User Comments - Fiona@ChinesePod

Posted on: Official Receipt at a Work Lunch

你忙你忙 is used to express - "You go and be busy with what you are doing, don't mind me" "你忙你的事情，不需要再特别管我" - in a polite way. You should learn it as a single chunk as an expression.

In the context of the lesson, he is saying, "go ahead and pay the bill" "go ahead and do what needs to be done, don't mind me".

Here are two more examples of when you could use the phrase 你忙你忙

1) If you need someone's help, but they look like they are busy right now you can say "你忙你忙，我等一下再找你".

2) Or if you realised that he can't actually help you, you want to politely say "Don't worry about it" you could say - "你忙你忙，我自己来就好了"

Let me know if you need more examples :)

Fi

Posted on: I’m Scared of Sleeping Alone!

Hi Tony,

Most often "de' is used at the end of a sentence for placing emphasis on what is said.

A vert simple example of this type of 的 is ”好的“

In this case, the sentence structure "會hui4" something something "的de" is use to make a declaration - "Mum and dad will protect you". Here is another example, 你会成功的. I'm declaring that you will succeed.

Posted on: Long Time No See!

Hey there Alicia.  Hope you are enjoying the content. 

The website is in both simplified and traditional and you can switch between the two easily, or choose to display both.  For instructions on this, check out our guide below.  

Fi  xx

Posted on: Secrets to Learning Chinese

Hi cowenparkseattle, thanks for spotting the typo. I have informed IT support and it will be fixed today.

The typo made me laugh as it sounds like the way I actually speak.

e.g. "啊呀，thats so 麻烦！“ OR "don't be so 不好意思"

Posted on: Accounting for Taste

Hi tim102,

方式 is the method/way of doing something and 风格 is style with which you do something. Let me give you a few examples:

我们处理事情的方式非常不同 The way (method) we deal with things is very different

我们处理事情的风格非常不同 We deal with things in very different styles.

你的生活方式...The way you live...

你的生活风格...Your lifestyle...

你的写作风格...Your writing style

你的写作方式...The way you write...

As you can see from the example sentences you could use them interchangeably both in English and in Mandarin and get quite a similar point across. But there is still a difference between the way (method) you do something and the style with which you do something. Also, translators will often use what sounds best in the native language for how they would translate it, not necessarily a one for one direct translation. so 'way' might be translated into 'style' and vice versa.

Hope that helped :)

Posted on: Shadow Play

Hi all!

I believe that there are three main reasons this sentence can appear confusing - the translation, the use of 的／地 and the particle 着. Let me help break it down and hopefully it will help clarify some of the issues here. It’s a bit long, but I hope it helps :)

1) Translation:

I can see why this sentence can appear confusing due to the translation. I agree with toianw, in that I would have translated it differently. Here is what I would have done -

"He is skilfully operating the machine".

Skilful: 熟练 adjective

Skilfully： 熟练地 adverb (this then brings me onto my second point...)

2) 的／地／得：

As 熟练 is followed by the verb 操纵， toianw is right in saying that the correct character is 地. bonscott, in this case, we are further clarifying the verb 操纵 by adding a 地 to 熟练.

Now, the use of 的／地／得 is something that native speakers often don't distinguish between and frankly don't know how to. Even I have to stop and think about it sometimes. (I will ask for this to be corrected.)As a matter of fact, it is something my Mandarin students often use to impress their native friends with ;) Here is an outline of how it's used:

的 in front of nouns 晓明的帽子、可爱的婴儿

地 goes in front of verbs 慢慢地走、快快地跑、高兴地笑

得 goes after verbs 吓得脸色发青、笑得东倒西歪

3) 操纵着 :

the 着 in this sentence indicates that it is action is continuous. earls explanation is correct and the link is great.

Thanks so much to those that have contributed to this discussion. Peers often provided the best explanations and that’s what these forums are about.

Let me know if you have any further questions and please feel free to contact me at fiona@chinesepod.com

Fi :)

Posted on: Giving Red Envelopes

Hi bonscott, yes, we have improved the way in which suggestions are directed. However, if you have any comments or suggestions please also feel free to email me directly at fiona@chinesepod.com and I'll make sure that they are dealt with :)

Posted on: Giving Red Envelopes

Hi bonscott! Thank you so much for spotting that error. I have already sent a note to the team. In future, if there are any other technical issues with the lessons, please feel free to submit them on http://chinesepod.com/contact/ "Contact Technical Support" as that will create a ticket in our system and the issues will be resolved. Fi :)

Posted on: Working Overtime

Hi heng157,

Is it this particular lesson you cannot access or all other lessons? It would be great if you could clarify the issue and I'll get the IT team right on it :) For future IT issues, feel free to contact the IT team directly on https://chinesepod.com/contact/ and click the "Contact Technical Support" button.