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我们发现了，你的运气比我们好！

You're doing SO well, you know. We really wish we'd had such a structured system when we first started learning Chinese, and by virtue the fact that you're reading this email you aren't taking that for granted.

Let's Talk 长 - An Exception to the Beginner's Rule.

Guideline for beginning Mandarin learners: Don't worry about the alternate pronunciations of an individual 汉字.

About 20% of Chinese characters have an alternate pronunciation, and the non-primary pronunciation(s) almost always indicate a different definition. That said, alternate Pinyin spellings are usually far less frequent than the primary pronunciation.

Examples:

什 shén
Alternate Syllable: shí
When?: It's shí either in names (e.g., President Bush 布什总统 bùshí zóngtǒng) or, heh, *writing the number 10 on checks*. Not hard to see why that's far less frequent than ''what.''

好 hǎo
Alternate Syllable: hào
When?: When it means ''to like or be fond of.'' You won't see that nearly as often as you see 好 'hǎo good,' in part because the word 喜欢 xǐhuān is the primary word whose definition is 'to like.'

To be clear, we're not saying these alternates are irrelevant to the language. You will want to use them when you're more advanced, but because of the difference in frequency, there is no need to focus on their alternate syllables right now.

Why 长 is An Exception

长 cháng 'long' & 长 zhǎng 'to grow' are both daily-use characters. As a single character, cháng is more common than zhǎng, but as you saw in Level 21, all three unlocked compound words from that level are the 长 zhǎng usage (长大，长得，长相).

"Oh no! How Will I Tell the Difference?"

A non-issue! First of all, 长 cháng is an adjective, and 长 zhǎng is a verb. Your language module should already be developed enough to recognize (even if it isn't conscious) when the missing character in your flash card is an action or a description.

Secondly, even on the level of the word you can get a clue. For example, whether you're aware of it or not, you've started to recognize that many words are the "Verb-How" structure. 长大 zhǎngdà is one of these. How would you describe the result of the 'growth 长' of the child? They became 'big 大.' This type of 'action-> result' word structure is such that you can feel that 长 cháng, an adjective, doesn't fit with a result.

No Matter the Objection, "Read More" is the Answer

OK, OK! It's the answer about 98% of the time, not THE answer, but we hope you'll allow us some hyperbole to get across how important reading is to your success. As your language ability develops, you become more and more able to recognize complexity. You'll occasionally think 'omg, how am I going to be able to handle this?' We certainly did. It's a trap!

Language Acquisition Comes Standard

You were born with a brain whose "standard configuration" contains an extraordinarily highly developed capacity to recognize patterns in language. Thanks, natural selection! It is only when we analyze the language from the outside that we think "holy moly, this is complicated!" Well, not to your unconscious mind. 'It's way more powerful than you think, so the job of your thinking mind is NOT to analyze, but instead to FEED your brain with as much input as possible.

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Member Comments from 2019-mid-2020

Do you also want to leave a comment? You can do so below！

William Beeman

I appreciated this discussion on translation. Let me provide some experience from opera training. An opera singer must learn to sing in multiple languages. It is essential that one know the meaning of the text in order to be able to interpret it, but it is also essential to understand how the grammar functions so that the singer can put expression on the correct word or phrase. Therefore studying an opera score always involves both a ruthlessly literal translation word-for-word, and an interpretive translation that renders the meaining. When studying Chinese in this course I also do both word-for-word and interpretive translation.

MB Team

Here's the link to where Phil and Luke talked about this comment in the Mandarin Blueprint Podcast:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NX6uT92Sy4U&t=4678s

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Christopher Thompson

I agree with most everything Luke and Phil said in the video above as well as what Al (泰光) Roy (王) said in his comment below. I frequently encounter stuff I don't understand, but I usually try not to worry about it. As children, when we were learning our first language, we encountered input all the time that was beyond our understanding, but we got it eventually and even that input that was incomprehensible at the time contributed to our eventual mastery. In case this helps others, let me share what I do. Every time I am working in MB I have extra tabes open on my browser. First, I have Google Translate. This way I can copy and paste something to hear what it sounds like (even a crappy computerized voice) or remind myself of the pinyin and maybe get another (also usually not great) translation. I also have a tab for typing in Chinese (https://www.archchinese.com/type_chinese.html). This allows me to try to create sentences myself that use some new character or bit of grammar. I also usually have a Google doc open so I can add questions for my Chinese language partner (from Lexody). This combination really helps, as does having my flashcards open for looking stuff up we have already covered, and, of course, posting questions here. Phil and Luke do an excellent job of responding to questions! 非常感谢哥们儿

MB Team

Here's the link to where Phil and Luke talked about this comment in the Mandarin Blueprint Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGOkHhpBYxQ&t=2348s

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Mason Royal

Somewhat related, but this reminded me of Star War The Third Gathers: Backstroke of the West. Someone translated the Chinese version of Star Wars Episode 3 back into English and it is pretty hilarious. It was probably just done through google translate, but I think it also shows how the two languages don't really directly translate into each other.

A link below for those interested. It is worth skipping around and watching a couple minutes of.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XziLNeFm1ok

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Al (泰光) Roy (王)

Not wanting to be overly simplistic here, but while some great points were brought up in the video, I suggest that at the same time, we humans can have a bit of a tendency (myself included) to overthink things we are learning. Perhaps that is more true with learning a new language than it is with most other things.

With the above in mind, I'm going to suggest that it can actually be helpful to just take some things in stride, and accept that the clearer understanding will come later with use. One example of this is 还 (hai) and还 (huan). There is a sentence I read today where the speaker says in effect, "I still haven't been paid back", or something similar (don't remember just at the moment).

The same character occurs twice in the same sentance, each time with a different pronunciation. Taking into account that the speakers are Annie and Jerry (both native speakers), I just took the usage and pronunciation in stride, trusting that inasmuch as the native speakers are comfortable saying it that way, then it will make sense later, if not immediately (which it did, simply because I accepted it in its context).

So yeah - it's good to understand things, but it can also be good to let some things go, trusting that the understanding will come later. So I say try not to sweat all of the details, guys.

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=V4Pj4VZByIc&t=3301s