User Comments - John
John
Posted on: Late Getting Back
May 15, 2007 at 8:41 AMwande, That 急 (jí) is an adjective. The pattern is not at all a common one, but it goes like this: Adj + 着 (zhe) + Verb where the Verb is the reason for the mental state expressed in the adjective. Another example would be 忙着工作 (máng zhe gōngzuò), which means "to be busy with work." You can't say: *他们急地去开会。(tāmen jí de qù kāihuì.) Why? Because the pattern you're using is: Adj + 地 + Verb but there are some conditions on what kind of adjective you can put there. It can't be a single-character adjective. That's why you'll see single-character adjectives reduplicated in order to fit into this pattern (like 好好地去做 (hǎohāo de qù zuò)), as well as two-character adjectives (like 紧张地问 (jǐnzhāng de wèn)). Note that in this pattern the 地 (de) is sometimes dropped, as in the famous 好好学习 (hǎohāo xuéxí). I hope the clears it up!
Posted on: Late Getting Back
May 15, 2007 at 8:13 AMexcuter, 船 (chuán) is the most general term for "ship" or "boat."
Posted on: Finding a Cheap Hostel
May 15, 2007 at 8:10 AM旅馆 (lǚguǎn) Hostel or traveler's inn. 旅店 (lǚdiàn) Basically the same as 旅馆 (lǚguǎn), but less commonly used. 招待所 (zhāodàisuǒ) Guest house, often originally just a part of a company or work unit used for lodging guests, but later opened up to the general public. I hope that helps!
Posted on: Bank Transactions
May 15, 2007 at 8:05 AMThe downloads should be working normally now. 分理处 (fēnlǐchù) refers to a bank's small local branch.
Posted on: Mosquitoes
May 8, 2007 at 6:44 AMAny Newbies out there? Make some noise! :D
Posted on: Parking Lot Rage
May 7, 2007 at 1:43 PMrobertk, Those phrases might be OK grammatically, but they're about as filthy as Chinese gets, and I strongly discourage you from using them casually, if at all.
Posted on: Parking Lot Rage
May 5, 2007 at 8:15 AMHenning, That "个屁" (ge pì) thing is great because it can go on the end of anything. Just like you might disparage the idea of, say, a party in English by saying "party schmarty" you can do the same in Chinese by saying "party个屁!" This is a little foul-mouthed, though. If you want to be more civil, you can replace "个屁" (ge pì) with "个头" (ge tóu) and get the same idea across.
Posted on: Parking Lot Rage
May 5, 2007 at 6:37 AMLostinAsia, Well, it's largely tied to the business model. As you know, we offer all podcasts as free downloads, and we don't do on-site or in-podcast advertising. A lot of our users download and don't pay anything, and this is fine -- this is part of the business model. But it does mean that we have to keep our podcasts to a reasonable length, since we have to pay for all that bandwidth. From an educational perspective, we like to keep lessons short because it makes them more modular. The shorter the lesson is, the more morning walks, gym workouts, and rides to work it will fit into. We actually have a lot of people tell us that the length is just perfect. From an educational perspective the effective upper limit for attention spans might be 30 minutes or so, but we strive to balance that with convenience. So far, 10-15 minutes is working well.
Posted on: Parking Lot Rage
May 5, 2007 at 5:16 AMDave, We covered the key language appropriate to the difficulty level while keeping the lesson length within 15 minutes.
Posted on: Mosquitoes
May 15, 2007 at 8:47 AMFelecia, "I'm being eaten alive" is a great expression, isn't it? You've stumped me and most of the Academic Team on the translation, but maybe Jenny (the expert translator) can come up with something. There is hope!