Chinese Television

Do you speak Chinese to each other when you are at home?
Do you watch Chinese television?

These two questions came up over and over again when we were back in California, and our answer to both was a really boring, "No..."

So,

Last night we had our first dinner during which we spoke only in Mandarin. We are definitely ready for the challenge, and were encouraged by how much we could communicate without using English.

And,

The kids and I have started watching a Chinese TV episode each day.

I've heard that people in many places pick up the English language simply by watching American television shows, but I'm not so convinced it works that way with Chinese. Chinese dramas seem to be driven by dialogue, not action, and consequently there are not many cues by which to derive meaning from what is being said. Plus, the programming schedule is hard to figure out. Shows don't seem to start on the hour or the half-hour, so I can never seem to catch the beginning of anything. And everyone speaks so quickly!

I expressed my lack of confidence the TV method to my friend, Kate, and she introduced me to a website called YouKu (yo-koo), which is much like YouTube (but highly censored). On YouKu we can start a show at the beginning of the season, pause and rewind it if we want to, and, using Google translate, we can even read synopses of each episode before we watch.


"Home With Kids," in which Mom has a son from her first marriage, and Dad has a daughter and an American-born son from his, is our sitcom of choice. It's like a mini Brady Bunch. If you'd like to see what an episode is like, click on the link to episode five, below. I've copied the summary for you to read as well.

Main characters from episode five:Daughter, 夏雪 ( called Xue), which means summer snowflake.
Mom , 梅 (called Mei), which means plum. 

Families with children 005  

"Xue order to write an essay, began to study the little mouse, not only let Mei accompany her to watch "Stuart Little", but also specifically to buy mice in domestic, childhood fear of mice Mei swallow, scared by rats too scared, hug a cat calm yourself, Xue think stepmother and self against. Summer and blossoming let mice and cats war, the result cat ate the mouse. Liu Mei Xue mistaken as to the Mei furious."

Isn't Google translate fun?

The next episode on our schedule promises an, "Awkward atmosphere weird relationship Xue finally unbearable to tell you his own secrets." Can't wait!