello sketch. If you haven't seen it, now would be a good time to watch that video.
With all the hype around the Gangnam Style music video, there is even a Mandarin version called "Laowai Style" - I wrote a post that included the lyrics of the Chinese parodied version (and also included some vocab & grammar lesson :-).
It was put together by Jesse Appell, and it seems that he has also created a Mandarin version of the "Who's on First?" sketch in Mandarin Chinese.
Having just watched it, I can confirm that the humour still works, and in fact it doesn't even require a very high level of Mandarin to follow.
Unless you have been based in the most rural parts of China without Internet access for a year, you will have come across the Gangnam Style music video (over 500 million views on YouTube!) - extremely catchy and definitely fun. And as with most popular music on the Net, that video has been parodied to death.
The "Laowai Syle" parody is of particular interest to us in the Chinese/Mandarin circles, and a number of sites & blogs are already linking to it, such as Confused Laowai, ChinaSmack & Lost Laowai.
Here's the video, have a watch if you haven't already. The lyrics written by Jesse Appell for this parody are really good, and they contain some interesting insights into Mandarin, which are worth exploring - and I'll do that below.
Finding the lyrics
I've looked around the web trying to find the lyrics - and came up empty-handed. So I spent some time this evening transcribing the lyrics off the above video. I opened a nice bottle of South African red wine to help the process (1999 KWV Cabernet Sauvignon, sometimes I spoil myself), and overall had a good time.
Along the way I fixed a couple of spelling errors that appeared in the official subtitles, especially the one entire line about the BMW, where they got it totally wrong!
And for those wanting to make it a little intellectual, I have included some "lessons" that might be extracted from the lyrics - you can find them in the final section of this post, below.
Laowai Style - lyrics 大哥是老外Style (This guy is Laowai Style)
老外Style (Laowai Style)
大哥是长期住在北京的老外 (I'm the type of Laowai who's lived in Beijing a long time) 每天吃中国菜也不会用勺吃的老外 (The type of Laowai who eats Chinese food every day and doesn't use a spoon) 过马路也不等红绿灯变绿的老外 (The type of Laowai who doesn't wait for the traffic light to turn green) 普通老百姓的老外 (Just a regular guy who's a Laowai) 哥是那种老外 (I'm that type of Laowai)
被朋友封为K歌之王那种老外 (Whose friends have crowned him the King of Karaoke, that kind of Laowai) 在清华研究中国文化的那种老外 (Who researches Chinese culture at Tsinghua, that kind of Laowai) 觉得燕京喝酒本来好和那种老外 (Who thinks Yanjing beer is actually pretty good, that kind of Laowai)
大哥那种老外 (I'm that type of Laowai)
北京生活丰富多彩 (Life in Beijing is rich & vibrant)
拍照片就发微博 (Taking pictures and putting them on Weibo)
北京这城市，我不想离开 (This city of Beijing, I don't want to leave)
那么多中国朋友 (So many great Chinese friends)
哥们儿姐们儿跟我大声的说 (Guys and Gals sing it with me loud!)
大哥是老外Style (This guy is Laowai Style)
老外Style (Laowai Style)
大哥是老外Style (This guy is Laowai Style)
老外Style (Laowai Style)
大哥是老外Style (This guy is Laowai Style)
黑！老外来了！ (Heeey! The Laowai is here!)
大哥是老外Style (This guy is Laowai Style)
黑！老外来了！ (Heeey! The Laowai is here!)
大哥是老外Style (This guy is Laowai Style)
哥是大篮球打地特别臭的老外 (I'm the type of Laowai who sucks as basketball) 在秀水街买东西也不会被骗地老外 (The type of Laowai who buys stuff at Silk Street but doesn't get ripped off)
? 不开宝马骑着二手电动车的老外 (The type of Laowai who doesn't drive a BMW and instead drives a second-hand electric bike) 普通老百姓的老外 (Just a regular guy who's a Laowai) 哥是那种老外 (This guy's that kind of Laowai)
高峰期绝过避免北三环 (Who absolutely avoids the North Third Ring Road at rush hour) 那种老外 (That kind of Laowai)
省钱只有破破烂烂手机 (Who saves money by having a crappy phone) 那种老外 (That kind of Laowai)
只喝王老吉，不吃肯德基 (Who only drinks Wang Laoji and doesn't eat KFC) 那种老外 (That kind of Laowai)
就是那种老外 (I'm that kind of Laowai)
北京生活丰富多彩 (Life in Beijing is rich & vibrant)
拍照片就发微博 (Taking pictures and putting them on Weibo)
北京这城市，我不想离开 (This city of Beijing, I don't want to leave)
那么多中国朋友 (So many great Chinese friends)
哥们儿姐们儿跟我大声的说 (Guys and Gals sing it with me loud!)
大哥是老外Style (This guy is Laowai Style)
老外Style (Laowai Style)
大哥是老外Style (This guy is Laowai Style)
老外Style (Laowai Style)
大哥是老外Style (This guy is Laowai Style)
黑！老外来了！ (Heeey! The Laowai is here!)
