Twenty
niàn
ni- Female
-an
Bathroom -or- Backyard
十 十 (Two Syringes (Middle Stroke Combined))
一 (Razor Blade)
THIS IS A PICTOGRAPH! It‘s actually two “tens” 十 tied together at the bottom, equalling twenty.
Member Comments from 2019-mid-2020
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Rick Angleland
Nina Simone in the bathroom of my -an location, two syringes lined up lying on the bathroom pipe (- prop), looking at her fingers and toes (=20) for a place to inject.
Della Fuller
My friend Nancy is sitting in my sister's backyard ("an" location) and is so excited because she has been studiously studying Mandarin Blueprint for TWENTY weeks, and is now halfway through the course! She wants to commemorate this occasion somehow. On the table beside her she sees two wooden crosses. Her face lights up with a great idea! She walks over to the garden with the two crosses and sticks them both in the dirt. They look great for a moment, but then they keep falling sideways. She pulls her trusty razor blade out of her pocket and sticks it into the bottoms of both of the crosses to keep them upright. They look fantastic! And they signify TWENTY perfectly!
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=JAQd1Kfgmow&t=1469s
Image credit: https://www.hanzi5.com
Ceri Woods
I know simple scenes are usually better, but sometimes I find I have to write a scene that involves lots of speech or detail in order to get the feeling of the interaction across to me. I never really remember the whole scene or the exchanges word for word, but I can then remember the facial expressions or overall scene vibe much better:
Nigella Lawson is having an archery competition of sorts with Howl in his bathroom. She is annoying him by narrating out loud the whole time. Two targets are set up over the bath and they are aiming at them with a broomstick. "Now, at night, what I love the most after sneaking into the kitchen to eat brownies, is to then come into the bathroom and throw broomsticks as targets..." She says.
Howl looks around, confused at who she's talking to.
"and..." she continues "I always hit a perfect twenty on my first go!"
She hurls the broom stick at the targets, which clatters sadly to the floor between the two targets. "She?" She smiles smugly. "Perfect twenty!"
Howl makes a sound in his throat and Nigella smiles lazily. "I know darling! I'm fabulous!" Howl pokes her cheek "Are you drunk?"
Makai Allbert
You can also say 二十, right? Does this way sound, like, less normal in Chinese than 廿?
Mandarin Blueprint
We never use 廿 to mean twenty in spoken Chinese, only 二十!廿 is archaeic
Jeff Bryant
Natalie Portman stands with a machete in front of 2 crucifixes side by side, she's declare that one of the condemned gets to go free. One offers her $20, she accepts and chops the crucifix down at the base.