User Comments - John
John
Posted on: Dogs and Wealth
January 20, 2010 at 1:25 AMHeh... Nope, my dog's name is 牛顿.
Posted on: Office Lunch Options
January 19, 2010 at 1:26 AMHa ha... I'm afraid I can't take you very far. Maybe to the "groan" level...
Posted on: Talking about others: 别的，其他的，另外的
January 18, 2010 at 1:22 AMBill,
I think there must be some regional difference in usage. I agree that "on the beach" can mean on the sand itself, but I come from Florida, and "a house on the beach" sounds completely natural to me.
Posted on: Fire in the Hallway!
January 13, 2010 at 7:41 AMGood suggestions!
Posted on: Celebrating the New Year with Visitors
January 7, 2010 at 6:38 AMHa ha, she is! :P
Posted on: Celebrating the New Year with Visitors
January 6, 2010 at 6:38 AMThanks for the reply, Catherine! It was great meeting you guys.
Posted on: Electronic Dogs and Radar Detectors
January 5, 2010 at 6:04 AMchristine30550,
That's awesome! Ha ha...
Posted on: Celebrating the New Year with Visitors
January 3, 2010 at 4:51 AM@jack1979: We didn't really talk about it, but it seems that both mother and father are of Chinese descent.
@bababardwan: If you follow the link to the Wikipedia article in the intro, there's a Yellowbridge link on that page with the entire 三字经 content, fully annotated!
Posted on: Celebrating the New Year with Visitors
January 3, 2010 at 4:48 AMHere are a couple pictures from the visit...
Josephine with me on the mic (in the SpanishPod studio):
The whole family in the studio:
More here.
Posted on: Social Networking
January 20, 2010 at 1:40 AMHeh, I had a professor in grad school who said the same thing. In fact, she forbid anyone from pronouncing 说服 as "shuōfú", insisting that the correct pronunciation was "shuìfú".
This is another manifestation of the age-old descriptivism vs. prescriptivism debate [wikipedia link].
While yes, it's true that 说 is a 多音字 with the reading "shuì" reserved for "presuade" meanings, the fact is that most people say "shuōfú" regardless of what the "rules" are. This is how language evolves and progresses.
Normally the prescriptivists rely on dictionaries to back them up, but this case is kind of funny, because some dictionaries don't even list "shuìfú" as a reading for 说服. (Once enough time passes, everyone will forget about the "shuìfú" reading, and most dictionaries will finally drop it.)