User Comments - AuntySue
AuntySue
Posted on: Yang Jie's Fury
March 1, 2008 at 10:24 AMThanks Henning, I don't feel quite so deprived now.
Posted on: What's up?
March 1, 2008 at 1:15 AMBy the way, that particular list of 100 words is brilliant for any European language, but pretty useless for Chinese. For example, there _is_no_proper_word_ in Chinese for "a" or "an" or "the" or "yes" or "of". The word "and" is hardly ever used, and when it must be used there are several to choose from depending on the context, and each one of those words has other, more important primary meanings. In all European languages that I know about, you can translate these words and apply the language's grammar to make a sentence. Chinese is best translated by phrases rather than words because its construction is so radically different. So for Chinese, a completely different approach is required, and we have to keep remembering that most of what we read about "languages" really means "European languages". Why not just relax and follow the proven approach here for a while. It's quite unlike language lessons that you'll find elsewhere, and that's why we like it. This is a great lesson, thanks, and ideal for someone starting their studies, perhaps as their first lesson ever. It would make them feel more welcome and enlightened if we could avoid using characters in our comments without including pinyin and English as well. I have a funny story about ni hao ma (你好吗). I've been warned on many occasions: "In Cantonese, don't say 你好吗, only Mandarin speakers say that!" and "In Mandarin, don't say 你好吗, only Cantonese speakers say that!" Each time I nod appreciatively and chuckle to myself.
Posted on: Yang Jie's Fury
March 1, 2008 at 12:19 AMQuoting Henning: "In the English version of the movie "Serenity" you find the following dialogue... [...] In the Mandarin version... " Huh? What? There is a Mandarin version of Serenity?!? Why didn't I ever know? HELP! Somebody pull me out from under this rock, quick! Re the length of this episode, maybe it was twice the length and raunchiness but was cut to protect our eight year old classmates. We might need a 'sealed section' ;-)
Posted on: Do you like China?
February 20, 2008 at 12:09 PMI see you've never known a rodent rat. Rats or humans in excessive numbers in the wrong place are disgusting. But individual rats, or rats in their family groups are charming creatures. They are warm and caring, very intelligent, and they have astounding skills at creative problem solving. I don't think rat year is really bad for rat people, but even if it was, of all the animals rats have the best potential to make the most of it and turn it to their advantage. Pity us poor monkeys. Everyone loves us on the surface, but for some strange reason, when it comes to the crunch, nobody wants to take us seriously. I don't know why that would be, hoo hoo whaa whaaa hee hee hooo..... look! bananas! bye!
Posted on: I Have Class
February 17, 2008 at 5:56 AMTut tut tut. See, we get nowhere using the provocative term "standard english", it's the same as saying to someone "I have class", it gets you to nowhere, fast, with a black eye and a funny walk. The Poms gave us English, forced us to take it, we sweated blood over it for 200 years fixing the rotten language up until it became somewhat usable, and now there's no bloody way they're stealing it back. It is all ours now, mate, we've got the dictionary and everything. No, the only term that makes sense is to talk about "localised English" (watch your spelling!) or "location-free English". All that tripped us up here was that it was a piece of very localised English usage that we were not even aware of as a possible utterance in any form English.
Posted on: I Have Class
February 17, 2008 at 2:50 AMRe the photo, did you all throw your Ockham's razors away or something? She's a teacher, right? Probably standing in front of a bunch of kids, or beginning Chinese language students. Did you ever consider that someone else in the room might have written those characters on the board? Hmmm?
Posted on: I Have Class
February 17, 2008 at 2:45 AMSpot on, ingmar. The sentence "I have class" has only one possible meaning, the snobbish one. It comes as a total surprise to me that they would use that phrase in the USA to mean something else. In fact, I can barely believe it is so. We'd always say "I have a class" or "I have classes" when referring to classes, and use "I have class" only when referring to one's claim of social superiority. The meanings are quite distinct, never ambiguous. Now I'm wondering, in the USA do people say things like "I have holiday" or "I have appointment" or "I have pimple" "I have gut" "I have new bathroom vanity" ??? How far does this go?
Posted on: Do you have a menu?
February 15, 2008 at 11:05 AMelectric9s, I just noticed you're new here this week. Welcome to our student community!
Posted on: Do you have a menu?
February 15, 2008 at 11:03 AMMost students enjoy a bit of chat to introduce the main concepts of the lesson and make it more approachable. But if you don't want it, you certainly don't have to have it. You can either fast-forward (do about 40 seconds not 3 minutes!) or if you're really confident and hate hearing English, pick up the dialogue-only podcast. I hope that helps.
Posted on: Chinese Green Eggs and Ham
March 2, 2008 at 3:51 AMI didn't get it until I googled "green eggs and ham". Then I also found the recpies! http://www.seussville.com/titles/greeneggs/recipes.html I know that I will be able to follow a recipe when each paragraph begins with "With an adult's help..." Nothing to do with the lesson, really, but I couldn't resist. :) From now on every time I see a green egg I'll remember this dialogue.