Archive for July 22nd, 2010

Chinese Conversation – Bad news over the phone 电话报忧 – Learn Mandarin online

Thursday, July 22nd, 2010

Bad news over the phone
A: Rachel? This is John Emory speaking.
B: Yes, Mr. Emory?
A: I’ve got some bad news. All the plans sent over to the McGrath Corporation have been rejected. We’re going to have to start from scratch.
B: I thought they had already agreed to everything. That’s going to take weeks to rework.

电话报忧
A:蕾茜儿?我是约翰·埃莫里。
B:什么事?埃莫里先生?
A:有个坏消息。所有送到麦克格拉斯的计划统统被打回来了。我们还得从头开始。
B:我以为我们每项都被认可了。要从来得好几个星期呀。

(Source: wwenglish.com)

Chinese Podcast – 画龙点睛 – Learn mandarin

Thursday, July 22nd, 2010

画龙点睛 (Huà Lóng Diǎn Jīng) means adding eyeballs to the picture of a dragon to bring it to life, which is to put the finishing touches to something.

Legend has it that during the Northern and Southern Dynasties, about 1,500 years ago, there was a famous painter named Zhang.

He was good at painting people, animals, landscapes and the Buddha. His paintings were vivid and true to life. People said that the animals he drew could come out of the picture as soon as he gave them the finishing touches. To make sure, a large group of people gathered in a temple one day to see Zhang paint dragons.
Zhang painted four dragons on the wall. All of them were lifelike but didn’t have eyes. The watchers were puzzled and asked him why.
“If I draw the eyes, the dragons will fly off the wall.” Zhang replied.

“He’s just talking big!” some people thought.

Half believing and half doubting, the onlookers insisted that he add eyes to the dragons.

Urged on by the crowd, Zhang added eyeballs to two of the dragons.

In the twinkling of an eye, it turned dark and began raining hard. (Thunder) Accompanied by thunder and lightning, the two dragons started to move and soon flew into the sky. The two other dragons without eyes remained on the wall.

(Source: english.cri.cn)