Travel In Chinese
Encyclopedia
Travel in Chinese is a 15 minute segment on CCTV-9
CCTV-9
CCTV-9 is the documentary channel of the television network, CCTV in the People's Republic of China. This channel has a local Mandarin Chinese edition called CCTV-9, and an international English language edition called CCTV-9 Documentary. The English edition is carried by more satellites than the...
that is hosted by Dashan
Dashan
Dashan is the Chinese stage name adopted by Canadian Mark Henry Rowswell, CM who works as a freelance performer in People's Republic of China. Relatively unknown in the West, Dashan is the most famous Western personality in China's media industry. He occupies a unique position as a foreign...
. The segment is a Chinese lesson.
Background
The Chinese lesson segments is broken down into:- A 2-3 minute action scene using key Chinese phrases
- An analysis by Dashan on each of the phrases
- A word substitution exercise to utilize the key phrases described in the action scene
- A recap of the action scene
- 2-3 minute segment providing in-depth information about the travel destination in the action scene
On occasion, the entire program is a review of past lessons with guests consisting of Chinese language students who will converse completely in Mandarin while Dashan responds in English. Typical students are usually not of Chinese origin.
The programme particularly focuses on aspects of the Chinese language
Chinese language
The Chinese language is a language or language family consisting of varieties which are mutually intelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...
and the Mandarin dialect. Dashan
Dashan
Dashan is the Chinese stage name adopted by Canadian Mark Henry Rowswell, CM who works as a freelance performer in People's Republic of China. Relatively unknown in the West, Dashan is the most famous Western personality in China's media industry. He occupies a unique position as a foreign...
usually points out many language points such as idioms that don't particularly translate to English and the use of the measure word
Measure word
In linguistics, measure words are words that are used in combination with a numeral to indicate an amount of some noun. They denote a unit or measurement and are used with nouns that are not countable. For instance, in English, is a mass noun and thus one cannot say *"three muds", but one can say...
.
Although anyone can start learning Chinese through this program, the program is geared for many levels from beginner to advanced.
Communicate in Chinese
Travel in Chinese succeeded "Communicate in Chinese", the previous title, but also with DashanDashan
Dashan is the Chinese stage name adopted by Canadian Mark Henry Rowswell, CM who works as a freelance performer in People's Republic of China. Relatively unknown in the West, Dashan is the most famous Western personality in China's media industry. He occupies a unique position as a foreign...
as the host.
Some key differences in strategies between Travel in Chinese and Communicate in Chinese are:
- Travel In Chinese focused more on conversational situations whereas Communicate in Chinese focused on sentence structures
- Travel In Chinese had more realistic scenarios than Communicate in Chinese did even though both series had non-Chinese performers speaking in Mandarin. Communicate in Chinese focused on situations that would more likely to occur outside of China, such as ordering beer, going to the bar, and talking about how one is learning Chinese with the teacher. Travel In Chinese focused more on how to order authentic Chinese dishes and on how to talk to police in an emergency (both scenarios are examples of scenarios that are likely to occur when in China).
Sports Chinese
In January, 2008, a new series replaced Travel in Chinese on CCTV-9. Still hosted by Dashan but now titled "Sports Chinese", this series largely follows a format similar to Travel in Chinese and Communicate in Chinese, with new content focusing on the topic of sports as Beijing prepared to host the 2008 Summer Olympics2008 Summer Olympics
The 2008 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXIX Olympiad, was a major international multi-sport event that took place in Beijing, China, from August 8 to August 24, 2008. A total of 11,028 athletes from 204 National Olympic Committees competed in 28 sports and 302 events...
.
Easy Chinese
The 13-episode series, Easy Chinese, has been aired during the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, helping foreigners visiting China during Olympic Games. Daily lessons with short Chinese phrases, more simple than "Travel in Chinese" and "Sports Chinese". It's hosted by Aurora CarlsonAurora Carlson
Aurora Carlson is a television presenter and China scholar.In 2007, Aurora Carlson was hired as the youngest-ever PRC Foreign Expert to China Central Television . She hosted a weekly series called Rediscovering China, a documentary-style program exploring socio-economic changes throughout the...
.
Growing up with Chinese
Newly launched on CCTV-News, 100-episode series "Growing up with Chinese" starts on August 2, 2010. It's aiming teenagers. Hosted by Charlotte MacInnis, a television host known as Ai Hua in China.See also
- Chinese StudioChinese StudioChinese Studio is a 5 minute English radio program that is a Chinese lesson that occurs at the end of each China Radio International broadcast. For example, at the end of China Drive, this program will air....
, another Chinese language lesson program that broadcasts on China Radio InternationalChina Radio InternationalChina Radio International , the former Radio Beijing and originally Radio Peking, founded on December 3 of 1941, is one of the three state-owned media in China along with China National Radio and China Central Television in the People's Republic of China .As the PRC's external radio station, CRI...
. - Travel in Chinese in Russian on CCTV-Русский
- Travel in Chinese in Spanish on CCTV-ECCTV-ECCTV International Spanish formerly CCTV-E is a Spanish language entertainment and news channel of China Central Television originating in the People's Republic of China, and are part of the Chinese Government's information ministry....