First Episode 9: 家有儿女

[HerrPetersen]

I just watched the first two episodes - have downloaded up to 5, once I have fast internet again I will download more. I like it, it is shallow - the kids are pretty funny and the girl is pretty cute (I guess this show is already old - so she should be over 18 by now?).

The mom seems a little too tough/guy-like for me, however the chemistry between her and her husband seems pretty good - the father seems to be really likeable guy. Funny and laid back.

What I don't like about it is the background-laughter which kinda tells you when to laugh - but it somehow does not strike me as annoying as in most American sitcoms.

What I also find refreshing in this series, is that the family seems to be kinda making fun of themselves which strikes me as somehow Un-chinese. Maybe the government is trying to westernize the mindset of the people by means of this series.

The kids are often seemingly disobedient - at the end however they really are bunch of goody-goodies.

Edit: I am just warming up to the mother.

Here a rough episode guide.

1. ep: forgot - I guess introduction of characters.

2. ep: the 14(?) old daughter introduces her "boyfriend" everybody flips out.

3. ep: The kids find pics of the parents ex-partners and put them everywhere

4. ep: One boy desperatly wants to get a spanking by his dad/anyone else, because a friend at school gets hit (at least that's how I understood it).

5. ep: Daughter buys mouse, Mom buys cat, cat kills mouse.

6. ep: I don't remember much, only the son was supposed to get a spanking and the Dad acted as if he was hitting him, but actually hit a boxing-heavybag.

7. ep: daughter is sick, son wants to ge ice-swimming, but he ends up just leaving the house (where it is cold) for a couple of seconds.

8. ep: one son thinks of himself as genious investigator or something - younger son sells stuff form house, nobody believes the self-proclaimed detective.

Edited March 7, 2009 at 10:02 PM by HerrPetersen

[greenleaf1348]

I'm watching this too. 3 episodes in so far.

yeah, the way they make fun of themselves is pretty nice. But then it's a family comedy, what else could they laugh about, the neightbours?

I like the father and the mom-stepdaughter relationship

[HerrPetersen]

I found a transcript for the whole first episode：http://gannbaru.com/main_link_e02.html

[student]

This

http://tieba.baidu.com/f?kz=353210012

appears to be a complete transcript of episode 2

(I've only checked the first and last few minutes but these both check out)

[HerrPetersen]

Great stuff!

[Shadowdh]

I watched different episodes while I was in China, mostly when I was studying or doing homework... just watched the first one and like it enough to carry on... It did clear up a few things for me re the series and what was what... language was easy enough to follow but did have some expressions/vocab I was not sure about but thats a good thing... enjoyable I think...

Many thanks to Renzhe (yet again) for the vocab list... nice one mate.

[renzhe]

I've been watching a few of these too, because it's easy to follow and doesn't require sequential viewing.

I think I underestimated the difficulty. If you can read the subtitles, it's really easy, but they do speak very fast, often not clearly, and some of the characters (neighbour) have a strong accent. Calling it "Elementary" might have been reaching too far. Still, it's one of the simplest shows we've had.

Good listening practice, anyway. Some of the lines are really rapid fire.

[renzhe]

1. ep: forgot - I guess introduction of characters.

Yeah. It's mostly about the daughter getting integrated into the family, which proves difficult.

5. ep: Daughter buys mouse, Mom buys cat, cat kills mouse.

Most of this episode is the mother trying to bond with the daughter, which is why she pretends that she likes mice.

4. ep: One boy desperatly wants to get a spanking by his dad/anyone else, because a friend at school gets hit (at least that's how I understood it).

They had a homework assignment called "我的XX爸爸" The kid who always gets beaten wrote 野蛮 into the title, and 刘星 didn't know this, so he thought that the title was "我的野蛮爸爸", but he couldn't write anything about that, because his current 爸爸 is anything but 野蛮. So he tried to provoke the dad into getting angry and beating him, because he didn't have any inspiration.

In the end, he finds out that the title was wrong, so he gives up on getting a spanking.

