User Comments - small2medium

Posted on: Finding a Street Number

The 'don't speak further' and the zaijian suggest that she certainly plans to ditch the feckless man, but given that she had the 'zou bu dong' de ganjue a while back, I'd assumed she'd decided to take the cab back along the road rather than walk all the way back to retrace her steps. 

Does the hui have to refer to a specific place you've actually been in, or can it have the sense of generally going back. May be it would have to be hui qu (or fan hui? or zai hui?) to have this meaning? I know one 'hui jia's and that one can be a 'hui tou ke' by being a returning customer, but these could be false friends. Is U turn related?   

Posted on: Picking things up: 拿、带、取

Useful distinctions drawn in this lively lesson (and curious to see the odd explosion of Anglo-US centric perspectives in 'the discussion' - extraordinary how the the old standard versus regional debate still enflames such passions!). 

When would one use dai for bringing people along? I had thought dai was just for carry-able things. I tend to construct cumbersome sentences in which I 'pei someone qu + v'...

How would one pick up a hitch-hiker?

Posted on: A Thanksgiving Phone Call

I thought 'xiang nian' meant miss. Is the nian just added in written chinese?

Posted on: Fat Camp

Already an established issue in Xiang Gang. Consider the trams: the most modern have seats catering for bottoms inches bigger.

Posted on: Characters in the Desert and Chinese Kitchens

Surprised you didn't mention what looks like a giant  bamboo whisk used for pot scrubbing. The best way to scrub but not scrape woks. 

Dear Amber spots provide Chinesepod equivalent of a coffee break chat at the photocopier. Chortled today. Nice banter. Amusing observations.   

Posted on: What is a Chengyu?

Is 'lian shang tie jin' just linked with being boastful or can it be used when someone has overpraised Chinese, as a change from saying 'ni guo zhang le' ? The above comparisons conjure memories of the priceless English spoken by an earnest Anglophile who peppered his speech with incongrously juxtaposed idioms of the raining cats and dogs variety.

Posted on: Registering with the Police Station

The first time I went to register it was with a Shanghaianese. After that I registered myself, armed with my trusty little yellow dictionary. I wasn't asked for anything other than the passport and all was well. My low language level has protective advantages sometimes. The next time I virtuously, and probably excessively, decided to register travelling house guests, figuring that if they'd been at a hotel the concierge would do have done so and that not registering the friends might give them trouble with extending their travel visas. So off we all trooped to the pai chu su. I'd assumed they'd just get added to my records and that my passport would be identifier enough. But no, back I had to go for the lease, only then to be sent off kuaiqu kuaihui, to the fu ying ji. Hey ho. As usual, after the initial appearance of brusque, are you still here? asking me again? manners, all was resolved quite affably. Overall we are lucky with our police in Changning District. They were charming when I went to report my bicycle missing. Nobody had any illusions about the chances of finding it. I just wanted to make sure I wasn't sued by someone injured by a dangerous peddling xiao tou in possession of my correctly registered bike. They were incredulous at my concern, but were content to augment the paperwork and send me happily off. An old fashioned but affectionate name for police in English is bobbies, or less respectfully, the fuzz. Any equivalents?