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QQSRX #5 Tough Living Conditions 锵锵三人行


michaelS

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Queries

 

9 因为你要只有那一带丽都那一带它是北京比较早的外国人好的地方

It doesn't sound like 只有 on the audio, and I can't see what sense it would make. Could it be 住的?

 

9 至少都是四万平米以上   How would we best translate this into English?

 

13 照片是会宽    Does it mean that it has been widened, or simply that it appears wide?

 

23 一报道出去反正也没法在这住了  My translation was "A report’s come out which says that they can’t live here". Is there anything missing out from that?

 

33 你别看他住在这,他为什么? I've got a bit lost among the pronouns. What's 别看 doing here?

 

I have other queries about later parts which I’ll post another day.

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Vocabulary

 

3  惭愧  cánkuì   --  ashamed,embarrassed

朱门酒肉臭         Half of the idiom “朱门酒肉臭,路有冻死骨”, which refers to the disparity between the very rich and very poor.

10  东交民巷   (note typo in transcript)    Beijing Legation Quarter, the old laowai district

14  广角  guǎngjiǎo   --  wide-angle

15  钢筋  gāngjīn    --  steel bars, rungs

17  地道战  dìdào zhàn    --  tunnel warfare

24  封起来  fēng qǐlái   --  to seal up

29  撬开  qiào kāi   --  to prise open

30  流离失所  liúlíshīsuǒ    --  destitute, homeless, roaming the streets

30  收留  hōuliú   --  shelter

31  救助  jiùzhù    --  aid, relief, assistance

31  孙志刚         A homeless man beaten to death in a rescue shelter in 2003

33  王秀青         A famous well dweller

35  凌晨  língchén    --  very early in the morning

 

 

避寒   bìhán     --  a shelter (from the cold)

题外话   tí wàihuà    -- a digression

福利署  fúlì shǔ    --  Welfare Department (in Hong Kong, here)

(床) 褥子   (chuáng) rùzi    --  a mattress

母子  mǔzǐ    --  mother and child

俯拍  fǔ pāi    --  overhead shot

笼屋/笼民   lóngwū/ lóngmín --  Hong Kong residences where people live in cages/ the people who live in them

挤破   jǐ pò    --  full to bursting

耻辱  chǐrǔ (note that they have a little trouble saying this word in 普通话!)   --  disgrace

露宿的  lùsùde    --  rough sleeper

存钱回乡  cún qián huí xiāng    --  save money and then return to one’s hometown

第一优先  dìyī yōuxiān    --  number one priority

救星  jiùxīng    --  saviour

行善 xíngshàn    --  good deeds

卖肾  mài shèn    --  to sell a kidney

煽情 shānqíng    --   sensational(ist)

天水围   --  Tin Shui Wai, a district of Hong Kong. Perhaps someone else can explain its significance.

甘肃  Gānsù   --  a province in NW China

筹款  chóu kuǎn    --  fundraising

窑洞  yáodòng    -- a kind of cave dwelling in the Loess Plateau in northwest China

弱智 ruòzhì    --  mentally handicapped

 

 

包场洗碗    bāochǎng xǐ wǎn    --  refers to a specific news story, I think. But I’m not certain of the meaning of 包场 – does it refer to private contractors?

李嘉诚       --  Li Ka-Shing,  the richest man in Asia

僵  jiāng    --   (here) deadlock

比特币  bǐtè bì    --  Bitcoin

不靠谱 bù kàopǔ    --  unreliable

(方)程式  (fāng) chéngshì    --  equation

供求  gōngqiú    --  supply and demand

流量  liúliàng    --  production rate (i.e. of Bitcoins); web traffic

时代周刊  shídài zhōukān    --  Time magazine

以物易物  yǐ wù yì wù    --  barter

片瓦遮头  piànwǎzhētóu    --  a roof over one’s head

大阪心斋桥  dàbǎn xīnzhāiqiáo    --  Shinsaibashi, Osaka

棺材  guāncai    --  coffin

潜水艇  qiánshuǐ ting    --  submarine

弹吉  dàn jí    --  to play guitar

流浪汉  liúlànghàn    -- a tramp

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Excellent to see someone else doing these! I'm so delighted I'm going to try and help out immediately, rather than waiting a few days to see if anyone else does, like I do with realmayo's...

 

at 9 - 知道 - 你要知道 is often used like we might use 'you've got to remember / be aware that...' in English Then  至少都是四万平米以上 - property costs over 40,000Y a square meter. 

13 - 会宽 - he's saying photographs make things look wider (bigger), so the room is actually smaller than it appears. 