6. ep: I don't remember much, only the son was supposed to get a spanking and the Dad acted as if he was hitting him, but actually hit a boxing-heavybag.

Mother can't go to meet the teacher, so father goes, and finds out that 刘星 was up to all sorts of mischief. But he has a good heart, so he hides the bad parts from the mother (who has a bad temper). The mother flips out after finding out.

7. ep: daughter is sick, son wants to ge ice-swimming, but he ends up just leaving the house (where it is cold) for a couple of seconds.

Probably an episode mix-up. The daughter gets interested in chimpanzees, goes to a school trip to see some chimps, mother rearranges her room in a chimp theme, daughter comes back and doesn't like chimps anymore.

The daughter is supposed to be 17, but this must be referring to later seasons (where she's played by a different actress).

And in case anyone is struggling, this is definitely not elementary. Mea culpa. Lower to mid-intermediate is more like it. It's not difficult, but it's very compressed and fast and odd words pop up from time to time.

Edited May 26, 2009 at 05:33 PM by renzhe

[renzhe]

Sorry for repeated posts, but this one's worth getting its own: I seem to have found the transcripts for the first 10 episodes.

Edit: See below.

Edited May 26, 2009 at 05:51 PM by renzhe

[roddy]

Nice find. If anyone wants to email me the whole set to admin@... I'll put them in an archive file and upload them.

[renzhe]

Actually, it's only the first ten. I'm attaching the zip, as it's not too large.

jiayou-transcript.zip

[Radial]

Great new book textbook out based on 家有儿女. They have used the first few episodes as a basis for the lessons. Lot of vocabulary and language insight... and the DVD provided refreshers on these.

A little price difference between US$ 38, EUR 25 and RMB discount at 115. I paid RMB 150 at 书城 in 深圳 Shenzhen.

http://www.cheng-tsui.com/store/products/home_kids

http://www.chinabooks.ch/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=4205&osCsid=roi6j9g108qkemsppp2adba1b6

http://www.xinhuabookstore.com/content/1152560.htm

Still trying to figure out the best way to rip the DVD so I can put it on to my IPOD Touch.

[xianhua]

I'd really like to download some of these and stick them on a DVD. When I click on 下载 on either youku or veryCD, it says 'iku is not a registered protocol' or 'ed2k is not a registered protocol'. Is this something I am doing wrong, or are they being blocked by my ISP in the UK?

[renzhe]

To download from streaming sites like youku, tudou, youtube, etc, use clipnabber.

But the quality on these sites is usually not great. A better alternative is to download using Emule (these are the ed2k:// links). You'll need to install Emule, which is a free program, safe, no spyware. After you install it, it will automatically download stuff when you click on VeryCD links.

[lovesenlin]

this is pretty funny tv series .. my whole family like it a lot

[lingshu8]

@renzhe

I seem to have found the transcripts for the first 10 episodes.

Thanks for posting the transcripts for the first 10 episodes. However, your zip file is missing Episode 3. Instead, it has two copies of Episode 2, the second one being labeled "Episode 3." Do you happen to have a copy of Episode 3 that you could post? TIA!

[renzhe]

I'm afraid not. I just uploaded what I fished out from a strange internet site.

[zhuhao]

I loved this show while studying in Xi'an! It was my favorite post-class viewing. The vocab and plot was easy to follow, and it had enough bright colors and noises to keep me entertained. ;) It was fun, in that family sitcom kind of way, and I somehow stumbled onto watching the first episode one day, which was brilliant in the way it had to explain everything. Just thought I should bump it up!

[dongxi]

I'm new to this forum and have found many useful information so far.

For this show, I've found a better quality link for youku here. Maybe someone can change the link in the original post.

The sound and image quality is better, which makes listening and reading the subtitles easier.

[dongxi]

I just realized that the youku link I posted in the previous post, although the audio is a bit better, it only output through one channel (only left speaker/headphone), which is a bit annoying. :unsure: