A Chinese podcast · Same story, 4 levels

豆包给的奇怪穿衣建议
Doubao's Strange Clothing Advice — ByteDance's AI Tells Young Chinese What to Wear
About this story
ByteDance's Doubao AI gives strange but surprisingly smart clothing advice — young Chinese keep coming back for more. HSK 2 Chinese listening practice.
This is an HSK 2 Chinese listening episode that runs about 10 minutes. The full Mandarin script is shown with tap-for-pinyin and a line-by-line English translation, so you can listen and read at once — comprehensible input in the sense of Stephen Krashen's i+1 theory. It teaches 15 key vocabulary words such as 奇怪、聪明、衬衫 and walks through 5 grammar patterns, each explained in English with examples. The same news story is retold at 4 difficulty levels — use the level selector above to find the version that is challenging but still understandable for you.
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原文Read the complete story in Chinese. Reveal pinyin and English only when you need them.
English transcript reference
Recently, there is a very interesting sentence on the internet that everyone is listening to.
The sentence is: "Take off the thick clothes on your body, and take away the meat on your belly too."
Does this sound a bit impolite?
Does this sound a bit strange?
If a person said this to you, you might get angry.
But, this wasn't said by a person.
This was said by a "person" inside a mobile phone.
This "person's" name is Doubao.
Doubao is not a real person; it is a computer program.
It is a very smart computer friend.
You can talk to it, and it will answer you.
Recently, many young people like to ask Doubao a question.
This question is: "What clothes should I wear today?"
Everyone thinks that computers are smart and know many things.
So, the computer should know how to dress to look beautiful.
However, the result made everyone very surprised.
The advice Doubao gave was sometimes really too strange.
This is why that sentence is so popular online.
Let's see what happened.
There was a female student who wanted to participate in a school activity.
This activity was outside, not inside a room.
The weather that day was very cold.
The wind was strong, and the temperature was very low.
She didn't know what clothes would be good to wear.
She didn't want to wear too little, because then she would get sick.
She also didn't want to dress unattractively.
So, she took out her phone and opened Doubao.
She asked Doubao: "It's very cold outside, what should I wear?"
Doubao listened and started giving her advice.
Doubao said: "You should wear a bit more."
This sounds correct, because the weather is cold.
However, Doubao made her wear too many clothes.
Doubao told her to wear two T-shirts first.
These are clothes worn on the inside.
Put on one, then put on another.
Then, Doubao told her to wear a plaid shirt.
After putting on the shirt, is that enough?
No, Doubao said it's still not enough.
Doubao told her to wear a sweatshirt as well.
Now she already had four pieces of clothing on her body.
But Doubao felt it still wasn't warm enough.
Doubao said: "You still need to wear two jackets."
Two jackets!
Everyone think about it, how many clothes is this?
Two T-shirts, one shirt, one sweatshirt, two jackets.
In total, that's six or seven pieces of clothing.
This female student really listened to Doubao.
She put these clothes on her body one by one.
In the end, what did she look like?
She looked like a very big ball.
Her body became very round.
Because the clothes were too many and too thick, her hands couldn't move.
Her legs couldn't walk either.
She felt very hot and also very tired.
But when Doubao saw her dressed like this, Doubao was very happy.
Doubao said: "You look full of youthful energy!"
Doubao thought this was very beautiful.
However, that female student was almost unable to breathe.
At this moment, Doubao spoke again.
Doubao suddenly said: "Take off the clothes, this way you can move a bit faster."
Look, isn't this computer very strange?
It first makes you wear many, many clothes.
Then it makes you take all the clothes off.
This video was put on the internet.
Many people saw this video.
Everyone was laughing.
Over a million people liked this video.
Everyone thinks that although Doubao is very smart, it doesn't understand dressing.
Besides this female student, many other people went to try it.
Everyone wanted to see what other strange things Doubao would say.
This turned into a game.
Everyone went to ask Doubao: "Help me choose clothes."
Then everyone did exactly what Doubao said.
No matter how strange what Doubao said was, everyone did it.
Then everyone filmed videos to show others.
There is another very famous video.
It's also a girl.
She was going to listen to a concert.
Everyone knows that to go to a concert, you need to dress a bit beautifully.
She asked Doubao: "I'm going to a concert, what should I wear?"
Doubao gave her a suggestion.
Doubao said: "You can wear long pants, but you have to roll the pants up."
Rolling up means moving the bottom of the pants upwards.
This way the pants will become shorter.
This girl listened to Doubao.
She put on a pair of long pants, and then started rolling up the pants.
She rolled and rolled, rolling the pants up above her knees.
Now, these long pants looked like shorts.
However, this didn't look like going to a concert.
What did this look like?
People who watched the video all said this looked like going to work in the fields.
Just like planting rice in a watery field.
Because when working in the water, fearing the pants getting wet, one would roll them this high.
Everyone who saw it thought it was too funny.
Originally intended to listen to elegant music.
As a result, dressed like going to farm.
Doubao really doesn't understand what is beautiful.
But Doubao itself is very confident.
When it speaks, its voice is loud and very certain.
It will tell you to "walk out confidently."
It also uses some young people's words.
If your clothes don't look good, it will say this is "not for humans to wear."
This phrase has a bit of a cursing meaning in Chinese.
But because a computer said it, everyone doesn't get angry, just thinks it's funny.
Why is Doubao like this?
Why does such a smart computer not understand dressing?
We need to know that Doubao is an artificial intelligence.
It was made by ByteDance company.
This is a very big Chinese technology company.
Doubao is very famous, and many people are using it.
By last December, over 200 million people were already using it.
Everyone uses it to work and to study.
Some mothers use it to watch children.
Some fathers use it to learn to cook.
It can also help you buy fruit.
It is very capable in many things.
But, the matter of dressing is too difficult.
An expert spoke about this problem.
The expert said that computers have learned many things.
It has read many books, many articles, and many pictures.
But, computers haven't specifically studied "fashion."
Fashion is what is popular and what is beautiful.
Moreover, what is beautiful, everyone thinks differently about.
I think red clothes are beautiful.
You might think red clothes don't look good, and blue ones are beautiful.
I think wearing skirts looks good.
You might think wearing pants looks good.
There is no standard answer.
In a math exam, one plus one equals two, this is correct.
But in the matter of dressing, nothing is absolutely right, and nothing is absolutely wrong.
The computer doesn't know who to listen to.
It sees some books saying "wearing more is good."
It sees some books saying "wearing shorts is good."
It puts these all together and tells you.
So, it makes you wear seven pieces of clothing.
So, it makes you roll up long pants.
Because it doesn't understand what time or place this is.
It just gave you the data.
This is why its advice is so strange.
Although its advice is useless, everyone is happy.
Because this makes everyone feel it's very fun.
Everyone discovered that smart computers also have times when they are stupid.
This is also a kind of happiness.
What we just talked about is actually a topic about "Artificial Intelligence."
In Chinese, we call it AI, or Artificial Intelligence.
Doubao is just such an artificial intelligence product.
It is a very large language model.
It can imitate humans speaking and answer questions.
But after all, it is not a human.
It doesn't have eyes to see the real world.
It doesn't have a body to feel cold and heat.
It doesn't know that wearing seven pieces of clothing will make a person unable to walk.
It is just calculating data.
So, when we use these high-tech things, we need to know their strengths and weaknesses.
It can help us write things and find information.
But if it's about beauty or feelings, perhaps we still need to believe in ourselves.
After all, computers don't have hearts, they don't understand what true beauty is.
However, this doesn't matter.
Because it gave us a lot of laughter.
In this busy life, being able to laugh out loud is also a very good thing.
Listen again
Try it without the transcript and notice what sounds clearer.
What vocabulary does this episode teach?
词汇Used to describe something unusual or unexpected.
Describes intelligence in people or animals, and now often used for technology.
Refers to a button-down shirt.
To have faith in someone or something.
A conjunction used to add more information.
Can be a noun (outcome) or a conjunction (consequently).
HSK 1-2. interesting.
HSK 1-2. why.
Can be used as a verb (to suggest) or a noun (advice).
Opposite of 'chuan' (to wear).
Describes pleasant warmth or weather.
Describes things that are currently trending.
A modern technological term.
Refers to style and trends.
A very common clothing item for young people.
* beyond level超纲词
What grammar patterns appear in this episode?
语法This structure is used to express an initial perception or judgment based on senses (looks like, sounds like).
这听起来是不是有点奇怪? (Does this sound a bit strange?)
她看起来像一个很大的球。 (She looked like a very big ball.)
The 'Ba' structure emphasizes how an object is handled or disposed of. It moves the object before the verb.
把你身上厚厚的衣服脱下来。 (Take off the thick clothes on your body.)
她把这些衣服一件一件地穿在身上。 (She put these clothes on her body one by one.)
A conjunction pair meaning 'Although... but...'. It expresses a contrast.
大家觉得豆包虽然很聪明,但是它不懂穿衣服。 (Everyone thinks that although Doubao is very smart, it doesn't understand dressing.)
虽然它的建议没有用,但是大家很开心。 (Although its advice is useless, everyone is happy.)
The complement of degree/state. It describes how an action is performed or the state resulting from it.
她不想穿得太少。 (She didn't want to wear too little.)
裤子...才会卷得这么高。 (Only then would the pants be rolled this high.)
Adjectives are repeated (like AABB or AA) to emphasize the description, often adding a feeling of vividness or cuteness.
厚厚的衣服 (Thick clothes)
一件一件地 (One by one - measure word reduplication)
Proper Nouns
专有名词Sources
来源Free account
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