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Qiao Hu Study Guides for Beginners


victorhart

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An administrator on this forum suggested I post links to Qiao Hu videos and comment on the episodes. I thought it was a great idea and I've decided to write Qiao Hu Study Guides at least once a month. I've already written my guide for June 2014. I am pretty much a total beginner (I watch an average of 30 minutes of authentic videos a day and nothing else and started on January 17, 2014), and these guides are written exactly for my level, so they may not be useful for higher levels. However, I would venture to guess that anybody with under 1,000 hours of Mandarin study under the belt will benefit greatly from Qiao Hu, and while the guide itself may not be that helpful, the selection of episodes I provide probably will be.
 
I will post new guides here on the forum, but will keep the history of all the guides for download on my blog on this page: www.mandarinexperiment.com/mandarin-video-sources/qiao-hu-study-guides/

Here is the introduction from my blog:

At least once a month, I will write a study guide for a Qiao Hu episode. If you are new to this page and are a beginning student of Chinese who would like to use these study guides, I suggest starting from the first guide and then using them sequentially. I will write these guides for exactly my level of Chinese, which I still consider total beginner but, by the time my experiment is up, I hope will be at an intermediate level (at least low intermediate) in terms of listening comprehension. Each guide will indicate the level I was at when I wrote it by the number of hours of viewing I had done at that point in time. (It is therefore plausible that I will make two or more guides on the same episode for different levels).

I will provide the links to Word documents for all study guides at the top, and then full text versions of the study guides below, with the most recent one on top. The Word documents will generally be more useful, since the in-page text will have some loss of formatting.

In the spirit of my experiment, these guides do not actually teach any Mandarin in a traditional way. There are no translations, no grammatical explanations, and actually no Mandarin at all. Instead, they serve the following purposes:

(1) Identify excellent Qiao Hu episodes (or parts of episodes), especially in terms of a beginner wanting to pick up new vocabulary, and provide a YouTube link.

(2) Identify the topics that are covered in that episode.

(3) Identify the specific vocabulary that I was able to pick up or reinforce in that episode (the terms are provided only in English, so it’s just a guide of what to look for, rather than a vocabulary list).

(4) Provide a synposis of that episode.

(5) Break down the episode by sections, explain what happens in each section and provide a vocabulary guide for that section.

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1. 巧虎巧連智幼幼版2013年10月 巧虎洗澡歌

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLMbU7M126k

Recommended viewing time: 19:20 (0:00 – 19:20) / Total time: 26:59
Primary benefits: Learn various body parts in the context of bathing/hygiene; types of fruit
Secondary benefits: Greetings, self-introduction, clothing / getting dressed
My level when I saw and reviewed it: 80 total study/viewing hours

 

Full guide in attached document.

 

 

qiao_hu_SG_1.docx

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I actually watched an episode of this a couple of days ago (the one about magnets). Even though my Chinese is at an intermediate level and I can understand most TV dramas reasonably well, there were still a couple of words I learnt (图钉 drawing pin, 别针 safety pin, 冰箱贴 fridge magnet), and I was also able to "refresh my memory" of a few words I'd previously learnt but probably couldn't have produced (回形针 paper clip, 指南针 compass).

 

Nice job with this thread, interesting to see how your learning process is going.

 

Care to post your approximations (in any phonetic system that makes sense to you) of how to say each of the words/phrases mentioned in the document? Then we can let you know which ones you're on the right track about :D

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Thanks, Demonic_Duck. Glad to hear!
 
I really appreciate your inviting me to post phonetic versions of some of the vocabulary I picked up and to let me now if I've gotten it right or not. However, because of my crazy experiment (remember?), I'm not allowed to get specific feedback or corrections like this.
 
I did post on my blog a few weeks a sample of vocabulary that I've learned.
 
http://mandarinexperiment.com/2014/05/11/ 
 
I'd be happy to get general feedback, as in you're doing well or poorly, you're mostly on track or not, but not specific corrections. Actually, one commenter did already tell me that most of the terms are correct, but some are off.
 
Picking up vocabulary in this way has important advantages, I believe, but it's not easy! For example, a term I heard in the Boonie Bears Adventure movie: "Dondon wo". At first, I was sure it meant, "My train!" because the logger was chasing a train when he said it. Then, after hearing it in other contexts, I came to the conclusion that I was competely wrong and that it means "Wait for me!" But now I've come across it again and am wondering if it doesn't mean something like "Come (back) to me." Haha! Anyway, once I do finally learn it, I think it will be in a much deeper memory bank than if I had learned it through a vocabulary list or textbook, and I will associate more with contexts than with a translation. So each approach has its advantages.

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That blog post is actually really interesting, a nice little insight into your learning process - it's interesting to see both what you got right and what you still didn't quite get. I'd still be intrigued to know what you worked out/guessed at for the words from the episode you posted the "study guide" for, and we have handy "spoiler" tags on this forum which hide the text until clicked:

[spoiler][/spoiler]

so people could post corrections without interrupting your experiment.

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  • 4 weeks later...

I've prepared the second ever Qiao Hu Study Guide. Fantastic listening practice for beginning and intermediate students! Hope you enjoy!

 

2. 巧虎寶寶版2011年03月【巧連智寶寶版】
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_EXoQyvZfE
Recommended viewing time: 23:35 (0:00 – 23:35) / Total time: 24:45
Primary benefits: Learn various body parts, a few animals, and expressions related to using the bathroom
Secondary benefits: Reinforce how parents address their children (especially daughters) and vice versa
My level when I saw and reviewed it: 100 total study/viewing hours

 

Full guide in attached document.

qiao_hu_SG_2.docx

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  • 1 month later...

Hot off the press: Qiao Hu Study Guide #3. Watch this great Qiao Hu episode and even beginners can learn vocabulary related to brushing your teeth, riding a bike, cooking vegetables, elephants, and sunflowers! Start with the vocabulary review at 21:00, then watch the episode in its entirety.

www.mandarinexperiment.com

3. 巧虎寶寶版【巧連智2010年03月號】唱遊:大象歌
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBQIb-xoYjc
Recommended viewing time: 21:57 (0:00 – 21:57) / Total time: 21:57
Primary benefits: Learn and practice vocabulary related to brushing teeth. Learn the names of several vegetables. Learn and reinforce simple bicycle vocabulary.
Secondary benefits: Listen to a family interacting while seeing sunflowers. Learn vocabulary related to elephants.
My level when I saw and reviewed it: 123 total study/viewing hours

 

Full study guide in attached document.

qiao_hu_SG_3.docx

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  • 4 weeks later...

The new Qiao Hu Study Guide (#4) is under 11 minutes of viewing time, but it is definitely worth it! You can easily learn or review the names of various shapes and everyday objects, as well as review your numbers.
 

www.mandarinexperiment.com

4. 巧虎幼幼版【巧連智201103月】形狀點點

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-EqRfbRaKNY

Recommended viewing time: 11:11 (0:00 – 9:26 and 22:26 -24:11) / Total time: 24:38

Primary benefits: Learn the major shapes and review numbers

Secondary benefits: Learn the names of common objects.

My level when I saw and reviewed it: 140 total study/viewing hours

Full study guide in attached document

qiao_hu_SG_4.docx

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  • 1 month later...

Hey just to let you know as well, the link to the 1st vd on youtube was down for me

 

Edit- Also I found the whole series on Youku - http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNjkwNTI2NTU2.html for anyone thats in China and doesnt have access to youtube.

 

Edit  - Actually, Im not sure what this is, can anyone explain why its different from the youtube?

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  • 2 weeks later...

The fifth Qiao Hu Study Guide is here, hot off the press! Please find attached. I have also corrected the link to the first one on the blog.

 

www.mandarinexperiment.com

 

5. 巧虎2013:巧虎快乐版20131月:生活好习惯-健康小

        Part 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9rpgzJLdnY    

Recommended viewing time: 16:05 (0:00 – 16:05) / Total time: 16:05 (The entire episode is 38:23, but I am dividing in into two parts. Qiao Hu Study Guide 6 will be on the second half of the episode.)

