我连自己都养不起
“I couldn't even take care of myself back then,”
THE DIALOGUE REEL
过去打工 十几个人 挤在一个房子里住
“and I shared an apartment with a dozen of people at that time.”
我 连自己都养不起
“I couldn't even take care of myself back then,”
怎么养孩子
“so how could I take care of a child?”
Direct spoken expression in this communicative setting.
In Chinese society, the inability to provide materially for one's children due to low-wage migrant labor (dagong) carries profound social stigma and intense personal helplessness.
LEARNING CHUNKS & PARTICLES
cannot afford to support or raise
A potential complement construction denoting the inability to financially provide for a person or pet.
even... (cannot / did not)...
A fundamental emphatic pattern used to introduce an extreme baseline example.
VOCABULARY & EXPRESSIONS
Parallel Spoken Cinema Scenes (语义近邻切片)
“I can barely take care of myself.”
“I can barely take care of myself. How could I take care of you too?”
“has been here since I was born. I know it won't work!”
“I can't even take care of myself.”