User Comments - GregE
GregE
Posted on: Interpreting Gig at the Exhibition
August 8, 2011 at 2:49 AMSorry for the confusion! It's actually 70% off (or 30% of the original price). 30% off, or 70% of the original price, is 打七折 (dǎqīzhé).
Posted on: Interpreting Gig at the Exhibition
August 5, 2011 at 2:36 AMYou are right! Fixed! :)
Posted on: Interview with 'Secretary' Zhang
August 2, 2011 at 6:35 AMladevorah,
Our goal with BST isn't actually to teach a formal lesson like our normal podcasts but rather to provide our listeners with more of a variety show experience more generally about Chinese culture or other topics that aren't as well-suited to a dialogue format. Therefore we opt not to include all of the supplementary materials generally associated with an educational lesson.
That being said, lessons like this that revolve around longer interviews can certainly have words that our users may not recognize that we don't have time to cover in the podcast. If you can catch the pinyin of the words you missed I'd be more than happy to write them down in the comments section for you :)
Posted on: Interview with 'Secretary' Zhang
August 2, 2011 at 5:34 AMHey gbien,
Glad you enjoyed the lesson! My understanding is that a 书记 (shūjì) is actually just a type of 干部 (gànbù), or "cadre". A 干部 is more generally just a higher-ranking managerial authority within the Communist Party while a 书记 performs the job duties related in the interview.
Let us know if you have any more questions!
Posted on: The Kindle
July 27, 2011 at 9:21 AMThey certainly do make the distinction! It was just a silly mistake on my part, sorry about that! (加薪 jiāxīn is the word for "to get a raise", by the way).
Posted on: Having Spare Keys Made
July 19, 2011 at 5:53 AM@tucsonmichael:
- You are correct that 报导 is indeed reporting; in this case the meanings of 采访and 报导 are fairly interchangeable
- 紧急情况 at the individual word level is actually translated as "emergency situation". At the sentence level we try to offer a more idiomatic and natural translation while preserving the literal meaning in the word level annotations.
Hope this is helpful!
Posted on: Cold Noodles
July 8, 2011 at 8:33 AMAs far as I can tell, 番茄 (fānqié) and 西红柿(xīhóngshì) are interchangeable when talking about tomatoes by themselves. There are a few phrases I've come across, e.g. the popular dish of scrambled egg and tomato - 西红柿炒鸡蛋(xīhóngshìchǎojīdàn) or tomato sauce - 番茄酱(fānqiéjiāng), where one is used more than the other, but otherwise the two are one and the same.
Posted on: We Answer
July 8, 2011 at 7:59 AMHey baba,
The 才好 in this case could be translated something like 最好. It implies doing
something to the best of one's abilities. The sentence translated as a whole might read something like "We have to think of how to best answer the questions."
Posted on: Antiperspirant in China
July 8, 2011 at 6:48 AMHey user,
You were right to point out this issue, 喷 does in fact mean to spray; if you wanted to say "are you wearing cologne?", the sentence in Chinese would read: "你擦了香水吗?" (nǐ cā le xiāngshuǐ ma?), meaning "have you put on perfume/cologne?". The correct translation should indeed be "Are you putting on cologne?".
Posted on: Interpreting Gig at the Exhibition
August 8, 2011 at 7:36 AMIt should be fixed on both the live site and audio review now as well.