Life in China is tough for recent university graduates, especially those seeking work in major cities like Shanghai. While living expenses keep rising and housing prices are off-the-charts compared to local wages, pressure from China's rural labor force has kept compensation low, especially for women. It isn't uncommon for recent graduates to find themselves earning just over 2000 RMB a month in positions that fail to provide social insurance or other forms of support like subsidized housing.

Consequently, it isn't surprising that so many single children with working parents have simply shunned the job market. And while not needing to work makes life easier in the short run, it puts a huge strain on their relationships and long-term independence. In our listening test for today we look at the toll this sort of thing takes on a previously healthy relationship. So listen up, take our quiz to measure your listening comprehension and then consult our annotated transcript in case you missed any details. We think you'll learn something now.
 said on
March 23, 2009
Why do they say 找着 if they mean the past tense here? Hes asking if shes found work already, but isnt 找着 present continuous?

 said on
March 23, 2009
@marco64,

“着”是一个多音字。

“着(zhe)”indicates the contiuation of an action, eg. 他们(tāmen)正(zhèng)说(shuō)着(zhe)话(huà)呢(ne)。

“着(zháo)” is used after a verb to indicate the result of reaching the goal or the action, eg.我(wǒ)找(zhǎo)着(zháo)工作(gōngzuò)了(le)。

Here,“菲菲找着(zháo)工作了吗”的时间标志是“了”,“了”can be used after a verb or an adjective to indicate the completion of an action or a change.

...o(∩_∩)o...
 said on
March 23, 2009
ahhh... that makes sense now. Thanks Gail.

 said on
July 27, 2009
I don't know if I'd translate 养 as "to raise" literally (in this context). It's just because you can use it with your parents right, like "养父母" when they're old? But you wouldn't call it as "raising my parents".

The meaning of "养" basically seems to be "to provide financial support for X" and it seems to be often used in contexts such as "养我的女朋友”, etc. So, maybe it should be defined as "to support or provide for". Yes? No?
 said on
July 28, 2009
@useful.guy,

yes, yes!