User Comments - John
John
Posted on: Asking for the WiFi password
March 16, 2010 at 1:35 AMI think in the US it's 12345... even less secure!
Posted on: Good Morning!
March 11, 2010 at 5:43 AMI definitely hear 早上好, but often in slightly more formal situations. Speakers are laziest with their friends.
Posted on: Let's Just Be Friends
March 10, 2010 at 3:58 AMsydcarten,
zhenlijiang put it quite well.
Please forgive me for saying so, but you feel that the "just" is semantically necessary because that's your cultural expectation. If you were raised being told that "any time a girl ever mentions being your friend, you have no chance with her," and that lovers are lovers and never friends, there would be no confusion when you hear "let's be friends."
Now obviously the situation is not that extreme in Chinese, but in this particular case, because of the culture into which the language is embedded, the meaning of the language is clear without the need for additional words.
Posted on: Finishing Work for the Weekend
March 10, 2010 at 3:46 AMPettora,
Interesting! So is "I'll go first" an expression you would use in Czech?
To me, "I'll go first" sounds like something that would most likely be said in a situation where a group of people had to decide who would dare be the first to go, like testing out a rickety old suspension bridge in the Andes, or going down a rope into a dark cave.
Posted on: Let's Just Be Friends
March 10, 2010 at 2:31 AMsydcarten,
That's right; in the Chinese it's unambiguous. "Just be friends" is sort of a set phrase in English. If a girl told a guy, "let's be friends" instead of "let's just be friends" it sounds weird because it doesn't use the set phrase, but it would probably still be understood. In Chinese, the common way to say it is 做朋友.
In fact, Jiaojie tells me that adding a bunch of extra unnecessary words to it (like 只做普通的朋友) adds too much emphasis, and might actually be more embarrassing for the other person.
Posted on: 中年危机
March 9, 2010 at 2:27 AMHa ha, I was just "admiring" the lesson graphic too. I would caption it, "This is the best mid-life crisis ever!"
Posted on: 中年危机
March 9, 2010 at 2:20 AM在美国一谈到男人的中年危机，就会想到买跑车的事！我看有中国特色的中年危机和美式的很不一样……
Posted on: Let's Just Be Friends
March 8, 2010 at 6:06 AMGreat! Glad it worked for you, and we hope to see you more in other Intermediate lesson comments. Don't be afraid to ask questions if you have any!
Posted on: A Correction of Tones
March 8, 2010 at 3:14 AMThe old comments have been stable for a long time, but you're right that some now appear to be missing. We'll investigate it.
Posted on: Asking for the WiFi password
March 17, 2010 at 1:48 AMI think Starbucks charges for wifi use, though... In Shanghai, anyway. They use the China Mobile prepaid wifi service.