Beginning
yuán
yu- God
-an
Hallway/Lobby or Kitchen
二 (Twins)
儿 (Human Legs)

Member Comments from 2019-mid-2020
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Della Fuller
Queen Elizabeth is sitting in my sister's "an" kitchen, and the Olsen twins in dance clothing are standing in front of her, ready to BEGIN. They are obviously excited to perform for the Queen, but they are waiting for her signal before BEGINNING their dance. Finally, she gives a little nod of her head, and the BEGINNING of the dance commences.
Natalia Kovalenko
Andy is in his kitchen (-an location), reading the Bible. "In the BEGINNING was the word"... as soon as he reads the sentence, Yahweh materializes next to him. He's so tall, Andy has to stand on stilts (prop 1) to be the same height. They make small talk about music and decide to play Chopsticks on the piano. Except Yahweh doesn't remember the BEGINNING, so instead he just beats the rhythm with a pair of chopsticks (prop 2). They are having such a good time, it looks like the BEGINNING of a beautiful friendship.
MB Team
Here's the link to where Phil & Luke talked about this comment in the Mandarin Blueprint Podcast:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-W2Q6u0F2Y&t=3429s
Image credit: CC BY 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
jay a
I've been working on my "a" pronunciations and have a question on "yuan". I thought that, though written as "u", the pinyin was actually "ü". Then, from PM, I have notes that for -ian and -üan, the "a" gets pronounced like "e" in "ten". And it sounds to me this is the pronunciation Luke gives it in the video. In the Movie Review card though, it sounds like Annie and Jerry (maybe to a lesser extent) give it the "a" like in "father". Which should we aim for? Same for 远, 员, and 园. On 院, sounds like Annie goes for "e" in "ten", but Jerry sticks with "father" "a". Also the qü-'s : 全 and 犬.
(btw, a hearty 谢谢 to Annie and Jerry. as I went through all those cards, I couldn't help but wonder if they were reduced to senseless babbling after a long day of recording individual syllables over and over.🙌)
Mandarin Blueprint
Here's a reply for you, Jay:
https://www.loom.com/share/163573f542644cfeb7573227fa33090e
jay a
Thanks Phil. Good explanation. Remember the Yanny/Laurel viral audio that went around a couple years ago? (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7X_WvGAhMlQ).
I've been trying to be more strict and not let myself sloppy on the pronunciation, especially where there are changes like the various "a" and "e" sounds, and tone sandhi. Good to know that I do remember the "correct" rules from PM. And very good to know that there's some wiggle-room in the range of what's going to be understandable.
Melissa Niesen 😊🤝 倪茉莉
Thanks for asking this, jay. I've had the same observation and question a few times. Great response, Phil.
John Sanders
Same too, great question - had the same thoughts and wondered if there was a "right" way to say the -uan sound
John Nomura
In the kitchen of my an- set, Yule Bryner (yu- actor) sees the sawed off human legs (儿) and knows that this is just the BEGINNING (元) of the evil twins (二) rampage
Jerod Cox
Haha, So the bible verse that Natalia was referring to is John 1:1