Trevors Journal Feb 2011

加油 zhenlijiang.

I wouldn't have the nerve at this point as my mumblings are so...childish at this point. I have found that my sense of correct grammar is improving by keeping the diary and yesterday took the first steps to getting my speech a little more understandable.

I need my vocabulary to increase significantly before I can join you but I'd love to hear how you are getting on....

Thanks Keth, glad you found it interesting. Wow that's impressive, chatting--something I consider way beyond me--on QQ, (about poetry?). I'm sure I could never ever reply quickly enough. These are friends you knew before, or you met them on QQ? That sounds like a nice place, if they're welcoming and helpful. The other thing that's a bit disorienting, coming from CPod, about the 影迷网站 is that I can't really tell who the non-native speakers are; I'm sure we're a small minority group. And I have no idea if everybody can see I'm not Chinese, though I assume most people haven't paid enough attention to care anyway.

Yes I spend my time there looking and reading mostly, and wishing I could write. Every bit of text there is learning material for me, but I've found one user whose contributions I've decided are watchworthy. He seems motivated by a hunger for more objective discourse on cinema, seems to think there isn't enough of it on a site for cinephiles and I would agree (and I feel the same way about movie sites in Japan).

Another thing I find terrifying is the amount of personal information many people are apparently OK with putting out there on the net. Your CV basically, as well as email addresses, even cel phone numbers. Imagine the kind of database the site is now. Of course we never know how truthful anyone is about themselves online, but I have a feeling these netizens aren't making that stuff up, because for one, their personal pages on the site look to me like a place where these young people try to find and express their individuality, try to set themselves apart from the (huge) crowd. It can get to be a bit much, but it all comes across as quite earnest too.

There are many levels of filtering and your experience can be customized to bits it seems (I'm guessing this is pretty standard for Chinese online communities). So it won't be so overwhelming once I filter out much more than I'm currently set to. Still feeling my way around, as I said.

A little pressure and needing to use survival skills are essential for language learning! People like you and I are not in an immersion environment so we need to seek out these places. Good luck to you too. ~ Cheers ~

Zhenlijiang I am glad you have written so fully because it was really interesting to read. I occasionally chat with friends on QQ writing in Chinese. It is really a group they have set up for poetry etc but I actually find them very welcoming and helpful but like you say I find it scary and I know your Mandarin standard is far better than mine. They write so quickly that it is difficult to keep up. The other venture I do is to read a blog in Chinese .This is less pressure because you can take you time reading it and sorting out what to say etc. Good luck.

你回来了， 谢谢 我写的差不多对了！ 将来时我应该多小心。

我现在开始写新的一个月的日记

今天是二月的最后一天,明天要开始写新的一个月的日记了。

今天我的同事回来了，我们一起去了办公室.

上周他休假了，他跟他的老婆和两个女孩子去四班牙滑雪了。

现在我在电脑上学习。

明天我要去微软公司开会。

By 待 do you mean "stay" at home? I think of 待（呆） more in the sense of being at some location for some period of time, rather than remaining at home (and if Trevorb is leaving the house to go see the doctor he isn't really staying in). In any case I think the 工作 should be there, to keep clear the meaning that he's decided to work at home that day instead of going in to the office.

How about this then and keep 在家 at the end of sentence? 我很快做了个决定待在家。

I agree with you about where to put the 在家; putting it before the verb "decide" makes it like you were making the decision at home.

Maybe something like 立刻 would work a little better here than 快快地——所以（我）立刻决定了，（今天）在家工作（更好）。 or maybe 所以（我）立刻决定了，（只好）在家工作。 The words in parentheses I think are optional.

I'm not so sure. I think this becomes then something more like "therefore i decided to work quickly at home"

所以我快快地决定了在家工作 I think this is I quickly decided to work at home.

So I think it should be in this order

所以我在家快快肯定工作了。

当你不舒服的时候我觉得很烦死了因为不能专心的学汉语。

祝你快感觉很好

More dearth of knowledge around here then ... 我也要说谢谢。几个月后再见！

糟糕，你打算离开几个月！我们都会想你。 你自己保重。感谢你大方的帮助我们。祝你身体好和幸福朋友 ：）

I read that thinking that it had come full circle back to what I originally wrote but then I saw that when I had typed it in the 打 I had intended had gone is a s 的 i.e. I wrote

我老师快给我的电话

when I had meant to write

我老师快给我打电话！！！

没办法 its all a learning experience eh!

tingyun: Many thanks for your input I too will miss you around here, but I will still be here typing in-consequentialities about my life right here when you return!

I'll miss having you around! I don't think I've ever talked to you directly, but your detailed grammatical explanations around the place have helped me a lot.

On topic, there's also the pattern (time/event) 快到了, meaning that it will soon be ____。 eg. 你的生日快到了. That doesn't fit here, but it might be what you were thinking of, trevorb. 我老师快（要）给我打电话了 is what I would have said (although I'd trust Tingyun on his alternative being more natural, haha).

I think you'd want to substitute 要 in for 到, and probably also add a 了 at the end, to use this pattern 快要。。。了 - You've probably seen 快到。。。了 used before, but there the 到 is acting in its normal role of indicating arrival at a place or time, ie 快到车站, and here you are not talking about arrival at a place or time (the 要 is optional in general).

But in this case, the pattern that feels most natural to me would be "老师很快就会打电话来" though sometimes my 'naturalness' sense is off. ;)

Good luck with all your continued writings Trevor! Its a great habit you have built.

This actually will be my last Cpod thread for the next few months - with the semester's courses heating up and an unfinished thesis staring me down, I've decided to cut out internet playtime for awhile (I really enjoy talking with everyone here, so internet play basically just consists of Cpod). So its off to 闭关作文 for awhile...;)

Actually I was after "my teacher will soon give me a phone call" so again probably confused you。。

我老师快到给我的电话 was more what I meant I think!

does that sound right to you.

我老师快给我的电话 I think this means ,My Teacher gave me a quick telephone call. This is how I would write it 我接到短电话从我的老师。

It also means DVD :-) especially when combined with the measureword for publications 部

http://chinesepod.com/lessons/watching-a-dvd/vocabulary

碟这是新词。means "dish" ?

谢谢，我也希望。没办法

这不是好信息。我希望这个状态变快和事改进

Yeah that was what I meant that I went into town to buy a book on my wife's behalf because she was working and I was able to go to town.

Oh OK. I wasn't thinking you meant 送给--that the book is a gift for your wife--or I wouldn't have suggested 帮老婆买. And I just looked in my dictionary and see now, this use of 替 is actually the same as this use of 帮. It means, as I said above, you went to buy the book as a favor for your wife, she asked you to, because you'd have the chance to go to the town center (sorry, I'd be a 骗子 if I wrote "centre"--my English is American) during the day. Is that what you meant? Or that you bought a book to give her (which would not be 帮她买 or 替她买)?

you are right. I was trying to use 替 as another way of saying I was getting something for someone. I was told that it is used for buying something for someone, sort of an alternative for 送给。

As for 镇心 i kinda short changed something that Connie told me in my january Diary entry I wanted to say town centre and connie suggested 小镇的中心 somehow in my head based on 中心 I just cut a load out!

I believe Trevorb means 替老婆买了一本书, bought a book for his wife (she asked him to get it for her, since he has the chance to go downtown during the day). In this case 帮老婆买了一本书 seems better to me, but I'll wait to be corrected.

There are many different ways to say downtown, but I've never seen 镇心. I think for this context, one of 商业区 / 闹区 / 市中心 / 城里 is better, hope we can get input from someone more knowledgeable!

早上离晚上有一直下大雨了。

早上到晚上都下大雨了。This is:- from morning until night ,it rained heavily. Interesting I will look to see how I would write it.

祝你们一路顺利.

Yeah you and me both but toianw's comment is interesting. This is why I try not to over rely on a dictionary 'cos I often dig out formal or bookish words!

If I ever talk with anyone I don't want to sound like an eccentric english person talking ancient chinese :-)

No problem, we're none of experts here all opinions are welcome :-)

It's interesting when there are so many ways to say this stuff. Keeping it in between my ears is a real challenge at times. I wish I'd started learning this in my 20's when I first got interested but alas no internet to help....!

Hi trevorb,

I'm no expert, but I think both your sentences are fine. 今天我一个人开车上班 and 今天我独自开车上班 both sound OK to me. I'd say the first one is a bit more colloquial and more likely to be used in everyday speech.

I think if you use 自己开车 the emphasis is on the fact that you're doing the driving yourself. You may or may not have passengers.

I did not know 独自so I would have written 今天我自己开车上班。

hmmm, must have got that wrong then. My intention was to say "today I drove to work alone so I listened to a lot of CPod"

just looked up 独自 in the dictionary. ( I try to write my logs without dictionary with my current vocab to highlight bits I don't know but when something is evidently wrong I look it up to try to help remember!)

so if 独自 is right I could have tried

今天我独自开车上班，听了很多Cpod

does that sound better?

今天我一个人开车上班，听了很多cpod. I think implied meaning is “ Today another person drove to work , with me sitting by his side, so I was able to listen to a lot of Chinesepod.

今天一个其他人开车上班跟我在旁边他坐了，那么我能听了很多Cpod.

I am not sure “with me sitting by his side “ is correct . If I use zai pangbian construction I was not sure where the zuo should be placed.

Example 跟我坐在旁边他。But I think the way I have written it sounds is correct.

Ah I like the 被 one :-) you didn't tell me you had a friend on tap ;-)

With the not left work I think you are right but it feels better without the 是

她还在工作。

not sure why I am saying that it just does so I've probably heard it somewhere....

我的好朋友说 “ 汽车被霜覆盖。”

oh I think your Chinese is pretty good. I started with 不在 then thought as it was in the past I had to use 没 so I changed it!

I think you are right I should have stuck with the 不。 Hopefully someone will help us with the right way to say it.

And don't worry Keth and I are kinda the blind leading the blind here so all opinions are worth inserting. Between us we'll learn something and sometimes someone else will jump in and help out....

I think you could say 他上班上到很晚. I'm not sure that you can say 没在？ I think you'd say 不在 or 还没回家。

(Standard disclaimer, my Chinese probably isn't any better than yours, so take whatever I say with a grain of salt)

You and me both! I believe though they are used much as in english so maybe the difference would be between "I ironed my trousers" and "I ironed a pair of trousers" so using the MW would be right for what I was after...

现在我要烫裤子。现在我要烫一条裤子 I am never sure where MW come in but I think I would have used one here.

一个男人来了 I think it should be 一个男人来到了

开车一百八十英里以后我们在norwich来了 perhaps should be Norwich 回来了

我不可以认为你没去太极拳了。 我要学习太极拳但是在这里我找不到太极拳课。

I think 早上 implies much earlier in the morning like the crack of dawn, whereas 上午 is kind of the main body of the morning.

I did actually mean I asked my wife to go there 'cos she hadn't planned to go ;-) Normally we don't go anywhere near there.

The distance pattern was something I played with last month. I started a week or so in to try to pick a pattern and put it into my entries to get used to the pattern. The first one I did was expressing a place xxx distance from another place and it is something like

一个离《place distance is from》《distance》的地方

i.e. a place distance from reference place

Have a look back at my January diary entries for some examples and even more corrections as I played with it a bit :-)

我今天上午问老婆去Crawley来了买东西。

I think this may be better.

今天早上当我的老婆在Crawley的时候，我问她买东西。

This morning I asked my wife when she is in Crawley to buy ( me) something.

Crawley是一个离我们的家十二英里的大镇。

我们的家离Crawley 是十二英里。Possibly this ?

Actually it got a bit messed up in the typing somewhere! Got more 我的's in there than intended. What I had itended to say was I was hoping that she would let me use my computer tomorrow (which she has....)