大哥是老外Style (This guy is Laowai Style)
黑！老外来了！ (Heeey! The Laowai is here!)
大哥是老外Style (This guy is Laowai Style)
你跟我玩儿，你跟我一起玩儿 (Come play with me, everyone play with me) 世界各国朋友大家跟我一起玩儿 (Friends from all around the world, come and play with me)
你跟我玩儿，你跟我一起玩儿 (Come play with me, everyone play with me)
世界各国朋友大家跟我一起玩儿 (Friends from all around the world, come and play with me)
我说什么呢？ (You know what I'm sayin'?)
大哥是老外Style (This guy is Laowai Style)
黑！老外来了！ (Heeey! The Laowai is here!)
大哥是老外Style (This guy is Laowai Style)
黑！老外来了！ (Heeey! The Laowai is here!)
大哥是老外Style (This guy is Laowai Style)
大哥老外Style (This guy is Laowai Style)
Laowai Style - lessons
(1)
老百性: Literally this is "old 100 surnames": The basic meaning, as I learned this evening, is 'regular' - as the lyrics suggest. It's like saying that it's what lots of people do.
(2)
When Niel from Confused Laowai linked to my blog, it was to a post entitled "The sentence with (the girl with (the dragon tattoo) )". Yes, that heading does look a little confusing, but it's an interesting construct that is common in Mandarin, which is heavily relied upon in the lyrics of this song. First, read the above article I wrote. Then the following annotations will make more sense:
大哥是(长期住在北京)的老外
He is (lived a long time in Beijing)'s Laowai
(3)
哥们儿: The official pinyin of this is "gēmenr" - 'gē'being 'big brother', 'men' for plural, and 'er' for Beijing-style enunciation. Actually, this word sounds more like "gummer" and the closest translation I can think of for this is "Dudes" :-)
(4)
破破烂烂 (pòpòlànlàn): This AABB pattern is quite common in Mandarin - probably the most common one being 马马虎虎 (mǎmahūhū, or: horse horse tiger tiger), which means 'so-so' or 'neither here nor there'). In this case, the literal translation is broken-broken-spoiled-spoiled, which has the meaning in the English lyrics as "crappy".
Literary genius indeed!
Edits: (1) Corrected to 姓 as per Peckish' comment below; (2) Fixed the line relating to the BMW, thanks to a message from Yen about what it actually said!
A couple of years ago, I wrote a post entitled The "sleeping cats" guide to pinyin pronunciation, which was actually one of my more popular posts, I guess because amongst all the beginners learning Chinese, it sometimes is the really simple stuff which is most confusing.
Today, while doing flashcards, the sentence below popped up again, which reminded me of a common pronunciation mistake I used to make (and probably still make, I'm just in denial!) - and that triggered a desire to write another "pinyin pronunciation" guide - which is this post.
- "Hold that pose, don't move," said the photographer. - "Bǎochí nage zīshì, bié dòng," shèyǐngshī shuō. - “保持那个姿势，别动,” 摄影师说。
I can't remember where I found this sentence, but somehow it made it into my flashcard pack. And reading it today immediately reminded me of how much difficulty I had at the beginning differentiating between pinyin's 'she' and 'shi' - and both sounds appear in the word for 'photographer' which is why this is a particularly interesting word (for beginners) or interesting sentence (for intermediates).
The first syllable of ''shèyǐngshī" is shè, which actually rhymes with the end of the word 'photographer' or perhaps I can even say 'photograph-uh'. The final syllable shī might best be written as 'shr' - sounding as if there is no vowel.
Perhaps if you hear it pronounced correctly, it would be easier to understand? So visit MDBG.net, (my favourite online dictionary, which I've written about before) and specifically look up the word photographer. You can hear it pronounced by clicking on (>>) and then on the audio button. Do it.
So there you have it - a relatively common pronunciation mistake for beginners, but if you learn just one word correctly - photographer - you will have a clear picture of how to say it correctly. Forever.
PS. If you haven't read it already, I've written a post in the past about the mispronunciation of the word 'pronunciation'. Check it out.
I popped across the border from HK to China a couple of weeks ago (I have a multi-entry visa, so I may as well use it!), and happened to see a couple of really clever stylised Chinese characters that felt more arty than just characters - certainly very cleverly put together.
The first one I took off the side of a box of tissues - which in itself is pushing the boundaries of what qualifies as art! Take a look ...
To my rather untrained eye, it looks like this character: 威 (wēi) - which has a dictionary definition of "power / might / prestige", and a Heisig keyword of 'might'. I actually think it's quite beautifully done!
This is the second character I saw, at the China Ferry Terminal building:
This one was easier to identify, being 海 (hǎi) - meaning "sea / ocean / maritime". I left the full picture in, so you can see it is the logo for the Marine Department. The water radical on the left has been replaced by a stream of water, and the 母 (mother radical) has been made to look like a flag - which suits what it is designed to represent.
These are not the first times I've seen characters written up so artistically, but this time I happened to take pictures of them. If you have seen other characters done unusually, please include links below ...
iGoogle collection of "Learn Chinese" feeds