Primary benefits: Learn adjectives as opposites, review numbers 1-10, and review vocabulary through simple conversation in easy-to-follow short stories.

Secondary benefits: Learn the characters for the numbers 1-10 (not part of my project).

My level when I saw and reviewed it: 160 total study/viewing hours

qiao_hu_SG_5.docx

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GotJack, it's my pleasure! Your using the guides and episodes is an incentive for me to keep producing them.

 

I've substituted both the link and the file for Study Guide 1, so that should work now. Unfortunately I was not able to find a new link to the episode in the SG 4.

 

As to your questions, I hope somebody can confirm (because I do not study characters), but based on the little bit of information I have, the Chinese version of this show (which is originally Japanese) seems to be produced on the mainland, so I'm guessing the characters are simplified.

 

I don't know about transcripts, but have you noticed in the show that they advertise books to accompany the DVDs? If my Chinese studying approach were more complete and included characters, I would find a way to mail order the DVDs and books from China. Yes, I'd really feel like a toddler using this material, but so what, I'm sure it would be a fantastic way to study characters alongside listening comprehension.

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  • 1 month later...

I have finally produced Qiao Hu Study Guide 6. It is for the second half of the second episode reviewed in Study Guide 5. I hope you will find it useful. This episode is definitely worth reviewing and studying for beginning and low intermediate level students of Mandarin!

 

www.mandarinexperiment.com

 

6. 巧虎2013:巧虎快乐版20131月:生活好习惯-健康小

        Part 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9rpgzJLdnY    

Recommended viewing time: 16:05 (16:05 – 21:50 and 22:55 - 33:35) / Total time: 16:25 (I divided this episde into two parts. Qiao Hu Study Guide 5 was on the first half of the episode.)

Primary benefits: Learn about opening the door at your home, adjectives as opposites, review numbers 1-10, and review vocabulary through simple conversation in easy-to-follow short stories, including when visiting a doctor.

Secondary benefits: Learn the characters for the numbers 1-10 (not part of my project).

My level when I saw and reviewed it: 180 total study/viewing hours

qiao_hu_SG_6.docx

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This week I spent a significant amount of time preparing a Super Qiao Hu Study Guide. These guides were originally suggested to me (by an administrator here at chinese-forums.com) as a way to show my progress and level of understanding to others. They are of course also intended as a helpful tool for other beginning students of Mandarin, and I highly recommend using the episodes I review for learning purposes. Reading through my guides beforehand, and occasionally referencing them, will help students know what to listen for and may also serve as a useful yardstick to measure their own understanding. However, the rules of my experiment and my time constraints impose some limitations on how useful I can make these study guides. For instance, I cannot research terms or include Chinese characters or pin yin.

 

The original diagnostic purpose of the Qiao Hu reviews still holds. In this respect, I was pleased that in this episode I was able to understand far more phrases and complete sentences than ever before. My improved comprehension is reflected in the length of this Study Guide Seven—four whole pages, instead of the two or three for past guides. I believe looking at each of my seven guides in sequence would provide a fairly clear indication of my progress over time.

 

 

I should note, however, that my comprehension of the Qiao Hu episodes, as reflected in the guides, is not the result of a single viewing. I spent at least a couple of hours preparing this latest guide, including watching each scene an average of about four times. In other words, I was able to understand all I did because of very careful listening and repetition of dialogue.

 

 

Here's the summary and the document:

 

 

7. 巧虎)201304巧連智快樂版

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_0OLZHZDcY     

Recommended viewing time: 21:43 (00:00 – 21:43)

Primary benefits: Start understanding words together in short phrases or sentences. Learn words for certain animals.

Secondary benefits: Learn words for body parts. Review numbers and vocabulary related to washing hands.

My level when I saw and reviewed it: 200 total study/viewing hours

 

 

 

qiao_hu_SG_7.docx

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