23 - It's actually that now it's been reported, they can't live there (as now the authorities are aware, or there's too much attention, or they were squatting anyway, I don't know)

33 - 你别看他住在这,他为什么... - best way to understand this I think is "Don't see that he lives there (and assume he needs rescued). Why does he live there... he's...

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Very helpful input, I've made some changes.

 

Re: the second query, I think I get a mental block whenever people start talking about prices per square metre, and just assume that I won't be able to conceptualise it, know if it's a lot or a little, etc. That happens a lot in China, and increasingly when I'm back in London as well.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Some notes for you...

 

12 - he's saying he's surprised by how big at it is, not that he thought it was big. Then we get the bit about how the photo makes it look bigger. 

23 被发现 is now they've been found / discovered...

30 But they haven’t simply been kicked out onto the streets, right? - I would have that as "doesn't that mean they're out on the streets. Is there any kind of...". He's not assuming that they're being looked after. 

31. 你知道现在中国当年不是出了一个救助 - he's arranging his thoughts here, but it's been transcribed as a complete sentence. "You know now... one year wasn't there a... helping..." and then he gets more coherent

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Thanks again Roddy, I think I was a little cavalier at times

 

 

12.    李纯恩:原来这个底下因为我没去过,底下挺大的地方。

12.    Li Chun’en: Originally I thought that these cellars were huge places, because I’d never been.

12 - he's saying he's surprised by how big at it is, not that he thought it was big. Then we get the bit about how the photo makes it look bigger.

 

What's the function of 原来 in this sentence, then? Is he saying that he'd supposed it would've been smaller?



30.    李纯恩:那他们这样出来以后他不就流离失所了嘛,有没有一个什么机构收留他们呢?

30.    Li Chun’en: But they haven’t simply been kicked out onto the streets, right? Isn’t there some kind of shelter for them to go to?

30      I would have that as "doesn't that mean they're out on the streets. Is there any kind of...". He's not assuming that they're being looked after.


I don't know where I got 'simply' from. Just trying to make it flow I guess. But what's the role of 不 in the sentence with 他不就流离失所了 then? It felt to me like he was supposing they're being looked after


31. 你知道现在中国当年不是出了一个救助 - he's arranging his thoughts here, but it's been transcribed as a complete sentence. "You know now... one year wasn't there a... helping..." and then he gets more coherent

 

A good example of the dangers of translating without listening.

 

.....

 

Has anyone listened to the later sections (which I think are generally all quite interesting)?

 

Maybe someone (perhaps not Roddy, who's done enough!) can explain the significance of 包场洗碗,   李嘉诚天水围

 

In the case of the former, I don't really quite get the distinction between 包场洗碗 and a bog-standard dishwasher. With the other two, I lack the contextual knowledge to explain why they get brought up.

 

I'm still enjoying QQSRX a lot, it came on TV when I was in a Chinese restaurant in Madrid last week and I was very excited! I'll post up another episode in the next few days hopefully.

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What's the function of 原来 in this sentence, then?

 

I think it's: "so actually...", "so in fact..."  i.e. this runs counter to what I'd thought:

 

'So actually, these places -- because I've never been -- are really big.'

 

原来如此: "aha, so that's how it is". "so that's what's been going on"

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Let me try.

 

他不就流離失所了嗎 - wouldn't he be homeless then?

 

天水圍 - a remote new residential area in HK. Most of its residents earn low income. And it is far from the city centre and has less job opportunities. It is so far that people can't afford to travel to the city to work, so some of them don't bother to work at all. Poor schools, so children end up with less upward mobility, and they can't afford to get out of the place either. It is nicknamed 悲情城巿 (miserable city). If you like, you can take a look at the film 天水圍的日與夜.

 

包場洗碗 - contract dishwashing services. Dishwashing at restaurants is hard work, and with the introduction of minimum wage, people don't want to wash dishes any more if they can find easier jobs with comparable wages (like as security guards). This has presented a business opportunity - dishwashing contractors that provide centralised dishwashing services for restaurants and offer better working condition (so people are willing to work there).

 

I have not watched the programme so I don't know the significance or context of 李嘉誠.

 

PS - I have read the transcript. 李嘉誠's company is one of the biggest real estate developers in HK. In HK, real estates are extremely expensive, so such developers are all very rich. He is also very influential and people care a lot about what he says and does. If he says that he plans to move his investment elsewhere, i.e. 撤(資), people might panic and follow suit. They might sell their properties and the prices might go down and become more affordable.

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