User Comments - JasonSch
JasonSch
Posted on: Inside the Baozi Business
February 10, 2011 at 2:21 AMHey Raffaelm,
What I actually said was 南京汤包 (nánjīng tāngbāo) which are Nanjing soup dumplings. They're steamed, liquid-filled dumplings like 小笼包 (xiǎolóngbāo), but they're larger, more of a ball shape and generally juicier than their Shanghai counterparts. They're all over Nanjing, but you can find them in Shanghai as well. Very delicious!
I think I also mentioned 鸡汁汤包 (jīzhī tāngbāo), or, chicken juice dumplings. Just like the above 汤包, but with chicken stock. Also awesomely delicious.
Posted on: The Neutral Tone
February 9, 2011 at 1:36 AMHi Jshinal,
As far as I know, asking about tones in Mandarin is the same all over the Chinese speaking world.
In an email, if the person includes their name in Chinese, you can look up the characters and find the tones from there. If not, and they only include pinyin, you could ask them, 你的中文名字是什么？ (nǐ de zhōngwén míngzì shì shénme?) or, 'What is your Chinese name?', and then look it up.
The word for tones is 声调 (shēngdiào). And the word for 1st tone is 第一声 (dìyīshēng), 2nd 第二声 (dìèrshēng), and so on. So when speaking, you could also ask, 是什么声调？(shì shénme shēngdiào) What tones? or 哪一个声调 (nǎ yīgè shēngdiào?) Which tones?.
To say something like 'I missed that', here I think 不好意思，我没听清楚。。(bùhǎoyìsi wǒ méi tīng qīngchǔ) or, 'I'm sorry. I didn't hear that clearly', would be appropriate.
Posted on: The Fourth Tone
February 9, 2011 at 1:25 AMHi, SCC
重 (zhòng) simply means heavy, so not necessarily overweight. Overweight is 超重 (chāozhòng) and obese is 肥胖 (féipàng).
Posted on: Switching Seats on a Plane
February 6, 2011 at 10:25 AMAs far as a seat goes, 座位 and 位子 are interchangeable. The only difference is that 位子 can be used figuratively as well to refer to a position in a company/organization/department, etc.
Posted on: The Final Jizhou Pieces
February 6, 2011 at 10:19 AMIt's always good to hear from someone who has worked their way up the levels like that. This is one of my favorite series as well. (I didn't actually work on it though).
Also, the timing of your suggestion is spot on. We were just talking about making a/a few advanced level story series. Keep your ears open for it.
Posted on: Inside the Baozi Business
February 6, 2011 at 10:16 AMI 包-ed some 饺子 this CNY and I was also one of 2 lucky friends to eat the 饺子 with a 五毛 coin in it. Here's hoping there's some truth to the superstition. :)
Posted on: Inside the Baozi Business
February 6, 2011 at 10:14 AMGlad you guys liked the interview! It's something we've wanted to do for a while and the BST format is the right one for it. Hopefully we can do more like it in the future.
Posted on: Sign Language in China
February 1, 2011 at 6:29 AM不会的。牛这个词不分男女。女人也会很牛！
Posted on: Switching Seats on a Plane
January 31, 2011 at 4:55 AM1. It's not grammatically incorrect to leave it out, but it's more natural with it. The 个 here helps specify that you're referring to changing your seat with theirs.
2. 您, being a polite way of addressing someone, is often used when asking something of another person. However, the person being asked doesn't have to (and it would probably sound a little weird if they did) say 您 back to the person.
Posted on: Annoying Ringtone
February 10, 2011 at 2:27 AMHi Tony,
Yes, if it's clear from context, língshēng, is definitely sufficient. Throw in the shǒujī, if it may not be clear what kind of shēng you're referring to.