ARC Plus: Companion to Newsletter #207
Chatting about a potty-mouthed parrot 🦜 and about optical illusions
好消息！Please enjoy this free edition of our new premium newsletter, ARC Plus. Every week, we’ll share audio dialogues and scripts based on excerpts from our free weekly ARC Newsletter. The lively conversations emphasize and build on key vocabulary and grammar points.
The weekly ARC Newsletter will always be free. We hope that ARC Plus will be a fun and useful place for learners who want to integrate their visual and aural mastery of Chinese. Word choice and grammar can differ dramatically between the written and oral forms of Chinese. Practicing both reading and listening helps you to “cross-pollinate” these important skills — it’s a win-win 双赢情况。
We would appreciate your feedback on this new offering. Please leave your thoughts or suggestions in the comments. We look forward to bringing you even more relevant and engaging articles and conversations to help you advance in your studies of Chinese. 活到老，学到老！
~Pete and John
Dialogue #1
Inspired by this week’s reading, “动物园一鹦鹉爆粗口3年未改？”
We suggest listening once without reading the script below. On a second listen, you can follow with the text to catch any words you missed the first time.
小方：王冰海，你看了那个灰鹦鹉的新闻吗？云南动物园那只小灰，又因为说脏话火了。
王冰海：小方，我看到了！好像有人跟它说“哈喽”，结果那只灰鹦鹉直接回一句脏话，笑翻了一堆人。
小方：对啊，其实灰鹦鹉特别会模仿。它们大脑发达，能清楚地学人说话，但并不理解脏话的意思。
王冰海：那脏话还是以前游客乱教的吧？怪可怜的。听说三年前动物园就给它做矫正教育了。
小方：对，矫正教育就是想让它少说那些不文明的词。可这鸟记忆力太好，三年还改不掉。
王冰海：哈哈，也不能怪它。它只会模仿，谁说多了就学谁。网上有人说要单独给它搞个科普区，让游客明白别老教它脏话。
小方：那挺好。这样小朋友也能学到动物模仿的知识，还知道脏话不该随便说。
王冰海：我下次要去看看它，先教它说“你好”，别再被别人教坏了！
小方：行啊，王冰海，你可得多说好话，说不定它真学会呢。
How was that? Challenging? Interesting? Kind of…fun?
Dialogue #2
Here’s a second dialogue, based on the same excerpt. Many of the ideas are similar, but expressed differently. A big step in language mastery is being able to convey the same concept in a few different ways. As this gets easier for you, conversation is less of a “white knuckle” experience, and more of a pleasant exchange of ideas.
As before, we suggest listening once without the script. As you re-listen, check the text for any words you might’ve missed.
刘忻：郭姐，你看到那只灰鹦鹉的新闻了吗？三年了，脏话还没改掉。
郭姐：哎呀，刘忻，我看到了。那只小灰啊，灰鹦鹉可聪明呢，就是爱模仿。人说啥，它就学啥。
刘忻：可不是嘛，脏话学得挺快，矫正教育都做了几年了，还是管不住嘴。
郭姐：其实矫正教育也难。它毕竟是鹦鹉，不是真懂脏话意思。就是听多了，就模仿。
刘忻：那游客还老逗它说，越说它越来劲。这对小孩影响可不好。
郭姐：对。我看有网友建议弄个“体验教育区”，单独放小灰，还能顺便科普动物模仿行为。
刘忻：主意不错。让孩子知道鹦鹉学舌是本能，别以为它真想骂人。
郭姐：说到底，还是得靠大家自觉，别老逗它说脏话。动物园呼吁得对，要文明参观。
刘忻：哈哈，那咱下次去看小灰，可得先说点文雅的，让它学学好话。
郭姐：对啊，说不定哪天它就学会“你好，谢谢”了！
Mini-Podcast: 几根？
Inspired by the following optical illusion, or 视错觉 (shìcuòjué), listen to the two hosts discuss the image below:
Congratulations! Between the original news excerpt, and these conversations, you’ve reinforced some key vocabulary and useful phrases.
Study tip: Review the dialogues in a few days, without looking at the script. Much easier than the first time, huh? If you review again in a week or so, you’ll find you catch even more of the conversation.
Be patient with yourself. This is hard mental work. Don’t expect yourself to catch or retain all the content. Day by day, it will feel smoother and more natural.
Thanks for joining us for ARC Plus, and we’ll see you next week!
~ John and Pete
Disclaimer: The dialogues in this newsletter are original creations, developed through a combination of human ingenuity and AI tools. All AI tools were used in accordance with their commercial licenses.
Thanks, this will be very helpful!